Lucus arts has some nifty tech/ILM good artists etc... Bioware makes solid games in every aspect! Hopefully they can reign in their lucas arts partners and get them with the program. Personaly... I never liked KOTOR or the other lucas arts games near as much as the original baulders gate etc...
One problem - EA just bought Bioware. Therefore, by the time this thing goes gold, it'll require Madden '09 sound bytes of tackles and whatnot tossed in with Battlefield 2142 spawn points.
EA = the bastard 12 toe'd child of Computer Associates and Symantec
Is John Madden popping up and telling me "throw a Hail Mary to your Mage in the end zone"
I owned both NWN 1 & 2 and now with EA at the reigns....3 will be a pass, if it even ever comes to fruition.
I certainly hope this show bombs like no show has bombed before....Not sure what Zucker was thinking here, but I'm quite sure that Brandon Tartikoff must be rolling over in his grave....
I'm the IT Manager of a large construction company and my employees put a lot of strain on their laptops (jobsite's are very dusty and whatnot)
I've looked into the Panasonic Toughbook series and they aren't nearly as bulletproof as everyone thinks they are....at least the older ones weren't....
Dell does make a single hardened model: the Latitude ATG 630. It has all the requirements of a hardenend unit but from a Cost Benefit point of view, the extra $900.00 for the body and internal armor, the piddly 32GB Solid State HD, and the bright-light viewable screen.
The only drawback with these machines is they come with integrated graphics, but that might not be an issue for you. You can get it with either XP or Vista, and they have some Ubuntu drivers listed on their support page.
I maintain a +/-100 phone account with Nextel and probably call 20 times a month (Contruction laborers are notoriously rough on their handsets - even the hardened phones don't do so hot when they get run over by an excavator)
I live in Sacramento, and as someone in IT, and a Slashdot reader, I'm surprised I didn't see this article in the Bee, since it have only one remotely technical section and it's usually some one sending The Computer "Guru" dude a "How come my Outlook doesn't work" question... good for a chuckle, better when his answers aren't right.
I opened the article to see what area this dude was from. Grizzly Flats?? Do people have computers there? Or running water? He must be the only guy in the whole 'town' (population is 647) who has a computer....which explains why he bought a Gateway in the 1st place. Even if he got his PC to boot to see the clickwrap agreement, he would have had to download it at 14.4 on his rockin' new analog modem.
I suspect he's the smartest redneck of the bunch who's gonna take on The Man at Gateway. Don't bet your livestock on the deal, Homer.
He coulda saved himself the whole thing had he read the directions (or been able to read, much less) on how to plug in a DVI video cable rather then force the thing in... no wonder he has "broken" graphics. Or maybe it was his fault for buying a Gateway...
Be this a lesson to you....
1. Rednecks shouldn't own computers 2. Rednecks shouldn't pretend to be lawyers 3. Nobody should buy Gateway PCs (Buy a Dell, they pander to Windows and Ubuntu types...sort of)
I suppose nobody was paying attention when MLB decided enter an exclusive agreement with DirecTV in 'broadcasting' the "Extra Innings" package while all of us in CATV land were hosed into either switching to a dish or MLB.TV which isn't that good to start with. Senator John Kerry got involved and suddenly us Comcastic types (and everyone else attached to coax) can now get EI which I've had since its inception.
I use my SlingBox to watch Yankee games from work whenever I can't be home to watch them. Since I live in California, I don't have blackout issues until the Yanks play in Oakland, but then the local channel or Fox ends up broadcasting the games anyway.
Someone in the MLB hiarchary is suddenly taking cues from the wrong people.
Bud Selig, Sandy Alderson, and Bob DuPuy, if you're reading this, get a clue and clean up the game; don't fuck with the people who make sure you stay rich.
We do the same thing, however we're a little more direct. Our receptionists are instructed to forward anything going to myself where they cannot pronounce my surname (it's Austro-Hungarian - and by the spelling, you will never get it right until I pronounce it for you) or anything else they feel is a garbage call to extension "919" which plays a message our telecom sales person recorded that basically states that we know their call is non-business related and we will get back to them "if deemed appropriate"... It then sends me an e-mail and a.WAV attachment of their message. If the.WAV isn't a certain size (anything less then 2MB) they didn't record a message worth listening to - delete e-mail, no need to check the voicemail.
