can watch and learn a lot from their Hollywood brethren since they seem to be on the same path.
Games with a story ? Bah. Story takes a back seat to effects and eye candy these days. Give me a good story and I can forgo crazy visuals. Give me a good story AND crazy visuals and you've got a rare gem on your hands.
With all the silliness in the courts anymore, looks like in order to maintain any sort of confidentiality we're gonna have to take a chapter from the military's book on how to keep the secret stuff. . . well . . . secret. ( Not their new book mind you, since the Chinese are stealing secrets left and right these days:D )
Radical, probably. Effective ? Absolutely.
Of your hard drive stack, ensure the top slot is available. Open an old drive chassis and gut it. Fill with Thermite. Place said unit above other drives. I leave it to you to figure out how to wire it out to initiate the burn. Perhaps a key or, for the really paranoid, wire it to fire by opening the chassis ( intrusion switch ) or ( insert your own imaginative idea here ).
The idea here isn't to make an explosive, just some molten metal to wreak havoc on the drives below it. See you recover the keys for those. . . . ( Oh and remember, a little Thermite goes a long way. Don't go crazy with it )
" Your honor, I don't recall the passwords " Call it the Ronald Reagan defense. ( Or political defense for that matter ) Works for them all the time.
"Unless it is junk, it is more than likely that they brute forced the encryption passphrase for that hard drive. "
That would worry me, though it would have to be a ridiculously short key length / space to be plausible.
< tin foil hat time >
I have always been curious, what would stop manufacturers from basically throwing a keylogger on a chip into the keyboard hardware itself ? Ever play with a keylogger dongle ? It was an inline unit between the keyboard and computer that simply logged everything you typed. To activate it, you simply typed a certain password / passphrase in and it would open up in note / wordpad and show you the entire log.
It would be dead simple to add this within keyboards today and no one would have a clue it was even there. Would certainly make sure those failing memories of yours wouldn't hinder their ability to figure out what your encryption keys were now would it . . . . .
Once upon a time, we had games that required the latest-bleeding-edge-state-of-the-art-nuclear-powered system that money could possibly buy to run at anything other than minimal settings. I remember the days when the games capability exceeded the hardware available at the time to run at the " best " settings.
The gaming market is pretty much what drove the hardware. Workstations running content creation software was, and still is, a niche market by and far.
Once the console matured to the point where the graphics were pretty close to the PC experience ( sans the $2k price tag ) everyone switched to the consoles. Now, we really don't have much of anything that pushes the limits of modern era desktops in the gaming world. The average system will run damn near anything out there pretty well. A high end system today will likely run content for the next several YEARS at the pace the software is lagging behind.
Of course, even IF the games were pushing the envelope a bit more, the PC gaming market is becoming so annoying to stay in ( DRM, DLC, etc ) that fewer and fewer want to even bother with it. Easier to fire up a console. So, unless the hardware makers want to move into the console / tablet / phone markets, they need to convince the software folks to cool it with the bullshit. I won't even get into the debacle that is Windows 8.
Hmmm . . . . maybe Nvidia needs to spin off a gaming division to help keep their product necessary:D
While your methods for living off the grid are valid, in this day and age living in a way that you described will quickly put you at the top of a surveillance list. Ultimately putting you right back in the spotlight you're trying so hard to avoid:D
Why ?
Because only terrorists apparently have any need for privacy:D
OMGHESPAYINGWITHCASH!!!! Call the FBI !! What do you mean you don't have a Facebook / Twitter account ? No cell phone you pinko-commie ?
ALL 3D modeling software is extremely complicated.
It's probably the most complex software I've used to date. The specific flavors I'm familiar with are: ( In order of greatest to least knowledge )
Softimage | XSI Rhino 3D Zbrush Maya Max
Your interests seem to be in content creation destined for CnC system. As a result, I would try to emphasize sticking with a package that is strong in NURBS. Rhino kicks much ass in the Nurbs department, but that is ALL it does without some third party plugins. ( Like T-Splines or the like ) Oh and Rhino doesn't play on Linux. Windows only. Figure that's an important point to make on this site:D
Of my list above, Maya is probably the strongest candidate for both Nurbs and poly-modeling. In addition, it's pretty much the current industry standard, so you should have no issues finding training material to learn with.
Tip: I suggest the purchase of a punching bag or stress ball. Like I said, this software is among the most complex you'll ever use. You have to be both engineer / programmer and an artist at the same time to make anything you'll be happy with.
Intelligence and / or academics are not looked upon favorably within the United States. You could have multiple doctorates, cure cancer, and broker peace on Earth and you would STILL rank behind, both in compensation and popularity ( insert the currently popular celebrity, or professional athlete here ).
While not so much bullying once you become an adult, ( pissing off the people who fix your computer is on par with pissing off the folks who fix your food ) it does make for a damned annoying work environment. ( Unless you work for a company who employs extremely intelligent folks. Think Google. )
The snide comments from those who know your little secret are never ending I assure you.
This was actually brought up in the Mensa forums once upon a time about folks who hide their membership and why. Many related stories very similar in nature to my own experiences. Folks get turned down for jobs for being " too " smart, employee hostility, managements forever go to guy, etc.
With few exceptions, if you DO fall into the category of higher than average intellect, I would highly suggest you put forth the extra effort to keep that information away from fellow employee ears lest you add some misery to your life. That, or remind them how tragic it would be to find their corporate system loaded with animal porn, clown fetish images and draft emails to the boss about your desire to smear yourself with Jello and run naked through the streets with nothing but an inflatable horse around your waist for clothing during the next security audit:D
If the media didn't portray this as the " END OF TEH WORLD ! " then I may pay more attention to it.
The bottom line is, while tragic, the damage is pretty much what is expected from a Category One Storm. Could have been a lot worse. There are four more categories of stronger storms to contend with . . .
