Most of us have had the experience of tremendous inconvenience because of a lack of Internet access. Being lost in a strange place with no way to find a map; having an urgent email to send with no way to do so; trying to meet a friend with no way to contact them.
A wise man once said "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."
Excuuuuuuuse me? Gimmicky Crap? Have you ever heard of Jaws 3 in 3D? One of the greatest cinema masterpieces of the past 30 years? I shall wait for an apology.
The cloud is a big thing these days. Cloud this, cloud that, it's almost like we're all in a fog trying to wrap our minds around how to make use of it.
And, of course, Amazon managed to punch a hole in that last week with a 4-day outage to part of their "cloud."
So, here are a new set of nouns/adjectives/phrases to describe "Cloud" and "Cloud Computing": Worthless Downtime Read the fine print Outage Data under someone else's control
In Michigan, the governor can also waltz into your town and dissolve your elected government. In Michigan, you can vote, but it doesn't matter. In MIchigan, you can be taxed, but your representation will be chosen by the governor if you elect the wrong people.
To put it in DMCA terms (since this is eventually where it will end up), Dropship
is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title
-- U.S. Code, Title 17, Chapter 12, Section 1201(a)(2)(A)
I can see why Dropbox doesn't want to be linked to such a thing, when the big media people come a knocking, who do you think is going to end up getting sued?
The end user, as Dropbox will duck behind the DMCA.
The summary apparently forgets to mention that the sellers in this case are not Amazon themselves, but third-party vendors using Amazon's used book sales thing.
Note: The article does make this distinction, so it's just a bad summary.
'sides, Comcast is a bloody canonized saint compared to my last ISP - a regional cable provider, who took a line from Vader and repeatedly altered the terms of my service agreement, and insisted I should pray they didn't alter them further.
I can't say my regional cable provider has repeatedly changed the terms of service, but since a few months ago, their upstream connection will randomly drop out for 10-15 seconds at a time.
The other way I've seen of addressing the produce problem is one where there's a camera above each scanner, so if you put your produce on the scanner, the cashier can look it up instead (there was a button to get their attention).
Most of the common produce codes are already known by the cashiers.
I tried to buy something once through a self-scanner, and it rang up a remarkably lower price than it should have. I completed the checkout, paid, and then went to customer service to explain the issue. The customer service clerk looked at me as if I had nine heads, especially after scanning the item and seeing that the barcode scan gave the same price that my receipt said I'd paid. She then said something like, "no, you paid for this", clearly not understanding my motivation for mentioning it, so I left.
I don't know about where you live, but where I do, once you've paid for the item, they can't change the price on you and insist you give them more money. However, they must fix it if they overcharged you (and give you extra money as well) due to the Michigan Pricing and Advertising of Consumer Items Act. Granted, said Act is being replaced with an updated version later this year to address automated systems like the one in question.
Heck, the retailers I worked for in the early 2000s, unless there was a huge error in the price, even if you pointed out the price was ringing up too low, we'd just give it to you for that price. We were required to fill out a form to give to management to fix it, though.
As a funny anecdote only tangentially related: As a cashier, I've seen an error where a can of baked beans rang up for $30,000+ before. I think it was an issue where the UPC was misread and prompted for the price on the screen, but instead accepted the next scanned item's UPC as the price, cutting off after 7 digits (12345.67). Strangely, scanning the item again after voiding came up with the correct price.
If I had Mod points (which I opt out of simply because the only conversations I ever want to mod are ones I want to participate in), I'd mod this up.
To refine the parents point, the Wii can play GameCube games just fine provided you have a GC controller and memory card.
Sadly, I liked the PS2 compatibility in the original PS3 better: the PS3 created memory card files on the PS3 hard drive and also used the PS3 controller. Then again, the PS2 to PS3 controller change isn't a paradigm change like the GC to Wii controller was.
Ah, well if you decide to get back into it, keep those cables in mind. The problem isn't that the Wii's output sucks, the problem is that modern HDTV's interpret the signal lousily. It's something I will never understand.
...and don't forget to change the output to 480p (NTSC) or 576p (PAL) in the Wii's settings.
Progressive scan really is better than interlaced.
If you're playing GameCube games on the Wii, you may have to hold a button down to get the option to play in progressive mode (B on the GameCube controller by default, I think).
What about nudity and sex? I find it hard to believe that Fallout: New Vegas really required censoring out the sex scenes which were apart of the story was really reasonable. I don't know whether they ever planned to include more, but considering the amount of violence and other adult themes, I think they could have put more in than a cut away.
Want to know the 3 biggest companies involved in game censorship?
I seem to remember seeing a comic commenting on that same situation related to Team Fortress's 2fort (I mean the original TF from the late 90s, not TF2)... in 2fort, you have two buildings across a small lake from each other with a bridge crossing it.
Actually, I seem to recall the commentary for TF2 mentioned that this is part of the reason they went for a cartoony look in the second game; in cartoons, you don't need to explain why something happens, it just is.
