Alright I usually dont' reply but I had to in this case. I have played EQ and am still playing EQ. Ever since its release when you had to buy one stackable item at a time... before Kunark. I played. Now this is my assumption and I could be totally wrong about this. I am under the impression EQ is one huge game with many many lines of code.
With that in mind. Verant doesn't cheat, Sony doesn't cheat. However there are a series of features in the game that make certain operations happen that are less than desirable. Whether it be Aviaks pounding on you from 40 feet or Giants hitting you through a house. These things happen as there were probably a few thousand lines of code that weren't thought about that could have dealth with these issues. However with player demand and expansion after expansion, what could have been fixed became unfixable. That is one theory.
The other could be simply to force the player to group or force the player to take strategic command instead of the standard hack and slash without care. (Casting too)
However there is a few important things one must remember when playing EQ, that it is merely a game. That and EQ is not democratic. You don't get the option to force equalization as you are playing Sony's game. In playing their game you must play by their rules just like any other game. Even if the rules seem a bit unfair to the player they are Sony's rules and you chose to play the game. The way you view EQ would be the same as if we were playing Monopoly and I got to put 20 hotels on Boardwalk because I could exploit the rules. So when you landed on it, you went bankrupt immediately. That and I could avoid all your plots of land so I didn't lose money for renting.
Frankly Sony has been quite nice to players in my whole experience playing regardless if NPC Wizards can backstab for over 150 and NPC snakes can bash. In fact they are the ones who added many player demanded features when they didn't have to. In return all they ask is not to cheat and obey the EULA. Not hard. Just for arguements sake, Druids didn't deserve the 75% heal they received. It was due to all the senseless Druid complaining that they got it because lvl 60 Druids couldn't get a group because in reality Druids have no place in any group. They are a solo class. But since they got a nice 75% back up heal, they have been revitalized. Sony didn't have to do this, they did. Because they wnated to be accomidating.
I think a little respect should be shown for playing a game you are not forced to play. Which is not democratic anyway in a individual/corporate relationship. And has many well known bugs because of its size and architecture.
I read Slashdot everyday and I see article after article showing a blow by blow event on different email leaks from MS and supposed articles detailing how MS admitted that Unix is better (woot!) and this continues with countless numbers of virii and holes in Outlook and IE. Slashdot is always first to post this and we are always first to laugh and rub it in the face of any Windows user.
So here we are. Facing a much larger delimma. (sp?) the costs of running Linux versus Windows as an Enterprise. Windows beat out dream of pure domination of the GPL, Opensource and Freesoftware.
First comments out of the gates. "Oh it is FUD by MS" or "It isn't scientificly done I know Linux is cheaper." Come on my brothers wake up. If this article holds water, which apparently it does then we haven't reached out goal yet. We haven't succeeded where we though MS failed. Linux is a superior platform but we still have work. We cannot give up the fight and when we lose a battle we have to take it like real men and women, not a buch of sissies who go immediately into denial.
We are better than that, or at least I think we are.
I just have to say this. If cheating was meant tob e part of the game then Sony would have added it themselves. They would have added special commands or buttons or what have you, to allow you to cheat.
They did not and they are trying to fight the battle understandably. Is it going to hurt their market? I doubt it, but who is to say. If it is going to make a series of high end multi-account gamers quit then so be it. I am sure that is minor to the 400,000 subscribed users. (That is what I heard at last read on an EQ article)
It is in my opinion that Sony is in the right to fight this. It is also in their ability to do whatever they please to keep ShowEq from working as I am sure breaking the encryption is violation of the DMCA.
Frankly I think this whole topic of debate on whether ShowEq is okay or not is a waste. If you can't tell right from wrong now, then you never will be able too.
Play the game as it was intended. Without 3rd party software.
Now, I maybe a geek but when it comes to hardware I am not that geeky. 3billion cycles per second. NOw is that computations? or just cycles?
If it is calculations then I am under the assumption that Intel Chips can't be sold outside the US. After all that is what Apple faced when the G4 was able to do 1 billion computations per second rendering it super computer status. Which in turn is a security hazard or issue for a super computer to be made in the US and sold outside the US. So they had to limit all G4 sales to the US. If this is factual then Intel's sales are gonna drop since they cannot release such a chip to the foreign public.
This is merely an observation. I honestly don't know if cycles and computations are the same quantifiable piece or if they are seperate entities. Either way a milestone in computing. However... Athlon Forever.
