But in half-life I can hold my torch and swing my crowbar at the same time. I laughed lots at that when I did it:)
The game(hl2) itself is stunning and I'm not going to do anything to violate my license but this is the tightest set of rules I've ever come across.
I think my next move will be to disable online access to Steam servers (hosts file initially) and then lock out the CD. I might even consider taking an snapshot of the required portions of my system so that I never have to contact them again just to play.
Now, if they release a major update to it (new level packs etc?) or other bugfixes, I will have to cleanup my system, reinstall all the bits and start all over again.
By that time, the next big game may be out, and it just might not be worth it. One thing is for certain, I am NEVER purchasing another game from Valve/Vivendi whilst dictator like checks are in place.
using a keygen for your legit copy could mean that when somebody purchases his copy from the store, his CD Key will be duplicated and hence invalid from day one.
Never having a chance to use the game he bought, and with only a small chance of rectifying the situation (even then, most likely shelling out to the game company a second time).
Its perfectly feasible, guy buys it for himself, installs and registers it fine, and his friends borrow it to try. Now, if those friends "guessed" a working cd key, or used a keygen, they too have 1st dibs on a technically legit cd key.
Now, when you buy your legitimate CD from the store, and try to activate it, you are told that your CD Key is invalid and you are a pirate.
If you cannot validate your Steam account, you cannot play Half-Life.
CIVIL VIOLATION IN PROGRESS
Life mirrors art with this fucking game I swear, I feel more and more like Gordon Freeman every day. I could almost take my crowbar to the Combin errrrrrrr Valve Headquarters and demand action.
Hang on, I don't live in America, I don't follow your "laws".
I just want to play the game I paid good money for without risking damaging my original DVD.
With any other game, I would feel quite comfortable getting a nocd patch for it, but with the ever present Valve overlords watching my every move, I'm not going to... yet.
I may still decide to flick the bird @ valve and run in offline mode with no dvd in my drive.
What if some hack meister uses my cd key? What if I am detected as having some wallhack software on my computer?
Valve are extremely strict on these things, and very rarely appear to admit mistakes.
There are rumblings about problems with duplicate keys, and their Cheat checker coming up with hundreds of thousands of hits (hence its not active at present). The game itself is about dictatorship and breaking the mould. The dictators are Valve and Steam is their weapon.
ATTENTION PLEASE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN PROGRESS. INACTION IS CONSPIRACY.
The halflife/counter strike community are a decent mob, they were all too happy to help Gabe and the team after the unfortunate hacking incident, the least they could do now is treat those paying customers fairly.
I paid good money for this game, something which I very rarely do. I purchased the original, and waited patiently for this one. I don't want to be treated like a criminal.
Of course I know we have.co.uk - but we don't have.com.uk
Large companies do register addresses in most useful domains to ensure they catch everyone, I don't see anything wrong with this, and even the forwarding if done cleverly allows a worldwide corp to run a server farm with subbranches for the different markets. Like your virgin example, opening http://www.hp.co.uk/ redirects you to http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/welcome.html
In other replies to my original posting, I have just seen another example of a country level domain using.com. as 2nd level (brazil) but thankfully its relatively rare in the world (at least the sites I visit), and tbh seems like a silly usage, especially in the way that.com has come to be associated.
perhaps a.au.com or.br.com would have been better.
Microsoft in the UK are just about to start doing something equally silly, their venerable hotmail domain which is stuffed to the rafters is going to be extended. You will be able to get a hotmail.co.uk address. How many mistakes will be made with addressing? The wordspeak is generally "its liquidcoooled at hotmail" even if people KNOW theres a difference, the majority of direct sent mail will end up incorrectly on the.com domain.
I think in this specific case, the ISP took the right decision to directly redirct them.
There is no point in even warning them that they are wrong. I thought I would never hear myself saying this, but
Think of the children.
This isn't an adults website were adults can make informed decisions. This was an advertising mixup. We all type domains in incorrectly at times, but for the whole of the internet , XYZ.com takes you to the site. I think the biggest cockup of all is the.com.au domain, I always thought the.au extension was wrong for country level domains, and this kind of problem has most likely occured before, just to lesser embarrassing effect. Here in the uk, we don't have such a thing as.com.uk, if we did, i'm pretty sure it would happen here as well.
