How about ads that so frickin annoying, you want to throw a brick through the TV every time it comes on. If I'm deliberately starting to schedule my pee breaks around the repetetive 2-minute commercials for NoSpotShine dish detergent, chances are I'm not going to buy in buy it in the store. Chances are, in fact, that I'll go with the generic brand, just because they don't have ads which annoy the crap out of me.
Meanwhile, ads that have humour get my attention. I've had friends over and will actually rewind just to see a particular commercial which got a few chuckles. Most notably, Molson Canadian commercials... something about a large angry beaver gnawing on a few silly Americans.
Disclaimer: Not that I have anything against Americans, just the ones who think we live in igloos and keep beavers as pets...
there is a point to this. While FPS games do look a lot nicer, and perhaps a lot more realistic... the fact is still that 95% of players (number pulled from @ss) are still sitting in front of a screen, listening to music from headphones or perhaps (if lucky) surround speakers
What we need is a new level of immersiveness in the game, not just pretty graphics. This isn't to say that when one frags one's neighbour, the neighbour recieves a direct nerve shock and suddenly suffers a heart attack... but perhaps we need to move away from the old 2d screen, mouse click and shoot.
At one point they were trying to push the idea of VR headsets, but it sort've flopped. The best I've seen in this genre in arcades was a POS shooting game that was reminiscent of wolf3d mixed with deer hunter... and the screen bobbed so much that it made me ill. I have an extra room in my apartment which I would happily dedicate to some sort of VR console... if I were to believe that one was out there.
Another idea might just be a live HUD... you can still play on the screen but maybe an eye-sensor gives you a map or something like that... and maybe a realistic gun or something, instead of a mouse.
Awhile back there was an article on a gizmo that projected combined sound waves to a point where they would converge and be audible... wouldn't that be sweet.... arch-vile (PLEASE tell me d3 has some of those) suddenly purring right behind your back...
Slightly OT, but related to our good ol' BBS days. I was just talking to somebody about the good old BBS days, when the community of local nerds used to get together and play LORD or Planets: TEOS...
Anyone know a place where there are similar games to play online? I found one site that was more or less BBS-game-like, but the actual play was quite restricted and somewhat droll... I quit after the first 3 weeks or so. I'd rather find a decent site than have a post for somebody's personal Telnet BBS... since the./ effect would probably fry one of those...
This survey also doesn't cover large corporate internal networks. I've found that a surprising amount of corporations will use web-based interfaces for transmitting information over the internet. The last large corp I worked for used some small IIS servers (which incidentally, all of us in the web-development branch secretly hated) for the INTRAnet, and apache webservers for both the INTRAnet and INTERnet services.
Can't trust that weatherman!
on
Solar Surgery
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm, but how do you predict the weather conditions... the weatherman isn't always 100% accurate, and it would be hell if something went bad partway through.
Scalpel...
Probe...
Solar ampli... oh crap where'd that cloud come from. Can anyone get me some duct-tape, or maybe a little epoxy?
How about configuring an answering modem at a REALLY low bps rate... will the sending machine go for it or does it require a 9600bps (standard fax baud, I believe) connection.
Hmm.... negotiate at 3 to 10 bps... they fax is still connected and can happily send data, but it's going to tie up their system for an awefully long time at 3bps.
Better yet, do this and have it hand just before the end of the last page... a lot of fax services are set to attempt 3 times for a successful connection/transfer (arrrgghhh, ever hung up on the fax machine and it called ya back 3 times).
I used to get crap faxes at about 2-4am when I lived in Vancouver (next big city in my province). I eventually called my phone company and had them traced... the local faxers could be blocked and/or got warnings. The ones that were faxing me from China though... not much I could do about them, seems my home number used to be somebody's fax.
One of the problems, make sure the idiots of the phone company don't give you an old business fax number for your residential...