On a funny note, the Microsoft CRM sales drones *specifically request* being transferred to 919. And they wonder why they haven't gotten called back...
I was a Notes client admininistrator for a worldwide Evironmental Engineering company that bought a competitor out that had a large Notes footprint in place and it was decidedly better than Groupwise (which we were sadly stuck with) and Exchange (which another subsidary had)
I remember when Microsoft came out with NT 4.0 SP6 which borked Notes 5. It would only work post SP6 if end user had local admin rights.... and wasn't fixed until SP6a came out or you added local admin rights.
Gerstner: Bill, WTF did you do to my collaborative software? It doesn't work with that new service pack you released. My support lines are overwhelmed with NT Workstation admins who says Notes doesn't work SP6.
Gates: Sorry Lou, works fine with Exchange 5.5
Gerstner: Don't you do any QA regression testing?
Gates: Works fine with Exchange 5.5
Gerstner: (exasperated): FIX THIS SHIT!
Gates: When you become my bitch (mentally notes conversation for the future exploitation and releases SP6a seven days later)
And funny that, Notes doesn't work with Vista. I suppose Vista SP1 or a Notes client point release will be needed to get it to work.
So glad I never need to deal with Blotus Notes ever again... - ponders how many former *** Corporation admins are reading this and saying the exact same thing.
You can remove the BIK intro movies very simply. - I've removed them from my install and it shaves off a full minute off the startup and it immediately drops you to the BF2 Login window.
(as taken from TweakGuide)
Disabling the Intro Movies
The introductory movies to BF2, although fun to watch the first couple of times, fast become quite annoying, adding to the startup times for the game, as well as the memory usage (the main movie is 135MB in size). To disable them permanently, I don't recommend deleting the movie files - this may cause problems with verification of client information on certain servers and/or with Punkbuster.
Instead, simply rename the relevant files in your \Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies\ directory to something else (e.g. rename the Intro.bik to Intro.backup). The files to rename are: Dice.bik, EA.bik, Intro.bik, Legal.bik and Welcome.bik. This will mean the intro movies are all skipped as BF2 starts to load. If you find the movies playing in the background of the Login screen and Settings screens annoying, you can also rename the menu.bik and menu_loggedin.bik to something else as well.
Stevie Case Of Ion Storm/MonkeyStone and Roberta Williams of the King's Quest fame - after looking at the list twice and not either of them - worthless list without either of these two
I have the Comcast 8Mb/768K plan here in Sacramento and got speeds all over the place when I had my cheapo Netgear FM114P FW/Router in place....Things seemed to firm up closer to advertised when I dumped it in favor of a Cisco PIX 501.
Using Speakeasy's tests.....
Last Result: (SF - nearest test server)
Download Speed: 8257 kbps (1032.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 720 kbps (90 KB/sec transfer rate)
Last Result: (LA)
Download Speed: 8208 kbps (1026 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 718 kbps (89.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Last Result: (Sea)
Download Speed: 7104 kbps (888 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 718 kbps (89.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Last Result: (NYC)
Download Speed: 5908 kbps (738.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 715 kbps (89.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Last Result: (DC)
Download Speed: 3742 kbps (467.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 715 kbps (89.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Obviously as I started using test servers on the other side of the country my speeds took a nosedive, but otherwise, I'm happy. I have no other broadband options where I live....
MS Drone: "What accounting software do you use?" Me: *sales call* "Timberline".... (began tuning out) Drone: *starts sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher* Me: "Not interested, thank you for the call" Drone: *starts sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher, but speaking a bit faster* Me: "Still not interested, thank you for the call" Drone: "Are you interested in CRM?" Me: "I have plenty of software upgrade initiatives planned for this year, I'll call if I need something..." (Hang Up)
You're right, it wasn't MAS90....and had I been paying the least bit of attention, I would have recalled this....thank you for correcting my gaffe.
I've gotten I think 4 or so of these calls now. I answered the 1st one, and it turned out Redmond was trying to force a sale of MAS90 (Microsoft's accounting package) when I told them I worked for a construction company and we use an accounting package designed for Construction (Timberline) they said "we can make it work for a construction company" He got the hint after repeating "Not interested" 3 times.
