My biggest problem isn't so much activation, but the fact that you're basically renting the software. If in 20 years I want to let my kid play one of the greatest games ever, load up the CDs, and suddenly discover I've got coasters because Valve no longer exists after the Team Fortress 4 debacle. That just sucks. You're basically renting the game for the life of the Auth servers, once they go down nobody gets to play anymore.
FYI, this list is misleading. I believe they are refering only to Starforce 3 when they claim the games aren't cracked. Most of those games use an earlier version of Starforce which was not nearly as tough, or only the European version uses Starforce 3. I own Trackmania, which was cracked for version 1.0. However, the US release is 1.25 and it is yet to be cracked. It's extremely annoying because even with the CD, sometimes Starforce takes upwards of 5 minutes to validate the CD on startup.
In addition, the article is correct that the cracks are much more involved. The Trackmania 1.0 crack included 100+ files that had to be replaced. What's the incentive for a cracker to crack subsequent versions when they're so involved.
Personally, I think the copy protection has hurt the game's sales in the US.
The answer is obvious... a tazer addon for the iPod. Plugs in on top and shocks the mugger when you hand it to them. The power supply is built-in.
Greg
I've had a NEC Litepad for about a year now. It's the lightest (2.1lb) slate style there is, and I got it purely for home browsing in bed and for the novelty of owning a tablet. I think tablets can be ideal for students, I just wish the price point was better. I would say you really need to evaluate how you see yourself using it though. Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want to play games?
Are you interested in a computer intensive field? (Computer Science, Engineering)
Are you an organized hand-written note taker?
First, the machines are designed to be lightweight so they tend to be underpowered. They're not up to graphic intensive tasks or heavy processing (compiling, CAD, etc). Also, if you're not a big note taker, then it won't turn you into one.
However, if you're going into Business, Arts, Music, or even Math and take good notes a tablet could be ideal. OneNote is a great program for creating a virtual MEAD notebook. There are music notation programs, great art programs, and even math programs that solve handwritten equations. I would have loved those for my engineering classes.
As far as which tablet. Go Toshiba, especially there latest model. I don't recommend a slate, you'll need to type papers. The Toshiba's are the most powerful, longest battery, big screen, etc. Also, go to a CompUSA, BestBuy, somewhere and try one. You really need to see how it feels, some people just can't write on it it feels to wierd. Others find it very natural.
Finally, there are some benefits people overlook. It's great for forms! My local taxes use totally custom forms in PDF format, but I could load them into Journal, fill them out correcting as much as I wanted, then print them and save the electronic copy. Printed looked exactly as if I'd hand written them.
Anyways, I do reccommend tablets for students, but choose it only if it fits you.
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My biggest problem isn't so much activation, but the fact that you're basically renting the software. If in 20 years I want to let my kid play one of the greatest games ever, load up the CDs, and suddenly discover I've got coasters because Valve no longer exists after the Team Fortress 4 debacle. That just sucks. You're basically renting the game for the life of the Auth servers, once they go down nobody gets to play anymore.
FYI, this list is misleading. I believe they are refering only to Starforce 3 when they claim the games aren't cracked. Most of those games use an earlier version of Starforce which was not nearly as tough, or only the European version uses Starforce 3. I own Trackmania, which was cracked for version 1.0. However, the US release is 1.25 and it is yet to be cracked. It's extremely annoying because even with the CD, sometimes Starforce takes upwards of 5 minutes to validate the CD on startup. In addition, the article is correct that the cracks are much more involved. The Trackmania 1.0 crack included 100+ files that had to be replaced. What's the incentive for a cracker to crack subsequent versions when they're so involved. Personally, I think the copy protection has hurt the game's sales in the US.
The answer is obvious... a tazer addon for the iPod. Plugs in on top and shocks the mugger when you hand it to them. The power supply is built-in. Greg
First, the machines are designed to be lightweight so they tend to be underpowered. They're not up to graphic intensive tasks or heavy processing (compiling, CAD, etc). Also, if you're not a big note taker, then it won't turn you into one. However, if you're going into Business, Arts, Music, or even Math and take good notes a tablet could be ideal. OneNote is a great program for creating a virtual MEAD notebook. There are music notation programs, great art programs, and even math programs that solve handwritten equations. I would have loved those for my engineering classes.
As far as which tablet. Go Toshiba, especially there latest model. I don't recommend a slate, you'll need to type papers. The Toshiba's are the most powerful, longest battery, big screen, etc. Also, go to a CompUSA, BestBuy, somewhere and try one. You really need to see how it feels, some people just can't write on it it feels to wierd. Others find it very natural.
Finally, there are some benefits people overlook. It's great for forms! My local taxes use totally custom forms in PDF format, but I could load them into Journal, fill them out correcting as much as I wanted, then print them and save the electronic copy. Printed looked exactly as if I'd hand written them.
Anyways, I do reccommend tablets for students, but choose it only if it fits you.
Greg