My favorite multiplayer FPS has two teams of mercenaries who work for two different holding corporations and are fighting each other over various objectives, such as control points or intelligence briefcases.
Both holding corporations are run by the same person, known only as The Administrator.
The mercenaries appear to be clones of the same 9 people, but they wear different hats.
In case you're wondering, I'm describing Team Fortress 2.:P
I could go on, but Nintendo clearly won this generation, and since they made a profit the entire time it has existed, they don't need to continue to squeeze the stones to get those last drops of blood...err....profit out of them, and can happily release a new product to continue to keep the pressure on Microsoft and Sony who have been struggling to make a profit on the current generation systems.
The problem with the stats you quote is that, while they look at the big picture, they miss the smaller one... and don't get rid of the statistical outlier.
All the stats I've seen peg the Xbox 360 as the number one seller in North America and Europe, leaving only Japan (of the 3 major asles regions companies tend to look at) with the Wii coming out on top.
The Japanese hate the Xbox 360, and it has abnormally low sales there. One could attribute it to Xenophobia. But, still, it's a statistical outlier, and tossing it out (like statisticians should) paints a much different picture.
But when you look at the games they *actually* developed the list shrinks [snip] So the actual games valve made (not the remakes / glorified mods) they really haven't done much since steam went out. However steam did give them a lot of money to buy other studios / absorb other teams so you could argue it either way
You are aware that the "number of developers" and "number of employees" statistics being thrown around include these developers? It's also important to note that Valve is paying for the development of these titles.
Besides which, several of these games didn't even start development until after their teams were part of Valve. Portal and Team Fortress 2*, to name two.
You'd have been better off mentioning Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source, as the latter is just a remake of the former, not an entirely new game like the two examples I listed.
* Left 4 Dead 2 isn't on this list because it started out as an expansion to the original game that got turned into a standalone product... hence, it's not really an original creation.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of us have had the experience of tremendous inconvenience because of a lack of Internet access. Being lost in a strange place with no way to find a map; having an urgent email to send with no way to do so; trying to meet a friend with no way to contact them.
A wise man once said "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."
Excuuuuuuuse me? Gimmicky Crap? Have you ever heard of Jaws 3 in 3D? One of the greatest cinema masterpieces of the past 30 years? I shall wait for an apology.
Why, yes I have.
The cloud is a big thing these days. Cloud this, cloud that, it's almost like we're all in a fog trying to wrap our minds around how to make use of it.
And, of course, Amazon managed to punch a hole in that last week with a 4-day outage to part of their "cloud."
The latest being how they're weaseling out of their 99.95% service level agreement.
So, here are a new set of nouns/adjectives/phrases to describe "Cloud" and "Cloud Computing":
Worthless
Downtime
Read the fine print
Outage
Data under someone else's control
Wrong. Senators are supposed to represent their state. Representatives are supposed to represent their constituents.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the state made up of constituents?
He meant the state governments, but as someone else already pointed out, the 17th Amendment changed that.
In Michigan, the governor can also waltz into your town and dissolve your elected government.
In Michigan, you can vote, but it doesn't matter.
In MIchigan, you can be taxed, but your representation will be chosen by the governor if you elect the wrong people.
[Citation needed]
To put it in DMCA terms (since this is eventually where it will end up), Dropship
is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title
-- U.S. Code, Title 17, Chapter 12, Section 1201(a)(2)(A)
>import files into their accounts using hashes and bypassing the need to make files public.
???
It bypasses the need to make files public?
So, when you use Dropbox, you have to make files public? Isn't DropBox a way to share email attachments without attaching it to an email?
Why would you want to make it public?
My understanding is that you normally have to invite people one by one to see your non-public files.
However, it's apparently possible for people to just have the hash and add it to their own dropbox account using Dropship to gain access to it.
I can see why Dropbox doesn't want to be linked to such a thing, when the big media people come a knocking, who do you think is going to end up getting sued?
The end user, as Dropbox will duck behind the DMCA.
Gotta love how the guy is still hosting Dropship, just not on Dropbox itself.
Don't be surprised if his Dropbox account gets yanked for real this time, and some sort of lawsuit follows.
H.264 is safer to use
Citation needed.
WP:NOR
The summary apparently forgets to mention that the sellers in this case are not Amazon themselves, but third-party vendors using Amazon's used book sales thing.
Note: The article does make this distinction, so it's just a bad summary.
'sides, Comcast is a bloody canonized saint compared to my last ISP - a regional cable provider, who took a line from Vader and repeatedly altered the terms of my service agreement, and insisted I should pray they didn't alter them further.
I can't say my regional cable provider has repeatedly changed the terms of service, but since a few months ago, their upstream connection will randomly drop out for 10-15 seconds at a time.
Which is hell on online gaming.
The other way I've seen of addressing the produce problem is one where there's a camera above each scanner, so if you put your produce on the scanner, the cashier can look it up instead (there was a button to get their attention).
Most of the common produce codes are already known by the cashiers.
