I would speculate that they are not using any type of sniffing/firewall monitoring to do this due to the volume of the traffic (it would just tank modern implementations..) so they are probably using their DNS servers + some sort of transparent proxy to do it (just so they can piece together URL). Basically, I doubt this will work if you use your own DNS server (which I do at home for this reason... generally not good for providers to see your DNS anyway...) since they would have to use selective monitoring such as this to avoid legal problems. If they never see you hit up the pirate bay then they probably aren't monitoring the rest of the communication at all.
They don't have to. They can leave the GPL code as is, add GPL w/library exemption (since it is their work) to the tack on (remember GPL prevents you from limiting rights not expanding them..), and link their code to the new interface. This is exactly what every single program that links to the standard library (GCC) is currently doing regardless of it's license. Thus, they only have to "GPL" their glue code and connect to the glue -- the glue would be GPL and the proprietary module would only interface that thus no GPL violation -- the interface can be open source since it doesn't cause a problem. If it worked as suggested by you it would be impossible to link anything in Linux without it automatically becoming GPL since technically everything 'links against' the kernel libraries by extension. GPL lets you fork and branch the code all you'd like the GPL specifically states you can modify the software you just have to distribute the code.
At least that's what I learned when the word "Microsoft" is in any of their reports. I would assume that it is that way with everything else too... They're like the Fox News of the tech industry -- it's all about who pays the most.
Nvidia doesn't need Linux or to make drivers for it at all. The top two environments are OSX and Windows and it can ignore Linux completely if it must leaving you with some shitty integrated video adapters. Between negotiating terms or heavily modifying the driver to fit the GPL taint (probably removing functionality) and whatever else it may simply ignore the new functionality since while advantageous it wouldn't effect the position of NVidia at the top of the video heap and most of the cards that would take advantage can't compete with Nvidia anyway. The bug is really in how Linux is licensed not in what NVidia is doing, but there is nothing stopping Nvidia from taking linux sources removing all of the bits it doesn't like and licensing the changes with the library exception and plugging its kernel module into that effectively creating their own branch over which GPL cronies have no say over since this is all GCC has really done by creating the standard library. As long as Nvidia plugs into these 'changed' hooks and not the originals everything still works.
I too have had this problem with contemplating licensing software or documents I create. GPL is great in concept, but why is _IT_ tainting a third party developed software? Nvidia in this case isn't the problem it is the stupid licensing terms of the kernel that are preventing linking to libraries and whatnot required to access the functionality. This concept of GPL tainting other licenses is the problem -- do we have have to bring out the book to write a file to the disk, or everytime we want to create a simple module for personal use go through the license dance? Nvidia drivers are proprietary because nothing would stop their competitors from reverse engineering their hardware via it's interfaces and this 'advantage' is what keeps them in business -- the other factor being that several of the technologies they use themselves are licensed from other companies and they do not have permission to distribute. The weakness here is that Linux is probably not using the GPL the way GCC does (aka you have a library exclusion... you can link your programs with the stdlib and things are fine...) Nvidia won't cower to linux it will just start ignoring it, so how 'bout we put out the olive branch now because having 3D acceleration is pretty nice, and AMD's drivers are always shit? Isn't anyone just happy they even have good drivers from Nvidia on linux period? By this definition no non-GPL software can use these kernel features so wouldn't that make the concept actually non-free... as in.. you no longer have a choice? I understand the problem GPL attempts to address, but it should not be venturing in this realm.
Seriously, I can't even directly compare Radeon to GeForce cards because they're functionally crippled due to the fact that game developers are ignoring them in Windows and the binary driver is completely borked in Linux so no kudos THERE either. Then there is that issue that every single time I buy one of these cards they spontaneously flame-out. Speed isn't everything and they've been stomped in the drivers and support by NVidia for years. Radeon's all fail to render graphics properly even to this day and it is especially noticeable in side-by-side comparisons. They have some nerve charging $500 for what is likely as much a piece of turd as the rest of their offerings.