I've had Reception add "any calls from Microsoft" to the forward straight to voicemail. If the BSA wants to talk to me about my license counts, I'm not one bit worried.
Rob Lowe's finest puter movie....I'm sure most of you missed it, but it's trully entertaining.
The one scene where people should take umbrage is where Lowe's character the govt goon who was out to wack him, and later turns into his pal are hiding in Govt Goon's cave and he turns to Lowe's character and tells him he has "dual ISDN links" in his cave - mind you, which is out in the middle of nowhere - while they await the final siege from the rogue govt goons.
I have to admit, it's pretty damned entertaining with what he did (being from NY and watching the Red Sox even lose virtually in a 20 year old game brings a smile to my face)
Who really cares if Ghost doesn't come out....it wouldn't have been Starcraft anyway. And they stated that too. From what I recall, it would have been more like MG:S and the only thing Starcrafty about it would be the name.
This is one thing I never understood about Blizzard: They had a hugely successful franchise in the *craft games and let one MAJOR part of it (Starcraft) just rot. The game was released (if I recall correctly) in April of 1998 - and have even have an updated patch for it dated January of 2006. 8 years of support? Hell, the OS the game was designed for has been retired..... Why did Blizzard's braintrust not even make a vain attempt to capitalize on this fantastic game with it's fantastic support features you don't see in any games today - like the "spawn install" so you can legally play an 8 player LAN game with one copy of the game (1 master and 7 spawned installs)
Could you imagine if Blizzard updated SC with a modern RTS engine with some halfway intelligent AI (not that the AI was all that awful, just predictable) and slapped it in a box? I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the people who owned the original (like me) would run out and buy it. I guess they don't want all of South Korea to shut down and focus on the new game in fear their northern neighboors would swoop down and take over....
Had it been an EA product, we'd have already seen 4-5 (poor) sequels to it. I'm just surprised that Blizzard never released a true Starcraft II, one truly does justice to a great game.
I worked for a company that sold GE's medical software product (Millbrook/Centricity) and it runs on Windows. However, there are a few *nix based products out there, such as Versyss, however they being phased out for the new and shiny Windows products. I recalled our sales staff really needing to shine on the doctors while they supposedly make a ton of money, they refuse to spend enough money in IT. When the sales force has to sell servers that are below what the engineering team would want to sell, we're forced to support it.
Most of you wonder why the ICU net is attached to the Internet. EMR (Electronic Medical Records) are replacing the vaults of paper files on patient records which are too easily lost or misplaced. The easiest way to make sure everyone has access and can transfer records to providers, outside specialists and billing companies is via EMR. Go visit the doctor next time and see if he has a tablet PC in the exam room. That's what it's there for, and you won't see the doctor come in with your chart in hand.
Bottom line Mr. Maxwell should be the poster boy that while working at Wal-mart sucks, it's better then the next 10 years in prison which he more than deserves and I sincerely hope he gets.
Sales people need to educate doctors on spending enough for security. Doctors are notoriously cheap (I worked with enough to realize this) and don't see a difference between a $800 server and a $5000 server other than the pricetag.
I don't blame the IT staff at all for this. Most likely they are underpaid and overwhelmed trying to plug enough holes as it is without some schmoe like Maxwell making life even more difficult. I'm sure a WUS (Windows Update Services) or some sort of patch management would have closed some/all of the OS holes exploited, but that's usually left to unautomated processes and I'm sure the IT guy never made it down to the ICU to fire up Windows Update.
I'm just glad I left medical IT and found a far better position elsewhere.
Let's take a look at the recently released Battlefield 2 on your XB and then take a look at it on your POS PC (or your ubergamebox, whatever you have) and see what you see. Aside from them not being even remotely the same game, the console version feels like you're playing on the inside of a shoebox, in a tiny little world. and that can be said for any online FPS console game. The feel is far different. Other gaming genres don't have much choice than being parked on a console. When was the last time there was a good baseball PC? High Heat 2003 (pardons to the text-based interfaces like BM, OOTP, etc) EA couldn't ever get baseball right with their billions, and is making football worse every year... Sole MLBPA License Holder 2K Games didn't even BOTHER to put something out on PC (at least EA put out MVP 05 on PC out, just in time to lose the license) and I don't forsee it happening next year either.
