Agreed. On the list of fixes that would make my day?
- 32-bit driver support, with a compatibility layer going back to XP : Not sure how feasible, but this would have solved 99% of the initial backlash. At least make it happen for printers/scanners/webcams/everything-but-3D-cards. - Drop Aero. Replace with something nicer maybe. Go Apple's way (graphics library that 3D hardware only improved) or Compiz's way (3D that's always on) but this crappy in-between gives users nothing but drop shadows, translucent windows, and a crappy rolodex. There's no real usability gain. - Fix. The. Goddamn. Desktop. There's two ways to go to a desktop. 1. Sliding the windows out of the way and not brining them back until the user asks, while opening up new windows without issue. 2. "Desktop buffer", which temporarily minimizes active windows; opening up a new windows destroys the buffer so that all the windows must be manually restored. I don't care which one they use, but if they're going to stick to #2, don't delete the goddamn buffer if I open a new window while the desktop is showing. For FUCK'S SAKE, nobody likes going to desktop, changing their wallpaper, and then jamming on the re-show desktop key so they don't have to unminimize all of their active windows. Seriously, what the HELL? - Please fix memory management. I don't understand it at all. I've never seen an *nix-OS that decided : "Hey, you have 8 gigs of ram! Guess who's about to lose 8 gigs of hard drive space!" What exactly, is the point of that? And for that matter, what the hell? I installed 64-bit Vista, how come I can only use 3.25 gigs out of the 4 I have installed? Who thought this was a good idea? - Explorer keeps crashing. This has been a problem since XP. Why is explorer so goddamn crash-friendly, it's the FUCKING CORNERSTONE of your interface.
Actually, the first one is the code used to enable all levels in Konami's "TMNT: The Arcade Game" for the NES. Your code, of course, being the original Konami Code with an extra BA.
Never mind that once someone with actual fighting experience stepped up to the challenge (and barely weighed less than Uwe), the fight was denied. Boll only accepted entrants who weighed significantly less and had no idea what they were doing.
I would just like to point out that this is also with a world that would be difficult to make dynamic (something rasterized games are significantly improving in) with crappy lightning (faking GI or caustics seems to be doing really well in the rasterized world) and ZERO anti-aliasing (we're not even going to HAVE that discussion)
Is it just me or do in-game raytracing folks seems to miss a rather dirty point? Yes, raytracing performance increases linearly with more processors. Yes, it can handle a lot of things (polygon-level hit detection) with a minimal hit on performance. Yes, it can give you true reflections...... but resolution and framerate jumps will MURDER you. Whoopty do, 15fps @ 256x256 on a quad core processor. You realize that 30fps @ 1024x768, which is the BARE BONES MINIMUM for a PC game (seriously, dipping below either one of those numbers in 2008 is goddamn embarassing) would require *96* processors running at that speed (12x for the resolution, 2x for the framerate). And that's with the current level of detail they've achieved in this demonstration.
I've seen this story in a couple different places, and RARELY does it come up that the user might be at fault here. It's much more fun to discuss that Microsoft's manufacturing practices are shady.
Seriously, if you think this is Microsoft's fault you might have some brain damage. And I can explain why with simple math.
Let's say, for a moment, there's a one in ten chance of an Xbox 360 failing within 90 days. That leaves you without the average Justin's getting. These are all returnable systems. We'd be talking the downfall of Microsoft in months, NO ONE can afford that level of faulty hardware, even with a refurbished market.
However, with a one in ten chance, the chances he'd even be on his 10th Xbox 360 lies something to the order of one in ten to the ninth power, or a one with nine zeros after it, otherwise read as A BILLION. One in a billion.
Now, Microsoft's made something like 15 million Xbox 360s.
I'm as big a fan of stories that critisize a hardware dealer's faulty hardware rates, but for fuck's sake, by the time someone makes it to their FOURTH console I stop blaming the manufacturer.
I have no idea how this applies to my comment, especially since I explicitly specified that I prefer storyline games, do not play FPS games, and enjoy story-centric RPGs like Fallout and Final Fantasy. Which brings us to... Actually that was about the grandparent. I gotta get that quote system down better. I figured it was implied in the original set of quotes that I was talking about both parent and grandparent.:3
Also, as a note, I've dealt a lot more with "man I hate when white people act like xxx race" than I have with said white people attacking American comics/cartoons/films/video games because "Japan does it better". However, I have friends who've dealt with more of the latter, so this might be a regional thing. I loves me some anime, but I'm well aware of its 50's Disney/TerryToons origins.