Lots of rain, storm surge, high winds for a while, fire, flooding, no power for several days to months ( YES months. Some places here after IKE had no power for MONTHS ), the usual. At least it didn't spawn a dozen tornadoes over the city for you. Nothing like dealing with a hurricane AND the friggin tornadoes they usually spawn on top of it all. ( Hurricane Alicia - 1983 I think it was )
Lots of lessons are going to be learned. ( Like not putting emergency generators and / or their fuel tanks in the basements. Realizing your home insurance doesn't include Flood insurance. Etc. )
The only folks that are shocked at the damage are those that have never been through this. They may have seen it on TV in past years when Florida, Texas or Louisiana got hammered by similar storms and didn't think that much of it. Now, at least, this regions generation has a healthy respect for what a hurricane is capable of. If another one comes along, they'll be much better prepared to deal with it.
Chuckle. I still consider it sensationalism:D Some news sites are basically saying " If you don't evacuate, you'll DIE !!!! "
The reality is . . . well no not really. You'll be damned uncomfortable since you'll likely have no power for a few weeks. No gas either since pumps rely on electrical power to run.
Yes, btw, I DO live near the ocean so I'm very, very familiar with what a hurricane is capable of. Work about a mile from the beach. ( Galveston, TX )
The last hurricane we dealt with was IKE. Strong Cat-2 with a storm surge in the 10-14' range. You should have seen what this island looked like post storm.:| Water levels reached 15-20 feet in some places.
It wreaked havoc, but the world didn't end. Thousands and thousands didn't die. The island is still rebuilding in places but that's the way of things. The price you pay for living near the ocean I'm afraid.
The news loves to hype up and scare everyone to death because it makes for great news.
In the end, the storms are rarely as horrific as the media likes to portray them.
The news is treating this like the Wrath of God is coming to destroy the East Coast. You can't flip to ANY news station in the US that doesn't have some junior reporter standing on the beach in the wind talking about how civilization as we know it is about to end.:|
IT'S A CATEGORY 1 STORM FFS.
It just barely meets the requirements of even getting a mention at all. Yet, the news is going nuts with it. To those of us who deal with these damn things yearly, a Cat-1 storm is nothing more than heavy rainfall for a day or two.
Put it on the news when a strong Cat-2 or Cat-3 comes rolling in. THEN it will actually be newsworthy. ( When your junior reporter gets blown off their feet and the wind overturns the news van that's your que to start filming )
Admittedly though, it is a nice break from all the politics BS.:D
There is no way on this fucking EARTH the powers that be ( read that governments ) are going to let anything tarnish the holy grail of surveillance tech that people stand in line for weeks to buy of their own accord.
Birthers will recind their claim against Obama, Dawkins will get Baptised, and Ron Paul elected president before this will happen.
Rest assured, if it DOES, it is with full blessings of the aforementioned governments.
games actually drove the PC hardware market. The latest, greatest game would only run the top end settings by utilizing hardware that didn't even EXIST when the game was released.
These days we have consoles and very, very few games are built with PC only in mind. Too much money to be lost by ignoring the console market. Thus, any games made for the PC have to be " dumbed down " for lack of a better word to ensure it will run on current generation consoles. Even though top end PC hardware can absolutely crush any console on the market today.
In fact, it seems these days the games are made for consoles FIRST, then ported to the PC platform.
Other than 3D / CAD software and the like, there really isn't anything to push the hardware makers to innovate anything. Especially at the consumer level.
I mean, seriously, how much horsepower do you need for Facebook or Twitter ?
If you want another example of how peaceful protests are pointless, try to organize one any where near where the ( insert elected official here ) will be speaking. You'll find yourself herded into a " Free Speech Zone " several blocks away where you are free to protest to your little hearts desire. Ignoring the zone and organizing a protest closer to your intended audience will see you arrested and carted off somewhere.
So yeah, while you get to protest, no one will even hear or see you doing it. Making the entire thing pointless to begin with.
In addition, it is not unheard of for the police to plant LE's in plain clothes within the protesting crowds to give the Riot Geared folks a reason to step in. In fact, the sooner they start the silliness, the sooner they get to clear the protesters out. Otherwise, they might be stuck there all day long waiting for something to happen.
With the only exception in recent memory being the huge backlash over SOPA, I can't think of any peaceful protests in this country that have made a difference about anything for quite a long time. When the peaceful versions of protest are finally regarded as a pointless exercise that will only serve to get you arrested, folks will start resorting to the non-peaceful variants. In this, I fully agree with girlintraining.
Either use a semi-auto weapon ( SKS, AR-15, and the like ) or outfit your bolt gun with a suppressor and quietly take down the coyotes without them even realizing what's happening. Hell, your neighbors will thank you too:D ( So will your ears )
My Savage.308 is equipped with an AAC Cyclone and you will NOT hear it beyond fifty yards or so. My similarly equipped Savage MK-II (.22lr ) is on par with a pellet or BB gun when fired. A coyote or wild pigs worst nightmare.
It's designed to give you fast access to the weapon when needed, yet provide a simple deterrent to keep your ( obviously unlearned ) kiddo from casually picking it up. It's not designed to be " child proof " any more so than the crazy lids on prescription drug containers are. Want to increase its ability to keep little Timmy from getting it open ? Mount it to the wall, or inside a drawer where it can't be thrown around the house like a football.
Besides, these devices are really only necessary in either of the following circumstances:
1) You live in a nanny-state that has imposed these requirements upon you under the " Think of the Children " clause 2) You are a lazy or terrible parent that failed at teaching little Timmy / Susie what a firearm is and how / why to handle one correctly and safely
( In which case you probably shouldn't be handling firearms either )
That's likely because there is far more to a good job than a good wage. For those of us who aren't just coming out of college anyway:D
$150k per year ? Nice. Working 80 hour weeks to get there ? No thank you. I do have a life outside of my work and I plan to keep it that way. Work hours, conditions, percent of travel, vacation time, benefits and overall company attitude towards their employees are all factored in when I'm job hunting.
