They aren't short on cash but they aren't going to throw it away. And yes Im Australian, and I played on the US servers with no lag problems (beyond general lag that everyone had).
Come on, how many Libraries of Congress worth of drugs are the **AA people doing?
My parents see nothing wrong with taping songs from the radio or movies off TV. And not just "time shifting" but keeping copies. My parents are average middle aged professionals, and they have been "stealing" songs and movies since the 60's. So why the hell would their kids see downloading from the internet any differently?
People don't see it as a problem, because it isn't a problem. And I am someone who pays for 90% of my movies, albums and games. The only thing I reguarly "steal" are single songs that I wouldn't have at all if I needed to pay $15 each to get the album they are on.
Private Industry that is doing work for the Government is often just as inefficient as the Government. And that makes them cost more because they pay higher salaries and normally have shareholders. The only thing that drives efficiency is competition, and the big Government contracts are often monopoly licenses (telecom's, transportation networks).
Or look at US Military contracters. No big ticket item is going to be purchased from anyone but the big boys.
A monopoly is a monopoly no matter if those in charge are accountable to taxpayers or to shareholders.
No real classes, but your stats affect skill training time (skills train even when you are offline), so certain character choices mean you will take a lot longer to train combat skills then to train industrial skills.
The great thing is that nerfs generally only affect one out of a single races ten plus decent ships, and there are four races.
I simply abhor the Doom 3 style of making the player stumble around in the dark trying to find a door. Its *NOT* fun. And it seems that nearly every game now has at least one section like this (horrible haunted house mission in Vampire: Bloodlines being my most recent).
Sure you can get a few cheap scares. But if I can't even see the switch I am meant to be activating then I am going to get frustrated. And the most scary game I ever played, was farly well lit (System Shock 2).
The Allies where certainly justified, but some people have a white washed view of WWII. And you see it in films about the conflict. The evil Nazi's bombing women and children, and then the valiant RAF flying off to bomb purely military targets. That is simply rubbish. The allies deliberately bombed civilians knowing that it had only a questionable effect on enemy morale. It became simply a matter of retaliation. Personally I feel it was justified, I just can't stand white washing of the truth.
And by the way, I think a fair few people in eastern Europe actually preferred the Nazi's to the Soviets. Most people at the time didn't actually like the Jews, they where persecueted for hundreds of years in Europe. And nearly everyone loathed the communists.
Rubbish. Games can be art. But games are primarily games, something you play for fun. I have never heard anyone call a football match art.
And most software work is the artistic equivalent of logo or advertising design. Its high quantity work that most people can do with a little training. I am a programmer so don't give me that BS that many coders are doing mystical work like a great master.
And please very few innovative games do well except in reviews. My favourite games got wonderful reviews and absolutely tanked in sales. The two studios that made most of those games no longer exist (Looking Glass and Troika).
Making the best example of a game, and adding a few new things is the way to success. Thats what made Halo great. It had pretty much nothing that hadn't been done before, but it did it perfectly and with no bugs. This is the strategy that Blizzard use. Tiny amouts of innovation with tons of polish.
Yes, I know that. But the only thing that most people seem to learn about WWII is "Nazi bad". The allies weren't knights in shining armour, they were just the side that one. Given the deliberate bombing of German civilians for years, the nuclear attacks on Japen aren't some singular blemish on the allies shining moral record.
About the only moral high ground we had over the axis was that we didn't have death camps.
The allies where attacking civilian populations through out most of the war. Look at what they did to cities like Dresden. Nuclear bombs just made it easier to do that sort of destruction. But more civilians died due to conventional weapons then nuclear ones. And the use of nuclear weapons was not some moral quandry given the circumstances. I am sure many of Japens oceanic neighbours at the time felt the Japanese had gotten off lightly.
And the reason nuclear weapons haven't been used since WWII has to do with a little thing called the Cold War, and the paranoia of all things nuclear that it instilled in the west.
Could that be because the link seems to be an extract from a very early 90's book?;)
But you are right the major problem really is the collapse of infrastructure. Most people would starve if the trucks stopped filling up their local supermarkets.
No you can allow an airline to go down in flames when it has become unprofitable. The problem was to many airlines (supply) and not enough passengers (demand). The solution to that problem is for some companies to go out of business or for them to all cut back services (and jobs). Using taxpayer money to keep unprofitable business around only fixes the problem long enough for the next election. And puts zero onus on the incompetent management of those companies to shape up.
What we are seeing here is a convergence between those movements and free software. From the standpoint of leftists, it is quite natural: If you are interested in alternative forms of social organization (to unrestricted free-market capitalism)
Except for the fact that IP laws wouldn't exist in an unrestricted free-market captialist system. Patents are monopolies which are anathema to the free market. Copyrights that last "forever less a day" are no better. Would US Airlines and Australian Insurance companies be bailed out with governement money in the free market?
