You're still working from the misconception that the game industry beancounters do: that anyone who is likely to copy the game will even see any form of copy protection.
Put it this way - if you're going to copy games, chances are you got it from a mate who also copies games or you downloaded it (or you download a crack that lets you copy the CD and use the game with a backup cd). In either event, the stuff you download was probably ripped, cleaned up and uploaded to an ftp server within 10 microseconds of the game hitting the shops, if not before. The only people bothered by copy protection are, and always will be, the legitimate buyers. Copy protection does not prevent anyone but the technically inept, internet ignorant buyer from making a copy.
"What Lego is using is most likely a pre-programmed chip w/o Flash, which are about 1/3 of the price."
RCX Internals has details - the microcontroller is a Hitachi H8 job, HD6433292B02F, with a preprogrammed ROM and space for software.
It's not exactly rocket science either, AFAIK they got help from MIT with the design (MIT have a "Programmable Brick") but it's something that a fairly competant hobby hardware hacker with a copy of Eagle and etching kit (or even use somewhere like Olimex) could knock together.
"Since we have had man made mechanisms with wheels for quite some time now, why eliminate them?"
For a start, there's the complexity. Which is more complex: a system that has to control 4 wheels and 4 legs, synchronising them corretly and determining which should be used for a given surface, or a system that just has to control four legs?
"But the reality of the issue is that the people responsible were the men who woke up that morning with the intention of hijacking planes and killing as many people as they could."
Sure. Everyone knows that its trivial to fly a 747 into a building (ever actually tried it in a simulator with real flight models?) and that it takes no planning at all to coordinate a network of people to organise and pull off something like that. Let alone manage to keep the information out of the hands of anyone who will do anything about it.
Of course it's Clinton's fault. Clinton is the one who was sat in a school just about managing to read a story and listening to kids when his security team knew what had happened and had told him. Clinton is the one who hasn't done a thing about the way there was a complete failure in security proceedure regarding scambling of fighters to intercept known hijacked planes and take action if required.
Yes, Clinton was responsible for a lot of things, but Bush had been in office for 7 and a bit months. And there are a lot of questions about his behaviour and the behaviour of his staff on Sept 11th and in the time after that he has never answered, or given an adequate answer for.
You haven't been in industry very long, have you? May I suggest you read something like Scott Adams' "Dilbert and the Way Of The Weasel", it may prove enlightening. Or just pay close attention next time you're in the cube farm.
I'll just put it this way - if there ever was such a creature as a reliable and honest worker, he was walked over, ripped off and had the crap kicked out of him years ago by his unscrupulous, self-serving cow-orkers and incompetant managers.
Except that, in the UK at least, many areas are 20 or 30pmh limits. If the limiter isn't fixed at 70 (which would cause problems anyway, nobody really drives at 70 on a UK motorway - 80 to 90 is more common) and changes depending ont he local limit (not that hard to do) then even if you can accelerate quickly, you'll still hit the peg and may not be going fast enough to avoid the problem.
How is a speed limiter on your car NOT in the "best interests of the population?"
I can think of several situations, none of them particulalrly common, but there are times when putting your foot down is required to prevent an accident or save a life - accidents that will happen and lives that will be lost if your engine refuses to do more than 20 or 30 in specific areas.
"Deus Ex 2 (still hasn't come out where I am yet)"
Well, you could get an import. If you're feeling particularly masochistic anyway - Having experienced the full thing, and been as underwhelmed as I was when playing the demo, I'd recommend you save your money for something that is worth it.
"Theif 3"
I was looking forward to that, until I played DX2 (they share a lot of code). If they've made as big as mess of that as they have of DX2 Ion Storm can expect a lot of very, very angry taffers paying a visit.
Just out of interest, given that there appears to be a derth of recent Linux-specific information on this, do you know of any Linux based comparisons of ATI and NVidia cards (OpenGL implementation quality, available extensions, throughput etc)? I've been considering switching from a Ti4600 to a 9800 Pro but can't justify the price without more detals on the pros and cons than any site I've found can provide...