Origins tend to denote how a regional industry functions. Most games in the US started on the PC, where it was easier to develop and startup (well, before, during, and after the Atari 2600, and especially during the draconian NES days and on) companies. In Japan, most of the monolithic game companies started in the arcades, where the profit from a trendy and tightly clustered population could lead to mad monies. And you can see this today. What're the biggest companies in Japan? Namco, Capcom, Nintendo... In the US we've got Epic, Valve, Bethesda. Midway started in the arcades, and look where THEY are now. Meanwhile, our biggest (only?) console manufacturer makes the biggest operating system on PC.:3 But yeah, so if you keep that in mind, you'll notice that there's this PC/Arcade mentality in game design that permeates. Final Fantasy/Dragon Warrior are essentially arcadified PC RPG's. There's less customization (a few FF's strewn throughout do let you choose classes, but never the actual character's race, save for XI, an MMO) in exchange for more emphasis on *cinematic presentation. But all in all it's simplified. Compare Metroid to Halo in single player. Halo is tactics oriented, where you look to take out your enemy piece by piece, and the strategy is in staying alive while moving forward, where in Metroid the strategy doesn't show up until the boss battles, which are essentially holdovers in design from the titles like Contra. It's Microsoft Flight Simulator vs Sega Afterburner, or Starcraft II vs Ninety Nine Nights (I'm kidding.).
Heck, a simple glance at what denotes an "adventure" game on either side of the ocean clears that one up right quick. And Grand Turismo is more an example of the brute force capabilities for bigger developers in Japan, and one of the reasons I'd never even think of working in games outside the US.
When it comes down to it, I'm just bothered by the whole oreo/twinkie racial slur mentality that seems to be fine nowadays. I think telling someone that they're not acting like their race should is pretty goddamn racist. That's just me. I'm **hispanic, if that information is at all necessary, which it probably isn't.
Also, the last comment I made is really the crux of the matter. I kinda have higher standards for the stuff said on Slashdot, as opposed to Youtube, where I stop reading 2-4 comments in because my brain starts to physically hurt. Or even Reddit, where the pretentous psuedo-intellectualism reigns over even the slightest traces of commen sense at many times. (I'm an evangelical christian liberal, btw;) )
Anyhoo, if I had a point to make in replying, I probably lost sight of it while typing this on and off for the last half hour.:3
* I made this point back in the FF7/Diablo days. I think it still holds true to this day: "American RPG's tell a better story. Japanese RPG's tell their story better." So it's a trade-off, really.
** Best conflic ever is wondering which word to use. Hispanic sounds sell-outy, but latino in English sounds hoaky and latin just sounds wierd. But that's a whole 'nother story.
*PC* RPG, not console RPGs. That's the point. A lot of American made, PC RPGs are basically MMORPGs without the MMO part... they have very little story, and are so obsessed with non-linearity and the "make your own character" bullshit that they absolutely refuse to do so.
You're generalizing an entire fuckin' genre based on a couple of licenses.
Half of the people who love Final Fantasy "for its great story" don't really understand the story, they are just utter Japanophiles who will refuse to acknowledge great American games.
You're generalizing millions of gamers with a stigma I'm kinda fuckin' tired of.
Seriously, nothing's more adorable than when the occasional person that doesn't like a fucking genre speaks out against it like he/she'd try it when they have no intention to, ever. Or someone who likes making generalization attacks at people who like a particular genre. Remember that guy at EGM who gave ever FPS he came across a 6.0 or below who kept mentioning that he didn't like FPS's? WHY the fuck did they keep sending them to him? The point of a review is to inform. If someone doesn't like FPS's, a glance at the back of a box will do all the informing needed. That shit about FF7 being overrated? No, it wasn't, that particular gent never fucking liked it, and 10 years later, it's easy to attack by calling it overrated.
I'm not a big fan of racing games. Like, at all. Especially sims. The closer to realism, the less I can fucking stand the game. It's just my preference. If Forza sells bad I'm not gonna go into a tirade about how racing game designers "spend too much time on boring-ass simulations when all I want in a video game is an 'escape'."