A big problem with his premise is no companies would be able to purchase a computer from Dell, HP, IBM, etc. until 2008. As soon as Vista is released they will stop offering XP (almost immediately), and start offering only Vista.
Not true.
I inherited a dozen Dell Optiplex GX260 machines at my new job where my predecessor was/is a complete moron and ordered these with W2K, and are PID stickered accordingly. These machines were purchased from Feb to Oct 2002 and XP came out in October 2001. I'd be willing to bet you can probably get the previous OS for at least a year...Unless Dell changes their policy.
I'll back him up on this. As a Sacramentan, I lived in areas that were flood prone before I bought a house in a non-flood zone. All the housing that has gone into the Natomas area (and it's a LOT - numbering in the thousands of homes) are ALL in floodzones.
In 1986, the area where my former employer is located was under 10 feet of water (hence, they never occupy building space on the 1st floor) when the levee system failed. Just over 10 years later, in 1997, we had similar record rainfall and the levees were again taxed to the brink of failure. I lived right near the river and the water was running damned near the top of the berms. We were under constant evacuation notices (not mandatory orders, but voluntary ones) I was lucky: Some of the levee system did fail in various areas of Sacramento and caused some X millions of dollars in damage.
The ACE then came in and did a fair bit of retrofit work to the existing levees by cutting them open in the centerline of the berm, trenching all the way down below the waterline, and backfilling the cut with slurry, since many of the earthen berms were weakened not by nature or or design flaw, but by burrowing animals like moles. Supposedly the digging critters could not tunnel through the slurry wall. Unfortunately, most of this work was done AFTER levee breaks during the 1997 floods.
I would wholeheartedly agree that shortsighted developers can be to blame in building up infrastructure where it shouldn't be, but if you protect it well enough (which it sounds like NO was not) it *should* stay up - but with unforseen weather patterns that the system was not designed to handle, you will end up swimming sooner or later.
My RPG background came from the Pen-N-Paper group up to BGII and NWN when computers became the deal, and having never played DS1, I have to say "It's OK"... My one true complaint about the game is, as previously posted, is feeling like you're being led around the nose about where you need to go, and how to get there. In NWN, you'd take the FedEx Quests, and get the "general location" of where you needed to be to get part XYZ to finish the quest, but in DS2, you simply follow the arrow. The massive clickfest does get old and my party of 2 ranged, 1 Nature Mage, and my melee dire wolf pet are all level 27 or 28 at about halfway through Chapter 2 (of 3) Act 1 (of 3). Zonk nailed the "Geek The Mage" since my wussy magic wench is always getting jacked 1st, even though she's supposed to be a healer who hides in the background. When getting mobbed by a goonsqud of level 25 Vai'kesh zealots does bring about the pseudo-death (unconciousness) to both my mage and my 2nd Ranger (the pregenerated chick from the beginning who I must say sounds way too "Valley Girl" to be any bit beliveable when we have to stop and listen to her babble on or bitch at the Mage)and when they both get wacked, the wolf and I need to run for cover until they wake up and rejoin the fight. Only once so far as anyone actually gotten tombstoned (real death) but that's as simple as burning a Resurect scroll.
Zonk never did mention the pet owning, which might be in DS1 (again, never played it) and I thought it was facinating to actually have to FEED your pet. Granted my wolf must have an iron gut because I fed his ass armor, swords, spears, magic crap, and now fully grown, is a rather badass beast and very useful. I haven't had too much complaint of another user's post of "collecting my 200th cloak of protection +1" and the loot I pick up actually makes you think about what to equip. Does this ring which raises armor X points over what I have now beset the ring that has some armor upgrade but also some secondary or tertiary benefits. Choices, Choices... in NWN, everything was more absolute that This Ring Is Better Than This Other Ring.
I have yet to play it online and am happy to hear that one copy will suffice for LAN'ing since that's about as Multiplayer as I'd get with it(if I want to play against people, BF2 does the job)
For what I paid for the game, I feel I'm getting my money's worth, however I do trully miss "HERE COMES HALFLING DEATH and NO ONE WALKS AWAY"
Slashdot Mirror
One problem - EA just bought Bioware. Therefore, by the time this thing goes gold, it'll require Madden '09 sound bytes of tackles and whatnot tossed in with Battlefield 2142 spawn points.
