And yet the Social Security card when created was explicitly not supposed to be a universal ID card. In fact, you are not required by law to give your SSN, and no one can force you to.
When I worked at Intel, we all had WWID's (World-Wide ID). I thought, "great, then my health insurance can use the WWID." Nope. They still used the SSN. Gotta love it when my SSN is on every card I have as a "subscriber number". Makes it that much easier to hijack my identity if my wallet is stolen.
In 1991, coding a game called Hovertank,
Carmack faced a challenge no programmer had yet tackled: how to get a
computer to quickly render a three-dimensional world from a
first-person perspective..... It was the original first-person shooter.
Um, I don't think so. The first first-person perspective game I
remember is BattleZone, published in 1983. The first first-person
shooter I recall is Xybots (or maybe you'd call it 3rd person), published in 1987.
Id has been a phenomemnon, but let's give credit where it's due.
I could have sworn when 7 came out there was no upgrade path. I really did check. It appears that I was wrong however--maybe it's too late, but someone could mod down my earlier post.
I did buy version 6. When 7 came out with no cheaper upgrade option, I decided not to pay the registration fee. (The fact that people who registered ver 6 during the 7 beta got 7 free only added insult to injury.)
Also the decision by Opera to never release a WinCE version of the browser means I'll never be their customer again--I'm no MS fan, but I have a WinCE device. They don't want me as a customer apparently.
If you're going to spend most of your time viewing text (code, whatever) may I suggest any LCD over any CRT. In WindowsXP turn on ClearType, or in Linux, turn on subpixel rendering--you'll never go back.
I can work on my 15" Laptop display and it is more pleasant to read the text than on my 21" perfectly flat trinitron tube.
Yeah, and I think it's so funny that as a non-subscriber it's one more argument against subscribing.
Unless of course the subscribers don't lose any credits on April 1.
In a bizarre move, Mozilla 1.3 actually degrades popup blocking. You used to be able to simply prevent unrequested popups. Now, you have to categorize web sites and make an explicit whitelist. Never mind if one page gives popups that you want to avoid (unrequested) and another page gives popups that you want (requested). What a mess.
Fortunately, you can return the functionality by putting the following line in your prefs.js file:
I just realized that this might bring back the bread and butter of companies like SciTech Software (actually, has there been anyone else?) which sell products that provide a layer between Direct3D and OpenGL.
Unfortunately, our volume is far too small for MS to even notice, and MS doesn't seem to care about anything unless it ships 1000's or 1000000's of units.
I work at a company which produces scientific visualization and simulation software, and we use OpenGL to render our graphics, for many reasons. Direct3D is driven by games, and OpenGL is driven by a community which includes groups with interest in robust rendering for scientific programming.
I can only conclude that if this move is a precursor to more sabotage of OpenGL, it will marginalize MS Windows for scientific programming. Which, of course, will likely be another boon to Linux.
Everyone remember: Direct3D is a subset of DirectX, and OpenGL only provides functionality comparable to Direct3D (and DirectDraw--but DirectDraw and Direct3D have pretty much merged last I checked).
Initiatives like SDL and OpenAL are good efforts to make cross-platform standards for other portions of functionality that DirectX spans.
I wonder what Carmack will have to say about this?
Of the work you've written, does one title in particular have a special place in your heart? Douglas Adams once said that his book "Last Chance to See" was the one book he'd hope that people read if they only read one of his books. Is there one book of yours you'd like people to have read?
Similarly, if I were to introduce someone to your books, which one would you suggest I give him first?
without a "gl_" prefix. I have already defined classes vec2 for that purpose--using the template parameter to define the underlying type. It's unfortunate that they're gobbling up those keywords (and there's no way it appears to choose different floating point precisions for vec/mat.
The comments I saw on a discussion forum were in the context of considering a class action lawsuit against Palm for this problem--this after the deceptive advertising for the # of colors on one of the devices etc. When everyone I knew had the same problem with the IIIc (all purchased from different sources), I see it as more telling than mere anecdote.
In fact, when my colleague and I sent in for replacements, we both received units which had the same problem. It took Palm three tries to get my coworker a working IIIc, and two tries to get me one.
Color me unimpressed that they claimed it wasn't a "known problem." You'd think they could have at least checked the replacement units for the exact problem we reported.
How do you know it wasn't a known issue? Did you work for Palm?
