Well, since the size of movies is down, and the size of harddrives up...
200gb Firewire HD- $450
Cheap Boxen to run it with (not Dreamcast)- $200
Decent Broadband connection w/ huge upstream- $99
Linux- $Free
Setting up an FTP Server- Your time
The look on the Judge's face when you get busted for serving out everything to hit to box office for the past 8 years- Priceless...
I dunno, at Time Warner where I used to work, we did a bit a filtering on viruses on our email server as well as some spam filtering if I remember right. I know that there were some people who did nothing but work on these servers. I could be wrong, but I think it's doable, perhaps not easily, but it's doable.
Ya don't think that some of the viruses are to spy on the chinesse public? nah...
If China's gov't can filter so much of the content that their citizens view, you would think that they would somehow figure out how to filter viruses in email attachments and stuff (which is possible)
Or PERHAPS, the name of the Virus is Win32.China.Is.Spying.On.Its.Citzens.Virus
It seems that these mini ice ages happen once every 1/2 cycle around the sun, switching hemispheres... They have been suspecting that the cause is a fat man with a red suit for the northern hemisphere, but are still unclear as to the cause of the southern yearly iceage...
Quoth the article: When I say "dramatic," I mean: Average winter temperatures could drop by 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States, and by 10 degrees in the northeastern United States and in Europe. That's enough to send mountain glaciers advancing down from the Alps. To freeze rivers and harbors and bind North Atlantic shipping lanes in ice.
While this could/perhaps will affect quite a bit, changing the weather by 5-10 degrees lower won't put us into what we think of as an 'ice age'. It could screw up quite a bit, but it won't be too bad. To me it seems that it would be more winterlike for a month or two as the general affect (which most plants and animals could tolerate I think). Don't start thinking that it's gonna be like the Pixar movie 'Ice Age' in New Mexico...
Rather, I meant that Kazaa comes with it's own player, not each mp3 with it's own player (although what a neat idea, a format that plays itself, but is small)...
Perhaps they are just getting their legal team cracking, and are just waiting for the right time to strike.. Odd, sueing someone over the IP of something that has caused more IP problems than anything else in history.
110,000 Grand isn't that much for AOL/TimeWarner. They spend that much on a Cisco 12000 router or a DNS server...
I think this could stop Kazaa quicker than anything else. They have had how many million downloads? All with an mp3 player. Hmm. That's probably a few million they don't have.... Better start selling more ads Kazaa, and fast! (Just so we can download Kazaa Lite, and get around them!).
I was joking about how hard it was to keep up with the new chips that are coming out. I know that the processor power will be able to be fully used someday soon, but for now it's just marketing for the most part. I mean most people's 2.0ghz machines that they buy at Walmart run about the same speed as the 500mhz ones that they bought a few years ago, but now they put Weatherbug, Bonzi Buddy, IM, etc.. on it and slow it down so much. People think 'oh that's faster, I should buy that' When really all they have to do is optimize their system.
Example: On dorm last year, I had my little mear P3 850 with a TNT2 Ultra 32mb. Yea, it sucks but I am a musician, not a gamer so I don't really care. Well, anyway, alot of people had 'new' computers that were supposed to be so fast and good. Well most of them came with 128mb memory. A few had 256, but they had to ask for it 'special'. In all seriousness, the amount of memory should double every 18 months as well, or at least ever 24 months. Anyway, Their computers ran like crap. They didn't have newer drivers, they didn't set up their systems right, they ran WinME, and they still thought that they got a good deal. When really they should have spent 1/3rd of what they did, gotten an older system, and kept it clean and optimized. I saw people get between 300-700 on 3dMark 2001. WTF is that? My system was beating most by 3-5x that! After I sat down with some of their systems and worked on them a bit I was able to improve them, but not totally.
They were sold on chip speed, nothing else. They thought that the fastest chip would mean the fastest computer. All those crap OEM compenents, cheap video, cheap mobo, cheap memory. I would rather have an old system that's good, than a new one that sucks.