As per the article: SMS=Short Messaging Service. As per cellphones, an SMS message is simple a message between cellphones or other wireless/cellular-type communication devices. Some companies also use DSM (Digital Short Message) same idea, but it is tied to an email address which can be used to send a short message to a cellular device.
We differentiate by calling non-phone-originating messages a DSM (Digital Short Message), same idea, myphonenumber@myphonecarrier.net gets me a message.
Anyhow, in regards to this... how about when my friends in other countries are online and want to talk to me. Or how about my web clients who are in other countries, paging me when my server goes down.
My girlfriend also just got back from China... she used to DSM me when she was online or home for me to call...
Or my server itself, that automailed me when there something blew up.
Of course, I could always say: To heck with my friends in other countries, they can pay if they want to call me, my clients aren't important - they can wait on the downage, I'd rather pay $0.80/min to call my g/f while she's out of the country, and a server meltdown isn't really important, it just takes up precious time to fix anyways.
Of course, I'm in Canada... we haven't got quite such a politician/big company arse-kissing policy... but hey, we'll probably accomodate them in time...
...and the dongle crack
on
CD Copy Stopper
·
· Score: 3, Informative
And then there was the crack for the dongle... which similated dongle present on a virtual serial port... and allowed the program to run as normal.
From what I read of this article... the content is on the CD as per normal, albeit in a form of encrypted format, and is then decrypted by the key on the card. Despite all the fancy theory (in which the decoded picks up a pulsed "wake up" signal and beams back the decoder as a standard light signal), so long as one can simulate the decoded, one can read the data. So, once somebody cracks the code (hopefully standardized, but otherwise by perhaps analysing the data between an encoded copy and the original CD)... an app to simulate the process, and protection becomes moot.
As a personal side note, copying is still illegal, I don't support it as a general rule. If you get the warez and it enough to play it through or keep it, why not shell out a few bucks for something that's worth it? (whatever happened to shareware, like in the good ol Doom Ep1 days).
Anyhow, that's my spiel... flamers ahoy!
Can I get my silicon chips in Salt&Vinegar or dill - Phorm
I don't suppose you could post a list of these email releasing traitors somewhere? Perhaps email it to me (darkphorm 'at' gmx.net) or just pass on a URL where it can be posted.
A list of idiots who give away my email address would be of more use to me than a list of places the spam comes from... better to stop before I even end up on those lists.
Just a small point... how long do you expect to be using this card... it'll probably be somewhat obsolete long before it dies.
In other words, no worries! Your card will probably suck so bad you'll want to replace it yourself anyways long before it breaks down!
As per the quote below, they are calling the use of point lighting a new technology. I'm just wondering what's so new about it, as games such as Alien Vs Predator (and better, AVP2) have had fixed lights that can be adjustable brightness, as well as being destroyable (in order to dim the room).
Am I missing something, is there something extra-special about this *new* technology... or is it just new since Doom 2 was around?
-Quote-
After shooting out a few of the lights, noticeably darkening the area, Willits explained one way the new tech will influence gameplay
-End Quote-
You create the "New York anti-terrorist campaigns" quake mod... and we'll play it!
Make sure to include some reference to Bin and amourous involvement with a camel or two...
Last time I checked, one had the right to choose what content that one views or doesn't view. Killing images is like hitting fast-forward through the previews in a movie, or taking just the sports section out of your local newspaper. It's not damaging the original source, just selecting a specific portion of your original copy.
1000000+ lawyer jokes and counting... sometimes the cases themselves are jokes...
--quote--
the news publishers' attorney, even told me that he thinks Internet users who configure their browsers to disable graphics (a common tactic to boost the speed of Web surfing) are committing copyright infringement because they are interfering with Web publishers' exclusive right to control how their pages are displayed.
--end-quote--
One of the inherent characteristics of intelligence is the ability to question the norm or what is socially acceptable. Most of those who are credited as being geniouses were people who thought beyond the normal spectrum, and came up with a completely different point of view on a particular problem.
