Broken for me running on a Windows machine. Did not appreciate that my bookmarks were deleted as well. Need to poke around to see if RC3 left a copy of my bookmarks on my computer.
No question. There should be more of an outcry about Sudan, someone has to do something:( and soon. When people are presented the oppurtunity to save lives its mind boggling that countries do not take that oppurtunity. But then we come again to your initial question. What is right? Is it right to depose of a dictator like Saddam and bring democracy to the Middle East, it depends on whom you ask.
So I agree with you but in reality I rather spend money on an organization that MAY however remote the possibility to make a difference. And in reality they do help, its just that its more of a news topic when they do fail. And in my opinion they did fail in Sudan
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm
Yes, I agree. the United Nations HAS to act whenever a genocide occurs. Guess how they got around it, they did not use the G word:(
If its not a genocide, guess what the rest of the world need not act. The US does not need to act unilaterally, what is needed is leadership. I mean I do understand that we Americans are not the worlds most favorite people right now but I think we would be surprised at how many people would support (millatarily and morally) if any country goes to stop whats happening in Sudan.
I reccommend watching a documentary called "Ghosts or Rwanda". It shows what exactly is wrong with the UN. And it shows how the security council fails. Reform is neccessary, but probably not going to happen because the biggest reform would be changing the current system one country can dictate the will of the world. The Russians did it in Afganistan in the 1980's the French have been guilty of it. The Americans with our hardline support of the Isreali's. And thats what needs to change. But realistically would that ever happen?
I am assuming you are refering to the events that are happening in Sudan and what happened in Rwanda where millions of people were killed and nobody really gave a shit. The United Nations is as strong as its members want it to be. I am not particularly sure why every balking from going into Sudan but in the case of Rwanda what really happened was that the genocide happened in a time frame where people were still thinking about the disaster that happened in Somalia. It was close to an election and President Clinton had no choice but to agree with the popular sentiment not in the US but the whole world and stay out of Rwanda
Is this a failure on the UN's part? Hell Yeah it is... a million or more people died because people were worried about what was popular and not only the Americans, the Dutch, the French anybody could have sent troops and saved lives but none of them wanted to even call it a genocide.
The problem here is not that the United Nations ineffective, they do a lot of good stuff we never hear about. But when it comes to hot topic issues like Rwanda and the Sudan they are forced to toe the line of the Security Council. Each of those 15 members have the power of veto. And they use it frequently. The case in Iraq for example. The french vetoed first if they brought up a claim saying that America's action was illegal the British and the Americans would veto it.
What I am getting at is that its easy to be critical of the United Nations. But the UN is not a democracy and all this talk of, we need to get out of the UN is not only silly and shortminded. For everyone who says the UN is not doing anything really the counter claim is that if the US or the French does leave the UN would they really go help Sudan? I mean the claim is that Sudan is the UN's role, so if you broke away from the shackles of the UN, would you do whats right?
Yes, I have played both games. And the multiplayer portion I am talking about is the Counter-Strike source which is an excellent addition in my opinion. Counterstrike is fun. Which goes to prove that the game is just a showcase to a vastly superior engine!
That's right people. Forget the game, it's merely a showcase of the true abilities of the engine. The game is good, nice story, stunning effects, a fairly high coolness rating... the engine on the other hand is the next generation
I know some of you will argue that Doom 3 is more visually appealing but doom 3 still had a lot of work needed on the muliplayer aspect. Whereas half-life 2 focused on the multiplayer. This fact alone makes it a more appealing to developers
A reviewer called the game "merely excellent", which in my opinion is an excellent way to put it.
They have done beautiful job with the game, nothing ground breaking its basically the same ol' stuff presented on a silver platter.
The classes do not seem to be completely balanced but all of the classes are fun to play. I have played every single class and I enjoyed them all, For example a druid has a bunch of spells, but also has the ability to tank by changing into bear form which is great!
Problems with the game right now... There have been times of extreme lag. Ofcourse the fanboi's will say that it is a stress test so thats why there was lag. But in my honest opinion that lag is going to exist when the game comes live. There very rarely is a miracle build and I doubt blizzard have one either.
No graphical glitches, no quest glitches (The quests are a lot of fun and a nice alternative to killing 5432 Kobolds to get a level), No crashes
The game is easy but it is fun! Methinks I am going to buy this game....
"The game lasted several hours before resulting in a draw. Chess Grandmaster Peter Nielsen commented that he had set several traps for ChessBrain which computers normally fall for... but was surprised that ChessBrain refused them! "
So what does this tell us? Nothing really, however it would be interesting how the computer will perform in a 5 match series.