EA = the bastard 12 toe'd child of Computer Associates and Symantec
Is John Madden popping up and telling me "throw a Hail Mary to your Mage in the end zone" I owned both NWN 1 & 2 and now with EA at the reigns....3 will be a pass, if it even ever comes to fruition.
I certainly hope this show bombs like no show has bombed before....Not sure what Zucker was thinking here, but I'm quite sure that Brandon Tartikoff must be rolling over in his grave....
I'm the IT Manager of a large construction company and my employees put a lot of strain on their laptops (jobsite's are very dusty and whatnot)
I've looked into the Panasonic Toughbook series and they aren't nearly as bulletproof as everyone thinks they are....at least the older ones weren't....
Dell does make a single hardened model: the Latitude ATG 630. It has all the requirements of a hardenend unit but from a Cost Benefit point of view, the extra $900.00 for the body and internal armor, the piddly 32GB Solid State HD, and the bright-light viewable screen.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_atg_d630?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04
The only drawback with these machines is they come with integrated graphics, but that might not be an issue for you. You can get it with either XP or Vista, and they have some Ubuntu drivers listed on their support page.
You can also look at these guys: http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/ but I think that would probably be overkill
I maintain a +/-100 phone account with Nextel and probably call 20 times a month (Contruction laborers are notoriously rough on their handsets - even the hardened phones don't do so hot when they get run over by an excavator)
I guess I need to call 5 more times a month....
I live in Sacramento, and as someone in IT, and a Slashdot reader, I'm surprised I didn't see this article in the Bee, since it have only one remotely technical section and it's usually some one sending The Computer "Guru" dude a "How come my Outlook doesn't work" question ... good for a chuckle, better when his answers aren't right.
... no wonder he has "broken" graphics. Or maybe it was his fault for buying a Gateway...
I opened the article to see what area this dude was from. Grizzly Flats?? Do people have computers there? Or running water? He must be the only guy in the whole 'town' (population is 647) who has a computer....which explains why he bought a Gateway in the 1st place. Even if he got his PC to boot to see the clickwrap agreement, he would have had to download it at 14.4 on his rockin' new analog modem.
I suspect he's the smartest redneck of the bunch who's gonna take on The Man at Gateway. Don't bet your livestock on the deal, Homer.
He coulda saved himself the whole thing had he read the directions (or been able to read, much less) on how to plug in a DVI video cable rather then force the thing in
Be this a lesson to you....
1. Rednecks shouldn't own computers
2. Rednecks shouldn't pretend to be lawyers
3. Nobody should buy Gateway PCs (Buy a Dell, they pander to Windows and Ubuntu types...sort of)
I suppose nobody was paying attention when MLB decided enter an exclusive agreement with DirecTV in 'broadcasting' the "Extra Innings" package while all of us in CATV land were hosed into either switching to a dish or MLB.TV which isn't that good to start with. Senator John Kerry got involved and suddenly us Comcastic types (and everyone else attached to coax) can now get EI which I've had since its inception.
I use my SlingBox to watch Yankee games from work whenever I can't be home to watch them. Since I live in California, I don't have blackout issues until the Yanks play in Oakland, but then the local channel or Fox ends up broadcasting the games anyway.
Someone in the MLB hiarchary is suddenly taking cues from the wrong people.
Bud Selig, Sandy Alderson, and Bob DuPuy, if you're reading this, get a clue and clean up the game; don't fuck with the people who make sure you stay rich.
We do the same thing, however we're a little more direct. Our receptionists are instructed to forward anything going to myself where they cannot pronounce my surname (it's Austro-Hungarian - and by the spelling, you will never get it right until I pronounce it for you) or anything else they feel is a garbage call to extension "919" which plays a message our telecom sales person recorded that basically states that we know their call is non-business related and we will get back to them "if deemed appropriate" ... It then sends me an e-mail and a .WAV attachment of their message. If the .WAV isn't a certain size (anything less then 2MB) they didn't record a message worth listening to - delete e-mail, no need to check the voicemail.
On a funny note, the Microsoft CRM sales drones *specifically request* being transferred to 919. And they wonder why they haven't gotten called back...