As for D'nD-hyper-customizable-zero-cinematic-presentatio n RPG's? Not my cup of tea. (neither is Final Fantasy, but that's just 'cause I'm a Tales/Star Ocean kinda guy) And the Deus Ex/Fallout franchises (DE1 was AWESOME, never got around to DE2 or Fallout tho) kinda passed away, so I'm not sure they're terribly indicative of PC titles in the last 3-4 years or so. On the flipside, I don't think any title TOUCHES the cinematic presentation of Half Life 2. It did in its time what Final Fantasy VII accomplished that was so awesome : *seamless* cinematic integration. FF7 did it by not pausing to show FMV (it came instantly, and sometimes, while the gameplay was still going on) and HL2 did it by not stopping the gameplay. (I think HL1 did it too tho) Before I digress any further, yeah, I don't enjoy the Elder Scrolls style (I used to, like 10 years ago, in 2D land) of RPG'ing, but that doesn't mean it's a bad fuckin' game. I didn't like X-Men 3. It made like 100 million in its opening weekend. That's called opinion.
But at least bring about something to the conversation that's doesn't fucking REEK of bias, or at least admit to it. This is slashdot, people, not fucking IGN.
To the parent : Oh man, if only. That's been my major gripes about most review sites :
1. There are games out there other than FEAR, Doom3/Quake4, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Oblivion. In fact, there's a FUCK-TON more games than that. Go to PC IGN or gamespot or something for FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR DAY and find at least ONE game that everyone and their dog hasn't seen figures for. 2. Nothing pisses me off more than a review for a bottom-of-the-barrel budget card where the test system runs like two fucking grand. This was more of a problem a few years ago, with the GeForce 2MX, when not having a maxed-out PIII or P4 made a DRASTIC difference in the lack of a T&L unit on a comparably priced board, a difference we never saw because the test system was the nicest thing out on the street. Seriously, that shit needs to STOP.
To the grandparent :
Sadly, this drove prices UP. (literally, the day the HD 2900 came out, the cheapest GeForce 8800GTS 320MB, which was hovering steady at 280, jumped to 300 everywhere). =(
Question is, I wonder if the HD 2900 will tip the scales when DX10 games come out. It seems to me that the SuperScalar vs Scalar architecture differences would tip in AMD's favor when they get bombarded by the shader overload that DX10 games promise.
1. I haven't used Opera's default theme in 3 years, so I'm no good for this one. 2. Ahh, this one got me too at first. I'm assuming it's not that you don't use the middle mouse button (or scroll wheel down-click), but it's sites like Amazon that force the newly opened tabs to the front that's bothering you.
I wish they'd make it easier to find, but when I asked them about it I DID get an immediate (within a few hours) response... 'course, I DID pay for my copy:
Ctrl + F12 -> Advanced (Tab) -> Content -> JavaScript Options (Button) -> Allow Raising of Fields, Allow Lowering of Fields Disable (uncheck) both. Yeah, I agree that it is a little too deeply in there.
On the FLIPSIDE, go to opera:config (about:config works too for longtime Firefox users) Look up "allow script". Disable as needed;)
SACD is transparently backwards compatible. DVD-Audio usually has a DVD layer that still provides the surround sound music...
I think if they really wanted either format to work they'd just release a portable player that spits out Dolby Headphone. Now I would definitely buy into THAT. =3
(of course, realistically I'd just wait for someone to release a player that can read AC3 or DTS files straight and give you the personal surround experience... maybe THAT'S why I don't own an iPod yet ^_^)
Actually, it's quite possible to use snail mail to this day to get compromising information. Phishers just pose them as contest entries, and ask for information like a social security number, birth date, etc. A lot of people are more than willing to jot this down if it looks like a prize is headed their way.
Some less-than-scrupulous telemarketers do the same thing by calling people and telling them that they just won something, and then asking for a subscription to a magazine or whatnot as almost a side portion of the call. However, cancelling the latter results in a hang-up.
Finally, sending a million letters via USPS costs something like $380,000. Sending a million phishing emails is considerably cheaper and more likely to get the info you want.
Finally, on an off-topic note... Dear Slashdot : Make Plain Old Text the fucking default or give me the option to. WTF is WRONG with you.
First off, they'd need to cut off an ARM; they're usually placed in your bicep.
Finally, no one in their right minds would ever take this approach. It's just not efficient enough. Identity theft works best in VOLUME.
So at that point, you need to start seeing things in a "scarier" light.
Remember how in movies it only takes an expert thief bumpin into you at the shoulder to take your wallet? Now they can grab a whole lot more with a wireless scanner.
