Are there actually any MMORPGs (excluding certain MUDs) that even cost more than 12-15 bucks a month?
Floppy drives are antique technology anyhow...
on
Dell Dropping The Floppy
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I'm a helpdesk worker at a small midwestern college, and all I can say is: Good.
A few weeks ago, a graduate student came up to me in tears because she was saving her portfolio - at least two year's work on a floppy disk, and all of a sudden it just refused to read it. The disk had gone bad, and she didn't have any backups. I know it was silly of her to not back something like that up, but not everyone is computer literate, and not everyone knows that floppies are one of the most unstable forms of storage media out there.
In fact, it seems every week someone comes or calls me to magically fix their disk which has their twenty page Shakespeare paper or their proof positive of cold fusion. All I can do is try to use it on the three computers here, and if that doesn't work, say "Sorry, you're out of luck. Use the handy network drive we provide you with next time."
It kills me every time I have to say that.
Not a whole lot of people at this college are computer literate, and many don't know how easily disks can go bad. That's not their fault... I'd say it's high time to ditch the floppy, given with how user friendly CD burners have become, especially in regards to how seamlessly they are integrated into XP.
Think about this. One CD has the capacity of 500 floppies. Now think about how much even a pack of 10 floppies costs when compared to that one CD.
It's high time that we give the floppy its death knell.
... it's the fact that a lot of these ads don't point to any tangible or worthwhile goods or services.
In my mind, banner ads are actually somewhat effective when they are clear, concise, unobtrusive and actually have a product or service to sell. I have bought a product or two that I saw advertised in banners and that I am quite happy with. (On the other hand, I refused to buy an X10 camera merely on principle, even though I thought they were kind of neat.)
Of course, nowadays most of the ads I see are "YOU HAVE 2 NEW MESSAGES! LOL!!1" and online casino ads, which even the least computer-literate among us are catching on to.
NASA's NEO program currently states that NT7 has a.00001 chance of striking Earth at all, and a.000052 chance of specifically hitting us in 2017.
Of course, the calculations will be refined as time passes, but from my first looks at the slim probabilities, it doesn't seem like it will be much of a problem. The only difference seems to be that it is slightly more likely to hit than previously discovered NEOs.
While the developers of SWG might not have had as much leeway as the devs of EQ had, I still think there is a lot of room for expansion.
Lucas wrote the first Star Wars film as a stand-alone venture for financial reasons; he could have spent years developing and creating the universe from the ground up, but if ANH flopped, it would all have been for nothing. So he intended it to be its own story that didn't need to be propped up by future episodes.
Of course, the movie was wildly succesful, and he simply chose the time period that ANH took place in and chose to expand the story from there. Later on, the Expanded Universe authors chose to further develop the plotline from there. I see Star Wars Galaxies as a EU novel in another form, except with thousands of authors instead of one or two. Who knows, a few lucky players very well might end up having a permanent impact on the continuing Star Wars storyline...
Re:I'm Confused: Kazaa=decentralized?
on
KaZaA Collapses
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· Score: 1
Actually, KaZaA is centralized. There may be slight variations in some clients, like the Lite version that removes the spyware, but in the end they all connect to the same central servers.
However, you are correct on Gnutella -- it is not centralized. This is why Morpheus is still alive (albeit rather gutted) since it was converted to a generic Gnutella client when they were forced off of KaZaA's main network.
This is beginning to sound a lot like the "Temples of Syrinx" movement of Rush's album 2112:
"The massive grey walls of the Temples rise from the heart of every
Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to think that every single
facet of every life is regulated and directed from within! Our books, our
music, our work and play are all looked after by the benevolent wisdom of the
priests..."
We've taken care of everything,
The words you hear the songs you sing,
The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes...
Slashdot Mirror
"but they can't take the chance that they might alienate their customers."
Yeah, like they haven't been doing a bang-up job of this already...
Are there actually any MMORPGs (excluding certain MUDs) that even cost more than 12-15 bucks a month?