Wrong - at it's worst this year, before the propaganda engine kicked in at full speed, outright opposition to the war was 47% while support for it had fallen to 30% - and 81% of the population said that the war should not go ahead without UN mandate.
It was only after the government started its scare tactics that support started to increase.
"If a country (and by this I refer to the elected government) sends troops to fight and possibly be killed then I say no, they did not oppose the war."
Nice rhetoric, now try to look at what the people in those countries thought. In the UK Blair went against the wishes of a vast tract of the British public, cabinet ministers resigned over it and it came close (unfortunately not close enough) to destroying his career. He basically acted like a dictator, overriding the wishes of the country. The same thing happened in Spain, where Aznar faced huge opposition from the public. The story is repeated in every country that "supported" the US: in Turkey the pulic opposition was near universal (98% opposition in one poll).
No, the spineless governments decided to play nice with the new global empire.
Yeah, but at least/. denizens, being more accustomed to a darkened environement, will be able to see better than everyone else. Yes, global domination through enhanced low-light visual ability will soon be within our grasp!
Slashdot Mirror
You're still working from the misconception that the game industry beancounters do: that anyone who is likely to copy the game will even see any form of copy protection.
Put it this way - if you're going to copy games, chances are you got it from a mate who also copies games or you downloaded it (or you download a crack that lets you copy the CD and use the game with a backup cd). In either event, the stuff you download was probably ripped, cleaned up and uploaded to an ftp server within 10 microseconds of the game hitting the shops, if not before. The only people bothered by copy protection are, and always will be, the legitimate buyers. Copy protection does not prevent anyone but the technically inept, internet ignorant buyer from making a copy.
Yes, and I'm sure that you could tell us a lot about using the energy of crystals and the amazing powers of homeopathic medicine..
Now, if you'll excuse us, some people actually prefer real science, based on research and evidence than your so-called "facts".
Or you're investing in remote control aircraft and robot soldiers controlled by said pasty and corpulent mouse twiddlers...
Yup. Now the trick is actually getting them more than a lab-length apart considering that quantum entanglement is incredibly unstable...
"What Lego is using is most likely a pre-programmed chip w/o Flash, which are about 1/3 of the price."
RCX Internals has details - the microcontroller is a Hitachi H8 job, HD6433292B02F, with a preprogrammed ROM and space for software.
It's not exactly rocket science either, AFAIK they got help from MIT with the design (MIT have a "Programmable Brick") but it's something that a fairly competant hobby hardware hacker with a copy of Eagle and etching kit (or even use somewhere like Olimex) could knock together.
Bigger maybe, but it is so damn flat. Yes, that may be accurate for the Recount State, but it doesn't make for interesting driving.
And if you get lost in Vice City you really need to do memory exercises, or you haven't spend much time playing it.
So is the obvious pump-and-dump going on at SCO. But they aren't big enough fish for the SEC to bother with right now..
"Since we have had man made mechanisms with wheels for quite some time now, why eliminate them?"
For a start, there's the complexity. Which is more complex: a system that has to control 4 wheels and 4 legs, synchronising them corretly and determining which should be used for a given surface, or a system that just has to control four legs?
Nothing a grenade or rocket launcher can't handle. Didn't quake teach you anything? ;)
"But the reality of the issue is that the people responsible were the men who woke up that morning with the intention of hijacking planes and killing as many people as they could."
Sure. Everyone knows that its trivial to fly a 747 into a building (ever actually tried it in a simulator with real flight models?) and that it takes no planning at all to coordinate a network of people to organise and pull off something like that. Let alone manage to keep the information out of the hands of anyone who will do anything about it.
Of course it's Clinton's fault. Clinton is the one who was sat in a school just about managing to read a story and listening to kids when his security team knew what had happened and had told him. Clinton is the one who hasn't done a thing about the way there was a complete failure in security proceedure regarding scambling of fighters to intercept known hijacked planes and take action if required.