What is currently weird may later be considered completely normal one day (yeah, of course the earth is round). That's not to say that we'll be having coffee with little green men in the raised city of Atlantis, but we may be able to travel beyond time-light constraints, and maybe meet a few "greys" or something equally fantastic along the way.
--quote--
Months later, ATI came along behind with its Radeon 8500 chip, which integrated nearly all of DirectX 8's (and the GeForce3's) functionality.
--quote--
So why did 90% of my directX games run like crap in XP (randomly died on starting fullscreen) due to ugly ATI drivers for my Radeon AIW?
I've had my GeForce4 for a whole week now, and it runs those same games fine...
Yes, but my longstanding collection of fansub anime divX movies won't exactly play right off of a backup tape...
DVD-R's are of course, usable for more than just backup...
Wouldn't shipping with ANY O/S be an anti-piracy measure then? If I want my Dell shipped with RH7.3, then that's probably what I'm going to use.
Who wants to pay for a Microcrap pre-install... we already have that issue here at work with paying for pre-installed O/S when we have a site license and a master copy.
Ah well, guess I'll just be building systems again...
Bit, Byte, Nibble... no wonder techs gain weight...
Wouldn't this be illegal in itself. Since it is compromising other software in your computer, which is more or less virus-like behavior (and of course, virus writing is illegal, unless it's a Microsoft OS)
Or remove the key that indicates any default browser (anyone know what it is, so I can test this?)
Nice trick though, somebody should up him for that one...
From a fresh startup angle...
Basic Perl scripts: Simple for somebody who knows basic C++
Basic Perl Install: Generally works when just installing apache
PHP Install: A little trickier... best if you knew to compile apache with DSO support when you did the initial install...
I had issues with this when playing DVD's out through the PC, being that that copy-protection built into the VCR messes up the picture, etc.
The solution: Borrowed one of my parents' old BETA machines. Made before Macrovision was used, it works just fine for watching my DVD's now
Slashdot Mirror
How about ads that so frickin annoying, you want to throw a brick through the TV every time it comes on. If I'm deliberately starting to schedule my pee breaks around the repetetive 2-minute commercials for NoSpotShine dish detergent, chances are I'm not going to buy in buy it in the store. Chances are, in fact, that I'll go with the generic brand, just because they don't have ads which annoy the crap out of me.
Meanwhile, ads that have humour get my attention. I've had friends over and will actually rewind just to see a particular commercial which got a few chuckles. Most notably, Molson Canadian commercials... something about a large angry beaver gnawing on a few silly Americans.
Disclaimer: Not that I have anything against Americans, just the ones who think we live in igloos and keep beavers as pets...
there is a point to this. While FPS games do look a lot nicer, and perhaps a lot more realistic... the fact is still that 95% of players (number pulled from @ss) are still sitting in front of a screen, listening to music from headphones or perhaps (if lucky) surround speakers
What we need is a new level of immersiveness in the game, not just pretty graphics. This isn't to say that when one frags one's neighbour, the neighbour recieves a direct nerve shock and suddenly suffers a heart attack... but perhaps we need to move away from the old 2d screen, mouse click and shoot.
At one point they were trying to push the idea of VR headsets, but it sort've flopped. The best I've seen in this genre in arcades was a POS shooting game that was reminiscent of wolf3d mixed with deer hunter... and the screen bobbed so much that it made me ill. I have an extra room in my apartment which I would happily dedicate to some sort of VR console... if I were to believe that one was out there.
Another idea might just be a live HUD... you can still play on the screen but maybe an eye-sensor gives you a map or something like that... and maybe a realistic gun or something, instead of a mouse.
Awhile back there was an article on a gizmo that projected combined sound waves to a point where they would converge and be audible... wouldn't that be sweet.... arch-vile (PLEASE tell me d3 has some of those) suddenly purring right behind your back...
