You only say that because you've never seen... nay, *heard* the ad in question. To paraphrase a quote from some sitcom: this ad makes me want to put a finger through my eye into my brain and swirl it around.
The ads are laughable. All of the advertising is done by DFHEngine.dll, which hooks D3D9 renderer to do its bidding. The main game executable has a call at the very beginning to DFHInitialize. Removing that removes all the ads.
Enjoy. Be that as it may, it negates the whole point of ad-supported games. If I were going to do what you suggest, I might as well just get a warez copy of the game in the first place. Not only would I not have to register and perform any extra steps post-install, I'd also get to use a torrent with great download speed (as opposed to waiting for an hour or two in the "download queue").
I'm not against ad-supported games - in fact I think it's a great idea, especially for low-income gamers. I have a problem with this particular execution, though.
I've downloaded Rayman Raving Rabids to check it out. There's just one ad - a pretty bad macdonalds one. You get the ad: 1. When the game starts, 2. Before every level, 3. After every level
This means if you play 3x 30-second levels you get 6x 30-second ad. I guess they looked at how the TV ads have been progressing in few past few years, added a quick spell of reductio ad absurdum and crapped out the result.
Funny part is, I might've actually kept the game if there were some variety to ads and/or they showed up in longer intervals - at least 5 minutes or so..
P.S. for some reason they make you link the game to your ubi.com account...
I consider my smells copyrighted and wearing a gas mask while being in my proximity is an infringement of my rights, as the smells are blocked. Please understand that this extreme measure is necessary, since the unique cacophony of smells usually causes nearby people to give me money to leave their vicinity - but those who would wear a gas mask aren't forced to do so. It's bad for business.
First off, GPLv3 is not a software security upgrade - you don't have to use it if you don't want to. There is no morality issues here - the real issue here is different definitions of "freedom" - or rather, who/what that freedom is attached to. If I understand correctly, BSD-style license gives freedom to the people, while GPLv3 license gives freedom to the code...or am I missing something here?
The only reason so far that's stopping me from using Xen is that it doesn't support frequency scaling and other power management of my laptop. Sticking with VMWare Server for now...
That's okay, for the robot model A we'll build a robot model B that maintains model A. When B goes out of order, model C will take care of that. When C breaks down, model D will fix model C.... and so on and so forth. Until model Z, of course. We'll then just program model A to fix model Z.
Don't worry, we software engineers have everything figured out already:)
I think you misunderstand: the point is that the $3/hr labor might become unavailable, sometime soon. That's why they wanted to create a backup plan. If the $3/hr is available, then of course machinery can't compete with that (at least not until it's rolled out on a large scale and parts for maintenance become dirt-cheap)
If they ever make this plastic regenerate its shape as well as structural integrity (*snicker*), I'll want to use one to coat my car with it. All those little dings and scratches - wouldn't it be wonderful if your car could heal itself and always look brand new?:)
Actually, using this method you can only send messages as far back as you created the apparatus for reading those messages - and this project is apparently about creating it. Still pretty sure it won't work, though;)
Whoops, my bad! Was thinking of another setting. The one I suggested is for making the errors show up on page instead of a popup error message. I didn't realize that the OP meant that (s)he typed in something without ".com" (which is when it went to google). keyword.enabled set to false will take care of that: instead of going to google, firefox will start trying to append.com,.net,.org to whatever is in the address bar - until it finds one that works or until all of them failed.
California (rather, Bay Area) has a very nice service: 511 You can dial "511" from any cellphone and you'll get a voice-guided helper - you tell it which major road you're taking (or choose origin/destination) and it tells you how long it would probably take and if there are any slowdowns along the way.
I use it every time I get into bad traffic - that way I know when I need to just wait a few minutes to clear it or take local roads to get around it, instead.
HDCP is bullshit, nobody really cares about it. It been proven to be a weak protection mechanism, just need a few more keys to break it completely. But even then, what the hell would you do with a 10.2Gbps stream? Hell, you won't want to directly encode a 742.5 Mbps stream either. You'll fill up a terabyte harddrive with 2-3 movies.. then what?
I agree with you - I want the DRM gone - but I'm just saying it has little effect on HDMI:)
On second thought, if there's one person in a very large room, there's no point in lighting the whole room - only the area around the person. It's kind of neat, but doesn't seem very useful.. and could be easily achieved by a system that is not centralized (scan for heat signatures with IR - if found, keep the light/AC turned on, otherwise - turn off)
Maybe I missed something, but I've worked in offices (and have been to classrooms) which had the light system tied in with motion detectors. If there was no movement within 15 minutes, the lights would go out. Biggest problem with a system like this, though, is that if people are not moving around (working while sitting down), the lights go out causing much annoyance.
I see that the new thing is that the sensors & software are able to differentiate between a person walking in a straight line, people splitting up or organizing into a meeting. But what's the use of this if all you need is an on/off switch for the light..?
Acid2 has my vote for favorite bug-as-a-feature. For those who don't know, Acid2 is a browser-testing CSS page with many intentional bugs in the code. The result of a fully-compliant browser rendering is a smiley face. Wiki entry with examples.
Seriously? We launch a gajillion dollar probe, chance it in a sling around the largest planet in our solar system to only save 3 years... Correction: gravitational slingshot does not save time, it WASTES time. Fastest method is Hohmann transfer but it requires prohibititive amounts of energy (rocket fuel).
And while we're at it, let's also overhaul the tax system. The only ones losing out on that would be companies that work on tax returns (like H&R Block)
Slashdot Mirror
You only say that because you've never seen... nay, *heard* the ad in question.
