> Yeah, that's a good idea... So how many ID-Ten-T consumers are going to carry
> this number around -- in their wallets/purses
Probably close to 0% - why would anyone do that?
or leave them unsecured in a filing cabinet?
Probably a lot, if by "unsecured filing cabinet" you include, say, pretty much anywhere inside a house.
So what's wrong with that?
> When will legislators get a clue that most people are complete
> ignorant about the security of almost anything?
The vast majority of identity theft is done by electronic means - card skimming, phishing, social engineering, etc. I doubt seriously that most of it comes from robbers who are rooting around in unsecured filing cabinets. If you have people poking around at your files in unsecured filing cabinets, then you have bigger problems than whether or not they stole your secret code to unlock your credit report.
This is excellent legislation, and an fine way to deal with a lot of credit report problems before they happen. I'm really not sure why you're mocking it. Your scoffing seems to indicate that no solution that is not 100% foolproof and stops the problem dead, utterly and completely, is worth pursuing. I'm glad most states don't agree with that.
> The model could solve the mystery of why our early universe was surprisingly well ordered.
Not really - you've just pushed the problem back one level. Where did the well-ordered universe shards that made this universe come from? It can't be "turtles all the way down"
It's too bad the lawyers for the defendant called the ISP "American Online" on page 2. I'm sure they're technical savvy guys, but really.... "American Online" ?
> This seems to underscore Microsoft's focus on flashiness over function, to me.
> I would hope that far more development would go into security, efficiency, and reliability.
I think you have a misunderstanding of how software development works. It's not as if Microsoft Executives said "Stop working on the security, boys, and start frettin' those guitars!" They're independent teams - working on Windows sounds isn't going to pull resources off the programming teams.
> Adding new and exciting sounds is pretty far down the list of what would make me want to run out and buy a new OS.
No, but it's going to contribute to your sense of comfort with that OS; and if that doesn't apply to you specifically, it WILL apply to most Windows users. What's going to make people feel like they're using a well-designed OS? I can guarantee that for the vast majority of people, it's not going to be clever kernel I/O scheduling algorithms or an efficient garbage-collection subroutine. It will be the look and feel of what they see (and hear) every day when they turn on their PC.
> Especially since we've had the ability customize the sound scheme since what, Windows 3.0?
Accounting for statistical outliers, approximately.... nobody does that. So, the default sounds had better be pretty good.
Wired had a great article on the subject of synthetic diamonds a few years ago. An excerpt:
Back at the Diamond High Council, I open the film canister and shake the Apollo stones onto the table. Van Royen tentatively picks one up with a pair of elongated tweezers and takes it to a microscope. "Unbelievable," he says slowly as he peers through the lens. "May I study it?" I agree to let him keep the gems overnight. When we meet the next morning in the lobby of the High Council, Van Royen looks tired. He admits to staying up almost all night scrutinizing the stones. "I think I can identify it," he says hopefully. "It's too perfect to be natural. Things in nature, they have flaws. The growth structure of this diamond is flawless."
You can read a lot more stories like that one at the EverQuest Daily Grind. Anytime I feel like I'm getting sucked into gaming too much, to the exclusion of my family or friends, I read a few stories there and get scared straight again.
Leo Laporte is also floating the idea of switching the term to "netcast". Bonus advantage: helps clue people in that they don't need an iPod to listen to a "podcast" (which understandably is a common misunderstanding by those who hear the term for the first time).
I agree. Early previews and promos for the movie made it look more like a mix of campy fun, silliness, and cool scenes of Samuel L. Jackson getting ready for action with "That's it! I'm tired of these snakes on the plane!"
But somewhere between that time and now, the studio decided they'd rather be all about the cussin'. Jackson swearing a blue streak ("That's IT! I'm *#!@$ tired of these $*&!@# snakes on the $*$@&%! plane!") was going to be the big selling point. Instead, I think they effectively cut off their under-17 audience who probably would have paid good money to see a PG/PG-13 movie with snakes. On a plane.