Slightly OT, but related to our good ol' BBS days. I was just talking to somebody about the good old BBS days, when the community of local nerds used to get together and play LORD or Planets: TEOS...
./ effect would probably fry one of those...
Anyone know a place where there are similar games to play online? I found one site that was more or less BBS-game-like, but the actual play was quite restricted and somewhat droll... I quit after the first 3 weeks or so. I'd rather find a decent site than have a post for somebody's personal Telnet BBS... since the
But anyhow, any suggestions?
This survey also doesn't cover large corporate internal networks. I've found that a surprising amount of corporations will use web-based interfaces for transmitting information over the internet. The last large corp I worked for used some small IIS servers (which incidentally, all of us in the web-development branch secretly hated) for the INTRAnet, and apache webservers for both the INTRAnet and INTERnet services.
Hmmm, but how do you predict the weather conditions... the weatherman isn't always 100% accurate, and it would be hell if something went bad partway through.
Scalpel...
Probe...
Solar ampli... oh crap where'd that cloud come from. Can anyone get me some duct-tape, or maybe a little epoxy?
How about configuring an answering modem at a REALLY low bps rate... will the sending machine go for it or does it require a 9600bps (standard fax baud, I believe) connection.
Hmm.... negotiate at 3 to 10 bps... they fax is still connected and can happily send data, but it's going to tie up their system for an awefully long time at 3bps.
Better yet, do this and have it hand just before the end of the last page... a lot of fax services are set to attempt 3 times for a successful connection/transfer (arrrgghhh, ever hung up on the fax machine and it called ya back 3 times).
I used to get crap faxes at about 2-4am when I lived in Vancouver (next big city in my province). I eventually called my phone company and had them traced... the local faxers could be blocked and/or got warnings. The ones that were faxing me from China though... not much I could do about them, seems my home number used to be somebody's fax. One of the problems, make sure the idiots of the phone company don't give you an old business fax number for your residential...
As per the article: SMS=Short Messaging Service. As per cellphones, an SMS message is simple a message between cellphones or other wireless/cellular-type communication devices. Some companies also use DSM (Digital Short Message) same idea, but it is tied to an email address which can be used to send a short message to a cellular device.
We differentiate by calling non-phone-originating messages a DSM (Digital Short Message), same idea, myphonenumber@myphonecarrier.net gets me a message. Anyhow, in regards to this... how about when my friends in other countries are online and want to talk to me. Or how about my web clients who are in other countries, paging me when my server goes down. My girlfriend also just got back from China... she used to DSM me when she was online or home for me to call... Or my server itself, that automailed me when there something blew up. Of course, I could always say: To heck with my friends in other countries, they can pay if they want to call me, my clients aren't important - they can wait on the downage, I'd rather pay $0.80/min to call my g/f while she's out of the country, and a server meltdown isn't really important, it just takes up precious time to fix anyways. Of course, I'm in Canada... we haven't got quite such a politician/big company arse-kissing policy... but hey, we'll probably accomodate them in time...
And then there was the crack for the dongle... which similated dongle present on a virtual serial port... and allowed the program to run as normal. From what I read of this article... the content is on the CD as per normal, albeit in a form of encrypted format, and is then decrypted by the key on the card. Despite all the fancy theory (in which the decoded picks up a pulsed "wake up" signal and beams back the decoder as a standard light signal), so long as one can simulate the decoded, one can read the data. So, once somebody cracks the code (hopefully standardized, but otherwise by perhaps analysing the data between an encoded copy and the original CD)... an app to simulate the process, and protection becomes moot. As a personal side note, copying is still illegal, I don't support it as a general rule. If you get the warez and it enough to play it through or keep it, why not shell out a few bucks for something that's worth it? (whatever happened to shareware, like in the good ol Doom Ep1 days). Anyhow, that's my spiel... flamers ahoy! Can I get my silicon chips in Salt&Vinegar or dill - Phorm
I don't suppose you could post a list of these email releasing traitors somewhere? Perhaps email it to me (darkphorm 'at' gmx.net) or just pass on a URL where it can be posted. A list of idiots who give away my email address would be of more use to me than a list of places the spam comes from... better to stop before I even end up on those lists.