I was a Notes client admininistrator for a worldwide Evironmental Engineering company that bought a competitor out that had a large Notes footprint in place and it was decidedly better than Groupwise (which we were sadly stuck with) and Exchange (which another subsidary had)
.... and wasn't fixed until SP6a came out or you added local admin rights.
I remember when Microsoft came out with NT 4.0 SP6 which borked Notes 5. It would only work post SP6 if end user had local admin rights
Gerstner: Bill, WTF did you do to my collaborative software? It doesn't work with that new service pack you released. My support lines are overwhelmed with NT Workstation admins who says Notes doesn't work SP6.
Gates: Sorry Lou, works fine with Exchange 5.5
Gerstner: Don't you do any QA regression testing?
Gates: Works fine with Exchange 5.5
Gerstner: (exasperated): FIX THIS SHIT!
Gates: When you become my bitch (mentally notes conversation for the future exploitation and releases SP6a seven days later)
And funny that, Notes doesn't work with Vista. I suppose Vista SP1 or a Notes client point release will be needed to get it to work.
So glad I never need to deal with Blotus Notes ever again... - ponders how many former *** Corporation admins are reading this and saying the exact same thing.
You can remove the BIK intro movies very simply. - I've removed them from my install and it shaves off a full minute off the startup and it immediately drops you to the BF2 Login window.
(as taken from TweakGuide)
Disabling the Intro Movies
The introductory movies to BF2, although fun to watch the first couple of times, fast become quite annoying, adding to the startup times for the game, as well as the memory usage (the main movie is 135MB in size). To disable them permanently, I don't recommend deleting the movie files - this may cause problems with verification of client information on certain servers and/or with Punkbuster.
Instead, simply rename the relevant files in your \Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies\ directory to something else (e.g. rename the Intro.bik to Intro.backup). The files to rename are: Dice.bik, EA.bik, Intro.bik, Legal.bik and Welcome.bik. This will mean the intro movies are all skipped as BF2 starts to load. If you find the movies playing in the background of the Login screen and Settings screens annoying, you can also rename the menu.bik and menu_loggedin.bik to something else as well.
(Google is your friend)
Stevie Case Of Ion Storm/MonkeyStone and Roberta Williams of the King's Quest fame - after looking at the list twice and not either of them - worthless list without either of these two
When was the last time you saw a manual with Windows?
I have the Comcast 8Mb/768K plan here in Sacramento and got speeds all over the place when I had my cheapo Netgear FM114P FW/Router in place....Things seemed to firm up closer to advertised when I dumped it in favor of a Cisco PIX 501. Using Speakeasy's tests..... Last Result: (SF - nearest test server) Download Speed: 8257 kbps (1032.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 720 kbps (90 KB/sec transfer rate) Last Result: (LA) Download Speed: 8208 kbps (1026 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 718 kbps (89.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Last Result: (Sea) Download Speed: 7104 kbps (888 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 718 kbps (89.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Last Result: (NYC) Download Speed: 5908 kbps (738.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 715 kbps (89.4 KB/sec transfer rate) Last Result: (DC) Download Speed: 3742 kbps (467.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 715 kbps (89.4 KB/sec transfer rate) Obviously as I started using test servers on the other side of the country my speeds took a nosedive, but otherwise, I'm happy. I have no other broadband options where I live....
Let me recall...
.... (began tuning out)
MS Drone: "What accounting software do you use?"
Me: *sales call* "Timberline"
Drone: *starts sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher*
Me: "Not interested, thank you for the call"
Drone: *starts sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher, but speaking a bit faster*
Me: "Still not interested, thank you for the call"
Drone: "Are you interested in CRM?"
Me: "I have plenty of software upgrade initiatives planned for this year, I'll call if I need something..." (Hang Up)
You're right, it wasn't MAS90....and had I been paying the least bit of attention, I would have recalled this....thank you for correcting my gaffe.
I've gotten I think 4 or so of these calls now. I answered the 1st one, and it turned out Redmond was trying to force a sale of MAS90 (Microsoft's accounting package) when I told them I worked for a construction company and we use an accounting package designed for Construction (Timberline) they said "we can make it work for a construction company" He got the hint after repeating "Not interested" 3 times.
I've had Reception add "any calls from Microsoft" to the forward straight to voicemail. If the BSA wants to talk to me about my license counts, I'm not one bit worried.