Try Progress Quest! Just download it, run it, and let it start leveling you up while you get on with your life. Why spend time grinding? Let Progress Quest do all the heavy-lifting for you! (and medium- and light-lifting, and everything else for that matter.)
The world may never know exactly how much Ken Lay was involved in the whole Enron fiasco. But although he probably wasn't nearly as devious and manipulative as CEO Jeff Skilling or CFO Andy Fastow, Ken Lay was still the captain of the ship and deserves much of the blame for Enron's collapse.
From what I've read of him, Ken had several flaws:
He was far more interested in the trappings of power (luxury homes, expensive jets, etc.) than running a multi-billion-dollar company. So he let his underlings do it for him.
He had a great aversion to interpersonal conflicts, so he rarely ever told anyone "no". It was common knowledge among the top execs that Ken was a pushover - just threaten to quit, and you could have whatever you wanted.
Because of #1 and #2, he wouldn't or couldn't control the executives under him, who ran wild as a result.
I tend to suspect that the oh-so-clever accounting techniques and special purpose entities Andrew Fastow cooked up to keep Enron's debts off their books was far more complicated than Ken could understand. (They're certainly too much for my little brain.) But instead of asking tough questions, Ken just shrugged and signed off on them.
So although Ken may not have been the greedy manipulator that his underlings were, he reminds me a lot of a pleasant, but wimpy and passive dad who's let his children run wild with no discipline from their earliest days, then protests that he's not to blame when they turn into terrors 10-15 years later.
For a fascinating account of the rise and fall of Enron, I would highly recommend the book The Smartest Guys In the Room. You don't have to understand all the arcane ins-and-outs of accounting to follow the story, which really is pretty fascinating. (I believe there's a documentary movie based on the book as well...)
> By utilizing speech-recognition software and an ever growing list of suspect words and phrases,
> they will be able to keep tabs on the unruly U.S. population, weeding out terrorists,
> political dissidents, environmentalists, Democrats, and other 'undesirables'.
Those evil Republicans! Except, wait... wasn't it the Clinton Administration that launched a 3-year criminal investigation of Phil Zimmerman in 1993?
And wasn't that the same President who championed the Clipper chip, so the government would have the keys it needed to decrypt your phone calls?
Re:Well, videogames aren't about the story.
on
Once Upon A Game
·
· Score: 1
> A game is great becuase it plays well and is fun. Story is just the icing on the cake
Only for certain genres. What do people remember about the Myst series - the fantastic point-and-click gameplay? The slideshow-style graphics? No; they remember the incredibly immersive storyline.
That's one extreme, in which the game IS the story, and the mouse/keyboard are just there to help you experience it. Then there are other games like the Final Fantasy series, which wouldn't be nearly as fun if they didn't come with epic storylines. Game mechanics are important, but can't redeem an RPG that's just boring.
Then on the other extreme of FPS games, a good storyline can still make or break a game. I found Half-Life and Half-Life 2 a lot more fun because of the story they tell (and that you take part in). I found other shooters like Quake ("You're a space marine! In space! And, uh... you've gone through a portal that's taken you... somewhere bad... I guess. Kill everything!") much less interesting.
> Microsoft plans to include features to protect Web surfers
> against online scams in Internet Explorer 7
Wouldn't it have been easier just to not program the online scams into Internet Explorer 7 in the first place? I just don't understand Microsoft's new security procedures at all!
Have a look at this story (also here). It's the tale of how one school's sysadmin converted the computer lab to Linux (Mandrake), KDE, and a host of open-source education and productivity applications.
For those of who like these kinds of articles, don't miss the final link that takes you to the Carnival of Gamers HQ, where you can visit past Carnivals as well.
I love articles like these that take a step back from the reviews and mechanics of a game and discuss some of the larger issues surrounding gaming.
> You know that statement is true when even Microsoft goes out
> of their way to keep speech protected and free. Way to be, Microsoft.