Yes, Clinton was responsible for a lot of things, but Bush had been in office for 7 and a bit months. And there are a lot of questions about his behaviour and the behaviour of his staff on Sept 11th and in the time after that he has never answered, or given an adequate answer for.
"how much time a average computer joe spends installing, configuring, tweaking, a linux distro"
Simple - 0 hours. Average Joes don't install Linux - they either give up, get a friend to help or they aren't average..
You haven't been in industry very long, have you? May I suggest you read something like Scott Adams' "Dilbert and the Way Of The Weasel", it may prove enlightening. Or just pay close attention next time you're in the cube farm.
I'll just put it this way - if there ever was such a creature as a reliable and honest worker, he was walked over, ripped off and had the crap kicked out of him years ago by his unscrupulous, self-serving cow-orkers and incompetant managers.
Except that, in the UK at least, many areas are 20 or 30pmh limits. If the limiter isn't fixed at 70 (which would cause problems anyway, nobody really drives at 70 on a UK motorway - 80 to 90 is more common) and changes depending ont he local limit (not that hard to do) then even if you can accelerate quickly, you'll still hit the peg and may not be going fast enough to avoid the problem.
Yup, if you hold the graph upside down, gun crime has halved since Dunblane. Halved I tell you!
How is a speed limiter on your car NOT in the "best interests of the population?"
I can think of several situations, none of them particulalrly common, but there are times when putting your foot down is required to prevent an accident or save a life - accidents that will happen
and lives that will be lost if your engine refuses to do more than 20 or 30 in specific areas.
Or maybe they put the clock in upside down...
"Deus Ex 2 (still hasn't come out where I am yet)"
Well, you could get an import. If you're feeling particularly masochistic anyway - Having experienced the full thing, and been as underwhelmed as I was when playing the demo, I'd recommend you save your money for something that is worth it.
"Theif 3"
I was looking forward to that, until I played DX2 (they share a lot of code). If they've made as big as mess of that as they have of DX2 Ion Storm can expect a lot of very, very angry taffers paying a visit.
Just out of interest, given that there appears to be a derth of recent Linux-specific information on this, do you know of any Linux based comparisons of ATI and NVidia cards (OpenGL implementation quality, available extensions, throughput etc)? I've been considering switching from a Ti4600 to a 9800 Pro but can't justify the price without more detals on the pros and cons than any site I've found can provide...
"It has no far flung colonies to support, defend, or suppress."
Iraq? Afgahnistan?
"The United States is going to collapse."
All empires collapse. History allows for no exceptions. I live in the home of the previous Empire, Britain, and we got out of it quite lightly.
Pray you don't go down like the Romans.
"Argentina was never like the US."
True. It was never as powerful or dangerous.
And? Oh yes, I keep forgetting, the only things beyond the boundaries of the Great US are ghosts and vampires..
Story here, original data from ICM here (excel).
Wrong - at it's worst this year, before the propaganda engine kicked in at full speed, outright opposition to the war was 47% while support for it had fallen to 30% - and 81% of the population said that the war should not go ahead without UN mandate.
It was only after the government started its scare tactics that support started to increase.
"If a country (and by this I refer to the elected government) sends troops to fight and possibly be killed then I say no, they did not oppose the war."
Nice rhetoric, now try to look at what the people in those countries thought. In the UK Blair went against the wishes of a vast tract of the British public, cabinet ministers resigned over it and it came close (unfortunately not close enough) to destroying his career. He basically acted like a dictator, overriding the wishes of the country. The same thing happened in Spain, where Aznar faced huge opposition from the public. The story is repeated in every country that "supported" the US: in Turkey the pulic opposition was near universal (98% opposition in one poll).
No, the spineless governments decided to play nice with the new global empire.
Yeah, but at least /. denizens, being more accustomed to a darkened environement, will be able to see better than everyone else. Yes, global domination through enhanced low-light visual ability will soon be within our grasp!