I think the real dilemma is the psyche of the average consumer. Let's face it how many people need a cloud? It's a luxury that you're getting by subsidizing various evil empires. It's not always what you get, but rather what you endorse. I rather give an ethical company with less service the same money for a reduced service than give a corrupt one anything. Amazon provides these same services for most uses and I don't feel morally complicated by using them. They do not profit by me viewing ads or leaking my information everywhere. Some of the onus is on the user though -- blocking cookies, using tools like Collusion to see what sites are doing, and installing adblocking and hosts files. If they never get the impression they do not profit on you -- so think about that. Google search is certainly king, but you could use Duck Duck Go which is more like a search aggregation which wraps Google and others and filters the badness off of them. (Check their about page... they're really good...)
There probably was a time when Google was a beneficent geek Mecca but it has morphed into a tyrannical beast. Apple and Google both make my list of disappointing companies whom have decided to use their new found power for evil. Everything Google has been doing has been concerned with undermining privacy or stifling innovation and frankly other than being forced to YouTube (for lack of alternates) I won't have anything to do with their products personally. It's time to let these power hungry money grubbing shitheads die -- they are not what they sold us in the beginning anymore.
Hacks happen. Every system can and will be hacked no matter what you do theoretically given enough time. You have to have the assumption that it will happen so that the "damage" when it does is minimal. Most of the time when this happens I would say that it does because of zero-day exploit crap on system software. So what exactly are these people doing wrong? That's the problem... probably nothing.. they're as dependent on the coders of their MySQL server as you are on the coders of your OS. You can control your code, but you typically have little to no control of the underlying systems. People don't hack your application they hack on the backend stuff...
They do not have to adhere to the information standards that financial companies do... And, it's probably good.. because some of the smaller gaming companies could never afford it.
My handy reference guide for online gaming:
1) Change all your information to complete and utter BS. Store your BS information somewhere so you can parrot it back if you have to call support.
2) Pay with game cards. If you can pick them up at Walmart even better. But, you can buy codes online.
3) Nothing to lose now... So you don't care if they are hacked.
It's not ethnic cleansing if they're trying to kill you, it's called self-defense! Stop giving these retards a home, and a forum. Shut 'em down. They can believe whatever they want until they start shaking their fists at folks.If we dropped one bomb every time one of these guys started threatening people I'm sure it'd stop really fast. They are doing it because >we are allowing it. You don't want to get taken out? Don't stand with the fist shaker. It's not about religion it's about their constant threats and terror campaigns.
If the books go much over $10 on average there will be a lot of money to be made this way, and I was worried that the e-books are going to take over. Sure, the reference books will still be more useful likely in an electronic form but they're certainly cutting their throats here. Most of the mass-market paperbacks have already been overpriced on Amazon Kindle (a typically $7.99 book going for $9.99) and are teetering on that brink of not being worth the price. The Kindle is still a handy PDF reader, but the IPad can do that as well so who knows who will win here. Honestly, I'd pay $2 extra on every book if I could have a pdf on cd attached to the physical book.. but that's just me.
Credentials aren't really the issue, as your gate keeper here is parsing traffic to see it if is malware related. It's actually more effective to do it this way than to push a solution to desktops. I rather have something at the door so I have the option of cutting off all the traffic in one swoop. The credentials just keep the not-as-smart stuff from immediately having access. Security is about tiers. You put an internet security package and AV on your desktops and servers, you make them run through a proxy that scans the traffic going through the wall, and likely run and Intrusion detection solution on both sides of the wall to see threats real time. You need more than one layer because at any point in time one of these layers will fail. The only way to have fail-safe is through stacking solutions unfortunately.
This also allows you to run the firewall as "deny all" which is far more secure than any other configuration.
Depending on your network topology you might be able to solve this by just adding one proxy/caching server to the mix. Proxy allows port 80 html traffic but doesn't allow other programs to bootleg themselves as something running on 80 to connect as there generally is application protocol checking. Firewalls do not remove the need for an application/proxy server in this mess and do not replace it as without that function you still have machines directly connecting to remote hosts and are still vulnerable. Firewall all traffic off both ways at the firewall and only allow traffic originating from the proxy to transverse the screen. Bot programs already on hosts thus have lost access to anything, and you are pushing your proxy list down via group policies to the client machines.