...except that, according the article, Microsoft would have done exactly the same thing with the blog in question under this new policy:
Zhao's blog was removed from servers located in the U.S., which blocked the viewing of his page from anywhere. Under Microsoft's new policy, it appears that Zhao's blog still would have been removed.
Microsoft operates MSN Spaces under a license, and the service is regulated by the Shanghai News, an instrument of the Chinese government, Smith said. The office has the legal authority under Chinese law to issue an official notification to the company to remove access to material in some circumstances, he said.
In Zhao's case, the Shanghai News followed the necessary procedural prerequisites and issued a notice that pointed to the law that his blog violated. "We concluded that we indeed had a legal obligation to comply with it," Smith said.
Was Sony's decision in response to the trojan that takes advantage of their DRM rootkit?
If so, this might be the first time we've ever seen a trojan-trojan: a program that seems to be useful, but actually turns out to be harmful, but then actually turns out to be useful.:-)
> Seriously, the US government has been trying to erode protections for online privacy and
>information access for years, why does he think the UN would be any more dangerous?
Perhaps for this reason, taken from the article:
"During a series of meetings organized by the United Nations, ministers from dozens of other countries have raised objections and demanded more influence. Suggestions that have been made include new mandates for "consumer protection," the power to levy taxes on domain names to pay for "universal access," and folding ICANN into the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency. As far back as 1999, U.N. agencies have mulled imposing taxes on Internet e-mail."
Wanna pay extra taxes for registering your domains? Wanna pay a surcharge for every e-mail you send, to help fund other UN activities?
The UN is not your friend here. Like it or not, the USA has shown itself to be an extraordinarily-responsible gatekeeper for the Internet over the last few decades. Or perhaps you'd like China, Iran, Sudan, etc. to have a say in whether your website and e-mail should be allowed to continue?
There's an article (wish I could find it - came from someone in Japan associated with Nintendo maybe?) that pointed out something I found rather interesting: the closer you get to photo-realistic images (especially humans, for example), the more jarring will be the elements of the image that are not human-like.
Take Half-Life 2, for example. It has some of the best renditions of humans I've ever seen in any game. But once you look past that, it becomes glaringly obvious that these characters are still missing something. A character finishes talking to you, then goes into a "trance", staring straight ahead. HL2 tries to fix this by having the character "wobble" a bit to give the illusion of a living, breathing, not-perfectly-motionless human, or by having them turn their heads and look around from time to time. But there's still something... just not quite human about them.
Compare that to Mario in (let's say) Super Mario World. He's obviously human, but drawn and animated in such a whimsical way that you don't find it odd at all that he stands perfectly still, never moves a facial muscle, etc.
This isn't the article I was thinking of, but have a look at the Wikipedia article on The Uncanny Valley if you're interested in more. See also this blog for speculation on why The Incredibles did so well while The Polar Express just creeped people out.
Slashdot Mirror
> Yeah, that's a good idea... So how many ID-Ten-T consumers are going to carry
> this number around -- in their wallets/purses
Probably close to 0% - why would anyone do that?
or leave them unsecured in a filing cabinet?
Probably a lot, if by "unsecured filing cabinet" you include, say, pretty much anywhere inside a house.
So what's wrong with that?
> When will legislators get a clue that most people are complete
> ignorant about the security of almost anything?
The vast majority of identity theft is done by electronic means - card skimming, phishing, social engineering, etc. I doubt seriously that most of it comes from robbers who are rooting around in unsecured filing cabinets. If you have people poking around at your files in unsecured filing cabinets, then you have bigger problems than whether or not they stole your secret code to unlock your credit report.
This is excellent legislation, and an fine way to deal with a lot of credit report problems before they happen. I'm really not sure why you're mocking it. Your scoffing seems to indicate that no solution that is not 100% foolproof and stops the problem dead, utterly and completely, is worth pursuing. I'm glad most states don't agree with that.
> The model could solve the mystery of why our early universe was surprisingly well ordered.
Not really - you've just pushed the problem back one level. Where did the well-ordered universe shards that made this universe come from? It can't be "turtles all the way down"
It's too bad the lawyers for the defendant called the ISP "American Online" on page 2. I'm sure they're technical savvy guys, but really.... "American Online" ?
