Never mind. See posts below indicating that these schmucks registered the.com.net domain and have a host named "google" in that domain, hence google.com.net.
I think it's far more likely that there are quite a few people out there with some sort of malware redirecting their failed DNS lookups to this site, as opposed to Google's DNS entry being hacked.
Professor Farnsworth: Is it true that stem cells may fight the aging process? Stem Cell Agency Staffer: Well, yes, in the same way an infant may fight Muhammad Ali, but.... Professor Farnsworth: One pound of stem cells please! Stem Cell Agency Staffer:(setting container labeled "Stem Cells" on the counter) Of course, any age-reversing effects will be purely temporary. (Professor Farnsworth opens the container and starts slopping the stem cells on his face.) Stem Cell Agency Staffer: Auugghh!!
Suppose it were a rider that was more palatable to the Slashdot crowd, like prevent child exploitation on the Internet? Riders are generally pork-barrel projects or controversial items, yes, but the Senate is far more liberal on such tactics (see also: filibuster) than the House, which has rules requiring the germaneness (on-topic-ness) of all amendments.
The simple fact that something is a rider doesn't make it evil or sickening or disturbing, and it's really a poor argument against the underlying measure.
One thing that happens during early infant brain development - when the low-level brain facilities for vision are also developing - is the mass culling of synaptic connections. That is, the brain initially grows (during late prenatal development) an abundance of synapses, far more than it needs for normal operation. A large portion of these synapses are removed during early childhood (first two years or so), with learning and experience creating a "survival of the fittest" scheme of determining which synapses to keep and which to lose.
It is almost certain that the excessive culling of synapses in the visual centers of the brain that results from not having any visual stimulus during the first two years of life is irreversible. Possibly the brain could be stimulated to produce new synapses in those areas, but it is likely that the process would cause far more harm than good.
Planetside was and is a Sony Online Entertainment production.
As for Turbine, the real question to ask isn't how many subscribers did the game have, but what was the return on investment for the game? We know that games like WoW and EQ make money hand over fist, and that the bulk of their expenses in the long term roughly scale with the number of users (there may be an economy of scale at work, making a large number of subscribers even more profitable, though). MMOGs also have an advantage over non-served games: if the long-term income for a MMOG from subscriptions is high enough, it can even make up for a shortfall in game box sales, if the servers are kept running long enough. Non-served games can't do that - if the game flops, the company loses money because the box sales didn't offset the initial production costs.
This brings up another thought - that for all those companies that went under because of the very rough seas in the games industry, at least a few of them could have been saved, and could have made those games they always wanted to make (and on their own terms, too) if they just have a running MMOG in their portfolio to ensure long-term company profitability.
In any case, I'm glad to see Turbine taking steps to make itself less dependent on its publisher(s). Internet distribution is another important (perhaps the next for Turbine?) step in making one's game development company self-sufficient.
I played my share of (and assisted other people playing) "dynamic quest" characters during a stint as a guide in EverQuest. The response from the players was formulaic: Big Continuity Character shows up in a zone, with rumblings and zone/server broadcasts to get the attention of the players. When the players do show up, the Big Continuity Character has some lines to deliver, but since typing is a lot slower than speaking - and is far slower than the ADHD most of the players evidently have - the game spam quickly overtakes the plot, making it impossible to get anything out of the game unless one is logging their chat to a file for later processing.
People start crowding around, severely increasing lag for everyone (including the quest actor, whose typing rate decreases sharply due to the video lag), and if the Big Continuity Character happens to be evil, two other factors increase lag even more: One, everybody thinks there's gonna be a fight, so they keep every buff in the spell book on themselves, meaning spellcasting spam is pretty much nonstop; and two, some people think that the only way to get lewts is to start the fight themselves, meaning that the quest actor can't get the lines out what with being attacked constantly.
There are all sorts of people that show up at these events - some are intent upon getting whatever lewts and rewards they can, some see the hundreds of people standing around as a good motivator for committing the MMOG equivalent of whipping it out in public (i.e., chat spam, frequently strewn with vulgarity), and some try to roleplay with the character regardless of the obviousness of some other plot unfolding which doesn't involve that particular player. Only a few are actually there to find out what's going on.
The result is that dynamic quests in a production environment are unfulfilling for all involved. Even when a guide or GM showed up in public and chatted with the players, the response was usually positive - but everything went downhill quick when a quest was involved.
The problem isn't so much that people can get your SSN. The problem is, rather, that banks and other credit companies treat obtaining credit or changing your identifying information (your address, especially) so cavalierly. The government could do something about it, though.
In other words, Al Gore was a 12th level Vice President who took the Improved Initiative feat at character creation. And he had an uncanny knack for rolling 20s on his initiative rolls. Unfortunately for him, though, he fumbled his Presidency check and dropped his election, at which point he got eaten by a Shambling Bush.