We have corporate socialism. In the end its really no better then medieval systems of governance. Its just wrapped up in platitudes about democracy and the market.
Well seems the PHB's are only 20 years behind the security experts. So in 20 years everyone will get a cavity search before leaving the office;)
P.S. I actually expect them to install scanners like airports are getting.
Actually according to Wikipedia you could make a gun type weapon with Pu. However it would need to use highly enriched Pu and need to be 19 feet long to prevent pre-detonation.
Seriously, these things can only go so far. Currently the governments keep getting away with it because they only directly attack minorities and the poor. But sooner or later they are going to annoy enough people that another revolution will start.
Unfortunately I don't think that will happen until the west's economies collapse when China/India etc, realise they don't need us as much as we need them.
Re:So...how much longer until...
on
Four GPU Motherboard
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· Score: 3, Insightful
As graphics get closer to "good enough" reality, games will *have* to focus on gameplay over eye candy.
I would say the majority of Internet users just want to use the web. Currently ISP's havent picked up on this. In the next few years I expect only business and geeks to have real connections (and be paying a premium for it). NATing average consumers will be done because it largely eliminates end user hassle, not because of lack of IP's.
that's my point. NAT the majority of the users of the internet and you'll:
1. instantly have the majority of the normally used ip space suddenly available (for what purpose???)
2. instantly stop the spam flow to millions of mail boxes
3. instantly make DOSes nearly impossible on a large scale
4. instantly provide security for users behind the NAT.
And the same argument can be made for all non-business level internet connections. After all "prosumers" will be willing to pay more to run servers, play games etc. And DSL/Cable connected machines are the major spam/DDOS offenders because of there always on nature they are more likely to be compromised and have more time spam/DDOS, and can do so with more bandwidth.
Running a web server on consumer level DSL? probably not
How many people still use consumer level DSL?"
I use dial up, I want an *Internet* connection, not a web connection. I also do not want to pay business rates to have an Internet connection. NAT is a hack. Real geeks prefer an elegant system over a hack.
I use the same crappy password for things I don't really care about. Someone stealing my "forums" password wouldnt achieve much. At worst I spend five minutes recovering and changing my password for the site (my email uses a strong password). But its a hell of a lot easier then having a password for every single forum I ever joined, or any of the other random sites that require passwords.
Slashdot Mirror
They aren't short on cash but they aren't going to throw it away. And yes Im Australian, and I played on the US servers with no lag problems (beyond general lag that everyone had).
In Soviet Russia site brings down Slashdot. Obligatory begging for high moderation: I know Im going to be modded troll..., mod me down, +5 funny.
The use of voice chat like Team Speak or Ventrilo is pretty common in most MMO's, at least within serious groups.
I play EVE-Online and voice chat is the key to success in PVP there. And EVE is a game that can be largely played with just a mouse.
Come on, how many Libraries of Congress worth of drugs are the **AA people doing?
My parents see nothing wrong with taping songs from the radio or movies off TV. And not just "time shifting" but keeping copies. My parents are average middle aged professionals, and they have been "stealing" songs and movies since the 60's. So why the hell would their kids see downloading from the internet any differently?
People don't see it as a problem, because it isn't a problem. And I am someone who pays for 90% of my movies, albums and games. The only thing I reguarly "steal" are single songs that I wouldn't have at all if I needed to pay $15 each to get the album they are on.
Private Industry that is doing work for the Government is often just as inefficient as the Government. And that makes them cost more because they pay higher salaries and normally have shareholders. The only thing that drives efficiency is competition, and the big Government contracts are often monopoly licenses (telecom's, transportation networks).
Or look at US Military contracters. No big ticket item is going to be purchased from anyone but the big boys.
A monopoly is a monopoly no matter if those in charge are accountable to taxpayers or to shareholders.
No real classes, but your stats affect skill training time (skills train even when you are offline), so certain character choices mean you will take a lot longer to train combat skills then to train industrial skills.
The great thing is that nerfs generally only affect one out of a single races ten plus decent ships, and there are four races.
I simply abhor the Doom 3 style of making the player stumble around in the dark trying to find a door. Its *NOT* fun. And it seems that nearly every game now has at least one section like this (horrible haunted house mission in Vampire: Bloodlines being my most recent).
Sure you can get a few cheap scares. But if I can't even see the switch I am meant to be activating then I am going to get frustrated. And the most scary game I ever played, was farly well lit (System Shock 2).
Professional just means that it is your main source of income ;)
The Allies where certainly justified, but some people have a white washed view of WWII. And you see it in films about the conflict. The evil Nazi's bombing women and children, and then the valiant RAF flying off to bomb purely military targets. That is simply rubbish. The allies deliberately bombed civilians knowing that it had only a questionable effect on enemy morale. It became simply a matter of retaliation. Personally I feel it was justified, I just can't stand white washing of the truth.