RFID devices outright GIVE OUT their information. That's all they know how to do. There's no two-way communication. Their basic approach is to announce information given what little power they were provided with in the original radio signal.
Just how hard would it be to scan and spoof RFID given the right equipment?
Just for clarification, Romero never made brain eating zombies. His particular breed just ate people alive. (best part of a zombie movie, really, is when they decide to rip someone to pieces. See : Shaun of the Dead, or any of Romero's films)
The brain-eating cliché came from Return of the Living Dead, which had nothing to do with Romero's movie, save for a producer involved, I believe.
To be quite honest, I thought this wasp had stronger horror movie ties to the Alien series, and was probably even a direct influence on Giger's design (or was the Ridley's? I'm not sure who invented the creature's actual properties). I mean, when they hatch, those wasp larvae DO in fact, eat their way out of the roach.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't this what firewall software and SSL/SSH is for?
Agreed. On the list of fixes that would make my day?
- 32-bit driver support, with a compatibility layer going back to XP : Not sure how feasible, but this would have solved 99% of the initial backlash. At least make it happen for printers/scanners/webcams/everything-but-3D-cards.
- Drop Aero. Replace with something nicer maybe. Go Apple's way (graphics library that 3D hardware only improved) or Compiz's way (3D that's always on) but this crappy in-between gives users nothing but drop shadows, translucent windows, and a crappy rolodex. There's no real usability gain.
- Fix. The. Goddamn. Desktop. There's two ways to go to a desktop. 1. Sliding the windows out of the way and not brining them back until the user asks, while opening up new windows without issue. 2. "Desktop buffer", which temporarily minimizes active windows; opening up a new windows destroys the buffer so that all the windows must be manually restored. I don't care which one they use, but if they're going to stick to #2, don't delete the goddamn buffer if I open a new window while the desktop is showing. For FUCK'S SAKE, nobody likes going to desktop, changing their wallpaper, and then jamming on the re-show desktop key so they don't have to unminimize all of their active windows. Seriously, what the HELL?
- Please fix memory management. I don't understand it at all. I've never seen an *nix-OS that decided : "Hey, you have 8 gigs of ram! Guess who's about to lose 8 gigs of hard drive space!" What exactly, is the point of that? And for that matter, what the hell? I installed 64-bit Vista, how come I can only use 3.25 gigs out of the 4 I have installed? Who thought this was a good idea?
- Explorer keeps crashing. This has been a problem since XP. Why is explorer so goddamn crash-friendly, it's the FUCKING CORNERSTONE of your interface.
Actually, the first one is the code used to enable all levels in Konami's "TMNT: The Arcade Game" for the NES. Your code, of course, being the original Konami Code with an extra BA.
Never mind that once someone with actual fighting experience stepped up to the challenge (and barely weighed less than Uwe), the fight was denied. Boll only accepted entrants who weighed significantly less and had no idea what they were doing.
I would just like to point out that this is also with a world that would be difficult to make dynamic (something rasterized games are significantly improving in) with crappy lightning (faking GI or caustics seems to be doing really well in the rasterized world) and ZERO anti-aliasing (we're not even going to HAVE that discussion)
Is it just me or do in-game raytracing folks seems to miss a rather dirty point? Yes, raytracing performance increases linearly with more processors. Yes, it can handle a lot of things (polygon-level hit detection) with a minimal hit on performance. Yes, it can give you true reflections... ... but resolution and framerate jumps will MURDER you. Whoopty do, 15fps @ 256x256 on a quad core processor. You realize that 30fps @ 1024x768, which is the BARE BONES MINIMUM for a PC game (seriously, dipping below either one of those numbers in 2008 is goddamn embarassing) would require *96* processors running at that speed (12x for the resolution, 2x for the framerate). And that's with the current level of detail they've achieved in this demonstration.
In other news, scientists have confirmed that water is, in fact, wet.
Seriously, Quoted for TRUTH.
I've seen this story in a couple different places, and RARELY does it come up that the user might be at fault here. It's much more fun to discuss that Microsoft's manufacturing practices are shady.
Seriously, if you think this is Microsoft's fault you might have some brain damage. And I can explain why with simple math.
Let's say, for a moment, there's a one in ten chance of an Xbox 360 failing within 90 days. That leaves you without the average Justin's getting. These are all returnable systems. We'd be talking the downfall of Microsoft in months, NO ONE can afford that level of faulty hardware, even with a refurbished market.
