There's a local computer store where I live (Vancouver, BC) that has a great web site with all their
latest
prices. You can't order online (I don't think, anyway), but you can do a
quick price check, and make up your mind before you go there.
They update each page if just one item's price changes on that page. All the pages are organized
by category (CPU on one page, memory on the next, then mainboards, etc...)
Their prices are competitive, around the cheapest in town (if you're comparing,
remember these are Canadian loonies). If you're going to update the web
site daily, you can then place a few computers around your store with that web
page preloaded, to allow customers in the store to check the prices. Also,
the staff at the store above, uses the web
site on the computer in front of them to check the prices as you pay.
Each of their products has a brief description, e.g. Intel P4-RD, D850EMD2:
i850E/S478, 533FSB, AGP4x, 3PCI/CNR/5USB2.0, RDRAM, Audio, which are useful in
taking a look at all the choices in one place.
I think it's a Mom and Pop run place, at least it looks that
way... The store isn't it the best of shape physically, but damn, there's
always a line of people waiting to buy stuff. They must sell one hell of a
load of items every day. There's no price haggling, and the they probably
make a low profit margin. But they make up for it in volume (i.e. always
5+ people in line to buy stuff, in a customer area that's only ~20x20 feet.)
Oh yeah, skip all the fancy graphics, flash, pull-down menus,
pop-ups, whatever, on your site. They're only annoying.
Don't bother with making the user turn the page to find page #2 of the CPU
prices, either - that's what the Page Down button is for. Page flipping
through links makes it a pain in the butt to print a price list.
Bottom Line to My Point: Open a web site with
your latest prices.
Yeah, it's sort of weird, and a little psychadealic (sp?)!
I noticed that if you go for the same letter long enough (e.g. 5 or 6 times), it decides that you must be trying to repeat that letter, so the entire right part of the input screen becomes just that letter.
Even if you go almost all the way to the top or bottom, it still assumes you want that letter. At this point, you have to go completely to the top or bottom to get a different letter. Not that is a problem or anything - in fact, it successfully predicted that I was trying to repeat the letter.
I couldn't find the easter egg you're talking about, though... just the wormhole part.
I don't have many of these games, so I can't say for sure which of them use centralized key servers. However, isn't it possible for the CD manufacturer to burn a unique ID (key #) onto every CD, so that when you install it, you are automatically assigned that key # ???
How can you otherwise tell that the game isn't connecting to a centralized key server, besides packet sniffing?
Or is this just prohibitively expensive at this point, to uniquely ID CDs as part of their data? (Then again, M$ sticks a hologram on their WinXP CD - first time I've seen that.)
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There's a local computer store where I live (Vancouver, BC) that has a great web site with all their latest prices. You can't order online (I don't think, anyway), but you can do a quick price check, and make up your mind before you go there.
They update each page if just one item's price changes on that page. All the pages are organized by category (CPU on one page, memory on the next, then mainboards, etc...) Their prices are competitive, around the cheapest in town (if you're comparing, remember these are Canadian loonies). If you're going to update the web site daily, you can then place a few computers around your store with that web page preloaded, to allow customers in the store to check the prices. Also, the staff at the store above, uses the web site on the computer in front of them to check the prices as you pay.
Each of their products has a brief description, e.g. Intel P4-RD, D850EMD2: i850E/S478, 533FSB, AGP4x, 3PCI/CNR/5USB2.0, RDRAM, Audio, which are useful in taking a look at all the choices in one place.
I think it's a Mom and Pop run place, at least it looks that way... The store isn't it the best of shape physically, but damn, there's always a line of people waiting to buy stuff. They must sell one hell of a load of items every day. There's no price haggling, and the they probably make a low profit margin. But they make up for it in volume (i.e. always 5+ people in line to buy stuff, in a customer area that's only ~20x20 feet.)
Oh yeah, skip all the fancy graphics, flash, pull-down menus, pop-ups, whatever, on your site. They're only annoying. Don't bother with making the user turn the page to find page #2 of the CPU prices, either - that's what the Page Down button is for. Page flipping through links makes it a pain in the butt to print a price list.
Bottom Line to My Point: Open a web site with your latest prices.
/Dave
Yeah, it's sort of weird, and a little psychadealic (sp?)!
/Dave
I noticed that if you go for the same letter long enough (e.g. 5 or 6 times), it decides that you must be trying to repeat that letter, so the entire right part of the input screen becomes just that letter.
Even if you go almost all the way to the top or bottom, it still assumes you want that letter. At this point, you have to go completely to the top or bottom to get a different letter. Not that is a problem or anything - in fact, it successfully predicted that I was trying to repeat the letter.
I couldn't find the easter egg you're talking about, though... just the wormhole part.
I don't have many of these games, so I can't say for sure which of them use centralized key servers. However, isn't it possible for the CD manufacturer to burn a unique ID (key #) onto every CD, so that when you install it, you are automatically assigned that key # ???
/Dave
How can you otherwise tell that the game isn't connecting to a centralized key server, besides packet sniffing?
Or is this just prohibitively expensive at this point, to uniquely ID CDs as part of their data? (Then again, M$ sticks a hologram on their WinXP CD - first time I've seen that.)
doh