Think for a second, what if, they stopped increasing the chip speed. Then what would happen? 2 things. Programmers would have to get efficiant with things that they are slack on (MSFT OSes), and computer sales would actually start looking at other stuff. No longer would they sell systems with 64mb or 128mb of memory. 512-1gb would be standard. Good system boards and cases would be defacto. Good powersupplies. Good cooling. Selling on processor is like selling a car based on HP only. Remember that there is Torque too, and HP/Weight ratio, as well as handling, stability, acceleration, top speed, gearing, etc... And some people want it to be comfortable to ride in and efficiant too!! Sorry if the joke wasn't apparent.
Actually, I came in with all the skills needed for my job, and more; so I have been placed on projects recently that were way more complex than what I was hired for, and I am glad for that. I am more commenting on others not knowing what they are doing and not having enough training. Yes people should come in with job skills, but to know a specific database, and how things are done at this company specifically. People need to be trained on standards. Can you recite all of the ISO14000 for me? Didn't think so. But by your standards, if you apply for a job that the company goes by the ISO14000 then you shouldn't get the job because you don't have the 'skills'.
In remark to the flamebait about Macs. So you are saying that BSD is pointless and has no place? Where have you been for the past few? Macs are running BSD, which is pretty close to Linux. In addition, what day-to-day office task can you not do on Macs?... I am waiting to hear an answer, but there isn't anything you can't do on Macs. So that point is gone.
To finalize; let's say that you are working for a company that uses let's say, Lightwave 3d, and they deciede to move to Maya for pricing and support (neither is actually better, just an example). Well, you know Lightwave like the back of your hand, but Maya... Hmm, not really. You could download the free version, and dick around with it for a few months, wasting time. Or your employer could send you to a training session about the differences between Lightwave and Maya. This could also happen with Programming Languages. Switching from Java to C# or ASP to Perl, etc... So would you rather be trained, or fired? Truthfully. And as an employer, which will make things better? To Fire all 1,000 of your programmers at a (very) large company, and get new ones and have the 'startup' time with them? Or just train the exisiting ones?
Try it with CGI, you will have far better experiences using Perl vs using C++ or whatever you are using now. In addition, try it for day to day administrative tasks (assuming that you are running Linux or BSD...) Make web pages, make scripts, make a few small games, try to see what you can do. Since you are a CS student, analyze the code, and try to trace all of Perl through (that's a task). It will make you better off for it. Try to program a CGI module or something if that proved too easy. I would say learn it now, I know that Perl 6 is a big one, but it's still Perl, and the difference won't even be as big as the one between C and C++.
What do you feel about the future of Perl?
on
Ask Larry Wall
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
What do you feel about the future of Perl? Where is it moving to, and what still has to be done? Do you see Perl moving towards ever being a greater language for "programming" as C++ is? Or is it's place pretty well defined and not moving? In addition, what do you think about other languages and systems such as the.NET and XML? Do you see them as being possibly sucessful in light of Perl's flexiblity? There are so many languages and standards out there, it's hard to see what will some to the top.
The Large Cable ISP that has been in the news alot lately, that I work for, which I will not say the name, seems to not train it's employees enough, either that or they just don't hire good enough people.
Now our level 3 Techs know their stuff pretty well for Windows stuff, but if you have a Mac or Linux problem, forget it. They know Windows backwards and Forwards though.
I know that alot of the people in the sales department however, don't really know how to keep track of things, use databases, general computer tasks very well, etc... They get their job done, but there are problems.
Our web designers for our local pages, aren't really well trained either. They don't know how to set up an Apache server, use Perl, CGI, C++, or even compile a program. They know ASP and VB, and Flash, but that's it. They really want to know how to use 'better' programs, but they aren't given the training needed.
Me? I was dropped in with NO training except a 3 hour thing on Video on Demand. The people who do the actual networking and router setup. They know their stuff really really well. So basically, we need to fill in the cracks. The people in 'important' areas, are well trained, but elsewise not.