That is a legitimate arguement. I am pretty impressed with your teacher or professor whichever he may be.
Evolution has its merits but does go a bit extreme on occasion. However, for me when it comes to science, everything.... I mean EVERYTHING is merely theory and no more. Matter, mass, gravity, relativity, physics, electricity. It is all theory. Even magnetisim is still theory. Because it all has the ability to be disproven and has to be adjusted to suit the new means.
Take for example magnetism. You have a positive side and a negative side. This common through everything we know. What if a material was discovered that was just positive. What is funny is there is a gorup of scientists scouring trying to disprove magnetism because the ability is there.
It is also like gravity. Density, size etc. What if an individual was able to create a block that had gravity. Say the same gravity as an asteroid or a small moon. but this block carried a density to that of styrofoam and was no larger than a computer tower. This would change the theory entirely.
I would like to say congratulations on your achievement on remaining pure. It is not easy in this day and age and quite frankly I am a little envious. So best of luck to both of you and I hope everything turns out the way you intend it to be.
Is might be flamebait and I might lose some precious karma but, I must speak on this.
Who cares.
We all see this on a day to day basis everyday on slashdot. How MS is this and how Linux is that. We all know Linux is better. We know it. We have seen it so who cares if MS changes a webpage. This news site is becoming like a bridge club where we all gossip about who did what. I wanna see reviews on the latest GPL'd software. I want endless information of the latest greatest hardware. I WANT A GIRL WITH A BEER AND WEARING ONLY A THINK GEEK BABY DOLL T THAT READS "L337 H4X04"
I believe all but one of the rules is legitimate. The one about fathering Britney Spears and age is irrelavent. Age does not mean greatness. I just had to disagree with that rule. I think it is stupid. Other than that... my top five of all time.
1. 311 (self explanitory really)
2. Sublime (Play "What I got" at a party and see how many people sing.
3. Nirvana (self explanitory)
4. The Cure
5. The Eagles
The original pledge as in, the one pledge went just like the one we recite today just without the 'under God' part.
One Nation, Indivisible, with liberty.... blah blah blah
It wasn't until I wanna say 1954 during Dwight D. Eisenhower's run as president that it changed. He legislated a bill to add the words 'Under God' after the words 'One Nation'.
One cause of this was the McCarthy Communism search and destroy action that was taking place. Everyone was all up in arms about communists and it was during this time that Dwight changed our pledge.
I have to say that I totally support the seperation of church and state. We cannot have a government that has over-tones of God written in it. It is the beauty of our system. Religous Freedom. We can choose to ignore or accept the existence of a diety. We can worship whomever we want. That is why America, the USA, has been called the melting pot of society. We have everything here. I am for it completely. After all I am about tradition too.
What causes shotty software? Well the real question is... what makes a certain piece of software so bad from another? Lets take a look...
Internet Explorer versus Opera
Both have robust features. One has a tendency to be more buggy than the other. One has a tendency to be free with out a need for registration. (No I didn't mean activation) One supports multiple OSes one supports very few. One is an absolute industry standard, due to its OS... one is not.
It all depends on a consumers stand point. I think when someone says software sucks that they are talking about some cheap piece of shareware. I have found many apps for Windows and Linux and OS/2 that are quite good and get a specific task done and done well. I think that other pieces of software (i.e. Banzai Buddy for Windows) are the worst incarnations in code.
I think that software is fine depending on what software you use and what you need it for. Then again I think all software is rushed because management can't wait to make a buck. (I also think developers are somtimes taken for granted)
BTW... I would like to see the numbers on how MS has cost consumers 8.xx billion dollars. I would like to see the validity in that. (Not that I am an MS supporter, I just hate rants)
So far I think Bush has done a good job on the American side of things when it comes to this current war on terrorism. He is keeping all live feeds out of the loop and not letting anyone know what is going to happen next which was his fathers mistake during Desert Storm.
Sun Tzu preached in all his teachings about war, that knowing your enemey and knowing yourself would result in countless victories. Yet these teachings seems to have been disregarded over the course of 2000 years. They are still legitimate.
If there is the potential of a leak or a security hole, there should be no denial of it but an active investigation on to why it is allowing this to happen. It is the equivalent to having a security hole in your OS yet denying its existence yet it seems to be getting taken advantage of. It is slow death. You can't let the enemy know what you are doing.