I'm not going to be slaved to my cell phone 24/7. I'm not going to work through lunch everyday without compensation either. My expectations of you are as important as your expectations of me. Miserable morale of existing employees is a huge red flag as are high turnover rates. My life will not get put on hold so I can work super overtime because the sales folks promised a customer we could build Rome in a day for them. Tip: Fire your sales folks and hire some with realistic goals.
I understand probationary periods and entry level positions. Common sense for those of us who have been in the workforce for several years.
However, I know what I am capable of and will not waste my time if you seem to think I am going to work for outsourced wages. Hire a recent college grad with no experience or your favorite ( insert low wage nation citizen here ) if you want to go the cheap route.
Tip # 2: Amateurs are far more expensive in the long run than any Professional will ever be.
I will have done my homework over cost of living expenses in the area you wish me to work within. You want me to live in Los Angeles or New York City and only want to pay $60k / year ? Yeah, you keep thinking that.
My salary requirements will allow me to live reasonably close to where I work without having to eat Ramen Noodles every night. Negotiations about telecommuting may soften my stance a bit.
I guess the bottom line is this:
Unless you're planning on hiring outsourced labor, you better realize that you get what you pay for. Abuse your employees in any way ( hours, compensation, silly corporate bs games ) and your hiring manager will go insane. Unless I am in really bad shape, I am not going to grovel and beg for a job. Quit assuming everyone will work for pennies on the dollar simply because the economy is in bad shape right now.
Folks may be desperate, but they're not stupid. Killing yourself for a job that won't even cover your bills is a pointless waste of time.
Everyone uses the same damned excuse every time this topic comes up. OMG what if a doctor is at the movie and he gets an emergency phone call and has to jump right up and go perform BRAIN SURGERY right away . . . . and . . . and your jammer prevents him from getting the call and . . and . . someone DIES. . ..
Yeah. SHUT UP. Hospitals have f*cking SHIFTS and the GD hospital is FULL of more doctors at any given moment than all of us combined even know. Stupid fucking argument. The whole, omg the emergency folks can't do their job argument is really getting old.
Show me an establishment within a reasonable distance of the civilized world and I can guarantee you they have land line systems for emergencies. Likely several. Why ? Because cell phones are unreliable that's why. . . ..
Solution: Set aside a small part of spectrum designed for emergency personnel if you really think the above argument is a valid one. Their phones will run on this frequency only. Hand it out to all the folks that qualify as emergency personnel and done. Since jammers work on specific frequency bands, no one will bother making one for this frequency as too few folks will actually use it. Kinda like writing viruses for Linux systems. Yeah you can, but why ?
Cell phones aren't reliable to begin with. Signal strength comes and goes, calls get dropped constantly. The damn service is so bad you wouldn't know if it was your shitty service that's dropping the call or some one with an active jammer. This is a moot argument until cell phones actually provide a reliable service.
There are three means to deal with an asshole talking on a phone where they shouldn't be.
1) Hope they realize their error and STFU on their own. Unlikely as most who are guilty of this behavior are too damn stupid to realize what they're doing is annoying the shit out of everyone around them. This is a by-product of a world without consequences. They talk and act like assholes because no one will do anything to stop them out of litigation fears.
2) Run a jammer. This effectively removes the problem since . . . ( see number 3 )
3) Talk to them about it. This is pointless and will likely start a damn fight. Folks get quite pissy when you ask them to put the phone down or refrain from talking at 110db. Ask me how I know this . . . .:|
All that being said let me say this:
These devices are a godsend in certain scenarios. The portable ones typically have a 10m range and are easy to use. Push a button for a temporary 30 second disruption ( all phones will show " No Signal " ) or a flip switch for a continuous cone of glorious cell-free silence. Movie theaters, quiet restaurants, live performances, libraries, church, hospitals, you know. . . all the places where Common Sense would dictate " Hey, maybe this is a bad time to have my Lady Gaga ringtone fire up at max volume for the thirty seconds it's going to take me to dig through my purse to find my phone " all perfect examples of where jamming comes in handy.
Trust me, you'll get nowhere trying to teach them why they are in the wrong here. Unless you enjoy fighting, it's far, FAR easier just to deal with it discreetly because establishment management surely isn't going to do anything about it.
Now, I wouldn't have to resort to such measures if the management of any of the aforementioned establishments removed them from the premises for blatantly annoying the rest of the patrons. Since the world is a litigation-happy place, no one would dare say anything to anyone. Welcome to reality.
Thus, the jammers popularity.
Ever consider these little devices probably wouldn't sell so well if folks didn't believe there to be a problem worth purchasing one to begin with ?
Tip: ( from experience )
Don't use these on the bus or near roads / motorways. As driver X is blasting down the road with phone glued to her ear she is already distrac
Go on a trip and fire up that little Map app ( to figure out where you are ) on that Iphone and watch what it does to your data usage.
Try and stream ANY music service ( even at low bandwidth settings ) while you're at work during the day and watch what it does to your data usage. ( I have to do it over 3G because my corp firewall blocks any site ( and known VPN ports ) that makes my job more tolerable )
Video is a complete joke unless you have wi-fi access so I won't even go there. Even if you COULD, you would obliterate your data caps in a hurry if you tried to watch any video.
I recall when 3G was supposed to be omglookhowfastitis, but it sure seems to have slowed down dramatically over the past several months. My data plan is 200M ( and I rarely reach it as I don't even use the phone much anymore due to the caps in place ) but I plan on dropping the phone completely once my contract is up. Unlikely I'll even bother with another one of any flavor at all.
Done playing these damn games with these folks. They can keep their damn phones.
The only reason I still have a Windows based system at all is for the applications I utilize that require Windows to work.
