Hey, thx for mentioning smitfraudfix! I wasn't aware of that tool! Gonna give this a try.
One of the kids machine has something that keeps starting up the web browser (Firefox!) that I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it. Tried the usual Adaware, SpyBot Search-n-Destroy, ClamWin, Hijack This, and even booting into safe-mode, but nothing detects it.
Anyone else have a list of the essential anti-spyware tools? (Preferably free)
Wikipedia sucks for other reasons - refusal to acknowledge certain facts, such as popular musicians (Mehdi) even though they are established (he has an 8 volume CD set out!) - bone-headed policies of not allowing trivia. One man's dis-interest is another man's interest! - censoring criticism, i.e. WOW, etc.
> I am sure I will get modded down here, but...... downloading copyrighted material without permission of the owner is stealing. Plain and simple. I never have done it, and won't.
I have yet to met a perfect OS. What I have found is that Windows is good-enough for gaming, OS X puts the fun back in using computers again, and Linux is fun to tinker with. I am not so arrogant or ignorant to dictate what OS other people should use. Only they can answer that question.
> This is the problem that no-one has solved, or even attempted to solve. No-one can contain anything for millions of years. No-one. Even if they could, they could never prove that they could, because their life will be up well before the proof is completed.
You're going to tell me sending it _into_ the sun is not going to contain it??
I think what you meant to say, what is the cost (both short-term & long-term) that people are willing to pay for convenience.
Nuclear Power is just a stepping stone anyways for the next 50 years.
If you are playing Open Battle.net, that is true - you host the game. But if you are playing closed Battle.net, that is false - the server hosts the game.
Agreed. I don't get the ridicilous requirements on the summoning stone either. ( If you are going to get powered leveld through an instance, there is realy nothing Blizzard can do. )
The ideal solution would to allow the first person there, to summon the rest of the party, regardless of level.
While I don't think Wow is a great game, or even a good game (wow designers still don't have a clue about dead-time, and about minimizing the time it takes to get a party together at your favorite instances/location) I would agree with your post. Blizzard _nailed_ the basics in Wow. The core mechanics of what you do for the first 20 levels is usually interesting enough to keep a player leveling up. I'm usually not impressed with combat systems in games, but even the combat system is Wow I feel is good.
I would argue Blizzard doesn't really innovate, but they take the best ideas, and continually refine the process. (i.e. Warcraft 3 took the best elements of RTS's and combined them.) And at the end of the day, that's what matters -- the basic gameplay. As a game programmer it is sad to see so many MMORPGs that can't even get that right. Diablo 2 and Wow aren't the prettiest games around, but the gameplay is addicting and "good enough." One can trace the evolution (not revolution) of their games and almost see the paradigm shifts in the industry with their game UI and design in their products.
> Why should the majority of them even care what else comes out?
Having gamed since the early 80's, I sadly have to agree. Because as bad as Wow is, everything else sucks worse, and I don't see anyone raising up meet that challenge of getting past that hurdle anytime soon. I used to thank Sony for Everquest -- "How NOT to design a game."
The _real_ innovation in MMORPGs these days is the UI -- how accessible is your game to players (even to people who have NEVER gamed -- we still have a LONG ways to go.) Blizzard has a history of polishing their game, streamlining the UI. i.e. no click-and-drag when a single click will toggle picking up/dropping an item, right-click for the default action, etc. The latest patch 2.3 _finally_ organized Alchemy recipes. It is not much, but the little refinements here and there, add up to a more intuitive, and logical whole. And I think that is one of the reasons wow will continue to be around. Not because it is great, but because everyone else has this tremendous bar to overcome.
Does it really matter who knows? The bigger problem is who doesn't know. The general public doesn't and won't until it gets over its xenophobia. The opportunities to learn from a foreign intelligent is priceless.
But since you asked, * NASA * A few people who have been somnambulistic regressed in Custodians by Doloress Cannon.
A few people already know the answer (and have know for thousands of years.) Your post is pretty spot on but it ignores the biggest problem...
The problem is that the majority of people are not ready to have their paradigm so radically shifted that they are not the most intelligent species in the universe, let alone that their religion is "man-made." (Religion serves a useful purpose, but most are not able to comprehend or accept that is is incomplete.)
The biggest problem with humans is the constant greed, and fear that everyone is under the influence of. Until we learn to treat each other with more respect, let alone another intelligent species, Earth will have its "Contact Not Generally Allowed Prohibition" in place.
Slashdot Mirror
> Philosophers have been pondering this nonsense for centuries, and have gotten nowhere...
Maybe you're listening to the wrong Philosophers...
Agreed.
/.
Any business that is not interested in free-marketing is not going to be in business very long.
--
Reddit is the kiddie version of
Hey, thx for mentioning smitfraudfix! I wasn't aware of that tool! Gonna give this a try.
One of the kids machine has something that keeps starting up the web browser (Firefox!) that I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it. Tried the usual Adaware, SpyBot Search-n-Destroy, ClamWin, Hijack This, and even booting into safe-mode, but nothing detects it.
Anyone else have a list of the essential anti-spyware tools? (Preferably free)
Good Lord - and I thought us software engineers had problems with versioning.
Thx for the informative answer!
You mean like this? ;-)
Outside from a formal proof, there is no such thing as a 100% verifiable or reliable. In almost all cases, it comes down to trusting someone else.
> waiting to fly the 121st Shuttle mission (STS-122)
Fencepost error?
Why don't 121st and STS-122 match up?