I tried to buy something once through a self-scanner, and it rang up a remarkably lower price than it should have. I completed the checkout, paid, and then went to customer service to explain the issue. The customer service clerk looked at me as if I had nine heads, especially after scanning the item and seeing that the barcode scan gave the same price that my receipt said I'd paid. She then said something like, "no, you paid for this", clearly not understanding my motivation for mentioning it, so I left.
I don't know about where you live, but where I do, once you've paid for the item, they can't change the price on you and insist you give them more money. However, they must fix it if they overcharged you (and give you extra money as well) due to the Michigan Pricing and Advertising of Consumer Items Act. Granted, said Act is being replaced with an updated version later this year to address automated systems like the one in question.
Heck, the retailers I worked for in the early 2000s, unless there was a huge error in the price, even if you pointed out the price was ringing up too low, we'd just give it to you for that price. We were required to fill out a form to give to management to fix it, though.
As a funny anecdote only tangentially related: As a cashier, I've seen an error where a can of baked beans rang up for $30,000+ before. I think it was an issue where the UPC was misread and prompted for the price on the screen, but instead accepted the next scanned item's UPC as the price, cutting off after 7 digits (12345.67). Strangely, scanning the item again after voiding came up with the correct price.
If I had Mod points (which I opt out of simply because the only conversations I ever want to mod are ones I want to participate in), I'd mod this up.
To refine the parents point, the Wii can play GameCube games just fine provided you have a GC controller and memory card.
Sadly, I liked the PS2 compatibility in the original PS3 better: the PS3 created memory card files on the PS3 hard drive and also used the PS3 controller. Then again, the PS2 to PS3 controller change isn't a paradigm change like the GC to Wii controller was.
Ah, well if you decide to get back into it, keep those cables in mind. The problem isn't that the Wii's output sucks, the problem is that modern HDTV's interpret the signal lousily. It's something I will never understand.
...and don't forget to change the output to 480p (NTSC) or 576p (PAL) in the Wii's settings.
Progressive scan really is better than interlaced.
If you're playing GameCube games on the Wii, you may have to hold a button down to get the option to play in progressive mode (B on the GameCube controller by default, I think).
What about nudity and sex? I find it hard to believe that Fallout: New Vegas really required censoring out the sex scenes which were apart of the story was really reasonable. I don't know whether they ever planned to include more, but considering the amount of violence and other adult themes, I think they could have put more in than a cut away.
Want to know the 3 biggest companies involved in game censorship?
Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony.
I'll let you figure out why.
They could change it to Adults Only, but it turns out they already have a rating with that name.
I seem to remember seeing a comic commenting on that same situation related to Team Fortress's 2fort (I mean the original TF from the late 90s, not TF2)... in 2fort, you have two buildings across a small lake from each other with a bridge crossing it.
Actually, I seem to recall the commentary for TF2 mentioned that this is part of the reason they went for a cartoony look in the second game; in cartoons, you don't need to explain why something happens, it just is.
My favorite multiplayer FPS has two teams of mercenaries who work for two different holding corporations and are fighting each other over various objectives, such as control points or intelligence briefcases.
Both holding corporations are run by the same person, known only as The Administrator.
The mercenaries appear to be clones of the same 9 people, but they wear different hats.
In case you're wondering, I'm describing Team Fortress 2. :P
The problem with the stats you quote is that, while they look at the big picture, they miss the smaller one... and don't get rid of the statistical outlier.
All the stats I've seen peg the Xbox 360 as the number one seller in North America and Europe, leaving only Japan (of the 3 major asles regions companies tend to look at) with the Wii coming out on top.
The Japanese hate the Xbox 360, and it has abnormally low sales there. One could attribute it to Xenophobia. But, still, it's a statistical outlier, and tossing it out (like statisticians should) paints a much different picture.
Here's what Ted Nelson has really been smoking
Ted Nelson's view is a web where you have to pay for each page you visit. We have seen too much of this lately
And, just as importantly, it goes against the original spirit of the Internet, before commercial entities were allowed on the 'net in 1993.
But when you look at the games they *actually* developed the list shrinks
[snip]
So the actual games valve made (not the remakes / glorified mods) they really haven't done much since steam went out. However steam did give them a lot of money to buy other studios / absorb other teams so you could argue it either way
You are aware that the "number of developers" and "number of employees" statistics being thrown around include these developers? It's also important to note that Valve is paying for the development of these titles.
Besides which, several of these games didn't even start development until after their teams were part of Valve. Portal and Team Fortress 2*, to name two.
You'd have been better off mentioning Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source, as the latter is just a remake of the former, not an entirely new game like the two examples I listed.
* Left 4 Dead 2 isn't on this list because it started out as an expansion to the original game that got turned into a standalone product... hence, it's not really an original creation.
Orange Box is $19.99? This must be a recent change, it was $30 the last time I checked a few weeks ago.
Hmm... it sounds like this change was on April 6th.
That also explains why Garry's Mod + TF2 went down in price.