And no, you don't need Linux to do this despite what I see other people commenting. Linux is more secure in most cases due to obscurity, but it is not the same thing as Windows and expecting your user base to use it is like cutting off one of their arms and asking them to do the same work. Properly implementing your windows security is all that is required and it probably would be easier to add one machine to fix all of your problems than to wipe all the machines in your office and load Linux wouldn't it?
I really feel this is just typical of the socialist doctrine that has inundated our country and violated ever tenant this country was created upon. Gambling in all cases is a victimless crime as you have lost only what you have wagered. I'm American and I don't need someone when to tell me to go to bed, what to eat, where to stand, or whether or not I decide to gamble. All of these "notions" of legislation are really the tools of slow-witted bible-thumping scum that would have us give up every freedom we enjoy for THEIR version of right and wrong. I'm sorry, but that's not what this country is about and if you don't like it LEAVE. This country was founded on tolerance and the right to do as you chose provided you aren't harming anyone else. Who am I or anyone else to tell anyone what to do? Where does someone else get that right verses someone else? Screw that judged! I don't care where those domains are located what he's talking about is theft approved by the government and I can't stand by it. Everyone supports the idea of "home rule" in relation to states, but stupid rulings like that make me reconsider someone needs to keep this crap in check. Remember that every ruling like this has a potential to set a precedent and become the basis of federal laws. Honestly, what they are doing is completely unconstitutional; the government has no right to anything of yours regardless of the circumstances unless it is in the case of public use and then you must be properly compensated.
No LAN play means we (wife, kids, and I) probably won't play it. The number one value of this game to us is that it's a small party hack and slash game. I tried to bnet it but honestly it just isn't as much fun for us. We honestly just don't care to deal with the little kids, ninja looting, and bhaal running to max level without playing through the game. Lack of LAN party factor makes this nothing but a d2 clone with overhead iso view and retooled and rehashed crap from the classes we used to like in the previous games and all the LAN fun removed. We really need a >> irl so we can skip to the time when game makers stop sucking.
Actually the major differences in these games means they really don't overlap:
1) In WAR, the difference between the best drops in the game and quest rewards/public quests is not great enough to ruin pvp balance. You are still effective at what your class is designed to do regardless. Healers in greens and blue items can heal well enough to be a primary in any rvr raid regardless of clothing, and similarly in the case of dps.
2) WAR encourages taking your time to enjoy the tiers. There is just as much fun at T1 as T4. Often this fun is completely different since you have access to different RvR areas and scenarios. This is the most refreshing change for me coming out of WoW since level 1-60 currently you basically are non-existent and unable to participate in most of the game. Leveling in WAR is easy and seems to only be there to keep level ups from being completely free. I expect however that eventually people will make toons for tiers more than anything since the maps in the rvr and scenarios are so different.
3) WoW has no pvp element compared to WAR. Every part is WAR is oriented to pvp. There aren't separate specs only gear sometimes. Everything about WAR encourages you to take on the other side from the reduced death penalties to the renown rewards, etc. I wish we could talk to the other faction but such is life.
3) WoW is ultimately a raiding game. All of the best of the game requires a 10-40 man group to obtain. In WAR, a good seven man team obtains everything. You don't necessarily need full groups to accomplish anything in WAR.
For me, the negatives of WoW prohibit any interest for me. I work full time, and have kids. I have a couple of hours a day to devote to gaming and WoW requires you to have nothing in your life but that game to go anywhere. I'll pass.
There are mega-tons worth of difference between my experience with a razer lachesis mouse and a logitech g5. The g7 is just a more buttoned g5 for the most part. MS Sidewinder has a very odd shape.