Rob Lowe's finest puter movie....I'm sure most of you missed it, but it's trully entertaining. The one scene where people should take umbrage is where Lowe's character the govt goon who was out to wack him, and later turns into his pal are hiding in Govt Goon's cave and he turns to Lowe's character and tells him he has "dual ISDN links" in his cave - mind you, which is out in the middle of nowhere - while they await the final siege from the rogue govt goons.
I have to admit, it's pretty damned entertaining with what he did (being from NY and watching the Red Sox even lose virtually in a 20 year old game brings a smile to my face)
Hats off it if scored him a job....
Or maybe it has to do with the forum fiasco where StarForce goon handed out links to warez and whatnot.
Starforce is of the same level of ilk as adware/ransomware vendors.
Behold a toast to hoping these Russians are looking for jobs in Siberia within the next 3 months.
Who really cares if Ghost doesn't come out....it wouldn't have been Starcraft anyway. And they stated that too. From what I recall, it would have been more like MG:S and the only thing Starcrafty about it would be the name.
This is one thing I never understood about Blizzard: They had a hugely successful franchise in the *craft games and let one MAJOR part of it (Starcraft) just rot. The game was released (if I recall correctly) in April of 1998 - and have even have an updated patch for it dated January of 2006. 8 years of support? Hell, the OS the game was designed for has been retired..... Why did Blizzard's braintrust not even make a vain attempt to capitalize on this fantastic game with it's fantastic support features you don't see in any games today - like the "spawn install" so you can legally play an 8 player LAN game with one copy of the game (1 master and 7 spawned installs)
Could you imagine if Blizzard updated SC with a modern RTS engine with some halfway intelligent AI (not that the AI was all that awful, just predictable) and slapped it in a box? I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the people who owned the original (like me) would run out and buy it. I guess they don't want all of South Korea to shut down and focus on the new game in fear their northern neighboors would swoop down and take over....
Had it been an EA product, we'd have already seen 4-5 (poor) sequels to it. I'm just surprised that Blizzard never released a true Starcraft II, one truly does justice to a great game.
Well, you're somewhat right.
I worked for a company that sold GE's medical software product (Millbrook/Centricity) and it runs on Windows. However, there are a few *nix based products out there, such as Versyss, however they being phased out for the new and shiny Windows products. I recalled our sales staff really needing to shine on the doctors while they supposedly make a ton of money, they refuse to spend enough money in IT. When the sales force has to sell servers that are below what the engineering team would want to sell, we're forced to support it.
Most of you wonder why the ICU net is attached to the Internet. EMR (Electronic Medical Records) are replacing the vaults of paper files on patient records which are too easily lost or misplaced. The easiest way to make sure everyone has access and can transfer records to providers, outside specialists and billing companies is via EMR. Go visit the doctor next time and see if he has a tablet PC in the exam room. That's what it's there for, and you won't see the doctor come in with your chart in hand.
Bottom line
Mr. Maxwell should be the poster boy that while working at Wal-mart sucks, it's better then the next 10 years in prison which he more than deserves and I sincerely hope he gets.
Sales people need to educate doctors on spending enough for security. Doctors are notoriously cheap (I worked with enough to realize this) and don't see a difference between a $800 server and a $5000 server other than the pricetag.
I don't blame the IT staff at all for this. Most likely they are underpaid and overwhelmed trying to plug enough holes as it is without some schmoe like Maxwell making life even more difficult. I'm sure a WUS (Windows Update Services) or some sort of patch management would have closed some/all of the OS holes exploited, but that's usually left to unautomated processes and I'm sure the IT guy never made it down to the ICU to fire up Windows Update.
I'm just glad I left medical IT and found a far better position elsewhere.
*shrug* it's readily apparent that we in the US don't..... What say thee?
Let's take a look at the recently released Battlefield 2 on your XB and then take a look at it on your POS PC (or your ubergamebox, whatever you have) and see what you see. Aside from them not being even remotely the same game, the console version feels like you're playing on the inside of a shoebox, in a tiny little world. and that can be said for any online FPS console game. The feel is far different. Other gaming genres don't have much choice than being parked on a console. When was the last time there was a good baseball PC? High Heat 2003 (pardons to the text-based interfaces like BM, OOTP, etc) EA couldn't ever get baseball right with their billions, and is making football worse every year... Sole MLBPA License Holder 2K Games didn't even BOTHER to put something out on PC (at least EA put out MVP 05 on PC out, just in time to lose the license) and I don't forsee it happening next year either.