Paperless electronic voting machines 'cannot be made secure' [pdf] according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
This conclusion brought to you by the same people who commissioned and instituted the AES encryption standard.
If they say paperless electronic voting can't be made secure, I'd believe 'em!
> This seems to underscore Microsoft's focus on flashiness over function, to me.
> I would hope that far more development would go into security, efficiency, and reliability.
I think you have a misunderstanding of how software development works. It's not as if Microsoft Executives said "Stop working on the security, boys, and start frettin' those guitars!" They're independent teams - working on Windows sounds isn't going to pull resources off the programming teams.
> Adding new and exciting sounds is pretty far down the list of what would make me want to run out and buy a new OS.
No, but it's going to contribute to your sense of comfort with that OS; and if that doesn't apply to you specifically, it WILL apply to most Windows users. What's going to make people feel like they're using a well-designed OS? I can guarantee that for the vast majority of people, it's not going to be clever kernel I/O scheduling algorithms or an efficient garbage-collection subroutine. It will be the look and feel of what they see (and hear) every day when they turn on their PC.
> Especially since we've had the ability customize the sound scheme since what, Windows 3.0?
Accounting for statistical outliers, approximately.... nobody does that. So, the default sounds had better be pretty good.Wired had a great article on the subject of synthetic diamonds a few years ago. An excerpt:
You can read a lot more stories like that one at the EverQuest Daily Grind. Anytime I feel like I'm getting sucked into gaming too much, to the exclusion of my family or friends, I read a few stories there and get scared straight again.
Leo Laporte is also floating the idea of switching the term to "netcast". Bonus advantage: helps clue people in that they don't need an iPod to listen to a "podcast" (which understandably is a common misunderstanding by those who hear the term for the first time).
I agree. Early previews and promos for the movie made it look more like a mix of campy fun, silliness, and cool scenes of Samuel L. Jackson getting ready for action with "That's it! I'm tired of these snakes on the plane!"
But somewhere between that time and now, the studio decided they'd rather be all about the cussin'. Jackson swearing a blue streak ("That's IT! I'm *#!@$ tired of these $*&!@# snakes on the $*$@&%! plane!") was going to be the big selling point. Instead, I think they effectively cut off their under-17 audience who probably would have paid good money to see a PG/PG-13 movie with snakes. On a plane.
That's wonderful. Now if only they would commit themselves to making some great adventure games again. Like a "Sam & Max" sequel, maybe?
(BTW, whatever happened to the Sam & Max comic? Is it ever going to be updated?)
Try Progress Quest! Just download it, run it, and let it start leveling you up while you get on with your life. Why spend time grinding? Let Progress Quest do all the heavy-lifting for you! (and medium- and light-lifting, and everything else for that matter.)
The world may never know exactly how much Ken Lay was involved in the whole Enron fiasco. But although he probably wasn't nearly as devious and manipulative as CEO Jeff Skilling or CFO Andy Fastow, Ken Lay was still the captain of the ship and deserves much of the blame for Enron's collapse.
From what I've read of him, Ken had several flaws:
So although Ken may not have been the greedy manipulator that his underlings were, he reminds me a lot of a pleasant, but wimpy and passive dad who's let his children run wild with no discipline from their earliest days, then protests that he's not to blame when they turn into terrors 10-15 years later.
For a fascinating account of the rise and fall of Enron, I would highly recommend the book The Smartest Guys In the Room. You don't have to understand all the arcane ins-and-outs of accounting to follow the story, which really is pretty fascinating. (I believe there's a documentary movie based on the book as well...)
Right, and not only that - the other lesson is "Beware of taxes that apply only to the rich; they may one day apply to you too."
> By utilizing speech-recognition software and an ever growing list of suspect words and phrases,
> they will be able to keep tabs on the unruly U.S. population, weeding out terrorists,
> political dissidents, environmentalists, Democrats, and other 'undesirables'.