I'm a helpdesk worker at a small midwestern college, and all I can say is: Good.
A few weeks ago, a graduate student came up to me in tears because she was saving her portfolio - at least two year's work on a floppy disk, and all of a sudden it just refused to read it. The disk had gone bad, and she didn't have any backups. I know it was silly of her to not back something like that up, but not everyone is computer literate, and not everyone knows that floppies are one of the most unstable forms of storage media out there.
In fact, it seems every week someone comes or calls me to magically fix their disk which has their twenty page Shakespeare paper or their proof positive of cold fusion. All I can do is try to use it on the three computers here, and if that doesn't work, say "Sorry, you're out of luck. Use the handy network drive we provide you with next time."
It kills me every time I have to say that.
Not a whole lot of people at this college are computer literate, and many don't know how easily disks can go bad. That's not their fault... I'd say it's high time to ditch the floppy, given with how user friendly CD burners have become, especially in regards to how seamlessly they are integrated into XP.
Think about this. One CD has the capacity of 500 floppies. Now think about how much even a pack of 10 floppies costs when compared to that one CD.
It's high time that we give the floppy its death knell.
My theory is that it was surreptiously sold to EA and released under the title "Battlefield 1942." :)
Yes, but bamboo is not really known for its girth, either...
Oh no, I'm so sorry that this man's precious time is being taken up by unsolicited e-mail! We should all be ashamed of ourselves...right.
p.s.: http://www.spamyousilly.com works like a charm...
... it's the fact that a lot of these ads don't point to any tangible or worthwhile goods or services. In my mind, banner ads are actually somewhat effective when they are clear, concise, unobtrusive and actually have a product or service to sell. I have bought a product or two that I saw advertised in banners and that I am quite happy with. (On the other hand, I refused to buy an X10 camera merely on principle, even though I thought they were kind of neat.)
Of course, nowadays most of the ads I see are "YOU HAVE 2 NEW MESSAGES! LOL!!1" and online casino ads, which even the least computer-literate among us are catching on to.
NASA's NEO program currently states that NT7 has a .00001 chance of striking Earth at all, and a .000052 chance of specifically hitting us in 2017.
Of course, the calculations will be refined as time passes, but from my first looks at the slim probabilities, it doesn't seem like it will be much of a problem. The only difference seems to be that it is slightly more likely to hit than previously discovered NEOs.
While the developers of SWG might not have had as much leeway as the devs of EQ had, I still think there is a lot of room for expansion.
Lucas wrote the first Star Wars film as a stand-alone venture for financial reasons; he could have spent years developing and creating the universe from the ground up, but if ANH flopped, it would all have been for nothing. So he intended it to be its own story that didn't need to be propped up by future episodes.
Of course, the movie was wildly succesful, and he simply chose the time period that ANH took place in and chose to expand the story from there. Later on, the Expanded Universe authors chose to further develop the plotline from there. I see Star Wars Galaxies as a EU novel in another form, except with thousands of authors instead of one or two. Who knows, a few lucky players very well might end up having a permanent impact on the continuing Star Wars storyline...
Actually, KaZaA is centralized. There may be slight variations in some clients, like the Lite version that removes the spyware, but in the end they all connect to the same central servers.
However, you are correct on Gnutella -- it is not centralized. This is why Morpheus is still alive (albeit rather gutted) since it was converted to a generic Gnutella client when they were forced off of KaZaA's main network.
... maybe we should use some of these funds to clean up our own planet first.
No matter how much time and money we invest into space research, the earth still our home and we still need it to last quite a while longer.
We should just start our own country, then. Slashdottia has a nice ring to it, I think.
This is beginning to sound a lot like the "Temples of Syrinx" movement of Rush's album 2112:
"The massive grey walls of the Temples rise from the heart of every Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to think that every single facet of every life is regulated and directed from within! Our books, our music, our work and play are all looked after by the benevolent wisdom of the priests..."
We've taken care of everything, The words you hear the songs you sing, The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes...
Creepy.