They need to be better informed on Wireless networking, networking in general, routing, computer usage, security policies, doumentation (ISO anyone?), etc.. Some people actually mail out passwords to things over PLAIN TEXT!!! They are important services. Our passwords for our workstations have to do with... well they are simple and you can guess anyone's.
They need a 'geek week' of training where they have people come in, show them what they are doing wrong, and what they need to be more efficiant, and point them in the right direction. They could handle themselves from there, but right now there just isn't they don't know what they need to be trained on and improve on. Many people are really sketchy using the AS/400 database system, which is easy, but they aren't trained for it, and it's not point-and-click. The secertaries even weren't trained on the Databases that they use every day. They have had to teach themselves, which has worked out ok, but it could have been better directed.
Huh? I still have two Pentium 3 850mhz computers... What ? They broke 1 ghz? They have 2.0 ghz? Huh? A 2.8ghz?!?!?! Where have I been?
You would think they way they do these benchmarks that you really need 200+ FPS in Quake 3 at 1600*1200@32 with everything to the max. I still have a 486 running Linux around here to use as a beast for some things.
Yea, how did they get one so fast, reviewed it, et al, when it just was released. Damn, and people say I sit hitting refresh on./ too much. How about camping at the chip store or waiting for the UPS man all night just to get the chip and test it to see if it's really faster than the 2.6 ghz. OF course it's gonna be faster. When was the last time that you saw a nonoverclocked chip of slower speed beat the newer one?
It's kinda funny that the class action lawsuit against terrorists is just for 1 Trillion, but the one against a company that spams fax is 2.2 trillion. Hmm, would you rather be a) Hit by an airplane, stuck in a burning building and have the building fall over, so you can hit the ground? or b) Have someone send you faxes that you don't want.
Now I think that both of these are legit suits. But really, faxes vs terrorism. Which one should pay the victims?
Some artists like being played on the radio (MP3 or otherwise). If they don't care, can they play them? There are plenty of underground artists and some bigger ones like Jen Chapin who I am sure wouldn't care at all if they were played on a streaming radio station.
I wonder when MP3.com will be hit hard with RIAA stuff, because the Artists submit their stuff willingly...
A friend of mine tested Meridian 59 when it was in Beta. It was a cool game for the time. We were some of the thousands then who got the idea that we should make our own game. We figured out all these things and wrote all over whiteboards for days during the summer. (Some of it's still on the whiteboards on the walls at his parent's house). Neither of us really had any programming experience at the time, so we were kinda stuck with some ideas, but not much more.
Then I got in the on the alpha test of Sierra's The Realm. Unlike M59, The Realm was addictive to us. We sat there waiting for the server to connect, for patches to download over our 56K (well it only really connected at 26,400) connection. It was great, and we were hooked. I actually liked The Realm Alpha better than the Beta for the most part, and far more than the Final. The Final seemed to be mainly about who was logged on when the GMs decieded to give away 'special' items (which became a norm in MMORPGs). The graphics were actually pretty cool for the time and we wanted to research more about these games.
So we came upon Ultima Online. At the time it was little more than a web page with a black background, and an FAQ. The ideas from the FAQ were awesome though. Ideas such as animals coming from other animals, storming castles, owning property (which you did in the Realm, but you couldn't steal from others easily without conning them out of stuff. I got a Lit Orb this way), a stong economic system, and a huge world that you would take a day or two to travel.
We instantly formed guilds and for the hell of it declaired War on each other, even though Alpha wasn't even out yet. We were drooling over pictures that were leaking in from alpha though. The whole idea rocked. We got passwords from somewhere to a site that was being developed with info about the beta and got in there (huge leak, thousands accessed it).