I use a SATA selection switch to boot either onto a Windows Drive for the 3D app work, or onto a Linux drive for all my websurfing needs. The Windows drive runs minimal services, no firewall, no anti-virus. It does not get patched beyond the current ones loaded for stability reasons. I load no new software onto this drive. It is net blocked at the router. No internet access at all for that system. Any finished work I need to upload to the net is transferred to a dedicated E-Sata drive which I can access from my Linux drive. As a result, it's secure and pretty damned stable. Perfect for 3D app work.
Once you have purchased a licensed copy of an app for the Windows platform, it would be quite expensive to purchase another license for a different OS. ( Linux or Mac based ) Assuming the software in question even has a ported version to the alt OS to begin with.
You'll also get into driver stability / support for upper end Graphics Cards needed to run the software. While Quaddro's have certified drivers under Windows, I can't swear to it under Linux ( which is where I would prefer to be ).
Here is my very small list of why I'm still on Windows: ( due to having commercial licenses for each )
Considering how petty Congress is being about the entire issue, I would downgrade the damn rating as well. From their ( S&P ) standpoint, the leaders of the USA are willing to put the entire economy at risk while they squabble about their own little pet issues.
We ( the US ) obviously can't get its act together by ourselves. Congress proved that. It took the threat of a downgrade before we finally decided to get semi-serious about the issue. Personally, I would consider the S&P downgrade as a warning shot across the bow. In effect "Get your sh*t together or suffer the consequences".
We shouldn't REQUIRE a GD debt increase to begin with. If our idiot 'leaders' would learn to spend less than they take in, we wouldn't NEED a debt ceiling at all. S&P sees this, as does the rest of the world. The leadership isn't interested in reducing their spending and, as a result, S&P made the right decision. This isn't a sustainable path. At some point it WILL come falling down around you. Why the retards in charge can't figure this out is beyond my ability to explain.
Personally, I hope the other rating companies follow suit. It will take that level of threat before my elected morons finally quit bickering and note the cliff edge they're dancing on. Maybe ( and it's a longshot ) they'll be able to get this train back on the right track. Maybe.
Given their track record, I'm definitely not counting on it. . .:|
Seriously, blasphemy a criminal offense ( again ) ? It's really tough to take any government ( or country ) seriously when they revert to dark age laws. . . What's next ? Going to revert back to the Earth being flat or the center of the universe theory ? Sink some witches in the nearby river to see if they float perhaps ?
What a grand idea. . . so does the new law specify a specific religion ? Or just Christianity ? Everyone knows that any religion other than the local 'accepted' one, is blasphemous to the local groups for the 'other' heathens do not believe in the 'right' God. So will the Yahweh-Squads start kicking down doors at the local mosque ? Round up the Buddhists ? Re-educate the Atheists ? Will works by Dawkins and similar authors in your library become grounds for your arrest ?
Of course, this is likely the "whatever-you-do-don't-anger-the-muslims" law.
Maybe it's just me, but my computers and all networking gear is connected to the main house power via UPS systems. Besides not wanting the random voltage spike or power failure to kill my system, it's designed to filter noise off the line to begin with, so I have serious doubts any noise generated from the computer will "leak" out past the UPS going the other way. . . .
If an organization sought to ruin my life over something as trivial as this, there would be no jail time. I would have to try and go for the record in the amount of sheer violence and destruction I could possibly bring to bear on the offending entity. I would leave nothing but ashes. . . . half the populace would call me a monster, while the other half, a hero. What incentive remains to live when an entity such as the RIAA / MPAA can ruin lives with such impunity ? I say screw them, and go down guns blazing so to speak.
What choice is left to those without the means to defend themselves against such tactics ? Using the law to fight them will only result in financial ruin so it's a win-win situation for those with the funds to do so.
As long as we play by their rules, we will always lose. . . . .
Then again, we could always point out to the judge / jury / evil-lawyers that if the songs are worth so much, why do they pay the artists pennies on the dollar for them ?
Dunno if I would be quite so quick to point the finger at a disgruntled Union employee just yet. It would make little sense to cut the fiber BEFORE a strike actually takes place.
Typically, when something like this occurs, the folks responsible will wait until the strike goes active as it would greatly prolong the outage. With that said, I can't imagine any reason for someone doing this ahead of time outside of a potential warning. -shrug-
The contract has expired yes, but as of this writing, there isn't any information from the Union nor the Company on how the negotiations are going outside of the usual propaganda from both sides.
There are currently two rumor mills circulating about. One has a potential strike occuring sometime in the May timeframe. The other pegs it as early as Easter Sunday. Either way, I wish they would either agree to the damn contract or get on with a strike. Sitting at work not knowing for days on end really gets annoying after a while.:|
If a strike does happen, it's going to simply be a test to see who can hold out the longest. On one hand you have folks not getting paid in a sh*tty economy. On the other, the company will be working it's management to death to compensate. My understanding is twelve hour shifts, six days per week initially. Folks being moved around to different offices means roundtrip drive times of two to three hours ( traffic permitting ) in some cases.
It boils down to:
Can the non-management folks handle the lack of pay long enough to outlast the management who will be ready to kill anything in sight after a few weeks of insanity level work hours ?
All in all, this is just going to suck for everyone.
*Except those highly compensated executive types and high level Union officials*
Recall the man who made his own airline tickets not all that long ago?
Recall the sh*t storm that brought about ?
Folks are learning the best way to keep the lawyers and police off their back is to prove the point, but don't go as far as producing any thing illegal.
Slashdot Mirror
can watch and learn a lot from their Hollywood brethren since they seem to be on the same path.
Games with a story ? Bah. Story takes a back seat to effects and eye candy these days. Give me a good story and I can forgo crazy visuals. Give me a good story AND crazy visuals and you've got a rare gem on your hands.