To paraphrase a quote from some sitcom: this ad makes me want to put a finger through my eye into my brain and swirl it around.
The main game executable has a call at the very beginning to DFHInitialize. Removing that removes all the ads.
Enjoy. Be that as it may, it negates the whole point of ad-supported games. If I were going to do what you suggest, I might as well just get a warez copy of the game in the first place. Not only would I not have to register and perform any extra steps post-install, I'd also get to use a torrent with great download speed (as opposed to waiting for an hour or two in the "download queue").
I'm not against ad-supported games - in fact I think it's a great idea, especially for low-income gamers. I have a problem with this particular execution, though.
I've downloaded Rayman Raving Rabids to check it out. There's just one ad - a pretty bad macdonalds one.
You get the ad:
1. When the game starts,
2. Before every level,
3. After every level
This means if you play 3x 30-second levels you get 6x 30-second ad.
I guess they looked at how the TV ads have been progressing in few past few years, added a quick spell of reductio ad absurdum and crapped out the result.
Funny part is, I might've actually kept the game if there were some variety to ads and/or they showed up in longer intervals - at least 5 minutes or so..
P.S. for some reason they make you link the game to your ubi.com account...
...and the assumption that you will get 1kW at night :P
the ars article says 3-4 seconds, not minutes
I consider my smells copyrighted and wearing a gas mask while being in my proximity is an infringement of my rights, as the smells are blocked. Please understand that this extreme measure is necessary, since the unique cacophony of smells usually causes nearby people to give me money to leave their vicinity - but those who would wear a gas mask aren't forced to do so. It's bad for business.
Jobs is polish; Woz is functionality
First off, GPLv3 is not a software security upgrade - you don't have to use it if you don't want to. ..or am I missing something here?
There is no morality issues here - the real issue here is different definitions of "freedom" - or rather, who/what that freedom is attached to. If I understand correctly, BSD-style license gives freedom to the people, while GPLv3 license gives freedom to the code.
The only reason so far that's stopping me from using Xen is that it doesn't support frequency scaling and other power management of my laptop.
Sticking with VMWare Server for now...
That's okay, for the robot model A we'll build a robot model B that maintains model A. ... and so on and so forth. Until model Z, of course.
:)
When B goes out of order, model C will take care of that.
When C breaks down, model D will fix model C.
We'll then just program model A to fix model Z.
Don't worry, we software engineers have everything figured out already
I think you misunderstand: the point is that the $3/hr labor might become unavailable, sometime soon. That's why they wanted to create a backup plan.
If the $3/hr is available, then of course machinery can't compete with that (at least not until it's rolled out on a large scale and parts for maintenance become dirt-cheap)
If they ever make this plastic regenerate its shape as well as structural integrity (*snicker*), I'll want to use one to coat my car with it. All those little dings and scratches - wouldn't it be wonderful if your car could heal itself and always look brand new? :)
Actually, using this method you can only send messages as far back as you created the apparatus for reading those messages - and this project is apparently about creating it. ;)
Still pretty sure it won't work, though
Soon, wardrivers will be able to steal power from homes they pass by, reducing their own energy bills. :D
Whoops, my bad! Was thinking of another setting. The one I suggested is for making the errors show up on page instead of a popup error message. .com, .net, .org to whatever is in the address bar - until it finds one that works or until all of them failed.
I didn't realize that the OP meant that (s)he typed in something without ".com" (which is when it went to google). keyword.enabled set to false will take care of that: instead of going to google, firefox will start trying to append
try this setting:
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled
set it to "true"
California (rather, Bay Area) has a very nice service: 511
You can dial "511" from any cellphone and you'll get a voice-guided helper - you tell it which major road you're taking (or choose origin/destination) and it tells you how long it would probably take and if there are any slowdowns along the way.
I use it every time I get into bad traffic - that way I know when I need to just wait a few minutes to clear it or take local roads to get around it, instead.
HDCP is bullshit, nobody really cares about it.
:)
It been proven to be a weak protection mechanism, just need a few more keys to break it completely.
But even then, what the hell would you do with a 10.2Gbps stream? Hell, you won't want to directly encode a 742.5 Mbps stream either. You'll fill up a terabyte harddrive with 2-3 movies.. then what?
I agree with you - I want the DRM gone - but I'm just saying it has little effect on HDMI
On second thought, if there's one person in a very large room, there's no point in lighting the whole room - only the area around the person.
It's kind of neat, but doesn't seem very useful.. and could be easily achieved by a system that is not centralized (scan for heat signatures with IR - if found, keep the light/AC turned on, otherwise - turn off)
Maybe I missed something, but I've worked in offices (and have been to classrooms) which had the light system tied in with motion detectors. If there was no movement within 15 minutes, the lights would go out.
Biggest problem with a system like this, though, is that if people are not moving around (working while sitting down), the lights go out causing much annoyance.
I see that the new thing is that the sensors & software are able to differentiate between a person walking in a straight line, people splitting up or organizing into a meeting. But what's the use of this if all you need is an on/off switch for the light..?
...literally!
Acid2 has my vote for favorite bug-as-a-feature.
For those who don't know, Acid2 is a browser-testing CSS page with many intentional bugs in the code. The result of a fully-compliant browser rendering is a smiley face. Wiki entry with examples.
And while we're at it, let's also overhaul the tax system.
:(
The only ones losing out on that would be companies that work on tax returns (like H&R Block)
sigh.. i really really wish...