To me $50 is a deal. You get the hardware and a year of gaming. If you don't want to pay to play don't. But, how many of you pay to play Everquest or something similar? The same rules apply here. MS is running servers on their side. The downsides are you have to pay and you can't play against other types of consoles. The upsides are that you can do full online stat tracking, find your friends in any game, set up tournaments, and have the same online identity anywhere.
I'm VERY happy they limit this to broadband. The PS2 net play is getting slammed due to all the modem users lagging games and causing problems. I don't want that.
It's a simple case of ease of use. Sure, someone could build a great Linux system by hand for CHEAP, but most people buy Windows since it's easier to deal with and does what they want. It's the same here. I'll pay for the convenience of it all. My beta kit should arrive next week and I can't wait to sit on my comfy couch in fron to fthe 64" HDTV and just play some good online games. No drivers. No patches. No "why did my game just die to the desktop"?
If by 128 you mean ISDN you should be fine. The problem with modems is latency. That kills games. ISDN has pretty good latency so you shouldn't have any problems.
The only concern I could see would be the voice. So don't talk much.:)
I'm very, very happy MS isn't putting modem support in this. Look at the PS2 net play which allows modems. People are going nuts with modem users lagging games like crazy.
I'm going next week for my first appointment about getting this done. I know 4 or 5 people that have already had it done and they tell me to go do it RIGHT NOW.
A little tip my HR person told me.... Set up your flexible spending account to get the surgery next year. I plan to get mine done in January. This way the money you use for the surgery is pre-tax! Plus, the money gets taken out of your check throughout the year. You get the surgery done with pre-tax money "financed" throughout the year with no interest. Sounds great to me.
I frequent the HardOCP networking forum and now that school is back someone asks almost EVERY day about this. Seems most colleges are starting to traffic shape P2P so you get.5KB/sec downloads.
I always love the "It's my right to have fast bandwidth at college!" arguments that turn up....
They are called snapshots. Many NAS boxes do it and they are VERY helpful. They keep me from doing restores from tape when someone deletes a file. I just grab it from last night's snapshot. I do a nightly snapshot as well as a weekly so that I keep up to a month's worth for each volume (free-space willing...). That way I can go back to a file 3 weeks old without calling tapes back from off-site storage.
Who still runs PPTP? It was found to be under-secured a while back. Everyone should have moved on to a more standard and secure technology by now. PPTP was good back when VPNs were new and hard to set up, but that time is long gone.
One of the first things I did when I took over my current company's network was to shut down PPTP and move everyone to an IPSec VPN. The upside is better security, the only downside was they had to install a client. You couldn't VPN from a stock Windows box. You have to install the Cisco client. Now with the Cisco gear working with Win2K/XP's L2TP and IPSec even that isn't an issue.
My problem with the Atkins diet is that people treat it as a diet. I've known many people to go on this diet and I think every one has put the weight back on. Why? They treat it as a diet. Yes, you lose weight but as soon as you go back to your old habits you'll get it right back. Those habits got you there in the first place. Three months of losing weight won't make you suddenly not gain weight when you go back to your old ways.
Good health and keeping weight off requires a lifestyle change. Don't overeat and eat the things your body needs. Get some good exercise and do it right.
Personally, I hit the gym almost every day. I enjoy it a lot. I also eat so much better than I did 5 years ago and I don't miss it one bit. It's not hard to eat healthy and you'll save money doing it instead of eating out all the time. Since 98% of Slashdot is men I recommend you check out Men's Health magazine. It has some very good info in it....
We occasionally get all sorts of old viruses hitting our AV system on the mail server. Some, like the Snow White one, is very old. We don't see them every day, but we definately see them a few times per year.
Klez is definately still going strong. We see 5 to 8 of those per day. We're not even a big shop (180 users).
I find it odd people are surprised at these warranty changes. How many components in a PC have moving parts? How many other components in a PC have a warranty over 1 year? Not many.
I was always amazed that the HD companies did 3 and 5 year warranties on consumer drives. Overpriced SCSI drives are one thing, but these consumer drives are getting so CHEAP these days that it isn't cost effective to offer these warranties.
I still see a problem. How many companies run plain generic Exchange? Even my small company doesn't. We use things like BlackBerry devices and other plugins. Without those most companies will still run in to issues when migrating.
You can sit on your couch and run it via remote control, with a good interface. That's the reason I bought a Rio Reciever.
Sure, you can rig up a PC to do all that, but I bet it costs more and doesn't work as well as this. The price point is a deal. My Rio Reciever was about twice that much.
If you are using WAP11 APs already it is actually cheaper to buy another WAP11 and put it in "client access mode". That's what I did. The WET11s were going for $130 *IF* you could find one, but the WAP11s were going for $105 shipped from buy.com.
I just bought another WAP11 and put it behind my home theater, set up bridging mode, and plugged in a hub. Works great with my Rio Receiver, XBox, PS2, etc.... So, it was cheaper and can be used as a full AP later if needed.
Slashdot Mirror
The Postal Service also has a class A.
That's a summer only promotion. They no longer have it.
To me $50 is a deal. You get the hardware and a year of gaming. If you don't want to pay to play don't. But, how many of you pay to play Everquest or something similar? The same rules apply here. MS is running servers on their side. The downsides are you have to pay and you can't play against other types of consoles. The upsides are that you can do full online stat tracking, find your friends in any game, set up tournaments, and have the same online identity anywhere.
I'm VERY happy they limit this to broadband. The PS2 net play is getting slammed due to all the modem users lagging games and causing problems. I don't want that.