With all the silliness in the courts anymore, looks like in order to maintain any sort of confidentiality we're gonna have to take a chapter from the military's book on how to keep the secret stuff. . . well . . . secret. ( Not their new book mind you, since the Chinese are stealing secrets left and right these days :D )
Radical, probably. Effective ? Absolutely.
Of your hard drive stack, ensure the top slot is available. Open an old drive chassis and gut it. Fill with Thermite. Place said unit above other drives. I leave it to you to figure out how to wire it out to initiate the burn. Perhaps a key or, for the really paranoid, wire it to fire by opening the chassis ( intrusion switch ) or ( insert your own imaginative idea here ).
The idea here isn't to make an explosive, just some molten metal to wreak havoc on the drives below it. See you recover the keys for those. . . .
( Oh and remember, a little Thermite goes a long way. Don't go crazy with it )
" Your honor, I don't recall the passwords "
/tin foil hat time >
Call it the Ronald Reagan defense. ( Or political defense for that matter ) Works for them all the time.
"Unless it is junk, it is more than likely that they brute forced the encryption passphrase for that hard drive. "
That would worry me, though it would have to be a ridiculously short key length / space to be plausible.
< tin foil hat time >
I have always been curious, what would stop manufacturers from basically throwing a keylogger on a chip
into the keyboard hardware itself ? Ever play with a keylogger dongle ? It was an inline unit between the
keyboard and computer that simply logged everything you typed. To activate it, you simply typed a certain
password / passphrase in and it would open up in note / wordpad and show you the entire log.
It would be dead simple to add this within keyboards today and no one would have a clue it was even there.
Would certainly make sure those failing memories of yours wouldn't hinder their ability to figure out what your
encryption keys were now would it . . . . .
Thoughts ?
<
Once upon a time, we had games that required the latest-bleeding-edge-state-of-the-art-nuclear-powered system that money could possibly buy to run at anything other than minimal settings. I remember the days when the games capability exceeded the hardware available at the time to run at the " best " settings.
:D
The gaming market is pretty much what drove the hardware. Workstations running content creation software was, and still is, a niche market by and far.
Once the console matured to the point where the graphics were pretty close to the PC experience ( sans the $2k price tag ) everyone switched to the consoles. Now, we really don't have much of anything that pushes the limits of modern era desktops in the gaming world. The average system will run damn near anything out there pretty well. A high end system today will likely run content for the next several YEARS at the pace the software is lagging behind.
Of course, even IF the games were pushing the envelope a bit more, the PC gaming market is becoming so annoying to stay in ( DRM, DLC, etc ) that fewer and fewer want to even bother with it. Easier to fire up a console. So, unless the hardware makers want to move into the console / tablet / phone markets, they need to convince the software folks to cool it with the bullshit. I won't even get into the debacle that is Windows 8.
Hmmm . . . . maybe Nvidia needs to spin off a gaming division to help keep their product necessary
While your methods for living off the grid are valid, in this day and age living in a way that you described :D
:D
.you . . spawn of Ted Kaczynski . . . you
will quickly put you at the top of a surveillance list. Ultimately putting you right back in the spotlight you're
trying so hard to avoid
Why ?
Because only terrorists apparently have any need for privacy
OMGHESPAYINGWITHCASH!!!! Call the FBI !!
What do you mean you don't have a Facebook / Twitter account ?
No cell phone you pinko-commie ?
You .
*chuckle*
ALL 3D modeling software is extremely complicated.
:D
It's probably the most complex software I've used to date. The specific flavors I'm familiar with are: ( In order of greatest to least knowledge )
Softimage | XSI
Rhino 3D
Zbrush
Maya
Max
Your interests seem to be in content creation destined for CnC system. As a result, I would try to emphasize sticking with a package that
is strong in NURBS. Rhino kicks much ass in the Nurbs department, but that is ALL it does without some third party plugins. ( Like T-Splines
or the like ) Oh and Rhino doesn't play on Linux. Windows only. Figure that's an important point to make on this site
Of my list above, Maya is probably the strongest candidate for both Nurbs and poly-modeling. In addition, it's pretty much the current industry
standard, so you should have no issues finding training material to learn with.
Tip: I suggest the purchase of a punching bag or stress ball. Like I said, this software is among the most complex you'll ever use. You have
to be both engineer / programmer and an artist at the same time to make anything you'll be happy with.
Intelligence and / or academics are not looked upon favorably within the United States. You could have multiple doctorates, cure cancer, and broker peace on Earth and you would STILL rank behind, both in compensation and popularity ( insert the currently popular celebrity, or professional athlete here ).
:D
While not so much bullying once you become an adult, ( pissing off the people who fix your computer is on par with pissing off the folks who fix your food ) it does make for a damned annoying work environment. ( Unless you work for a company who employs extremely intelligent folks. Think Google. )
The snide comments from those who know your little secret are never ending I assure you.
This was actually brought up in the Mensa forums once upon a time about folks who hide their membership and why. Many related stories very similar in nature to my own experiences. Folks get turned down for jobs for being " too " smart, employee hostility, managements forever go to guy, etc.
With few exceptions, if you DO fall into the category of higher than average intellect, I would highly suggest you put forth the extra effort to keep that information away from fellow employee ears lest you add some misery to your life. That, or remind them how tragic it would be to find their corporate system loaded with animal porn, clown fetish images and draft emails to the boss about your desire to smear yourself with Jello and run naked through the streets with nothing but an inflatable horse around your waist for clothing during the next security audit
If the media didn't portray this as the " END OF TEH WORLD ! " then I may pay more attention to it.
The bottom line is, while tragic, the damage is pretty much what is expected from a Category One Storm. Could have been a lot worse. There are four more categories of stronger storms to contend with . . .