Lachesis is a gamer mouse. Super-light, massively adjustable, butter-smooth action, and responsive buttons that are not very difficult to press... and lots of them! 5 of the buttons are quickly accessible with normal clicking motions and there is only a proper grip required to get at the 4 that are at the sides of the mouse. Once you get used to the action you cannot stand other mice because they feel so much more cludgy. This mouse is so granularly adjustable you can get exactly what you want out of it. My only gripe is that the profile switching of the mouse actually requires it to cycle the usb because it stores profiles in memory of the mouse. (But it does remember what you like for the LAN parties!)
G5 is inferior stat-wise and G7 is wireless which immediately disqualifies it. Now that being said, I'd take a g5 over other razer offerings but the lachesis is made right. G5's major drawback frankly is that logitech setpoint is crap and unreliable in Vista. I really do enjoy remapping certain mouse buttons to keys so that I can use every button on the mouse regardless of whether the game supports more than three. G5 is a real solid mouse for all use and I used mine until I burnt it out and buttons stopped clicking.
These are exactly the reasons we wanted GPL - freedom of choice concerning vendors, modifications to programs, and more. Enforcing GPL without consideration of the needs of the people using the system just puts us right back in the hole of closed systems since we can now see and use the code but just not with anything that is on the "approved" list of applications and systems to use it with. Most people don't care if the software is free or costly but they certainly care when they cannot obtain the functionality they required. Business and personal needs really never coincide with the ideals of the thought police.
Regardless of EULA this is not typically legal. It's not for the vendor to determine the usage of their product typically, and generally the customer is paying for the right to make that decision within limits. I've never dealt with another business isp that had done this or even thought they could get away with it. When your network infrastructure cannot handle the load it's time to build more infrastructure so that you can support the bandwidth requirements that you have already sold your customers. Basically, it's NMFP. You cannot "project" bandwidth usage without sampling it over time and you cannot expect your ideal of traffic to match the reality at all times. Frankly if I was a business customer I'd never use Comcast simply for this fact. More and more large sets of files (operating systems, patches, etc) are being bittorrented.. thugging torrents just keeps us techies from being able to do our work.
If this guy sues and wins great for them maybe someone will figure out that you cannot promise someone a full 8 meg connect and not really give them one where it counts (downloading ridiculously large items).
The major problem is this is a classic man in the middle attack right out of the textbook. If I did this to a bank I would be going to jail. Who cares if it's traffic shaping or whatever? There are legitmate ways to shape traffic without manipulating the data path. This is a recipe for disaster when one of these transparent mediators decides to fail and inject garbage into the streams. Comcast is playing with fire here and they're gonna get burnt up with it. First it will be this, then it will be your World of Warcraft, http streaming videos from google or whatever. It doesn't just stop with bittorrent.
Actually, my complaint is Linux is too many "bits" of software but in total the same amount more bits = more to break. OpenOffice isn't quite yet equivalent functionality to Office, and Evolution looks like a dinosaur compared to the new Outlook. Besides that, I could run all the "Linux" software you mentioned outside of Evolution on Windows and would have everything you had without the administrative nightmare that Linux is. The crux of the situation is since you have more packages you have more patches and most of the administrative cost is in applying these fixes and NOT in the OS seat cost. Sure, Vista will cost you more up front but also will cost less in terms of maintaining the product... hell it'll automatically fix itself for the most part! You may have to spend up front, but considering you can configure Vista, Outlook, and any A/V product to auto-magically stay current I'd say 3/4ths of your work is done right there. To do this all on a "free software" involves tons of manual downloading and installing to every machine. I can't see how this is better. And the price of OEM Vista Ultimate (not that a business would buy that, but you know.. it's the most expensive one) is $199 so like.. hit newegg and see.. at $199 that is the price of less than 3 hrs of support labor.. it basically is free if I was an IT department..
Now that in mind realize that most businesses buy CAL bulk licenses and only a few media copies of the software, and you will see that the price goes down dramatically. Businesses don't buy '1000 discs of Vista' they just get a few and get CAL licensing for all the machines they own.