Then we got the Beta CDs, I still have mine. At the time UO would run on a 486 DX/4 with little problems, so his blazinly fast P120 Laptop, and my P90 desktop were all good. For some reason the requirements have gone up alot, even though they haven't added much really. The Beta rocked. We were a little dispointed by some things, but some things got better and some worse. The ecomonmy at first was great. You started off with nothing by a knife that was nearly worthless, and a few other little things. No gold. Now players start off with 1000 gold. Amazing. We started in Vesper (I think that's the name), and stayed around the beach alot. I remember both of us running around, mainly away from creatures that we were dumb enough to attack. It was hard to get gold or good items at the time. We would draw guards to the beach, and wait for someone to try to pickpocket others, and then mob the bodies and take their things.
Ah, some things never came into being though. We never got a tight ecomony. It got worse. Things weren't supposed to 'spawn' according the initial FAQ, but they did. And it killed it. Land became too scarce after the server wipes slowed down, and the game got too many powerful players, that made it unfun to roleplay.
We actually did get real accounts when the game came out. (It was a long beta, but the Realm Alpha and Beta was over a year). Games today don't normally have long Betas for some reason. I guess they want to make money back sooner than later. We ended up with a Castle on one server, which we put a ton of things in because our banks were overflowing. I was always a mage, and not a tank at all, so fighting was hard for me. I made more money safely by making scrolls. Another memory from first playing the game was becoming a GM at Eval Int and Anatomy in about 10 minutes just by using it. I think something was messed up at the time. I got killed by a harpy then, and for some reason, was evil because I had killed an animal I congured up, so I didn't know where to Rez.
We Lost the castle, because someone put tents in front of it. We couldn't get in, but someone else had been able to break and and took everything. We had the place full with stuff, but at the time you couldn't secure anything. I stopped playing for a while.
I played AC for a little bit, and then Everquest. Neither of them had been quite the same. I later tested Anarachy Online, and thought it was what EQ should have been, but wasn't. I didn't play that for long either because I had school, and the servers sucked. UO had such a sense of wonder, and mystery to it at the right times. What I like most about MMORPGs is the feeling that you first get while playing them. You are nothing, you are lost. You don't know all the 'tricks', you don't know how to make a ton of money instantly, and you are afriad of little things. It feels harder, because later it gets absurd and pointless feeling (which it is but...)
The worst thing that games do is break away from their initial ideas. They don't go through with things that would have worked. Look at UO now, ships are nearly useless. They should have had huge pirate ships, made ship travel important. Had caravans that traveled around the world, etc. NOPE, all you have to do to go somewhere is have a tank cast gate, and go there. Nothing dangerous, nothing special. It groups were forced to ban together to travel, and do things, it would have been better. But instead magic screwed the whole thing. It would have made a much more interesting economy and world structure. I want to try Neverwinter Nights. Currently I am not playing anything, because well, there aren't any good betas that I have gotten into lately, and I just dont' feel like paying for a game that I won't play much. I have too much to do. Oh well,
I will have to say that I rather enjoyed your post. It was quite 'informative +1' if you want to think of it that way. But seriously, you bring up some good points. Some of which are why I said, "how you think of indians (opps, native americans), of being. " Because it's kinda more of an idea that the truth, as you pointed out. Thanks again!
Go to an actual "hog farm" and assess the environmental impact.
Actually in North Carolina, the Hog Farms do end up producing a large problem when any flooding occurs. Check out an article on Salon here about it. .
Asides from that, I think you are right to a large degree. And it's kinda what I am concerned with. The thing is that no matter what we do, the way we live dictates that we spend vast amounts of energy and pollute a ton. Ok, I realized that the trees aren't cut from the rain forest for paper (but they are cut I guess for farming?), so that's not a direct impact there. However, the paper mills put off some awful pollution. Now they are getting getting better, but still, everything we do, even recycling, oddly enough is harmful to the enviorment. Well I guess the worst thing that could happen is that we destroy ourselves, and the planet rebuilds (which it would, and in some sick way, that's kinda comforting). Thanks for the advice though, it's good!:)
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Well, since the size of movies is down, and the size of harddrives up...
200gb Firewire HD- $450
Cheap Boxen to run it with (not Dreamcast)- $200
Decent Broadband connection w/ huge upstream- $99
Linux- $Free
Setting up an FTP Server- Your time
The look on the Judge's face when you get busted for serving out everything to hit to box office for the past 8 years- Priceless...