Lots of rain, storm surge, high winds for a while, fire, flooding, no power for several days to months ( YES months. Some places here after IKE had no power for MONTHS ), the usual. At least it didn't spawn a dozen tornadoes over the city for you. Nothing like dealing with a hurricane AND the friggin tornadoes they usually spawn on top of it all. ( Hurricane Alicia - 1983 I think it was )
Lots of lessons are going to be learned. ( Like not putting emergency generators and / or their fuel tanks in the basements. Realizing your home insurance doesn't include Flood insurance. Etc. )
The only folks that are shocked at the damage are those that have never been through this. They may have seen it on TV in past years when Florida, Texas or Louisiana got hammered by similar storms and didn't think that much of it. Now, at least, this regions generation has a healthy respect for what a hurricane is capable of. If another one comes along, they'll be much better prepared to deal with it.
Chuckle. I still consider it sensationalism :D
:| Water levels reached 15-20
Some news sites are basically saying " If you don't evacuate, you'll DIE !!!! "
The reality is . . . well no not really. You'll be damned uncomfortable since you'll likely have
no power for a few weeks. No gas either since pumps rely on electrical power to run.
Yes, btw, I DO live near the ocean so I'm very, very familiar with what a hurricane is capable of.
Work about a mile from the beach. ( Galveston, TX )
The last hurricane we dealt with was IKE. Strong Cat-2 with a storm surge in the 10-14' range.
You should have seen what this island looked like post storm.
feet in some places.
It wreaked havoc, but the world didn't end. Thousands and thousands didn't die. The island
is still rebuilding in places but that's the way of things. The price you pay for living near the ocean
I'm afraid.
The news loves to hype up and scare everyone to death because it makes for great news.
In the end, the storms are rarely as horrific as the media likes to portray them.
The news is treating this like the Wrath of God is coming to destroy the East Coast. You can't flip to ANY news station in the US that doesn't have some junior reporter standing on the beach in the wind talking about how civilization as we know it is about to end. :|
:D
IT'S A CATEGORY 1 STORM FFS.
It just barely meets the requirements of even getting a mention at all. Yet, the news is going nuts with it.
To those of us who deal with these damn things yearly, a Cat-1 storm is nothing more than heavy rainfall for a day or two.
Put it on the news when a strong Cat-2 or Cat-3 comes rolling in. THEN it will actually be newsworthy.
( When your junior reporter gets blown off their feet and the wind overturns the news van that's your que to start filming )
Admittedly though, it is a nice break from all the politics BS.
There is no way on this fucking EARTH the powers that be ( read that governments ) are going to let anything tarnish the holy grail of surveillance tech that people stand in line for weeks to buy of their own accord.
Birthers will recind their claim against Obama, Dawkins will get Baptised, and Ron Paul elected president before this will happen.
Rest assured, if it DOES, it is with full blessings of the aforementioned governments.
games actually drove the PC hardware market. The latest, greatest game would only run the top end settings by
utilizing hardware that didn't even EXIST when the game was released.
These days we have consoles and very, very few games are built with PC only in mind. Too much money to be lost
by ignoring the console market. Thus, any games made for the PC have to be " dumbed down " for lack of a better
word to ensure it will run on current generation consoles. Even though top end PC hardware can absolutely crush
any console on the market today.
In fact, it seems these days the games are made for consoles FIRST, then ported to the PC platform.
Other than 3D / CAD software and the like, there really isn't anything to push the hardware makers to innovate anything.
Especially at the consumer level.
I mean, seriously, how much horsepower do you need for Facebook or Twitter ?
If you want another example of how peaceful protests are pointless, try to organize one any where near where the ( insert elected official here ) will be speaking. You'll find yourself herded into a " Free Speech Zone " several blocks away where you are free to protest to your little hearts desire. Ignoring the zone and organizing a protest closer to your intended audience will see you arrested and carted off somewhere.
So yeah, while you get to protest, no one will even hear or see you doing it. Making the entire thing pointless to begin with.
In addition, it is not unheard of for the police to plant LE's in plain clothes within the protesting crowds to give the Riot Geared folks a reason to step in. In fact, the sooner they start the silliness, the sooner they get to clear the protesters out. Otherwise, they might be stuck there all day long waiting for something to happen.
With the only exception in recent memory being the huge backlash over SOPA, I can't think of any peaceful protests in this country that have made a difference about anything for quite a long time. When the peaceful versions of protest are finally regarded as a pointless exercise that will only serve to get you arrested, folks will start resorting to the non-peaceful variants. In this, I fully agree with girlintraining.
Either use a semi-auto weapon ( SKS, AR-15, and the like ) or outfit your bolt gun with a suppressor and quietly take down the coyotes without them even realizing what's happening. Hell, your neighbors will thank you too :D ( So will your ears )
.308 is equipped with an AAC Cyclone and you will NOT hear it beyond fifty yards or so. My similarly equipped Savage MK-II ( .22lr ) is on par with a pellet or BB gun when fired. A coyote or wild pigs worst nightmare.
My Savage
It's not a safe. It's a " Lockbox "
It's designed to give you fast access to the weapon when needed, yet provide a simple deterrent to keep your ( obviously unlearned ) kiddo from casually picking it up. It's not designed to be " child proof " any more so than the crazy lids on prescription drug containers are. Want to increase its ability to keep little Timmy from getting it open ? Mount it to the wall, or inside a drawer where it can't be thrown around the house like a football.
Besides, these devices are really only necessary in either of the following circumstances:
1) You live in a nanny-state that has imposed these requirements upon you under the " Think of the Children " clause
2) You are a lazy or terrible parent that failed at teaching little Timmy / Susie what a firearm is and how / why to handle one correctly and safely
( In which case you probably shouldn't be handling firearms either )
That's likely because there is far more to a good job than a good wage. For those of :D
us who aren't just coming out of college anyway
$150k per year ? Nice. Working 80 hour weeks to get there ? No thank you.
I do have a life outside of my work and I plan to keep it that way. Work hours,
conditions, percent of travel, vacation time, benefits and overall company
attitude towards their employees are all factored in when I'm job hunting.