Democracy is not the reason why most games fail, its due to the lack of socialism. In every single online game I have played, I have seen a sharp division between the "leets" and the "noobs". The so called elite players will do their level best to create a social system that is beneficial to themselves, whilst the noobs quit in disgust due to the inequality. The very nature of PvP is that the strong survive and the weak find other games.
Now since the problem has been identified, whats the solution? Some games have taken out Player vs Player aspect, for example Horizons (www.istaria.com) or a game called Shattered Galaxy (www.sgalaxy.com) has something called a power rating system, the stronger the player the more noobs he has to fight.
Attaining equality is easy, however, attaining it whilst still allowing people to get on the levelling treadmill is hard. I am sure that developers all over the world are looking at ways to appeal not only to their most loyal hardcore fans but also to the travelling lowbie.
Misquoting someone important - "With great power comes great responsibility", If the gameplay was set in a way that it is beneficial to help lowbies, then I am quite sure most games problems will be solved, till then I will keep dodging the "I ownz joo, noob" comments:)
And in other news when Reuter's contacted Earth Station 5's lead programmer, he had apparently mumbled under his breath.. "its not a bug damnit!, it's a feature"
MMORPG's are the best reasons I have ever got to go do my doctorate:)... all I want to do for christmas is to force crush my stepmom's cat (also known as the beast from hell) and laugh ominously when PETA comes to my door!!!! Although I do need to get myself a new helmet, wearing an old raiders helmet just makes me look like pee wee herman with a bad case of hemoroids.
Well I hope they can maintain their user base considering that their are some excellent MMORPG's on the horizon. For example,
World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy XI
Horizons
Everquest 2
Therefore, they could expect to see a their user base peak by early 2004. Its my belief that a lot of people who switched to Star Wars Galaxies were from other online games, and considering that SWG could not be considered a breakthrough game, its safe to assume that the those people will move on to other games.
Now, since I am done with my feeble attempt at Karma Whoring, I am going back to find those damn jedi holocrons....:-)
As mentioned above the site is quite professional. May need a better server because loading on to the main site takes ages......(thinks for a moment)...er.. damn slashdotter's.
I have not bought music for the better part of 2 years. Maybe this is the time for me to start again. What I would really like is if they have a transparent business model. Like a summary of exactly where the money goes to.
There seems to be a lot of pro's to this business model. Now all it needs it is some popular artists. (Read on before the flaming begins)
The reason why I said popular artists is that the number of people who appreicate garage music is the minority. Therefore if the site has some big name artists then the garage bands also have a wider audience to target their music to.
Although the numbers look impressive, I personally would wait till their are more 64 bit applications in the market. If you are a gamer there would be modest increases in performance but really waiting a few more months will not hurt if you are more interested in value.
I love the fact that AMD is competing, this bodes well for all computer users. A technology war will definitely keep prices down. In the same sense, I am hoping that Intel comes out with a "decent" 64 bit chip. Not that I am fond of Intel, I prefer AMD but still the fact remains that whenever their is conflict we see the most marked increases in technology.
The RIAA is trying their hardest to catch the "criminals", but the very nature of the industry is that it is very adaptable. So when they finally shut Kazaa down how long before an alternative pops up?
And here is the quick question, whats the name of the p2p filesharing program that claims to be anonymous?
Thats the beauty of it.. you do not have to track it.. it would be like this giant security camera, and when a problem arises you can go back to the archives and trace back steps...
Ofcourse this would require extreme amounts of storage space, but I do not think technology will be the barrier..
In my opinion, in a few years all of america would be blanketed by satellites that archives everything that we do. However, ideally the archives would be encrypted and only a court order could enable enforcement agencies to see what people are up to.
For example, imagine if we could trace back the steps of the 9/11 terrorists right up to the point where they entered the country, I am sure that would give valuable information.
Nevertheless I am strong advocate for privacy (aren't we all?) therefore, its best that we put the laws in place before its been abused.
Most cheaters I come across actually do not talk too much shit, which is kinda ironic, they use an aimbot to kill me and then tell me that I am good player....
There is really no panacea to solve cheating, just play on trusted servers where you know everyone especially the admins. And even if a cheater comes your way, he can be kicked and banned and you can get on with your game:)
Hmm.. I have heard of rumors that there are cheats for console games. I suppose they use a combination of modded consoles or hacked game CD's. But it can be done..