I dunno, at Time Warner where I used to work, we did a bit a filtering on viruses on our email server as well as some spam filtering if I remember right. I know that there were some people who did nothing but work on these servers. I could be wrong, but I think it's doable, perhaps not easily, but it's doable.
Ya don't think that some of the viruses are to spy on the chinesse public? nah...
If China's gov't can filter so much of the content that their citizens view, you would think that they would somehow figure out how to filter viruses in email attachments and stuff (which is possible)
Or PERHAPS, the name of the Virus is Win32.China.Is.Spying.On.Its.Citzens.Virus
Hmm
It seems that these mini ice ages happen once every 1/2 cycle around the sun, switching hemispheres... They have been suspecting that the cause is a fat man with a red suit for the northern hemisphere, but are still unclear as to the cause of the southern yearly iceage...
Quoth the article: When I say "dramatic," I mean: Average winter temperatures could drop by 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States, and by 10 degrees in the northeastern United States and in Europe. That's enough to send mountain glaciers advancing down from the Alps. To freeze rivers and harbors and bind North Atlantic shipping lanes in ice.
While this could/perhaps will affect quite a bit, changing the weather by 5-10 degrees lower won't put us into what we think of as an 'ice age'. It could screw up quite a bit, but it won't be too bad. To me it seems that it would be more winterlike for a month or two as the general affect (which most plants and animals could tolerate I think).
Don't start thinking that it's gonna be like the Pixar movie 'Ice Age' in New Mexico...
And to clarify, end users are not responsible [mp3licensing.com] for the payment of any licensing fees for software that uses the mp3 patents.
So does that mean that they can't charge you for it?
Rather, I meant that Kazaa comes with it's own player, not each mp3 with it's own player (although what a neat idea, a format that plays itself, but is small)...
Perhaps they are just getting their legal team cracking, and are just waiting for the right time to strike..
Odd, sueing someone over the IP of something that has caused more IP problems than anything else in history.
110,000 Grand isn't that much for AOL/TimeWarner. They spend that much on a Cisco 12000 router or a DNS server...
I think this could stop Kazaa quicker than anything else. They have had how many million downloads? All with an mp3 player. Hmm. That's probably a few million they don't have....
Better start selling more ads Kazaa, and fast! (Just so we can download Kazaa Lite, and get around them!).
Well, I guess NullSoft has decieded to pay the bill themselves. Because Winamp 3.0 is still available as of now for free download.
Lol, I guess that whole anonymous thing kinda went out the window...
I was joking about how hard it was to keep up with the new chips that are coming out. I know that the processor power will be able to be fully used someday soon, but for now it's just marketing for the most part. I mean most people's 2.0ghz machines that they buy at Walmart run about the same speed as the 500mhz ones that they bought a few years ago, but now they put Weatherbug, Bonzi Buddy, IM, etc.. on it and slow it down so much. People think 'oh that's faster, I should buy that' When really all they have to do is optimize their system.
Example: On dorm last year, I had my little mear P3 850 with a TNT2 Ultra 32mb. Yea, it sucks but I am a musician, not a gamer so I don't really care. Well, anyway, alot of people had 'new' computers that were supposed to be so fast and good. Well most of them came with 128mb memory. A few had 256, but they had to ask for it 'special'. In all seriousness, the amount of memory should double every 18 months as well, or at least ever 24 months. Anyway, Their computers ran like crap. They didn't have newer drivers, they didn't set up their systems right, they ran WinME, and they still thought that they got a good deal. When really they should have spent 1/3rd of what they did, gotten an older system, and kept it clean and optimized. I saw people get between 300-700 on 3dMark 2001. WTF is that? My system was beating most by 3-5x that! After I sat down with some of their systems and worked on them a bit I was able to improve them, but not totally.
They were sold on chip speed, nothing else. They thought that the fastest chip would mean the fastest computer. All those crap OEM compenents, cheap video, cheap mobo, cheap memory. I would rather have an old system that's good, than a new one that sucks.