Out of interest, does anyone know of other countries that have *.com.ABC ???
Wouldn't it just be simpler to have no patents at all?
Thats what Linus etal are trying to achieve. Considering your PPLs and LPPLs is at best a little premature.
I think the PHB will turn into a UXB when he reads about the PPL software using GPL components downloaded from the PPF and trying to decide if he can sell the frikkin thing.
As for it being the smart method, all I have to say is, the approach used to great effect with copyright issues may not necessarily work for other areas.
You might teach astro at a college level, but you can't read what I bloody put. I said it never rotates fully in relation to the Earth. I also never specified it was exactly 50% visible. Further, I pointed out that from an external reference point (for instance the sun) that the far side of the moon is infact illuminated (hence visible).
And finally, I will be as obnoxious as I want when pointing out someone's complete fuckups.
The moon is egg shaped and never rotates fully in relation to the Earth.
The ONLY reason why calling it "the dark side" could be considered invalid is because the moon rotates around us, and the dark side can indeed be illuminated by the sun, however it is ALWAYS facing us. There is no point, and no time on Earth where you can see the far side. Before we actually flew up and around the moon, we didn't know what was on the other side of it.
Technically, geostationary orbits can only be achieved with bodies that are rotating on their axis. A geostationary orbit is one where the craft remains fixed in location in the sky relative to a ground point, and can only occur over equatorial regions. For earth based satellites, this means they rotate the earth with an orbital period of 24hours, remaining fixed above a location.
However, the moon does not rotate on its axis, the tidal forces because of its interaction with Earth mean it is always pointing towards earth, hence, we always have a dark side of the moon.
There is *no* way that a tether would reach more than half way.
Take a look at the rather pretty energy well representation on this page and revise your estimate.
Lightscribe is just another thin ink layer on the opposite side of the disk. You simply flip the CD/DVD over and burn it again. They end up looking like engraved jewellery, very effective monochrome images.
Its like telling people not to use the motorways. Only through using the network will they find the weak points.
I'm sure the big wigs are actually pleased its being used by normal folks. Proof that the hardware is working, routing protocols are operating etc.
Breaking a speed record by forwarding a stream of packets along a single route may be impressive, but effectively worthless in a general sense if it cannot be routed efficiently.
Its not that they can't see the areas effected, its that the resolution and refresh rate is too slow to pick up small scale movements.
The military have access to much more data than this, and they still run into the same problems, when you see the movies zooming in and watching the henchman lighting a cigarette or blowing up a compound, you are seeing creative expression.
Since Google obviously arent the government, they wont have access to the rawest, newest images.
Infact, most of the sat images used are from relatively old passes, their site makes this clear:
Keyhole continuously updates its database with the average age of imagery ranging from 18 to 24 months. Imagery can vary in age from as new as 2-3 months to as old as 2-3 years. Keyhole is increasingly taking advantage of satellite imagery to update the Keyhole database more aggressively.
There is imagery for practically everywhere, but the resolution is only very high for certain areas (possibly augmented by none satellite, aerial photos?)
There are numerous base maps taken from in and around iraq, for instance:
Abu Ghurayb Nov 2002 0.7 Meter Baghdad (Entire city) 2002 2 Foot Najaf June 17, 2004 2 Foot
Note however, that none of these are in the highest, perfect clarity, see the reflection from your headgear resolution.
Infact, we will know when sats have reached this high res capability as a norm when Soldiers have their ID number painted on their helmets (Like buses and lorries do for helicopter identification)
Slashdot Mirror
But in half-life I can hold my torch and swing my crowbar at the same time. :)
I laughed lots at that when I did it
The game(hl2) itself is stunning and I'm not going to do anything to violate my license but this is the tightest set of rules I've ever come across.
I think my next move will be to disable online access to Steam servers (hosts file initially) and then lock out the CD.
I might even consider taking an snapshot of the required portions of my system so that I never have to contact them again just to play.
Now, if they release a major update to it (new level packs etc?) or other bugfixes, I will have to cleanup my system, reinstall all the bits and start all over again.
By that time, the next big game may be out, and it just might not be worth it.
One thing is for certain, I am NEVER purchasing another game from Valve/Vivendi whilst dictator like checks are in place.
using a keygen for your legit copy could mean that when somebody purchases his copy from the store, his CD Key will be duplicated and hence invalid from day one.