Not true.
I inherited a dozen Dell Optiplex GX260 machines at my new job where my predecessor was/is a complete moron and ordered these with W2K, and are PID stickered accordingly. These machines were purchased from Feb to Oct 2002 and XP came out in October 2001. I'd be willing to bet you can probably get the previous OS for at least a year...Unless Dell changes their policy.
I'll back him up on this. As a Sacramentan, I lived in areas that were flood prone before I bought a house in a non-flood zone. All the housing that has gone into the Natomas area (and it's a LOT - numbering in the thousands of homes) are ALL in floodzones.
In 1986, the area where my former employer is located was under 10 feet of water (hence, they never occupy building space on the 1st floor) when the levee system failed. Just over 10 years later, in 1997, we had similar record rainfall and the levees were again taxed to the brink of failure. I lived right near the river and the water was running damned near the top of the berms. We were under constant evacuation notices (not mandatory orders, but voluntary ones) I was lucky: Some of the levee system did fail in various areas of Sacramento and caused some X millions of dollars in damage.
The ACE then came in and did a fair bit of retrofit work to the existing levees by cutting them open in the centerline of the berm, trenching all the way down below the waterline, and backfilling the cut with slurry, since many of the earthen berms were weakened not by nature or or design flaw, but by burrowing animals like moles. Supposedly the digging critters could not tunnel through the slurry wall. Unfortunately, most of this work was done AFTER levee breaks during the 1997 floods.
I would wholeheartedly agree that shortsighted developers can be to blame in building up infrastructure where it shouldn't be, but if you protect it well enough (which it sounds like NO was not) it *should* stay up - but with unforseen weather patterns that the system was not designed to handle, you will end up swimming sooner or later.
My RPG background came from the Pen-N-Paper group up to BGII and NWN when computers became the deal, and having never played DS1, I have to say "It's OK" ... My one true complaint about the game is, as previously posted, is feeling like you're being led around the nose about where you need to go, and how to get there. In NWN, you'd take the FedEx Quests, and get the "general location" of where you needed to be to get part XYZ to finish the quest, but in DS2, you simply follow the arrow. The massive clickfest does get old and my party of 2 ranged, 1 Nature Mage, and my melee dire wolf pet are all level 27 or 28 at about halfway through Chapter 2 (of 3) Act 1 (of 3). Zonk nailed the "Geek The Mage" since my wussy magic wench is always getting jacked 1st, even though she's supposed to be a healer who hides in the background. When getting mobbed by a goonsqud of level 25 Vai'kesh zealots does bring about the pseudo-death (unconciousness) to both my mage and my 2nd Ranger (the pregenerated chick from the beginning who I must say sounds way too "Valley Girl" to be any bit beliveable when we have to stop and listen to her babble on or bitch at the Mage)and when they both get wacked, the wolf and I need to run for cover until they wake up and rejoin the fight. Only once so far as anyone actually gotten tombstoned (real death) but that's as simple as burning a Resurect scroll.
Zonk never did mention the pet owning, which might be in DS1 (again, never played it) and I thought it was facinating to actually have to FEED your pet. Granted my wolf must have an iron gut because I fed his ass armor, swords, spears, magic crap, and now fully grown, is a rather badass beast and very useful. I haven't had too much complaint of another user's post of "collecting my 200th cloak of protection +1" and the loot I pick up actually makes you think about what to equip. Does this ring which raises armor X points over what I have now beset the ring that has some armor upgrade but also some secondary or tertiary benefits. Choices, Choices... in NWN, everything was more absolute that This Ring Is Better Than This Other Ring.
I have yet to play it online and am happy to hear that one copy will suffice for LAN'ing since that's about as Multiplayer as I'd get with it(if I want to play against people, BF2 does the job)
For what I paid for the game, I feel I'm getting my money's worth, however I do trully miss "HERE COMES HALFLING DEATH and NO ONE WALKS AWAY"
Here's to waiting for NWN2.