Think for a second, what if, they stopped increasing the chip speed. Then what would happen? 2 things. Programmers would have to get efficiant with things that they are slack on (MSFT OSes), and computer sales would actually start looking at other stuff. No longer would they sell systems with 64mb or 128mb of memory. 512-1gb would be standard. Good system boards and cases would be defacto. Good powersupplies. Good cooling.
Selling on processor is like selling a car based on HP only. Remember that there is Torque too, and HP/Weight ratio, as well as handling, stability, acceleration, top speed, gearing, etc... And some people want it to be comfortable to ride in and efficiant too!!
Sorry if the joke wasn't apparent.
Actually, I came in with all the skills needed for my job, and more; so I have been placed on projects recently that were way more complex than what I was hired for, and I am glad for that.
I am more commenting on others not knowing what they are doing and not having enough training. Yes people should come in with job skills, but to know a specific database, and how things are done at this company specifically. People need to be trained on standards. Can you recite all of the ISO14000 for me? Didn't think so. But by your standards, if you apply for a job that the company goes by the ISO14000 then you shouldn't get the job because you don't have the 'skills'.
In remark to the flamebait about Macs. So you are saying that BSD is pointless and has no place? Where have you been for the past few? Macs are running BSD, which is pretty close to Linux. In addition, what day-to-day office task can you not do on Macs?... I am waiting to hear an answer, but there isn't anything you can't do on Macs. So that point is gone.
To finalize; let's say that you are working for a company that uses let's say, Lightwave 3d, and they deciede to move to Maya for pricing and support (neither is actually better, just an example). Well, you know Lightwave like the back of your hand, but Maya... Hmm, not really. You could download the free version, and dick around with it for a few months, wasting time. Or your employer could send you to a training session about the differences between Lightwave and Maya. This could also happen with Programming Languages. Switching from Java to C# or ASP to Perl, etc...
So would you rather be trained, or fired? Truthfully. And as an employer, which will make things better? To Fire all 1,000 of your programmers at a (very) large company, and get new ones and have the 'startup' time with them? Or just train the exisiting ones?
Try it with CGI, you will have far better experiences using Perl vs using C++ or whatever you are using now.
In addition, try it for day to day administrative tasks (assuming that you are running Linux or BSD...)
Make web pages, make scripts, make a few small games, try to see what you can do. Since you are a CS student, analyze the code, and try to trace all of Perl through (that's a task). It will make you better off for it. Try to program a CGI module or something if that proved too easy.
I would say learn it now, I know that Perl 6 is a big one, but it's still Perl, and the difference won't even be as big as the one between C and C++.
What do you feel about the future of Perl? Where is it moving to, and what still has to be done? .NET and XML? Do you see them as being possibly sucessful in light of Perl's flexiblity? There are so many languages and standards out there, it's hard to see what will some to the top.
Do you see Perl moving towards ever being a greater language for "programming" as C++ is? Or is it's place pretty well defined and not moving?
In addition, what do you think about other languages and systems such as the
The Large Cable ISP that has been in the news alot lately, that I work for, which I will not say the name, seems to not train it's employees enough, either that or they just don't hire good enough people.
Now our level 3 Techs know their stuff pretty well for Windows stuff, but if you have a Mac or Linux problem, forget it. They know Windows backwards and Forwards though.
I know that alot of the people in the sales department however, don't really know how to keep track of things, use databases, general computer tasks very well, etc... They get their job done, but there are problems.
Our web designers for our local pages, aren't really well trained either. They don't know how to set up an Apache server, use Perl, CGI, C++, or even compile a program. They know ASP and VB, and Flash, but that's it. They really want to know how to use 'better' programs, but they aren't given the training needed.
Me? I was dropped in with NO training except a 3 hour thing on Video on Demand.
The people who do the actual networking and router setup. They know their stuff really really well.
So basically, we need to fill in the cracks. The people in 'important' areas, are well trained, but elsewise not.