This just seems like a hard story to believe yet if true is beyond silly. Oh well, I am not a military leader, I just base this off common sense and a few books. (i.e. Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Art of War II)
I love my current PDA but the more I use it the more features I want.
Here is my little list...
1. FTP Server Capabilities
2. More RAM, I am thinking at least 128MB
3. Dual Proc, have to have this so I can run seperate scripts to each proc just because I can.
4. Voice Recognition, this is a must. I also want it to talk back and have a minor personality. Similar to Malda's Computer Version of a Pocket Pet. Somthing that talks back but does what it is told.
5. Alrams and neat sound effects so that I will be the envy of everyone at LAN parties and work.
6. 1GB Ethernet
That is about it. I am sure tomorrow when I wake up I will havbe a larger list but this time I will make a post-it note and call my nearest Palm dealer and see what they think of such features.
Just to inform all those misinformed people. South Africa is predominatly encompassed by people of the white pigment not black. But if you insist on calling someone black a "nigger" you can take your comments to www.kkk.com or some place that deals with derogitory, spiteful comments. I have always believed slashdot to be openminded and I still believe it to be. So before you go off ranting about "nigger control" and other racists remarks dealing with a government and country that is mostly white, do a little research so you don't look uneducated. I do not accept racists and I would like to believe that most of the slashdot community does not accept them either.
Now for the topic at hand. I would like to believe that if a country has a direct relation to a domain name that they would be in control of it. Similar to.uk. However, I believe some legislation needs to be done in the ICANN in order to keep things under control so one government does not get bent-out-of-shape because they lack control of what is thought to be, in essence but not in actuality, theirs.
The internet is supposed to be a free community and strong arm tactics from anyside should not be tolerated.
I remember back in college I saw a keyboard this dude had that could move into nearly every position imaginable. From the MS Natural Style to this vertical ability. Just with out the side mirrors to scope out cops.
I don't see this as an industry innovation but hey... if it sells keyboards.
What I would like to see is complete Voice Recognition computers. Not for gaming obviously but for all operations and data entry. That would be an ergonomical breakthrough. Until people start coming down with laringitis for talking all day.
Slashdot Mirror
Alright I usually dont' reply but I had to in this case. I have played EQ and am still playing EQ. Ever since its release when you had to buy one stackable item at a time... before Kunark. I played. Now this is my assumption and I could be totally wrong about this. I am under the impression EQ is one huge game with many many lines of code.
With that in mind. Verant doesn't cheat, Sony doesn't cheat. However there are a series of features in the game that make certain operations happen that are less than desirable. Whether it be Aviaks pounding on you from 40 feet or Giants hitting you through a house. These things happen as there were probably a few thousand lines of code that weren't thought about that could have dealth with these issues. However with player demand and expansion after expansion, what could have been fixed became unfixable. That is one theory.
The other could be simply to force the player to group or force the player to take strategic command instead of the standard hack and slash without care. (Casting too)
However there is a few important things one must remember when playing EQ, that it is merely a game. That and EQ is not democratic. You don't get the option to force equalization as you are playing Sony's game. In playing their game you must play by their rules just like any other game. Even if the rules seem a bit unfair to the player they are Sony's rules and you chose to play the game. The way you view EQ would be the same as if we were playing Monopoly and I got to put 20 hotels on Boardwalk because I could exploit the rules. So when you landed on it, you went bankrupt immediately. That and I could avoid all your plots of land so I didn't lose money for renting.
Frankly Sony has been quite nice to players in my whole experience playing regardless if NPC Wizards can backstab for over 150 and NPC snakes can bash. In fact they are the ones who added many player demanded features when they didn't have to. In return all they ask is not to cheat and obey the EULA. Not hard. Just for arguements sake, Druids didn't deserve the 75% heal they received. It was due to all the senseless Druid complaining that they got it because lvl 60 Druids couldn't get a group because in reality Druids have no place in any group. They are a solo class. But since they got a nice 75% back up heal, they have been revitalized. Sony didn't have to do this, they did. Because they wnated to be accomidating.
I think a little respect should be shown for playing a game you are not forced to play. Which is not democratic anyway in a individual/corporate relationship. And has many well known bugs because of its size and architecture.
I read Slashdot everyday and I see article after article showing a blow by blow event on different email leaks from MS and supposed articles detailing how MS admitted that Unix is better (woot!) and this continues with countless numbers of virii and holes in Outlook and IE. Slashdot is always first to post this and we are always first to laugh and rub it in the face of any Windows user.