However, with a one in ten chance, the chances he'd even be on his 10th Xbox 360 lies something to the order of one in ten to the ninth power, or a one with nine zeros after it, otherwise read as A BILLION. One in a billion.
Now, Microsoft's made something like 15 million Xbox 360s.
I'm as big a fan of stories that critisize a hardware dealer's faulty hardware rates, but for fuck's sake, by the time someone makes it to their FOURTH console I stop blaming the manufacturer.
Actually that was about the grandparent. I gotta get that quote system down better. I figured it was implied in the original set of quotes that I was talking about both parent and grandparent.
Also, as a note, I've dealt a lot more with "man I hate when white people act like xxx race" than I have with said white people attacking American comics/cartoons/films/video games because "Japan does it better". However, I have friends who've dealt with more of the latter, so this might be a regional thing. I loves me some anime, but I'm well aware of its 50's Disney/TerryToons origins.
Origins tend to denote how a regional industry functions. Most games in the US started on the PC, where it was easier to develop and startup (well, before, during, and after the Atari 2600, and especially during the draconian NES days and on) companies. In Japan, most of the monolithic game companies started in the arcades, where the profit from a trendy and tightly clustered population could lead to mad monies. And you can see this today. What're the biggest companies in Japan? Namco, Capcom, Nintendo... In the US we've got Epic, Valve, Bethesda. Midway started in the arcades, and look where THEY are now. Meanwhile, our biggest (only?) console manufacturer makes the biggest operating system on PC.
Heck, a simple glance at what denotes an "adventure" game on either side of the ocean clears that one up right quick. And Grand Turismo is more an example of the brute force capabilities for bigger developers in Japan, and one of the reasons I'd never even think of working in games outside the US.
When it comes down to it, I'm just bothered by the whole oreo/twinkie racial slur mentality that seems to be fine nowadays. I think telling someone that they're not acting like their race should is pretty goddamn racist. That's just me. I'm **hispanic, if that information is at all necessary, which it probably isn't.
Also, the last comment I made is really the crux of the matter. I kinda have higher standards for the stuff said on Slashdot, as opposed to Youtube, where I stop reading 2-4 comments in because my brain starts to physically hurt. Or even Reddit, where the pretentous psuedo-intellectualism reigns over even the slightest traces of commen sense at many times. (I'm an evangelical christian liberal, btw
Anyhoo, if I had a point to make in replying, I probably lost sight of it while typing this on and off for the last half hour.
* I made this point back in the FF7/Diablo days. I think it still holds true to this day: "American RPG's tell a better story. Japanese RPG's tell their story better." So it's a trade-off, really.
** Best conflic ever is wondering which word to use. Hispanic sounds sell-outy, but latino in English sounds hoaky and latin just sounds wierd. But that's a whole 'nother story.
*PC* RPG, not console RPGs. That's the point. A lot of American made, PC RPGs are basically MMORPGs without the MMO part... they have very little story, and are so obsessed with non-linearity and the "make your own character" bullshit that they absolutely refuse to do so.
o n RPG's? Not my cup of tea. (neither is Final Fantasy, but that's just 'cause I'm a Tales/Star Ocean kinda guy) And the Deus Ex/Fallout franchises (DE1 was AWESOME, never got around to DE2 or Fallout tho) kinda passed away, so I'm not sure they're terribly indicative of PC titles in the last 3-4 years or so. On the flipside, I don't think any title TOUCHES the cinematic presentation of Half Life 2. It did in its time what Final Fantasy VII accomplished that was so awesome : *seamless* cinematic integration. FF7 did it by not pausing to show FMV (it came instantly, and sometimes, while the gameplay was still going on) and HL2 did it by not stopping the gameplay. (I think HL1 did it too tho) Before I digress any further, yeah, I don't enjoy the Elder Scrolls style (I used to, like 10 years ago, in 2D land) of RPG'ing, but that doesn't mean it's a bad fuckin' game. I didn't like X-Men 3. It made like 100 million in its opening weekend. That's called opinion.
You're generalizing an entire fuckin' genre based on a couple of licenses.
Half of the people who love Final Fantasy "for its great story" don't really understand the story, they are just utter Japanophiles who will refuse to acknowledge great American games.
You're generalizing millions of gamers with a stigma I'm kinda fuckin' tired of.