They need to be better informed on Wireless networking, networking in general, routing, computer usage, security policies, doumentation (ISO anyone?), etc..
Some people actually mail out passwords to things over PLAIN TEXT!!! They are important services. Our passwords for our workstations have to do with... well they are simple and you can guess anyone's.
They need a 'geek week' of training where they have people come in, show them what they are doing wrong, and what they need to be more efficiant, and point them in the right direction. They could handle themselves from there, but right now there just isn't they don't know what they need to be trained on and improve on. Many people are really sketchy using the AS/400 database system, which is easy, but they aren't trained for it, and it's not point-and-click. The secertaries even weren't trained on the Databases that they use every day. They have had to teach themselves, which has worked out ok, but it could have been better directed.
Huh? I still have two Pentium 3 850mhz computers...
What ? They broke 1 ghz?
They have 2.0 ghz?
Huh? A 2.8ghz?!?!?! Where have I been?
You would think they way they do these benchmarks that you really need 200+ FPS in Quake 3 at 1600*1200@32 with everything to the max.
I still have a 486 running Linux around here to use as a beast for some things.
Yea, how did they get one so fast, reviewed it, et al, when it just was released. Damn, and people say I sit hitting refresh on ./ too much.
How about camping at the chip store or waiting for the UPS man all night just to get the chip and test it to see if it's really faster than the 2.6 ghz. OF course it's gonna be faster. When was the last time that you saw a nonoverclocked chip of slower speed beat the newer one?
It's kinda funny that the class action lawsuit against terrorists is just for 1 Trillion, but the one against a company that spams fax is 2.2 trillion. Hmm, would you rather be
a) Hit by an airplane, stuck in a burning building and have the building fall over, so you can hit the ground?
or
b) Have someone send you faxes that you don't want.
Now I think that both of these are legit suits. But really, faxes vs terrorism. Which one should pay the victims?
Some artists like being played on the radio (MP3 or otherwise). If they don't care, can they play them? There are plenty of underground artists and some bigger ones like Jen Chapin who I am sure wouldn't care at all if they were played on a streaming radio station.
I wonder when MP3.com will be hit hard with RIAA stuff, because the Artists submit their stuff willingly...
A friend of mine tested Meridian 59 when it was in Beta. It was a cool game for the time. We were some of the thousands then who got the idea that we should make our own game. We figured out all these things and wrote all over whiteboards for days during the summer. (Some of it's still on the whiteboards on the walls at his parent's house). Neither of us really had any programming experience at the time, so we were kinda stuck with some ideas, but not much more.
Then I got in the on the alpha test of Sierra's The Realm. Unlike M59, The Realm was addictive to us. We sat there waiting for the server to connect, for patches to download over our 56K (well it only really connected at 26,400) connection. It was great, and we were hooked. I actually liked The Realm Alpha better than the Beta for the most part, and far more than the Final. The Final seemed to be mainly about who was logged on when the GMs decieded to give away 'special' items (which became a norm in MMORPGs). The graphics were actually pretty cool for the time and we wanted to research more about these games.
So we came upon Ultima Online. At the time it was little more than a web page with a black background, and an FAQ. The ideas from the FAQ were awesome though. Ideas such as animals coming from other animals, storming castles, owning property (which you did in the Realm, but you couldn't steal from others easily without conning them out of stuff. I got a Lit Orb this way), a stong economic system, and a huge world that you would take a day or two to travel.
We instantly formed guilds and for the hell of it declaired War on each other, even though Alpha wasn't even out yet. We were drooling over pictures that were leaking in from alpha though. The whole idea rocked. We got passwords from somewhere to a site that was being developed with info about the beta and got in there (huge leak, thousands accessed it).
Then we got the Beta CDs, I still have mine. At the time UO would run on a 486 DX/4 with little problems, so his blazinly fast P120 Laptop, and my P90 desktop were all good. For some reason the requirements have gone up alot, even though they haven't added much really. The Beta rocked. We were a little dispointed by some things, but some things got better and some worse.