It's a simple case of ease of use. Sure, someone could build a great Linux system by hand for CHEAP, but most people buy Windows since it's easier to deal with and does what they want. It's the same here. I'll pay for the convenience of it all. My beta kit should arrive next week and I can't wait to sit on my comfy couch in fron to fthe 64" HDTV and just play some good online games. No drivers. No patches. No "why did my game just die to the desktop"?
If by 128 you mean ISDN you should be fine. The problem with modems is latency. That kills games. ISDN has pretty good latency so you shouldn't have any problems.
:)
The only concern I could see would be the voice. So don't talk much.
I'm very, very happy MS isn't putting modem support in this. Look at the PS2 net play which allows modems. People are going nuts with modem users lagging games like crazy.
No thanks. My beta kit should arrive next week.
I'm going next week for my first appointment about getting this done. I know 4 or 5 people that have already had it done and they tell me to go do it RIGHT NOW.
A little tip my HR person told me.... Set up your flexible spending account to get the surgery next year. I plan to get mine done in January. This way the money you use for the surgery is pre-tax! Plus, the money gets taken out of your check throughout the year. You get the surgery done with pre-tax money "financed" throughout the year with no interest. Sounds great to me.
I frequent the HardOCP networking forum and now that school is back someone asks almost EVERY day about this. Seems most colleges are starting to traffic shape P2P so you get .5KB/sec downloads.
I always love the "It's my right to have fast bandwidth at college!" arguments that turn up....
Recent versions of Outlook won't let a virus access your address book like this. Not to mention anti-virus software has been out forever....
They are called snapshots. Many NAS boxes do it and they are VERY helpful. They keep me from doing restores from tape when someone deletes a file. I just grab it from last night's snapshot. I do a nightly snapshot as well as a weekly so that I keep up to a month's worth for each volume (free-space willing...). That way I can go back to a file 3 weeks old without calling tapes back from off-site storage.
IPSec works fine through NAT. I'm doing it right now. It depends on your implementation, but most are very NAT friendly now.
Who still runs PPTP? It was found to be under-secured a while back. Everyone should have moved on to a more standard and secure technology by now. PPTP was good back when VPNs were new and hard to set up, but that time is long gone.
One of the first things I did when I took over my current company's network was to shut down PPTP and move everyone to an IPSec VPN. The upside is better security, the only downside was they had to install a client. You couldn't VPN from a stock Windows box. You have to install the Cisco client. Now with the Cisco gear working with Win2K/XP's L2TP and IPSec even that isn't an issue.
My problem with the Atkins diet is that people treat it as a diet. I've known many people to go on this diet and I think every one has put the weight back on. Why? They treat it as a diet. Yes, you lose weight but as soon as you go back to your old habits you'll get it right back. Those habits got you there in the first place. Three months of losing weight won't make you suddenly not gain weight when you go back to your old ways.
Good health and keeping weight off requires a lifestyle change. Don't overeat and eat the things your body needs. Get some good exercise and do it right.
Personally, I hit the gym almost every day. I enjoy it a lot. I also eat so much better than I did 5 years ago and I don't miss it one bit. It's not hard to eat healthy and you'll save money doing it instead of eating out all the time. Since 98% of Slashdot is men I recommend you check out Men's Health magazine. It has some very good info in it....
Go buy an Apex at WalMart that plays almost everything (if not EVERYTHING) for $69.
We occasionally get all sorts of old viruses hitting our AV system on the mail server. Some, like the Snow White one, is very old. We don't see them every day, but we definately see them a few times per year.
Klez is definately still going strong. We see 5 to 8 of those per day. We're not even a big shop (180 users).
I find it odd people are surprised at these warranty changes. How many components in a PC have moving parts? How many other components in a PC have a warranty over 1 year? Not many.
I was always amazed that the HD companies did 3 and 5 year warranties on consumer drives. Overpriced SCSI drives are one thing, but these consumer drives are getting so CHEAP these days that it isn't cost effective to offer these warranties.
Most MS exploits that hit Slashdot are the SAME WAY. MS releases a fix 6 weeks before, most admins don't patch, and then the big exploit hits.
:)
Welcome to the world of mainstream.
I still see a problem. How many companies run plain generic Exchange? Even my small company doesn't. We use things like BlackBerry devices and other plugins. Without those most companies will still run in to issues when migrating.
EvlG! Hey man. Drop me an email. A lot of the people from before are still around.
Hah... Xach is funny. I know him from WAY back on IRC. Always was a bit off....
You can sit on your couch and run it via remote control, with a good interface. That's the reason I bought a Rio Reciever.
Sure, you can rig up a PC to do all that, but I bet it costs more and doesn't work as well as this. The price point is a deal. My Rio Reciever was about twice that much.
If you are using WAP11 APs already it is actually cheaper to buy another WAP11 and put it in "client access mode". That's what I did. The WET11s were going for $130 *IF* you could find one, but the WAP11s were going for $105 shipped from buy.com.
I just bought another WAP11 and put it behind my home theater, set up bridging mode, and plugged in a hub. Works great with my Rio Receiver, XBox, PS2, etc.... So, it was cheaper and can be used as a full AP later if needed.
Oh great. How are the bots supposed to pass each other?
Which other sites show maps of APs? I'd like to see if my neighbor's is on there. Wide open...default password on the router...
I thought I remember seeing a site once where you could just enter a zip code to get an idea.
You just go to the updates web page and download the fixes manually, just like the pre-Windows Update age.
You can put in a new serial number on a running system. Do a quick search on deja and you'll find it.