I'm not going to be slaved to my cell phone 24/7. I'm not going to work through
lunch everyday without compensation either. My expectations of you are as important
as your expectations of me. Miserable morale of existing employees is a huge red flag
as are high turnover rates. My life will not get put on hold so I can work super overtime
because the sales folks promised a customer we could build Rome in a day for them.
Tip: Fire your sales folks and hire some with realistic goals.
I understand probationary periods and entry level positions. Common sense for those
of us who have been in the workforce for several years.
However, I know what I am capable of and will not waste my time if you seem to think
I am going to work for outsourced wages. Hire a recent college grad with no experience
or your favorite ( insert low wage nation citizen here ) if you want to go the cheap route.
Tip # 2: Amateurs are far more expensive in the long run than any Professional will ever be.
I will have done my homework over cost of living expenses in the area you wish me
to work within. You want me to live in Los Angeles or New York City and only want to pay
$60k / year ? Yeah, you keep thinking that.
My salary requirements will allow me to live reasonably close to where I work without
having to eat Ramen Noodles every night. Negotiations about telecommuting may soften
my stance a bit.
I guess the bottom line is this:
Unless you're planning on hiring outsourced labor, you better realize that you get what you
pay for. Abuse your employees in any way ( hours, compensation, silly corporate bs games )
and your hiring manager will go insane. Unless I am in really bad shape, I am not going to
grovel and beg for a job. Quit assuming everyone will work for pennies on the dollar simply
because the economy is in bad shape right now.
Folks may be desperate, but they're not stupid. Killing yourself for a job that won't even cover
your bills is a pointless waste of time.
In four words . . .
.
.
:|
Yes, it's worth it.
Everyone uses the same damned excuse every time this topic comes up. OMG what if a doctor is at the movie and he gets an emergency phone call and has to jump right up and go perform BRAIN SURGERY right away . . . . and . . . and your jammer prevents him from getting the call and . . and . . someone DIES. . .
Yeah. SHUT UP. Hospitals have f*cking SHIFTS and the GD hospital is FULL of more doctors at any given moment than all of us combined even know. Stupid fucking argument. The whole, omg the emergency folks can't do their job argument is really getting old.
Show me an establishment within a reasonable distance of the civilized world and I can guarantee you they have land line systems for emergencies. Likely several. Why ? Because cell phones are unreliable that's why. . . .
Solution: Set aside a small part of spectrum designed for emergency personnel if you really think the above argument is a valid one. Their phones will run on this frequency only. Hand it out to all the folks that qualify as emergency personnel and done. Since jammers work on specific frequency bands, no one will bother making one for this frequency as too few folks will actually use it. Kinda like writing viruses for Linux systems. Yeah you can, but why ?
Cell phones aren't reliable to begin with. Signal strength comes and goes, calls get dropped constantly. The damn service is so bad you wouldn't know if it was your shitty service that's dropping the call or some one with an active jammer. This is a moot argument until cell phones actually provide a reliable service.
There are three means to deal with an asshole talking on a phone where they shouldn't be.
1) Hope they realize their error and STFU on their own. Unlikely as most who are guilty of this behavior are too damn stupid to realize what they're doing is annoying the shit out of everyone around them. This is a by-product of a world without consequences. They talk and act like assholes because no one will do anything to stop them out of litigation fears.
2) Run a jammer. This effectively removes the problem since . . . ( see number 3 )
3) Talk to them about it. This is pointless and will likely start a damn fight. Folks get quite pissy when you ask them to put the phone down or refrain from talking at 110db. Ask me how I know this . . . .
All that being said let me say this:
These devices are a godsend in certain scenarios. The portable ones typically have a 10m range and are easy to use. Push a button for a temporary 30 second disruption ( all phones will show " No Signal " ) or a flip switch for a continuous cone of glorious cell-free silence. Movie theaters, quiet restaurants, live performances, libraries, church, hospitals, you know. . . all the places where Common Sense would dictate " Hey, maybe this is a bad time to have my Lady Gaga ringtone fire up at max volume for the thirty seconds it's going to take me to dig through my purse to find my phone " all perfect examples of where jamming comes in handy.
Trust me, you'll get nowhere trying to teach them why they are in the wrong here. Unless you enjoy fighting, it's far, FAR easier just to deal with it discreetly because establishment management surely isn't going to do anything about it.
Now, I wouldn't have to resort to such measures if the management of any of the aforementioned establishments removed them from the premises for blatantly annoying the rest of the patrons. Since the world is a litigation-happy place, no one would dare say anything to anyone. Welcome to reality.
Thus, the jammers popularity.
Ever consider these little devices probably wouldn't sell so well if folks didn't believe there to be a problem worth purchasing one to begin with ?
Tip: ( from experience )
Don't use these on the bus or near roads / motorways. As driver X is blasting down the road with phone glued to her ear she is already distrac
Go on a trip and fire up that little Map app ( to figure out where you are ) on that Iphone and watch what it does to your data usage.
Try and stream ANY music service ( even at low bandwidth settings ) while you're at work during the day and watch what it does to your data usage.
( I have to do it over 3G because my corp firewall blocks any site ( and known VPN ports ) that makes my job more tolerable )
Video is a complete joke unless you have wi-fi access so I won't even go there. Even if you COULD, you would obliterate your data caps in a hurry if
you tried to watch any video.
I recall when 3G was supposed to be omglookhowfastitis, but it sure seems to have slowed down dramatically over the past several months. My data
plan is 200M ( and I rarely reach it as I don't even use the phone much anymore due to the caps in place ) but I plan on dropping the phone completely
once my contract is up. Unlikely I'll even bother with another one of any flavor at all.
Done playing these damn games with these folks. They can keep their damn phones.
The only reason I still have a Windows based system at all is for the applications I utilize that require Windows to work.