Just a small point... how long do you expect to be using this card... it'll probably be somewhat obsolete long before it dies. In other words, no worries! Your card will probably suck so bad you'll want to replace it yourself anyways long before it breaks down!
As per the quote below, they are calling the use of point lighting a new technology. I'm just wondering what's so new about it, as games such as Alien Vs Predator (and better, AVP2) have had fixed lights that can be adjustable brightness, as well as being destroyable (in order to dim the room). Am I missing something, is there something extra-special about this *new* technology... or is it just new since Doom 2 was around? -Quote- After shooting out a few of the lights, noticeably darkening the area, Willits explained one way the new tech will influence gameplay -End Quote-
You create the "New York anti-terrorist campaigns" quake mod... and we'll play it! Make sure to include some reference to Bin and amourous involvement with a camel or two...
Last time I checked, one had the right to choose what content that one views or doesn't view. Killing images is like hitting fast-forward through the previews in a movie, or taking just the sports section out of your local newspaper. It's not damaging the original source, just selecting a specific portion of your original copy. 1000000+ lawyer jokes and counting... sometimes the cases themselves are jokes... --quote-- the news publishers' attorney, even told me that he thinks Internet users who configure their browsers to disable graphics (a common tactic to boost the speed of Web surfing) are committing copyright infringement because they are interfering with Web publishers' exclusive right to control how their pages are displayed. --end-quote--
Every now and then a *normal* person sneaks in... they don't last long...
One of the inherent characteristics of intelligence is the ability to question the norm or what is socially acceptable. Most of those who are credited as being geniouses were people who thought beyond the normal spectrum, and came up with a completely different point of view on a particular problem. What is currently weird may later be considered completely normal one day (yeah, of course the earth is round). That's not to say that we'll be having coffee with little green men in the raised city of Atlantis, but we may be able to travel beyond time-light constraints, and maybe meet a few "greys" or something equally fantastic along the way.
--quote-- Months later, ATI came along behind with its Radeon 8500 chip, which integrated nearly all of DirectX 8's (and the GeForce3's) functionality. --quote-- So why did 90% of my directX games run like crap in XP (randomly died on starting fullscreen) due to ugly ATI drivers for my Radeon AIW? I've had my GeForce4 for a whole week now, and it runs those same games fine...
Yes, but my longstanding collection of fansub anime divX movies won't exactly play right off of a backup tape... DVD-R's are of course, usable for more than just backup...
Wouldn't shipping with ANY O/S be an anti-piracy measure then? If I want my Dell shipped with RH7.3, then that's probably what I'm going to use. Who wants to pay for a Microcrap pre-install... we already have that issue here at work with paying for pre-installed O/S when we have a site license and a master copy. Ah well, guess I'll just be building systems again... Bit, Byte, Nibble... no wonder techs gain weight...
Wouldn't this be illegal in itself. Since it is compromising other software in your computer, which is more or less virus-like behavior (and of course, virus writing is illegal, unless it's a Microsoft OS)
Or remove the key that indicates any default browser (anyone know what it is, so I can test this?) Nice trick though, somebody should up him for that one...
Then somebody makes a hack, which disables the call-home or spyware features... and all of /. users rejoice once again.
From a fresh startup angle... Basic Perl scripts: Simple for somebody who knows basic C++ Basic Perl Install: Generally works when just installing apache PHP Install: A little trickier... best if you knew to compile apache with DSO support when you did the initial install...
I had issues with this when playing DVD's out through the PC, being that that copy-protection built into the VCR messes up the picture, etc. The solution: Borrowed one of my parents' old BETA machines. Made before Macrovision was used, it works just fine for watching my DVD's now