Slashdot Mirror
I would speculate that they are not using any type of sniffing/firewall monitoring to do this due to the volume of the traffic (it would just tank modern implementations..) so they are probably using their DNS servers + some sort of transparent proxy to do it (just so they can piece together URL). Basically, I doubt this will work if you use your own DNS server (which I do at home for this reason... generally not good for providers to see your DNS anyway...) since they would have to use selective monitoring such as this to avoid legal problems. If they never see you hit up the pirate bay then they probably aren't monitoring the rest of the communication at all.
They don't have to. They can leave the GPL code as is, add GPL w/library exemption (since it is their work) to the tack on (remember GPL prevents you from limiting rights not expanding them..), and link their code to the new interface. This is exactly what every single program that links to the standard library (GCC) is currently doing regardless of it's license. Thus, they only have to "GPL" their glue code and connect to the glue -- the glue would be GPL and the proprietary module would only interface that thus no GPL violation -- the interface can be open source since it doesn't cause a problem. If it worked as suggested by you it would be impossible to link anything in Linux without it automatically becoming GPL since technically everything 'links against' the kernel libraries by extension. GPL lets you fork and branch the code all you'd like the GPL specifically states you can modify the software you just have to distribute the code.
At least that's what I learned when the word "Microsoft" is in any of their reports. I would assume that it is that way with everything else too... They're like the Fox News of the tech industry -- it's all about who pays the most.
Nvidia doesn't need Linux or to make drivers for it at all. The top two environments are OSX and Windows and it can ignore Linux completely if it must leaving you with some shitty integrated video adapters. Between negotiating terms or heavily modifying the driver to fit the GPL taint (probably removing functionality) and whatever else it may simply ignore the new functionality since while advantageous it wouldn't effect the position of NVidia at the top of the video heap and most of the cards that would take advantage can't compete with Nvidia anyway. The bug is really in how Linux is licensed not in what NVidia is doing, but there is nothing stopping Nvidia from taking linux sources removing all of the bits it doesn't like and licensing the changes with the library exception and plugging its kernel module into that effectively creating their own branch over which GPL cronies have no say over since this is all GCC has really done by creating the standard library. As long as Nvidia plugs into these 'changed' hooks and not the originals everything still works.
I too have had this problem with contemplating licensing software or documents I create. GPL is great in concept, but why is _IT_ tainting a third party developed software? Nvidia in this case isn't the problem it is the stupid licensing terms of the kernel that are preventing linking to libraries and whatnot required to access the functionality. This concept of GPL tainting other licenses is the problem -- do we have have to bring out the book to write a file to the disk, or everytime we want to create a simple module for personal use go through the license dance? Nvidia drivers are proprietary because nothing would stop their competitors from reverse engineering their hardware via it's interfaces and this 'advantage' is what keeps them in business -- the other factor being that several of the technologies they use themselves are licensed from other companies and they do not have permission to distribute. The weakness here is that Linux is probably not using the GPL the way GCC does (aka you have a library exclusion... you can link your programs with the stdlib and things are fine...) Nvidia won't cower to linux it will just start ignoring it, so how 'bout we put out the olive branch now because having 3D acceleration is pretty nice, and AMD's drivers are always shit? Isn't anyone just happy they even have good drivers from Nvidia on linux period? By this definition no non-GPL software can use these kernel features so wouldn't that make the concept actually non-free... as in.. you no longer have a choice? I understand the problem GPL attempts to address, but it should not be venturing in this realm.
Seriously, I can't even directly compare Radeon to GeForce cards because they're functionally crippled due to the fact that game developers are ignoring them in Windows and the binary driver is completely borked in Linux so no kudos THERE either. Then there is that issue that every single time I buy one of these cards they spontaneously flame-out. Speed isn't everything and they've been stomped in the drivers and support by NVidia for years. Radeon's all fail to render graphics properly even to this day and it is especially noticeable in side-by-side comparisons. They have some nerve charging $500 for what is likely as much a piece of turd as the rest of their offerings.