The problem with the PC game market is that its waaaay to easy to hack. You just have to get on slashdot and search for quake cheats:-p
As mentioned in the article, all the RIAA wants to do is to send a strong message, and I think 97 Trillion is strong enough. Its absolutely ludicrous that they would even calculate this number. They are actually attracting attention to flaws in the law. $150,000 a song??
However, i really doubt that the RIAA would let this case get to trial, the jury would probably point at the lawyers and start laughing hysterically. But realistically even if the follow through with the maximum the kids will have to face is probably probation for about 2 years.
Yes, they sent a strong message. And to me that message is not to purchase any more CD's from major record companies. Why should I? I am a college student, those kids lives have been put on hold and for what a frivalous lawsuit. There are bigger fish to fry, what about piracy in places like China? GO after them, instead of your primary target market.
So sorry Britney unless you produce your next album on an independent recording company, and of course you sing a wee bit better, I would not be buying your CD.
Slashdot Mirror
Broken for me running on a Windows machine. Did not appreciate that my bookmarks were deleted as well. Need to poke around to see if RC3 left a copy of my bookmarks on my computer.
So I agree with you but in reality I rather spend money on an organization that MAY however remote the possibility to make a difference. And in reality they do help, its just that its more of a news topic when they do fail. And in my opinion they did fail in Sudan http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm
If its not a genocide, guess what the rest of the world need not act. The US does not need to act unilaterally, what is needed is leadership. I mean I do understand that we Americans are not the worlds most favorite people right now but I think we would be surprised at how many people would support (millatarily and morally) if any country goes to stop whats happening in Sudan.
I reccommend watching a documentary called "Ghosts or Rwanda". It shows what exactly is wrong with the UN. And it shows how the security council fails. Reform is neccessary, but probably not going to happen because the biggest reform would be changing the current system one country can dictate the will of the world. The Russians did it in Afganistan in the 1980's the French have been guilty of it. The Americans with our hardline support of the Isreali's. And thats what needs to change. But realistically would that ever happen?
Is this a failure on the UN's part? Hell Yeah it is... a million or more people died because people were worried about what was popular and not only the Americans, the Dutch, the French anybody could have sent troops and saved lives but none of them wanted to even call it a genocide.
The problem here is not that the United Nations ineffective, they do a lot of good stuff we never hear about. But when it comes to hot topic issues like Rwanda and the Sudan they are forced to toe the line of the Security Council. Each of those 15 members have the power of veto. And they use it frequently. The case in Iraq for example. The french vetoed first if they brought up a claim saying that America's action was illegal the British and the Americans would veto it.
What I am getting at is that its easy to be critical of the United Nations. But the UN is not a democracy and all this talk of, we need to get out of the UN is not only silly and shortminded. For everyone who says the UN is not doing anything really the counter claim is that if the US or the French does leave the UN would they really go help Sudan? I mean the claim is that Sudan is the UN's role, so if you broke away from the shackles of the UN, would you do whats right?
Yes, I have played both games. And the multiplayer portion I am talking about is the Counter-Strike source which is an excellent addition in my opinion. Counterstrike is fun. Which goes to prove that the game is just a showcase to a vastly superior engine!
I know some of you will argue that Doom 3 is more visually appealing but doom 3 still had a lot of work needed on the muliplayer aspect. Whereas half-life 2 focused on the multiplayer. This fact alone makes it a more appealing to developers
They have done beautiful job with the game, nothing ground breaking its basically the same ol' stuff presented on a silver platter.
The classes do not seem to be completely balanced but all of the classes are fun to play. I have played every single class and I enjoyed them all, For example a druid has a bunch of spells, but also has the ability to tank by changing into bear form which is great!
Problems with the game right now... There have been times of extreme lag. Ofcourse the fanboi's will say that it is a stress test so thats why there was lag. But in my honest opinion that lag is going to exist when the game comes live. There very rarely is a miracle build and I doubt blizzard have one either.
No graphical glitches, no quest glitches (The quests are a lot of fun and a nice alternative to killing 5432 Kobolds to get a level), No crashes
The game is easy but it is fun! Methinks I am going to buy this game....
So what does this tell us? Nothing really, however it would be interesting how the computer will perform in a 5 match series.
Although I still think the GM would win handily.
So that's where Saddam was hiding those Weapons of Mass Destruction...........
Democracy is not the reason why most games fail, its due to the lack of socialism. In every single online game I have played, I have seen a sharp division between the "leets" and the "noobs". The so called elite players will do their level best to create a social system that is beneficial to themselves, whilst the noobs quit in disgust due to the inequality. The very nature of PvP is that the strong survive and the weak find other games.