Re:Palm is a sinking ship
on
Palm PDA Roundup
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The sad thing is that Palm is dying because it's not innovating. All of the built-in apps are pretty much the same as they've always been. The price of the new PDAs is absurd while the new PDAs don't do much more than their predecessors.
The last straw for me was when Palm pretended they hadn't heard of the problem my IIIc had (and my coworker had the same problem, and so did my brother-in-law). When the brightness was appreciably above minimum, the digitizer was totally useless. I didn't really know how bad it was until I used TealEcho to see what the IIIc thought I was writing--it was horrible. Palm claimed that they'd never heard of the problem in spite of the links I provided to discussion boards in which several people claimed to have contacted Palm with the same problem.
When I got Warcraft III, one of the first things I did was make a copy so that I could store the original away so it wouldn't get damaged. Or I should say I tried to copy it. War3 uses Securom copy-prevention, so I couldn't make a backup. When I contacted blizzard about this, and asked them to send me my backup copy (even the DMCA allows for a single backup copy) they refused. They said that it wasn't their fault that my hardware was unable to copy the disk.
What?!?!? That's right, they blamed me for their copy-prevention. Finally I had to rip the image and use daemon-tools to make a virtual CD and run with Securom emulation.
Now, I had a legal copy (I posted in the forums which requires a valid cd-key). I simply wanted to play the game without worrying about my original disk (the starcraft/brood war cd's spent a lot of time in the cd-tray, and one copy eventually went bad). I was unimpressed.
A coworker found at one point that someone else had nabbed his cd-key. Without ever sharing it, someone had either intercepted it, or (more likely) used a key-gen and managed to get his key. Blizzard's response? Send us the case and we'll send you a new one. Or return it to the store for a replacement (of course, he'd already cut the UPC symbol out for the rebate).
So, to recap: Blizzard has a protection system which is easily spoofed, and when it is subverted, the person who duped the cd-key isn't punished. The actual owner has to go through the hassle of getting a replacement. The key-gen just makes another key. Blizzard puts copy-prevention on their cd, and then blames the customers.
All for a product which had 4.5 million pre-orders at USD60 a pop. Calculate the revenue. When those pre-orders shipped, it was nearly the box-office take of Star Wars: Episode I.
They treat their customers as theives first, customers second. They don't need my money. I don't do business with that kind of company anymore.
To add insult to injury, the game really isn't that good. I lost interest in a few months. The targeted spells are impossible to use in a big battle, and even on a 1.7GHz machine with a Radeon 8500 over a symmetric DSL line, the b.net games got slow and chunky in a big battle (it had to be battle.net, because when we played locally, we didn't have the same problem).
The most worthwhile space endeavor right now is to get an off-world colony going. We keep getting those asteroid near-misses, and the only good protection for the human race is to spread.
Living on the moon for a while will give us a bit of know-how to live on Mars. From there, the sky's...er...the limit.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, they can refuse service if you don't give them the number.
When I worked at Intel, we all had WWID's (World-Wide ID). I thought, "great, then my health insurance can use the WWID." Nope. They still used the SSN. Gotta love it when my SSN is on every card I have as a "subscriber number". Makes it that much easier to hijack my identity if my wallet is stolen.
Oops--thanks for the correction. Battlezone for home computers came out in 1983.
Id has been a phenomemnon, but let's give credit where it's due.
Finally! A dedicated random number generator coprocessor.
I could have sworn when 7 came out there was no upgrade path. I really did check. It appears that I was wrong however--maybe it's too late, but someone could mod down my earlier post.
Also the decision by Opera to never release a WinCE version of the browser means I'll never be their customer again--I'm no MS fan, but I have a WinCE device. They don't want me as a customer apparently.
If you're going to spend most of your time viewing text (code, whatever) may I suggest any LCD over any CRT. In WindowsXP turn on ClearType, or in Linux, turn on subpixel rendering--you'll never go back.
I can work on my 15" Laptop display and it is more pleasant to read the text than on my 21" perfectly flat trinitron tube.
Yeah, and I think it's so funny that as a non-subscriber it's one more argument against subscribing. Unless of course the subscribers don't lose any credits on April 1.
Email a copy of this article to all of your friends--and tell them to do the same!
Fortunately, you can return the functionality by putting the following line in your prefs.js file:
He's a hack author, and a bit of a nutjob, but let's at least get the name spelled right.
I just realized that this might bring back the bread and butter of companies like SciTech Software (actually, has there been anyone else?) which sell products that provide a layer between Direct3D and OpenGL.