I think the real dilemma is the psyche of the average consumer. Let's face it how many people need a cloud? It's a luxury that you're getting by subsidizing various evil empires. It's not always what you get, but rather what you endorse. I rather give an ethical company with less service the same money for a reduced service than give a corrupt one anything. Amazon provides these same services for most uses and I don't feel morally complicated by using them. They do not profit by me viewing ads or leaking my information everywhere. Some of the onus is on the user though -- blocking cookies, using tools like Collusion to see what sites are doing, and installing adblocking and hosts files. If they never get the impression they do not profit on you -- so think about that. Google search is certainly king, but you could use Duck Duck Go which is more like a search aggregation which wraps Google and others and filters the badness off of them. (Check their about page... they're really good...)
I agree, but Google originally sold itself as an ethical cyber-citizen. Now it just comes off as a scam.
Sorry... Couldn't resist. :)
There probably was a time when Google was a beneficent geek Mecca but it has morphed into a tyrannical beast. Apple and Google both make my list of disappointing companies whom have decided to use their new found power for evil. Everything Google has been doing has been concerned with undermining privacy or stifling innovation and frankly other than being forced to YouTube (for lack of alternates) I won't have anything to do with their products personally. It's time to let these power hungry money grubbing shitheads die -- they are not what they sold us in the beginning anymore.
Hacks happen. Every system can and will be hacked no matter what you do theoretically given enough time. You have to have the assumption that it will happen so that the "damage" when it does is minimal. Most of the time when this happens I would say that it does because of zero-day exploit crap on system software. So what exactly are these people doing wrong? That's the problem... probably nothing.. they're as dependent on the coders of their MySQL server as you are on the coders of your OS. You can control your code, but you typically have little to no control of the underlying systems. People don't hack your application they hack on the backend stuff...
They do not have to adhere to the information standards that financial companies do... And, it's probably good.. because some of the smaller gaming companies could never afford it.
My handy reference guide for online gaming:
1) Change all your information to complete and utter BS. Store your BS information somewhere so you can parrot it back if you have to call support.
2) Pay with game cards. If you can pick them up at Walmart even better. But, you can buy codes online.
3) Nothing to lose now... So you don't care if they are hacked.
Just my 2 cents.
It's not ethnic cleansing if they're trying to kill you, it's called self-defense! Stop giving these retards a home, and a forum. Shut 'em down. They can believe whatever they want until they start shaking their fists at folks.If we dropped one bomb every time one of these guys started threatening people I'm sure it'd stop really fast. They are doing it because >we are allowing it. You don't want to get taken out? Don't stand with the fist shaker. It's not about religion it's about their constant threats and terror campaigns.
If the books go much over $10 on average there will be a lot of money to be made this way, and I was worried that the e-books are going to take over. Sure, the reference books will still be more useful likely in an electronic form but they're certainly cutting their throats here. Most of the mass-market paperbacks have already been overpriced on Amazon Kindle (a typically $7.99 book going for $9.99) and are teetering on that brink of not being worth the price. The Kindle is still a handy PDF reader, but the IPad can do that as well so who knows who will win here. Honestly, I'd pay $2 extra on every book if I could have a pdf on cd attached to the physical book.. but that's just me.
Credentials aren't really the issue, as your gate keeper here is parsing traffic to see it if is malware related. It's actually more effective to do it this way than to push a solution to desktops. I rather have something at the door so I have the option of cutting off all the traffic in one swoop. The credentials just keep the not-as-smart stuff from immediately having access. Security is about tiers. You put an internet security package and AV on your desktops and servers, you make them run through a proxy that scans the traffic going through the wall, and likely run and Intrusion detection solution on both sides of the wall to see threats real time. You need more than one layer because at any point in time one of these layers will fail. The only way to have fail-safe is through stacking solutions unfortunately.
This also allows you to run the firewall as "deny all" which is far more secure than any other configuration.