:)
Now since the problem has been identified, whats the solution? Some games have taken out Player vs Player aspect, for example Horizons (www.istaria.com) or a game called Shattered Galaxy (www.sgalaxy.com) has something called a power rating system, the stronger the player the more noobs he has to fight.
Attaining equality is easy, however, attaining it whilst still allowing people to get on the levelling treadmill is hard. I am sure that developers all over the world are looking at ways to appeal not only to their most loyal hardcore fans but also to the travelling lowbie.
Misquoting someone important - "With great power comes great responsibility", If the gameplay was set in a way that it is beneficial to help lowbies, then I am quite sure most games problems will be solved, till then I will keep dodging the "I ownz joo, noob" comments
And in other news when Reuter's contacted Earth Station 5's lead programmer, he had apparently mumbled under his breath.. "its not a bug damnit!, it's a feature"
MMORPG's are the best reasons I have ever got to go do my doctorate :)... all I want to do for christmas is to force crush my stepmom's cat (also known as the beast from hell) and laugh ominously when PETA comes to my door!!!! Although I do need to get myself a new helmet, wearing an old raiders helmet just makes me look like pee wee herman with a bad case of hemoroids.
World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy XI
Horizons
Everquest 2
Therefore, they could expect to see a their user base peak by early 2004. Its my belief that a lot of people who switched to Star Wars Galaxies were from other online games, and considering that SWG could not be considered a breakthrough game, its safe to assume that the those people will move on to other games.
:-)
Now, since I am done with my feeble attempt at Karma Whoring, I am going back to find those damn jedi holocrons....
As mentioned above the site is quite professional. May need a better server because loading on to the main site takes ages......(thinks for a moment)...er.. damn slashdotter's.
I have not bought music for the better part of 2 years. Maybe this is the time for me to start again. What I would really like is if they have a transparent business model. Like a summary of exactly where the money goes to.
There seems to be a lot of pro's to this business model. Now all it needs it is some popular artists. (Read on before the flaming begins)
The reason why I said popular artists is that the number of people who appreicate garage music is the minority. Therefore if the site has some big name artists then the garage bands also have a wider audience to target their music to.
Damnit!!! No game console, I dare say that its probably time for the two year olds gaming education to start. An X-box with Halo would do nicely.
Think about it.. you need talent to make headshots, teach em young and before they hit 5 they will be "owning joo noobs!!!"
touche
Although the numbers look impressive, I personally would wait till their are more 64 bit applications in the market. If you are a gamer there would be modest increases in performance but really waiting a few more months will not hurt if you are more interested in value.
I love the fact that AMD is competing, this bodes well for all computer users. A technology war will definitely keep prices down. In the same sense, I am hoping that Intel comes out with a "decent" 64 bit chip. Not that I am fond of Intel, I prefer AMD but still the fact remains that whenever their is conflict we see the most marked increases in technology.
The RIAA is trying their hardest to catch the "criminals", but the very nature of the industry is that it is very adaptable. So when they finally shut Kazaa down how long before an alternative pops up?
And here is the quick question, whats the name of the p2p filesharing program that claims to be anonymous?
Ofcourse this would require extreme amounts of storage space, but I do not think technology will be the barrier..
The moon isn't made out of cheese....?? (Sigh) There goes my grand scheme of running Kraft out of business.... ack!
For example, imagine if we could trace back the steps of the 9/11 terrorists right up to the point where they entered the country, I am sure that would give valuable information.
Nevertheless I am strong advocate for privacy (aren't we all?) therefore, its best that we put the laws in place before its been abused.
There is really no panacea to solve cheating, just play on trusted servers where you know everyone especially the admins. And even if a cheater comes your way, he can be kicked and banned and you can get on with your game :)
The problem with the PC game market is that its waaaay to easy to hack. You just have to get on slashdot and search for quake cheats
I thimk I would personally take a baseball bat and proceed to use his head for batting practice.. but thats just me.. you can kick him out :-)
However, i really doubt that the RIAA would let this case get to trial, the jury would probably point at the lawyers and start laughing hysterically. But realistically even if the follow through with the maximum the kids will have to face is probably probation for about 2 years.
Yes, they sent a strong message. And to me that message is not to purchase any more CD's from major record companies. Why should I? I am a college student, those kids lives have been put on hold and for what a frivalous lawsuit. There are bigger fish to fry, what about piracy in places like China? GO after them, instead of your primary target market.
So sorry Britney unless you produce your next album on an independent recording company, and of course you sing a wee bit better, I would not be buying your CD.