Unfortunately, our volume is far too small for MS to even notice, and MS doesn't seem to care about anything unless it ships 1000's or 1000000's of units.
I work at a company which produces scientific visualization and simulation software, and we use OpenGL to render our graphics, for many reasons. Direct3D is driven by games, and OpenGL is driven by a community which includes groups with interest in robust rendering for scientific programming.
I can only conclude that if this move is a precursor to more sabotage of OpenGL, it will marginalize MS Windows for scientific programming. Which, of course, will likely be another boon to Linux.
Everyone remember: Direct3D is a subset of DirectX, and OpenGL only provides functionality comparable to Direct3D (and DirectDraw--but DirectDraw and Direct3D have pretty much merged last I checked).
Initiatives like SDL and OpenAL are good efforts to make cross-platform standards for other portions of functionality that DirectX spans.
I wonder what Carmack will have to say about this?
Of the work you've written, does one title in particular have a special place in your heart? Douglas Adams once said that his book "Last Chance to See" was the one book he'd hope that people read if they only read one of his books. Is there one book of yours you'd like people to have read?
Similarly, if I were to introduce someone to your books, which one would you suggest I give him first?
In fact, when my colleague and I sent in for replacements, we both received units which had the same problem. It took Palm three tries to get my coworker a working IIIc, and two tries to get me one.
Color me unimpressed that they claimed it wasn't a "known problem." You'd think they could have at least checked the replacement units for the exact problem we reported.
How do you know it wasn't a known issue? Did you work for Palm?
The sad thing is that Palm is dying because it's not innovating. All of the built-in apps are pretty much the same as they've always been. The price of the new PDAs is absurd while the new PDAs don't do much more than their predecessors.
The last straw for me was when Palm pretended they hadn't heard of the problem my IIIc had (and my coworker had the same problem, and so did my brother-in-law). When the brightness was appreciably above minimum, the digitizer was totally useless. I didn't really know how bad it was until I used TealEcho to see what the IIIc thought I was writing--it was horrible. Palm claimed that they'd never heard of the problem in spite of the links I provided to discussion boards in which several people claimed to have contacted Palm with the same problem.
Fool me once...
And which lies would those be?
After all, the "post comment" page seems to be sending crap to Opera.
Of course, it appears to be sending crap to all browsers--not just Opera specifically. It fails the w3.org validator spectacularly.
When I got Warcraft III, one of the first things I did was make a copy so that I could store the original away so it wouldn't get damaged. Or I should say I tried to copy it. War3 uses Securom copy-prevention, so I couldn't make a backup. When I contacted blizzard about this, and asked them to send me my backup copy (even the DMCA allows for a single backup copy) they refused. They said that it wasn't their fault that my hardware was unable to copy the disk.
What?!?!? That's right, they blamed me for their copy-prevention. Finally I had to rip the image and use daemon-tools to make a virtual CD and run with Securom emulation.
Now, I had a legal copy (I posted in the forums which requires a valid cd-key). I simply wanted to play the game without worrying about my original disk (the starcraft/brood war cd's spent a lot of time in the cd-tray, and one copy eventually went bad). I was unimpressed.
A coworker found at one point that someone else had nabbed his cd-key. Without ever sharing it, someone had either intercepted it, or (more likely) used a key-gen and managed to get his key. Blizzard's response? Send us the case and we'll send you a new one. Or return it to the store for a replacement (of course, he'd already cut the UPC symbol out for the rebate).
So, to recap: Blizzard has a protection system which is easily spoofed, and when it is subverted, the person who duped the cd-key isn't punished. The actual owner has to go through the hassle of getting a replacement. The key-gen just makes another key. Blizzard puts copy-prevention on their cd, and then blames the customers.
All for a product which had 4.5 million pre-orders at USD60 a pop. Calculate the revenue. When those pre-orders shipped, it was nearly the box-office take of Star Wars: Episode I.
They treat their customers as theives first, customers second. They don't need my money. I don't do business with that kind of company anymore.
To add insult to injury, the game really isn't that good. I lost interest in a few months. The targeted spells are impossible to use in a big battle, and even on a 1.7GHz machine with a Radeon 8500 over a symmetric DSL line, the b.net games got slow and chunky in a big battle (it had to be battle.net, because when we played locally, we didn't have the same problem).
Living on the moon for a while will give us a bit of know-how to live on Mars. From there, the sky's...er...the limit.