Never having a chance to use the game he bought, and with only a small chance of rectifying the situation (even then, most likely shelling out to the game company a second time).
Its perfectly feasible, guy buys it for himself, installs and registers it fine, and his friends borrow it to try.
Now, if those friends "guessed" a working cd key, or used a keygen, they too have 1st dibs on a technically legit cd key.
Now, when you buy your legitimate CD from the store, and try to activate it, you are told that your CD Key is invalid and you are a pirate.
Its not an unthinkable scenario.
If you cannot validate your Steam account, you cannot play Half-Life.
CIVIL VIOLATION IN PROGRESS
Life mirrors art with this fucking game I swear, I feel more and more like Gordon Freeman every day.
I could almost take my crowbar to the Combin errrrrrrr Valve Headquarters and demand action.
Hang on, I don't live in America, I don't follow your "laws".
I just want to play the game I paid good money for without risking damaging my original DVD.
With any other game, I would feel quite comfortable getting a nocd patch for it, but with the ever present Valve overlords watching my every move, I'm not going to... yet.
I may still decide to flick the bird @ valve and run in offline mode with no dvd in my drive.
Doing so makes me feel like a criminal though.
I have purchased the DVD version of this game.
What if some hack meister uses my cd key?
What if I am detected as having some wallhack software on my computer?
Valve are extremely strict on these things, and very rarely appear to admit mistakes.
There are rumblings about problems with duplicate keys, and their Cheat checker coming up with hundreds of thousands of hits (hence its not active at present).
The game itself is about dictatorship and breaking the mould. The dictators are Valve and Steam is their weapon.
ATTENTION PLEASE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN PROGRESS.
INACTION IS CONSPIRACY.
The halflife/counter strike community are a decent mob, they were all too happy to help Gabe and the team after the unfortunate hacking incident, the least they could do now is treat those paying customers fairly.
I paid good money for this game, something which I very rarely do. I purchased the original, and waited patiently for this one. I don't want to be treated like a criminal.
I was asked "Are you aware that you need a DVD drive, and an internet connection to play this game".
Now, what if I was one of those people, I have the required mutterings, but I still wouldn't be able to play the game.
When the computer detects a threat it can stimulate the pilots tongue in relation to the direction and distance of the target.
What would it taste of?
Normal day: "Mmmmmmm beer"
Real emergency: "EWWWWW SPROUTS!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
Of course I know we have .co.uk - but we don't have .com.uk
.com. as 2nd level (brazil) but thankfully its relatively rare in the world (at least the sites I visit), and tbh seems like a silly usage, especially in the way that .com has come to be associated.
.au.com or .br.com would have been better.
.com domain.
:)
Large companies do register addresses in most useful domains to ensure they catch everyone, I don't see anything wrong with this, and even the forwarding if done cleverly allows a worldwide corp to run a server farm with subbranches for the different markets.
Like your virgin example, opening http://www.hp.co.uk/ redirects you to http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/welcome.html
In other replies to my original posting, I have just seen another example of a country level domain using
perhaps a
Microsoft in the UK are just about to start doing something equally silly, their venerable hotmail domain which is stuffed to the rafters is going to be extended. You will be able to get a hotmail.co.uk address. How many mistakes will be made with addressing? The wordspeak is generally "its liquidcoooled at hotmail" even if people KNOW theres a difference, the majority of direct sent mail will end up incorrectly on the
Perhaps though its just me being lazy
I think in this specific case, the ISP took the right decision to directly redirct them.
.com.au domain, I always thought the .au extension was wrong for country level domains, and this kind of problem has most likely occured before, just to lesser embarrassing effect. .com.uk, if we did, i'm pretty sure it would happen here as well.
There is no point in even warning them that they are wrong. I thought I would never hear myself saying this, but
Think of the children.
This isn't an adults website were adults can make informed decisions. This was an advertising mixup. We all type domains in incorrectly at times, but for the whole of the internet , XYZ.com takes you to the site.
I think the biggest cockup of all is the
Here in the uk, we don't have such a thing as
Out of interest, does anyone know of other countries that have *.com.ABC ???
Wouldn't it just be simpler to have no patents at all?
Thats what Linus etal are trying to achieve.
Considering your PPLs and LPPLs is at best a little premature.