Those evil Republicans! Except, wait... wasn't it the Clinton Administration that launched a 3-year criminal investigation of Phil Zimmerman in 1993?
And wasn't that the same President who championed the Clipper chip, so the government would have the keys it needed to decrypt your phone calls?Only for certain genres. What do people remember about the Myst series - the fantastic point-and-click gameplay? The slideshow-style graphics? No; they remember the incredibly immersive storyline.
That's one extreme, in which the game IS the story, and the mouse/keyboard are just there to help you experience it. Then there are other games like the Final Fantasy series, which wouldn't be nearly as fun if they didn't come with epic storylines. Game mechanics are important, but can't redeem an RPG that's just boring.
Then on the other extreme of FPS games, a good storyline can still make or break a game. I found Half-Life and Half-Life 2 a lot more fun because of the story they tell (and that you take part in). I found other shooters like Quake ("You're a space marine! In space! And, uh... you've gone through a portal that's taken you... somewhere bad... I guess. Kill everything!") much less interesting.
> Microsoft plans to include features to protect Web surfers
> against online scams in Internet Explorer 7
Wouldn't it have been easier just to not program the online scams into Internet Explorer 7 in the first place? I just don't understand Microsoft's new security procedures at all!
Have a look at this story (also here). It's the tale of how one school's sysadmin converted the computer lab to Linux (Mandrake), KDE, and a host of open-source education and productivity applications.
Awwww, nuts. I was hoping they had invented some technology to remove horror from games.
THEN maybe I could finally play the Shalebridge Cradle level in Thief: Deadly Shadows. Or System Shock 2, for that matter. :-(
For those of who like these kinds of articles, don't miss the final link that takes you to the Carnival of Gamers HQ, where you can visit past Carnivals as well.
I love articles like these that take a step back from the reviews and mechanics of a game and discuss some of the larger issues surrounding gaming.
Looking forward to more next month!
> You know that statement is true when even Microsoft goes out > of their way to keep speech protected and free. Way to be, Microsoft.
...except that, according the article, Microsoft would have done exactly the same thing with the blog in question under this new policy:
If so, this might be the first time we've ever seen a trojan-trojan: a program that seems to be useful, but actually turns out to be harmful, but then actually turns out to be useful. :-)
Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide ($1000 budget)
High-end System Buyer's Guide ($2,500 budget)
Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide ($4,000 budget)
Perhaps for this reason, taken from the article:
"During a series of meetings organized by the United Nations, ministers from dozens of other countries have raised objections and demanded more influence. Suggestions that have been made include new mandates for "consumer protection," the power to levy taxes on domain names to pay for "universal access," and folding ICANN into the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency. As far back as 1999, U.N. agencies have mulled imposing taxes on Internet e-mail."
Wanna pay extra taxes for registering your domains? Wanna pay a surcharge for every e-mail you send, to help fund other UN activities?
The UN is not your friend here. Like it or not, the USA has shown itself to be an extraordinarily-responsible gatekeeper for the Internet over the last few decades. Or perhaps you'd like China, Iran, Sudan, etc. to have a say in whether your website and e-mail should be allowed to continue?
It would be unfair to apply that motto to Slashdot.
They don't post retractions.
Take Half-Life 2, for example. It has some of the best renditions of humans I've ever seen in any game. But once you look past that, it becomes glaringly obvious that these characters are still missing something. A character finishes talking to you, then goes into a "trance", staring straight ahead. HL2 tries to fix this by having the character "wobble" a bit to give the illusion of a living, breathing, not-perfectly-motionless human, or by having them turn their heads and look around from time to time. But there's still something... just not quite human about them.
Compare that to Mario in (let's say) Super Mario World. He's obviously human, but drawn and animated in such a whimsical way that you don't find it odd at all that he stands perfectly still, never moves a facial muscle, etc.
This isn't the article I was thinking of, but have a look at the Wikipedia article on The Uncanny Valley if you're interested in more. See also this blog for speculation on why The Incredibles did so well while The Polar Express just creeped people out.