Depending on your network topology you might be able to solve this by just adding one proxy/caching server to the mix. Proxy allows port 80 html traffic but doesn't allow other programs to bootleg themselves as something running on 80 to connect as there generally is application protocol checking. Firewalls do not remove the need for an application/proxy server in this mess and do not replace it as without that function you still have machines directly connecting to remote hosts and are still vulnerable. Firewall all traffic off both ways at the firewall and only allow traffic originating from the proxy to transverse the screen. Bot programs already on hosts thus have lost access to anything, and you are pushing your proxy list down via group policies to the client machines. And no, you don't need Linux to do this despite what I see other people commenting. Linux is more secure in most cases due to obscurity, but it is not the same thing as Windows and expecting your user base to use it is like cutting off one of their arms and asking them to do the same work. Properly implementing your windows security is all that is required and it probably would be easier to add one machine to fix all of your problems than to wipe all the machines in your office and load Linux wouldn't it?
I really feel this is just typical of the socialist doctrine that has inundated our country and violated ever tenant this country was created upon. Gambling in all cases is a victimless crime as you have lost only what you have wagered. I'm American and I don't need someone when to tell me to go to bed, what to eat, where to stand, or whether or not I decide to gamble. All of these "notions" of legislation are really the tools of slow-witted bible-thumping scum that would have us give up every freedom we enjoy for THEIR version of right and wrong. I'm sorry, but that's not what this country is about and if you don't like it LEAVE. This country was founded on tolerance and the right to do as you chose provided you aren't harming anyone else. Who am I or anyone else to tell anyone what to do? Where does someone else get that right verses someone else? Screw that judged! I don't care where those domains are located what he's talking about is theft approved by the government and I can't stand by it. Everyone supports the idea of "home rule" in relation to states, but stupid rulings like that make me reconsider someone needs to keep this crap in check. Remember that every ruling like this has a potential to set a precedent and become the basis of federal laws. Honestly, what they are doing is completely unconstitutional; the government has no right to anything of yours regardless of the circumstances unless it is in the case of public use and then you must be properly compensated.
No LAN play means we (wife, kids, and I) probably won't play it. The number one value of this game to us is that it's a small party hack and slash game. I tried to bnet it but honestly it just isn't as much fun for us. We honestly just don't care to deal with the little kids, ninja looting, and bhaal running to max level without playing through the game. Lack of LAN party factor makes this nothing but a d2 clone with overhead iso view and retooled and rehashed crap from the classes we used to like in the previous games and all the LAN fun removed. We really need a >> irl so we can skip to the time when game makers stop sucking.
Actually the major differences in these games means they really don't overlap: 1) In WAR, the difference between the best drops in the game and quest rewards/public quests is not great enough to ruin pvp balance. You are still effective at what your class is designed to do regardless. Healers in greens and blue items can heal well enough to be a primary in any rvr raid regardless of clothing, and similarly in the case of dps. 2) WAR encourages taking your time to enjoy the tiers. There is just as much fun at T1 as T4. Often this fun is completely different since you have access to different RvR areas and scenarios. This is the most refreshing change for me coming out of WoW since level 1-60 currently you basically are non-existent and unable to participate in most of the game. Leveling in WAR is easy and seems to only be there to keep level ups from being completely free. I expect however that eventually people will make toons for tiers more than anything since the maps in the rvr and scenarios are so different. 3) WoW has no pvp element compared to WAR. Every part is WAR is oriented to pvp. There aren't separate specs only gear sometimes. Everything about WAR encourages you to take on the other side from the reduced death penalties to the renown rewards, etc. I wish we could talk to the other faction but such is life. 3) WoW is ultimately a raiding game. All of the best of the game requires a 10-40 man group to obtain. In WAR, a good seven man team obtains everything. You don't necessarily need full groups to accomplish anything in WAR. For me, the negatives of WoW prohibit any interest for me. I work full time, and have kids. I have a couple of hours a day to devote to gaming and WoW requires you to have nothing in your life but that game to go anywhere. I'll pass.