And by the way, I think a fair few people in eastern Europe actually preferred the Nazi's to the Soviets. Most people at the time didn't actually like the Jews, they where persecueted for hundreds of years in Europe. And nearly everyone loathed the communists.
Rubbish. Games can be art. But games are primarily games, something you play for fun. I have never heard anyone call a football match art. And most software work is the artistic equivalent of logo or advertising design. Its high quantity work that most people can do with a little training. I am a programmer so don't give me that BS that many coders are doing mystical work like a great master. And please very few innovative games do well except in reviews. My favourite games got wonderful reviews and absolutely tanked in sales. The two studios that made most of those games no longer exist (Looking Glass and Troika). Making the best example of a game, and adding a few new things is the way to success. Thats what made Halo great. It had pretty much nothing that hadn't been done before, but it did it perfectly and with no bugs. This is the strategy that Blizzard use. Tiny amouts of innovation with tons of polish.
Gah, please forgive my terrible spelling. Its late.
Grammar Nazi's bad.
Yes, I know that. But the only thing that most people seem to learn about WWII is "Nazi bad". The allies weren't knights in shining armour, they were just the side that one. Given the deliberate bombing of German civilians for years, the nuclear attacks on Japen aren't some singular blemish on the allies shining moral record.
About the only moral high ground we had over the axis was that we didn't have death camps.
The allies where attacking civilian populations through out most of the war. Look at what they did to cities like Dresden. Nuclear bombs just made it easier to do that sort of destruction. But more civilians died due to conventional weapons then nuclear ones. And the use of nuclear weapons was not some moral quandry given the circumstances. I am sure many of Japens oceanic neighbours at the time felt the Japanese had gotten off lightly.
And the reason nuclear weapons haven't been used since WWII has to do with a little thing called the Cold War, and the paranoia of all things nuclear that it instilled in the west.
Could that be because the link seems to be an extract from a very early 90's book? ;)
But you are right the major problem really is the collapse of infrastructure. Most people would starve if the trucks stopped filling up their local supermarkets.
No you can allow an airline to go down in flames when it has become unprofitable. The problem was to many airlines (supply) and not enough passengers (demand). The solution to that problem is for some companies to go out of business or for them to all cut back services (and jobs). Using taxpayer money to keep unprofitable business around only fixes the problem long enough for the next election. And puts zero onus on the incompetent management of those companies to shape up.
We have corporate socialism. In the end its really no better then medieval systems of governance. Its just wrapped up in platitudes about democracy and the market.
Well seems the PHB's are only 20 years behind the security experts. So in 20 years everyone will get a cavity search before leaving the office ;)
P.S. I actually expect them to install scanners like airports are getting.
Actually according to Wikipedia you could make a gun type weapon with Pu. However it would need to use highly enriched Pu and need to be 19 feet long to prevent pre-detonation.
Thats okay im Australian. ...
Damn :(
Seriously, these things can only go so far. Currently the governments keep getting away with it because they only directly attack minorities and the poor. But sooner or later they are going to annoy enough people that another revolution will start. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen until the west's economies collapse when China/India etc, realise they don't need us as much as we need them.
As graphics get closer to "good enough" reality, games will *have* to focus on gameplay over eye candy.
I would say the majority of Internet users just want to use the web. Currently ISP's havent picked up on this. In the next few years I expect only business and geeks to have real connections (and be paying a premium for it). NATing average consumers will be done because it largely eliminates end user hassle, not because of lack of IP's.
that's my point. NAT the majority of the users of the internet and you'll:
1. instantly have the majority of the normally used ip space suddenly available (for what purpose???)
2. instantly stop the spam flow to millions of mail boxes
3. instantly make DOSes nearly impossible on a large scale
4. instantly provide security for users behind the NAT.
And the same argument can be made for all non-business level internet connections. After all "prosumers" will be willing to pay more to run servers, play games etc. And DSL/Cable connected machines are the major spam/DDOS offenders because of there always on nature they are more likely to be compromised and have more time spam/DDOS, and can do so with more bandwidth.
5 years from now.
"Gamers on consumer level DSL are rare.
Running a web server on consumer level DSL? probably not
How many people still use consumer level DSL?"
I use dial up, I want an *Internet* connection, not a web connection. I also do not want to pay business rates to have an Internet connection. NAT is a hack. Real geeks prefer an elegant system over a hack.
I use the same crappy password for things I don't really care about. Someone stealing my "forums" password wouldnt achieve much. At worst I spend five minutes recovering and changing my password for the site (my email uses a strong password). But its a hell of a lot easier then having a password for every single forum I ever joined, or any of the other random sites that require passwords.