This is _exactly_ the problem with wikipedia: One's man junk is another man's treasure.. Who are the admins to determine what is "valuable" or not?
ALL information has the potential to be valuable.
I want a NEW style of book: Encyclopedia + Dictionary + Manual + Tutorial
Wikipedia sucks for other reasons
- refusal to acknowledge certain facts, such as popular musicians (Mehdi) even though they are established (he has an 8 volume CD set out!)
- bone-headed policies of not allowing trivia. One man's dis-interest is another man's interest!
- censoring criticism, i.e. WOW, etc.
Exactly, whether a firewall is in hardware, or software, is moot -- if packets are being filtered, you have a firewall.
> I am sure I will get modded down here, but ...... downloading copyrighted material without permission of the owner is stealing. Plain and simple. I never have done it, and won't.
Not in Canada.
I have yet to met a perfect OS. What I have found is that Windows is good-enough for gaming, OS X puts the fun back in using computers again, and Linux is fun to tinker with. I am not so arrogant or ignorant to dictate what OS other people should use. Only they can answer that question.
> I see you're no Einstein.
I do not set unrealistic, impossible, and unhappy goals of trying to be like other people. What is wrong with being an unique individual?
Getting back to the topic...
A wise man knows when to fight, and when to run away. You can't win every battle; you can lose a fight, but still win the war.
> This is the problem that no-one has solved, or even attempted to solve. No-one can contain anything for millions of years. No-one. Even if they could, they could never prove that they could, because their life will be up well before the proof is completed.
You're going to tell me sending it _into_ the sun is not going to contain it??
I think what you meant to say, what is the cost (both short-term & long-term) that people are willing to pay for convenience.
Nuclear Power is just a stepping stone anyways for the next 50 years.
> leave the US while you can. Serious.
And where would you go that isn't any worse?
Is that your solution to life's problems? Run away from them?
> Battle.net doesn't actually host games,
If you are playing Open Battle.net, that is true - you host the game.
But if you are playing closed Battle.net, that is false - the server hosts the game.
A paradox is 2 conflicting truths that requires a higher perspective to reconcile.
It's called Karma:
- "All take the sword, perish by it."
- "God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."
> There are books without chapters like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and Fighting Fantasy.
Guess because the author didn't call it a chapter, doesn't mean there aren't sub-divisions.
The sub-divisions are still there -- at 2 levels:
- At the mini-chapter level - the consequences of your choices
- At the page level
Agreed. I don't get the ridicilous requirements on the summoning stone either. ( If you are going to get powered leveld through an instance, there is realy nothing Blizzard can do. )
The ideal solution would to allow the first person there, to summon the rest of the party, regardless of level.
Care to elaborate?
Even if Lubos comes across pretty rude, he sounds he knows what he is talking about.
If one could have separate talents for PvE vs PvP that would also help.
And if I could temporarily "downgrade" my toon to a lower level for PvP, that would be golden.
While I don't think Wow is a great game, or even a good game (wow designers still don't have a clue about dead-time, and about minimizing the time it takes to get a party together at your favorite instances/location) I would agree with your post. Blizzard _nailed_ the basics in Wow. The core mechanics of what you do for the first 20 levels is usually interesting enough to keep a player leveling up. I'm usually not impressed with combat systems in games, but even the combat system is Wow I feel is good.
I would argue Blizzard doesn't really innovate, but they take the best ideas, and continually refine the process. (i.e. Warcraft 3 took the best elements of RTS's and combined them.) And at the end of the day, that's what matters -- the basic gameplay. As a game programmer it is sad to see so many MMORPGs that can't even get that right. Diablo 2 and Wow aren't the prettiest games around, but the gameplay is addicting and "good enough." One can trace the evolution (not revolution) of their games and almost see the paradigm shifts in the industry with their game UI and design in their products.
> Why should the majority of them even care what else comes out?
Having gamed since the early 80's, I sadly have to agree. Because as bad as Wow is, everything else sucks worse, and I don't see anyone raising up meet that challenge of getting past that hurdle anytime soon. I used to thank Sony for Everquest -- "How NOT to design a game."
The _real_ innovation in MMORPGs these days is the UI -- how accessible is your game to players (even to people who have NEVER gamed -- we still have a LONG ways to go.) Blizzard has a history of polishing their game, streamlining the UI. i.e. no click-and-drag when a single click will toggle picking up/dropping an item, right-click for the default action, etc. The latest patch 2.3 _finally_ organized Alchemy recipes. It is not much, but the little refinements here and there, add up to a more intuitive, and logical whole. And I think that is one of the reasons wow will continue to be around. Not because it is great, but because everyone else has this tremendous bar to overcome.
Shoot the messenger instead of listening to the message.
I rest my case...
Does it really matter who knows? The bigger problem is who doesn't know. The general public doesn't and won't until it gets over its xenophobia. The opportunities to learn from a foreign intelligent is priceless.
But since you asked,
* NASA
* A few people who have been somnambulistic regressed in Custodians by Doloress Cannon.
Cheers
A few people already know the answer (and have know for thousands of years.) Your post is pretty spot on but it ignores the biggest problem...
The problem is that the majority of people are not ready to have their paradigm so radically shifted that they are not the most intelligent species in the universe, let alone that their religion is "man-made." (Religion serves a useful purpose, but most are not able to comprehend or accept that is is incomplete.)
The biggest problem with humans is the constant greed, and fear that everyone is under the influence of. Until we learn to treat each other with more respect, let alone another intelligent species, Earth will have its "Contact Not Generally Allowed Prohibition" in place.