There are mega-tons worth of difference between my experience with a razer lachesis mouse and a logitech g5. The g7 is just a more buttoned g5 for the most part. MS Sidewinder has a very odd shape. Lachesis is a gamer mouse. Super-light, massively adjustable, butter-smooth action, and responsive buttons that are not very difficult to press... and lots of them! 5 of the buttons are quickly accessible with normal clicking motions and there is only a proper grip required to get at the 4 that are at the sides of the mouse. Once you get used to the action you cannot stand other mice because they feel so much more cludgy. This mouse is so granularly adjustable you can get exactly what you want out of it. My only gripe is that the profile switching of the mouse actually requires it to cycle the usb because it stores profiles in memory of the mouse. (But it does remember what you like for the LAN parties!) G5 is inferior stat-wise and G7 is wireless which immediately disqualifies it. Now that being said, I'd take a g5 over other razer offerings but the lachesis is made right. G5's major drawback frankly is that logitech setpoint is crap and unreliable in Vista. I really do enjoy remapping certain mouse buttons to keys so that I can use every button on the mouse regardless of whether the game supports more than three. G5 is a real solid mouse for all use and I used mine until I burnt it out and buttons stopped clicking.
All hail our new Cobra Commander overlord! COBRA-LALALALALA!
These are exactly the reasons we wanted GPL - freedom of choice concerning vendors, modifications to programs, and more. Enforcing GPL without consideration of the needs of the people using the system just puts us right back in the hole of closed systems since we can now see and use the code but just not with anything that is on the "approved" list of applications and systems to use it with. Most people don't care if the software is free or costly but they certainly care when they cannot obtain the functionality they required. Business and personal needs really never coincide with the ideals of the thought police.
Regardless of EULA this is not typically legal. It's not for the vendor to determine the usage of their product typically, and generally the customer is paying for the right to make that decision within limits. I've never dealt with another business isp that had done this or even thought they could get away with it. When your network infrastructure cannot handle the load it's time to build more infrastructure so that you can support the bandwidth requirements that you have already sold your customers. Basically, it's NMFP. You cannot "project" bandwidth usage without sampling it over time and you cannot expect your ideal of traffic to match the reality at all times. Frankly if I was a business customer I'd never use Comcast simply for this fact. More and more large sets of files (operating systems, patches, etc) are being bittorrented.. thugging torrents just keeps us techies from being able to do our work.
If this guy sues and wins great for them maybe someone will figure out that you cannot promise someone a full 8 meg connect and not really give them one where it counts (downloading ridiculously large items).
- Mind
The major problem is this is a classic man in the middle attack right out of the textbook. If I did this to a bank I would be going to jail. Who cares if it's traffic shaping or whatever? There are legitmate ways to shape traffic without manipulating the data path. This is a recipe for disaster when one of these transparent mediators decides to fail and inject garbage into the streams. Comcast is playing with fire here and they're gonna get burnt up with it. First it will be this, then it will be your World of Warcraft, http streaming videos from google or whatever. It doesn't just stop with bittorrent.
Actually, my complaint is Linux is too many "bits" of software but in total the same amount more bits = more to break. OpenOffice isn't quite yet equivalent functionality to Office, and Evolution looks like a dinosaur compared to the new Outlook. Besides that, I could run all the "Linux" software you mentioned outside of Evolution on Windows and would have everything you had without the administrative nightmare that Linux is. The crux of the situation is since you have more packages you have more patches and most of the administrative cost is in applying these fixes and NOT in the OS seat cost. Sure, Vista will cost you more up front but also will cost less in terms of maintaining the product... hell it'll automatically fix itself for the most part! You may have to spend up front, but considering you can configure Vista, Outlook, and any A/V product to auto-magically stay current I'd say 3/4ths of your work is done right there. To do this all on a "free software" involves tons of manual downloading and installing to every machine. I can't see how this is better. And the price of OEM Vista Ultimate (not that a business would buy that, but you know.. it's the most expensive one) is $199 so like.. hit newegg and see.. at $199 that is the price of less than 3 hrs of support labor.. it basically is free if I was an IT department.. Now that in mind realize that most businesses buy CAL bulk licenses and only a few media copies of the software, and you will see that the price goes down dramatically. Businesses don't buy '1000 discs of Vista' they just get a few and get CAL licensing for all the machines they own.