The ecomonmy at first was great. You started off with nothing by a knife that was nearly worthless, and a few other little things. No gold. Now players start off with 1000 gold. Amazing. We started in Vesper (I think that's the name), and stayed around the beach alot. I remember both of us running around, mainly away from creatures that we were dumb enough to attack. It was hard to get gold or good items at the time. We would draw guards to the beach, and wait for someone to try to pickpocket others, and then mob the bodies and take their things.
Ah, some things never came into being though. We never got a tight ecomony. It got worse. Things weren't supposed to 'spawn' according the initial FAQ, but they did. And it killed it. Land became too scarce after the server wipes slowed down, and the game got too many powerful players, that made it unfun to roleplay.
We actually did get real accounts when the game came out. (It was a long beta, but the Realm Alpha and Beta was over a year). Games today don't normally have long Betas for some reason. I guess they want to make money back sooner than later. We ended up with a Castle on one server, which we put a ton of things in because our banks were overflowing. I was always a mage, and not a tank at all, so fighting was hard for me. I made more money safely by making scrolls. Another memory from first playing the game was becoming a GM at Eval Int and Anatomy in about 10 minutes just by using it. I think something was messed up at the time. I got killed by a harpy then, and for some reason, was evil because I had killed an animal I congured up, so I didn't know where to Rez.
We Lost the castle, because someone put tents in front of it. We couldn't get in, but someone else had been able to break and and took everything. We had the place full with stuff, but at the time you couldn't secure anything. I stopped playing for a while.
I played AC for a little bit, and then Everquest. Neither of them had been quite the same. I later tested Anarachy Online, and thought it was what EQ should have been, but wasn't. I didn't play that for long either because I had school, and the servers sucked. UO had such a sense of wonder, and mystery to it at the right times.
What I like most about MMORPGs is the feeling that you first get while playing them. You are nothing, you are lost. You don't know all the 'tricks', you don't know how to make a ton of money instantly, and you are afriad of little things. It feels harder, because later it gets absurd and pointless feeling (which it is but...)
The worst thing that games do is break away from their initial ideas. They don't go through with things that would have worked. Look at UO now, ships are nearly useless. They should have had huge pirate ships, made ship travel important. Had caravans that traveled around the world, etc. NOPE, all you have to do to go somewhere is have a tank cast gate, and go there. Nothing dangerous, nothing special. It groups were forced to ban together to travel, and do things, it would have been better. But instead magic screwed the whole thing. It would have made a much more interesting economy and world structure. I want to try Neverwinter Nights. Currently I am not playing anything, because well, there aren't any good betas that I have gotten into lately, and I just dont' feel like paying for a game that I won't play much. I have too much to do. Oh well,
I will have to say that I rather enjoyed your post. It was quite 'informative +1' if you want to think of it that way.
But seriously, you bring up some good points. Some of which are why I said, "how you think of indians (opps, native americans), of being. " Because it's kinda more of an idea that the truth, as you pointed out. Thanks again!
Go to an actual "hog farm" and assess the environmental impact.
:)
Actually in North Carolina, the Hog Farms do end up producing a large problem when any flooding occurs. Check out an article on Salon here about it. .
Asides from that, I think you are right to a large degree. And it's kinda what I am concerned with. The thing is that no matter what we do, the way we live dictates that we spend vast amounts of energy and pollute a ton.
Ok, I realized that the trees aren't cut from the rain forest for paper (but they are cut I guess for farming?), so that's not a direct impact there. However, the paper mills put off some awful pollution. Now they are getting getting better, but still, everything we do, even recycling, oddly enough is harmful to the enviorment.
Well I guess the worst thing that could happen is that we destroy ourselves, and the planet rebuilds (which it would, and in some sick way, that's kinda comforting).
Thanks for the advice though, it's good!
Hmm, well, I am a little scared at 'other' reasons he might want a portable vibrating device...
I guess I shouldn't set up a web server for a small web page on a computer with dual 600 watt power supplies to be green eh... j/k