This is where sites like Amazon that have a "save for later" feature for shopping carts are trumping other sites that only have minimal e-commerce functionality. If a customer isn't ready to buy, but can save an interesting item for easy access later, they will be more likely to come back to that merchant and make the purchase if the price is reasonable. In addition, the convenience of not having to root through the site to find the item again will improve the standing of the site in the eyes of the consumer, causing them to come back the next time they're interested in buying something.
Honestly, it surprises me that online merchants are surprised with how consumers ditch their shopping cart contents so often, in light of the fact that Amazon has had "save for later" functionality for years now, a feature that was probably added when they realized that their customers didn't always place an order right away.
On a side note, I like to keep one or two paperback books in my saved cart on Amazon so that when I order a DVD that's under $25, I can add the book and get free shipping.
You forgot the ones that make noises. Like during the height of last year's baseball season, TBS ran in-show ads that include the sound of a bat hitting a baseball, followed by the baseball smashing into your TV screen and making a bunch of racket.
God forbid we'd actually want to hear any dialogue over all that crap.
But honestly, I doubt that TV ads would be nearly as intrusive if it weren't for the Internet, which convinced advertising execs that people actually like clicking on gigantic popups. All we're seeing is the equivalent of popup ads on TV.
Sort of makes you wonder what would happen if all 10000 defendants stood their ground and forced the RIAA to take them to court. Would the legal costs be so high for the RIAA that they would have to drop all but the most potentially profitable suits? And if the RIAA did take all those cases to trial, would Congress take action to free up the court system from the tremendous burden that would result from actually trying all of those cases in court?
Planetside is actually pretty good these days - the only real problem is that everyone and their grandmother is Command Rank 5, meaning that there's no real cohesive leadership hierarchy.
Slashdot Mirror
If there's anything that Slashdot has taught us, it's that it's never safe to use your computer.
Ah, sort of like "Word on the grapevine is that Fox News 'gets away with saying crazy stuff all the time'."
Did I get it right?
Never mind. See posts below indicating that these schmucks registered the .com.net domain and have a host named "google" in that domain, hence google.com.net.
I think it's far more likely that there are quite a few people out there with some sort of malware redirecting their failed DNS lookups to this site, as opposed to Google's DNS entry being hacked.
Professor Farnsworth: Is it true that stem cells may fight the aging process?
Stem Cell Agency Staffer: Well, yes, in the same way an infant may fight Muhammad Ali, but....
Professor Farnsworth: One pound of stem cells please!
Stem Cell Agency Staffer: (setting container labeled "Stem Cells" on the counter) Of course, any age-reversing effects will be purely temporary.
(Professor Farnsworth opens the container and starts slopping the stem cells on his face.)
Stem Cell Agency Staffer: Auugghh!!
Suppose it were a rider that was more palatable to the Slashdot crowd, like prevent child exploitation on the Internet? Riders are generally pork-barrel projects or controversial items, yes, but the Senate is far more liberal on such tactics (see also: filibuster) than the House, which has rules requiring the germaneness (on-topic-ness) of all amendments.
The simple fact that something is a rider doesn't make it evil or sickening or disturbing, and it's really a poor argument against the underlying measure.
One thing that happens during early infant brain development - when the low-level brain facilities for vision are also developing - is the mass culling of synaptic connections. That is, the brain initially grows (during late prenatal development) an abundance of synapses, far more than it needs for normal operation. A large portion of these synapses are removed during early childhood (first two years or so), with learning and experience creating a "survival of the fittest" scheme of determining which synapses to keep and which to lose.
It is almost certain that the excessive culling of synapses in the visual centers of the brain that results from not having any visual stimulus during the first two years of life is irreversible. Possibly the brain could be stimulated to produce new synapses in those areas, but it is likely that the process would cause far more harm than good.
Planetside was and is a Sony Online Entertainment production.
As for Turbine, the real question to ask isn't how many subscribers did the game have, but what was the return on investment for the game? We know that games like WoW and EQ make money hand over fist, and that the bulk of their expenses in the long term roughly scale with the number of users (there may be an economy of scale at work, making a large number of subscribers even more profitable, though). MMOGs also have an advantage over non-served games: if the long-term income for a MMOG from subscriptions is high enough, it can even make up for a shortfall in game box sales, if the servers are kept running long enough. Non-served games can't do that - if the game flops, the company loses money because the box sales didn't offset the initial production costs.
This brings up another thought - that for all those companies that went under because of the very rough seas in the games industry, at least a few of them could have been saved, and could have made those games they always wanted to make (and on their own terms, too) if they just have a running MMOG in their portfolio to ensure long-term company profitability.