So here we are. Facing a much larger delimma. (sp?) the costs of running Linux versus Windows as an Enterprise. Windows beat out dream of pure domination of the GPL, Opensource and Freesoftware.
First comments out of the gates. "Oh it is FUD by MS" or "It isn't scientificly done I know Linux is cheaper." Come on my brothers wake up. If this article holds water, which apparently it does then we haven't reached out goal yet. We haven't succeeded where we though MS failed. Linux is a superior platform but we still have work. We cannot give up the fight and when we lose a battle we have to take it like real men and women, not a buch of sissies who go immediately into denial.
We are better than that, or at least I think we are.
I just have to say this. If cheating was meant tob e part of the game then Sony would have added it themselves. They would have added special commands or buttons or what have you, to allow you to cheat.
They did not and they are trying to fight the battle understandably. Is it going to hurt their market? I doubt it, but who is to say. If it is going to make a series of high end multi-account gamers quit then so be it. I am sure that is minor to the 400,000 subscribed users. (That is what I heard at last read on an EQ article)
It is in my opinion that Sony is in the right to fight this. It is also in their ability to do whatever they please to keep ShowEq from working as I am sure breaking the encryption is violation of the DMCA.
Frankly I think this whole topic of debate on whether ShowEq is okay or not is a waste. If you can't tell right from wrong now, then you never will be able too.
Play the game as it was intended. Without 3rd party software.
Now, I maybe a geek but when it comes to hardware I am not that geeky. 3billion cycles per second. NOw is that computations? or just cycles?
If it is calculations then I am under the assumption that Intel Chips can't be sold outside the US. After all that is what Apple faced when the G4 was able to do 1 billion computations per second rendering it super computer status. Which in turn is a security hazard or issue for a super computer to be made in the US and sold outside the US. So they had to limit all G4 sales to the US. If this is factual then Intel's sales are gonna drop since they cannot release such a chip to the foreign public.
This is merely an observation. I honestly don't know if cycles and computations are the same quantifiable piece or if they are seperate entities. Either way a milestone in computing. However... Athlon Forever.
That is a legitimate arguement. I am pretty impressed with your teacher or professor whichever he may be.
Evolution has its merits but does go a bit extreme on occasion. However, for me when it comes to science, everything.... I mean EVERYTHING is merely theory and no more. Matter, mass, gravity, relativity, physics, electricity. It is all theory. Even magnetisim is still theory. Because it all has the ability to be disproven and has to be adjusted to suit the new means.
Take for example magnetism. You have a positive side and a negative side. This common through everything we know. What if a material was discovered that was just positive. What is funny is there is a gorup of scientists scouring trying to disprove magnetism because the ability is there.
It is also like gravity. Density, size etc. What if an individual was able to create a block that had gravity. Say the same gravity as an asteroid or a small moon. but this block carried a density to that of styrofoam and was no larger than a computer tower. This would change the theory entirely.
It is all relavtive really.
I would like to say congratulations on your achievement on remaining pure. It is not easy in this day and age and quite frankly I am a little envious. So best of luck to both of you and I hope everything turns out the way you intend it to be.
Acutally I believe a large majority of the Slashdot population just fantasizes about the idea of having sex.
Is might be flamebait and I might lose some precious karma but, I must speak on this.
Who cares.
We all see this on a day to day basis everyday on slashdot. How MS is this and how Linux is that. We all know Linux is better. We know it. We have seen it so who cares if MS changes a webpage. This news site is becoming like a bridge club where we all gossip about who did what. I wanna see reviews on the latest GPL'd software. I want endless information of the latest greatest hardware. I WANT A GIRL WITH A BEER AND WEARING ONLY A THINK GEEK BABY DOLL T THAT READS "L337 H4X04"
That is just my two cents.
I believe all but one of the rules is legitimate. The one about fathering Britney Spears and age is irrelavent. Age does not mean greatness. I just had to disagree with that rule. I think it is stupid. Other than that... my top five of all time.
1. 311 (self explanitory really)
2. Sublime (Play "What I got" at a party and see how many people sing.
3. Nirvana (self explanitory)
4. The Cure
5. The Eagles
Yeah those are my picks... but that is just me.
Okay just so everyone knows.
The original pledge as in, the one pledge went just like the one we recite today just without the 'under God' part.