I use a SATA selection switch to boot either onto a Windows Drive for the 3D app work, or onto a Linux drive for all my
websurfing needs. The Windows drive runs minimal services, no firewall, no anti-virus. It does not get patched beyond
the current ones loaded for stability reasons. I load no new software onto this drive. It is net blocked at the router.
No internet access at all for that system. Any finished work I need to upload to the net is transferred to a dedicated
E-Sata drive which I can access from my Linux drive. As a result, it's secure and pretty damned stable. Perfect for 3D
app work.
Once you have purchased a licensed copy of an app for the Windows platform, it would be quite expensive to purchase another
license for a different OS. ( Linux or Mac based ) Assuming the software in question even has a ported version to the alt OS to
begin with.
You'll also get into driver stability / support for upper end Graphics Cards needed to run the software. While Quaddro's have
certified drivers under Windows, I can't swear to it under Linux ( which is where I would prefer to be ).
Here is my very small list of why I'm still on Windows: ( due to having commercial licenses for each )
Maya
3DS-Max
Softimage | XSI
Mudbox
Zbrush
Rhinocerous 3D | Vray
If a Linux flavor existed for ALL of them, I would switch today.
Considering how petty Congress is being about the entire issue, I would downgrade the damn rating as well. From their ( S&P ) standpoint, the leaders of the USA are willing to put the entire economy at risk while they squabble about their own little pet issues.
:|
We ( the US ) obviously can't get its act together by ourselves. Congress proved that. It took the threat of a downgrade before we finally decided to get semi-serious about the issue. Personally, I would consider the S&P downgrade as a warning shot across the bow. In effect "Get your sh*t together or suffer the consequences".
We shouldn't REQUIRE a GD debt increase to begin with. If our idiot 'leaders' would learn to spend less than they take in, we wouldn't NEED a debt ceiling at all. S&P sees this, as does the rest of the world. The leadership isn't interested in reducing their spending and, as a result, S&P made the right decision. This isn't a sustainable path. At some point it WILL come falling down around you. Why the retards in charge can't figure this out is beyond my ability to explain.
Personally, I hope the other rating companies follow suit. It will take that level of threat before my elected morons finally quit bickering and note the cliff edge they're dancing on. Maybe ( and it's a longshot ) they'll be able to get this train back on the right track. Maybe.
Given their track record, I'm definitely not counting on it. . .
Seriously, blasphemy a criminal offense ( again ) ? It's really tough to take any government ( or country )
seriously when they revert to dark age laws. . . What's next ? Going to revert back to the Earth being flat
or the center of the universe theory ? Sink some witches in the nearby river to see if they float perhaps ?
What a grand idea. . . so does the new law specify a specific religion ? Or just Christianity ? Everyone knows that any religion
other than the local 'accepted' one, is blasphemous to the local groups for the 'other' heathens do not believe in the 'right' God. So will the
Yahweh-Squads start kicking down doors at the local mosque ? Round up the Buddhists ? Re-educate the Atheists ? Will works
by Dawkins and similar authors in your library become grounds for your arrest ?
Of course, this is likely the "whatever-you-do-don't-anger-the-muslims" law.
Just . . . wow.
Do you really need a random noise generator ?
Maybe it's just me, but my computers and all networking gear is connected to the main house power via UPS systems. Besides not wanting the random voltage spike or power failure to kill my system, it's designed to filter noise off the line to begin with, so I have serious doubts any noise generated from the computer will "leak" out past the UPS going the other way. . . .
Jail time ?
*evilchuckle*
If an organization sought to ruin my life over something as trivial as this, there would be no jail time. I would have to try and go for the record in the amount of sheer violence and destruction I could possibly bring to bear on the offending entity. I would leave nothing but ashes. . . . half the populace would call me a monster, while the other half, a hero. What incentive remains to live when an entity such as the RIAA / MPAA can ruin lives with such impunity ? I say screw them, and go down guns blazing so to speak.
What choice is left to those without the means to defend themselves against such tactics ? Using the law to fight them will only result in financial ruin so it's a win-win situation for those with the funds to do so.
As long as we play by their rules, we will always lose. . . . .
Then again, we could always point out to the judge / jury / evil-lawyers that if the songs are worth so much, why do they pay the artists pennies on the dollar for them ?
Dunno if I would be quite so quick to point the finger at a
disgruntled Union employee just yet. It would make little
sense to cut the fiber BEFORE a strike actually takes place.
Typically, when something like this occurs, the folks responsible
will wait until the strike goes active as it would greatly prolong
the outage. With that said, I can't imagine any reason for someone
doing this ahead of time outside of a potential warning. -shrug-
The contract has expired yes, but as of this writing, there
isn't any information from the Union nor the Company on how
the negotiations are going outside of the usual propaganda from
both sides.
There are currently two rumor mills circulating about. One has a :|
potential strike occuring sometime in the May timeframe. The other
pegs it as early as Easter Sunday. Either way, I wish they would
either agree to the damn contract or get on with a strike. Sitting
at work not knowing for days on end really gets annoying after a while.
If a strike does happen, it's going to simply be a test to see who
can hold out the longest. On one hand you have folks not getting paid
in a sh*tty economy. On the other, the company will be working it's
management to death to compensate. My understanding is twelve hour
shifts, six days per week initially. Folks being moved around to different
offices means roundtrip drive times of two to three hours ( traffic permitting )
in some cases.
It boils down to:
Can the non-management folks handle the lack of pay long enough to outlast
the management who will be ready to kill anything in sight after a few weeks
of insanity level work hours ?
All in all, this is just going to suck for everyone.
*Except those highly compensated executive types and high level Union officials*
Recall the man who made his own airline tickets
not all that long ago?
Recall the sh*t storm that brought about ?
Folks are learning the best way to keep the
lawyers and police off their back is to prove
the point, but don't go as far as producing any
thing illegal.