In any case, I'm glad to see Turbine taking steps to make itself less dependent on its publisher(s). Internet distribution is another important (perhaps the next for Turbine?) step in making one's game development company self-sufficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube
Riders in the Senate happen all the time. This is neither novel nor shocking.
I played my share of (and assisted other people playing) "dynamic quest" characters during a stint as a guide in EverQuest. The response from the players was formulaic: Big Continuity Character shows up in a zone, with rumblings and zone/server broadcasts to get the attention of the players. When the players do show up, the Big Continuity Character has some lines to deliver, but since typing is a lot slower than speaking - and is far slower than the ADHD most of the players evidently have - the game spam quickly overtakes the plot, making it impossible to get anything out of the game unless one is logging their chat to a file for later processing.
People start crowding around, severely increasing lag for everyone (including the quest actor, whose typing rate decreases sharply due to the video lag), and if the Big Continuity Character happens to be evil, two other factors increase lag even more: One, everybody thinks there's gonna be a fight, so they keep every buff in the spell book on themselves, meaning spellcasting spam is pretty much nonstop; and two, some people think that the only way to get lewts is to start the fight themselves, meaning that the quest actor can't get the lines out what with being attacked constantly.
There are all sorts of people that show up at these events - some are intent upon getting whatever lewts and rewards they can, some see the hundreds of people standing around as a good motivator for committing the MMOG equivalent of whipping it out in public (i.e., chat spam, frequently strewn with vulgarity), and some try to roleplay with the character regardless of the obviousness of some other plot unfolding which doesn't involve that particular player. Only a few are actually there to find out what's going on.
The result is that dynamic quests in a production environment are unfulfilling for all involved. Even when a guide or GM showed up in public and chatted with the players, the response was usually positive - but everything went downhill quick when a quest was involved.
Leo Wong: We own entire western hemisphere. That the best hemisphere.
Professor Farnsworth: It's the same way on Earth.
The problem isn't so much that people can get your SSN. The problem is, rather, that banks and other credit companies treat obtaining credit or changing your identifying information (your address, especially) so cavalierly. The government could do something about it, though.
In other words, Al Gore was a 12th level Vice President who took the Improved Initiative feat at character creation. And he had an uncanny knack for rolling 20s on his initiative rolls. Unfortunately for him, though, he fumbled his Presidency check and dropped his election, at which point he got eaten by a Shambling Bush.
Most of my "auxiliary cooling fans" are held in place by suspending them from various points on the case with zip ties.
This is where sites like Amazon that have a "save for later" feature for shopping carts are trumping other sites that only have minimal e-commerce functionality. If a customer isn't ready to buy, but can save an interesting item for easy access later, they will be more likely to come back to that merchant and make the purchase if the price is reasonable. In addition, the convenience of not having to root through the site to find the item again will improve the standing of the site in the eyes of the consumer, causing them to come back the next time they're interested in buying something.
Honestly, it surprises me that online merchants are surprised with how consumers ditch their shopping cart contents so often, in light of the fact that Amazon has had "save for later" functionality for years now, a feature that was probably added when they realized that their customers didn't always place an order right away.
On a side note, I like to keep one or two paperback books in my saved cart on Amazon so that when I order a DVD that's under $25, I can add the book and get free shipping.
Sleep, little dumpling. I have replaced your mother.
For those interested in attending, it's on May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT
Oh, I'm sure I'll get around to it one of these days.
Kind of like AccuWeather versus the governmentally-collected weather data our tax dollars pay for. If a company isn't actually adding value to a public service, then they don't deserve to make any money.
You forgot the ones that make noises. Like during the height of last year's baseball season, TBS ran in-show ads that include the sound of a bat hitting a baseball, followed by the baseball smashing into your TV screen and making a bunch of racket.
God forbid we'd actually want to hear any dialogue over all that crap.
But honestly, I doubt that TV ads would be nearly as intrusive if it weren't for the Internet, which convinced advertising execs that people actually like clicking on gigantic popups. All we're seeing is the equivalent of popup ads on TV.
At least there was something to watch - imperialistic backstabbing crew, desperate rebels...
You forgot the midriff.
Mmm.... Linda Park in lingerie.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense then. Best of luck in landing that contract.
Sort of makes you wonder what would happen if all 10000 defendants stood their ground and forced the RIAA to take them to court. Would the legal costs be so high for the RIAA that they would have to drop all but the most potentially profitable suits? And if the RIAA did take all those cases to trial, would Congress take action to free up the court system from the tremendous burden that would result from actually trying all of those cases in court?
Umm.... Do you guys have a lawyer?
Planetside is actually pretty good these days - the only real problem is that everyone and their grandmother is Command Rank 5, meaning that there's no real cohesive leadership hierarchy.