One Nation, Indivisible, with liberty.... blah blah blah
It wasn't until I wanna say 1954 during Dwight D. Eisenhower's run as president that it changed. He legislated a bill to add the words 'Under God' after the words 'One Nation'.
One cause of this was the McCarthy Communism search and destroy action that was taking place. Everyone was all up in arms about communists and it was during this time that Dwight changed our pledge.
I have to say that I totally support the seperation of church and state. We cannot have a government that has over-tones of God written in it. It is the beauty of our system. Religous Freedom. We can choose to ignore or accept the existence of a diety. We can worship whomever we want. That is why America, the USA, has been called the melting pot of society. We have everything here. I am for it completely. After all I am about tradition too.
What causes shotty software? Well the real question is... what makes a certain piece of software so bad from another? Lets take a look...
Internet Explorer versus Opera
Both have robust features. One has a tendency to be more buggy than the other. One has a tendency to be free with out a need for registration. (No I didn't mean activation) One supports multiple OSes one supports very few. One is an absolute industry standard, due to its OS... one is not.
It all depends on a consumers stand point. I think when someone says software sucks that they are talking about some cheap piece of shareware. I have found many apps for Windows and Linux and OS/2 that are quite good and get a specific task done and done well. I think that other pieces of software (i.e. Banzai Buddy for Windows) are the worst incarnations in code.
I think that software is fine depending on what software you use and what you need it for. Then again I think all software is rushed because management can't wait to make a buck. (I also think developers are somtimes taken for granted)
BTW... I would like to see the numbers on how MS has cost consumers 8.xx billion dollars. I would like to see the validity in that. (Not that I am an MS supporter, I just hate rants)
So far I think Bush has done a good job on the American side of things when it comes to this current war on terrorism. He is keeping all live feeds out of the loop and not letting anyone know what is going to happen next which was his fathers mistake during Desert Storm.
Sun Tzu preached in all his teachings about war, that knowing your enemey and knowing yourself would result in countless victories. Yet these teachings seems to have been disregarded over the course of 2000 years. They are still legitimate.
If there is the potential of a leak or a security hole, there should be no denial of it but an active investigation on to why it is allowing this to happen. It is the equivalent to having a security hole in your OS yet denying its existence yet it seems to be getting taken advantage of. It is slow death. You can't let the enemy know what you are doing.
This just seems like a hard story to believe yet if true is beyond silly. Oh well, I am not a military leader, I just base this off common sense and a few books. (i.e. Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Art of War II)
I love my current PDA but the more I use it the more features I want.
Here is my little list...
1. FTP Server Capabilities
2. More RAM, I am thinking at least 128MB
3. Dual Proc, have to have this so I can run seperate scripts to each proc just because I can.
4. Voice Recognition, this is a must. I also want it to talk back and have a minor personality. Similar to Malda's Computer Version of a Pocket Pet. Somthing that talks back but does what it is told.
5. Alrams and neat sound effects so that I will be the envy of everyone at LAN parties and work.
6. 1GB Ethernet
That is about it. I am sure tomorrow when I wake up I will havbe a larger list but this time I will make a post-it note and call my nearest Palm dealer and see what they think of such features.
Just to inform all those misinformed people. South Africa is predominatly encompassed by people of the white pigment not black. But if you insist on calling someone black a "nigger" you can take your comments to www.kkk.com or some place that deals with derogitory, spiteful comments. I have always believed slashdot to be openminded and I still believe it to be. So before you go off ranting about "nigger control" and other racists remarks dealing with a government and country that is mostly white, do a little research so you don't look uneducated. I do not accept racists and I would like to believe that most of the slashdot community does not accept them either.
.uk. However, I believe some legislation needs to be done in the ICANN in order to keep things under control so one government does not get bent-out-of-shape because they lack control of what is thought to be, in essence but not in actuality, theirs.
Now for the topic at hand. I would like to believe that if a country has a direct relation to a domain name that they would be in control of it. Similar to
The internet is supposed to be a free community and strong arm tactics from anyside should not be tolerated.
What do other people think?
I remember back in college I saw a keyboard this dude had that could move into nearly every position imaginable. From the MS Natural Style to this vertical ability. Just with out the side mirrors to scope out cops.
I don't see this as an industry innovation but hey... if it sells keyboards.
What I would like to see is complete Voice Recognition computers. Not for gaming obviously but for all operations and data entry. That would be an ergonomical breakthrough. Until people start coming down with laringitis for talking all day.
Well I thought it was a good idea.