I think the PHB will turn into a UXB when he reads about the PPL software using GPL components downloaded from the PPF and trying to decide if he can sell the frikkin thing.
As for it being the smart method, all I have to say is, the approach used to great effect with copyright issues may not necessarily work for other areas.
They manage to fit the American ego in there, so I don't see why not.
I can only imagine the shock his dentist had when she asked him to "Open Wide".
Could that be down to your virus checker?
My missuses copy of Sims took around the same time to load. When I investigated it, and tried disconnecting NOrton her load times more than halved.
Just a thought.
You might teach astro at a college level, but you can't read what I bloody put.
I said it never rotates fully in relation to the Earth. I also never specified it was exactly 50% visible.
Further, I pointed out that from an external reference point (for instance the sun) that the far side of the moon is infact illuminated (hence visible).
And finally, I will be as obnoxious as I want when pointing out someone's complete fuckups.
Its just a shame you decided to hide as an AC.
I suggest you go back to elementary school.
The moon is egg shaped and never rotates fully in relation to the Earth.
The ONLY reason why calling it "the dark side" could be considered invalid is because the moon rotates around us, and the dark side can indeed be illuminated by the sun, however it is ALWAYS facing us.
There is no point, and no time on Earth where you can see the far side.
Before we actually flew up and around the moon, we didn't know what was on the other side of it.
Heres a bit of help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
Technically, geostationary orbits can only be achieved with bodies that are rotating on their axis.
A geostationary orbit is one where the craft remains fixed in location in the sky relative to a ground point, and can only occur over equatorial regions.
For earth based satellites, this means they rotate the earth with an orbital period of 24hours, remaining fixed above a location.
However, the moon does not rotate on its axis, the tidal forces because of its interaction with Earth mean it is always pointing towards earth, hence, we always have a dark side of the moon.
There is *no* way that a tether would reach more than half way.
Take a look at the rather pretty energy well representation on this page and revise your estimate.
http://www.permanent.com/t-theory.htm
Lightscribe is just another thin ink layer on the opposite side of the disk.
You simply flip the CD/DVD over and burn it again.
They end up looking like engraved jewellery, very effective monochrome images.
theres some examples and loads of info here: http://www.lightscribe.com/
The American flag is there because the entire Politics section was put in place to give us somewhere to talk about the recent Election.
I owuld rather have a politics section with an American flag than no politics section at all.
Shares in Hammond skyrocketed on news that Eriks Law passed through congress today.
If the bandwidth is available, whats the problem?
Its like telling people not to use the motorways. Only through using the network will they find the weak points.
I'm sure the big wigs are actually pleased its being used by normal folks. Proof that the hardware is working, routing protocols are operating etc.
Breaking a speed record by forwarding a stream of packets along a single route may be impressive, but effectively worthless in a general sense if it cannot be routed efficiently.
Who shoots first?
If your running a warezed copy, why would you need steam? or is it just a full version that still needs steam auth?
Its not that they can't see the areas effected, its that the resolution and refresh rate is too slow to pick up small scale movements.
The military have access to much more data than this, and they still run into the same problems, when you see the movies zooming in and watching the henchman lighting a cigarette or blowing up a compound, you are seeing creative expression.
Since Google obviously arent the government, they wont have access to the rawest, newest images.
Infact, most of the sat images used are from relatively old passes, their site makes this clear:
Keyhole continuously updates its database with the average age of imagery ranging from 18 to 24 months. Imagery can vary in age from as new as 2-3 months to as old as 2-3 years. Keyhole is increasingly taking advantage of satellite imagery to update the Keyhole database more aggressively.
There is imagery for practically everywhere, but the resolution is only very high for certain areas (possibly augmented by none satellite, aerial photos?)
There are numerous base maps taken from in and around iraq, for instance:
Abu Ghurayb Nov 2002 0.7 Meter
Baghdad (Entire city) 2002 2 Foot
Najaf June 17, 2004 2 Foot
Note however, that none of these are in the highest, perfect clarity, see the reflection from your headgear resolution.
Infact, we will know when sats have reached this high res capability as a norm when Soldiers have their ID number painted on their helmets (Like buses and lorries do for helicopter identification)
Bit more thinking aloud, but what will it take to pull all the geolocated search results together that they seem to be aiming towards.
and see exactly where the pizza shop your looking for is.