Seriously, nothing's more adorable than when the occasional person that doesn't like a fucking genre speaks out against it like he/she'd try it when they have no intention to, ever. Or someone who likes making generalization attacks at people who like a particular genre. Remember that guy at EGM who gave ever FPS he came across a 6.0 or below who kept mentioning that he didn't like FPS's? WHY the fuck did they keep sending them to him? The point of a review is to inform. If someone doesn't like FPS's, a glance at the back of a box will do all the informing needed. That shit about FF7 being overrated? No, it wasn't, that particular gent never fucking liked it, and 10 years later, it's easy to attack by calling it overrated.
I'm not a big fan of racing games. Like, at all. Especially sims. The closer to realism, the less I can fucking stand the game. It's just my preference. If Forza sells bad I'm not gonna go into a tirade about how racing game designers "spend too much time on boring-ass simulations when all I want in a video game is an 'escape'."
As for D'nD-hyper-customizable-zero-cinematic-presentati
But at least bring about something to the conversation that's doesn't fucking REEK of bias, or at least admit to it. This is slashdot, people, not fucking IGN.
That's precisely what they were doing.
To the parent : Oh man, if only. That's been my major gripes about most review sites :
1. There are games out there other than FEAR, Doom3/Quake4, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Oblivion. In fact, there's a FUCK-TON more games than that. Go to PC IGN or gamespot or something for FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR DAY and find at least ONE game that everyone and their dog hasn't seen figures for.
2. Nothing pisses me off more than a review for a bottom-of-the-barrel budget card where the test system runs like two fucking grand. This was more of a problem a few years ago, with the GeForce 2MX, when not having a maxed-out PIII or P4 made a DRASTIC difference in the lack of a T&L unit on a comparably priced board, a difference we never saw because the test system was the nicest thing out on the street. Seriously, that shit needs to STOP.
To the grandparent :
Sadly, this drove prices UP. (literally, the day the HD 2900 came out, the cheapest GeForce 8800GTS 320MB, which was hovering steady at 280, jumped to 300 everywhere). =(
Question is, I wonder if the HD 2900 will tip the scales when DX10 games come out. It seems to me that the SuperScalar vs Scalar architecture differences would tip in AMD's favor when they get bombarded by the shader overload that DX10 games promise.
It was the only family computer for six months.
386SX-25 with 4mb of RAM, 170Mb HD.
Wordpad took 5 minutes to load.
Doesn't Bittorrent do this already?
1. I haven't used Opera's default theme in 3 years, so I'm no good for this one.
;)
2. Ahh, this one got me too at first. I'm assuming it's not that you don't use the middle mouse button (or scroll wheel down-click), but it's sites like Amazon that force the newly opened tabs to the front that's bothering you.
I wish they'd make it easier to find, but when I asked them about it I DID get an immediate (within a few hours) response... 'course, I DID pay for my copy:
Ctrl + F12 -> Advanced (Tab) -> Content -> JavaScript Options (Button) -> Allow Raising of Fields, Allow Lowering of Fields
Disable (uncheck) both. Yeah, I agree that it is a little too deeply in there.
On the FLIPSIDE, go to opera:config (about:config works too for longtime Firefox users)
Look up "allow script". Disable as needed
"I imagine if some asks you for directions to the corner store you just tell them to fuck off and buy a map."
Ummm, yeah, can I quote you in my sig? That line is fuckin' GOLDEN.
I dunno...
SACD is transparently backwards compatible.
DVD-Audio usually has a DVD layer that still provides the surround sound music...
I think if they really wanted either format to work they'd just release a portable player that spits out Dolby Headphone. Now I would definitely buy into THAT. =3
(of course, realistically I'd just wait for someone to release a player that can read AC3 or DTS files straight and give you the personal surround experience... maybe THAT'S why I don't own an iPod yet ^_^)
Tell me how many HDCD's, SACD's, and DVD-Audio Discs you, your family, and your friends own in comparison to CD's and we'll talk.
I've never been scammed once. Why is that? 'cause I've never clicked a phishing link. That's the key.
"eBay" sends me a message telling me my account's been cut off? I go to ebay.com. Manually. In a new window. Same thing for Paypal.
You can kill just about any phishing email in its tracks with this method. =3
Actually, it's quite possible to use snail mail to this day to get compromising information. Phishers just pose them as contest entries, and ask for information like a social security number, birth date, etc. A lot of people are more than willing to jot this down if it looks like a prize is headed their way.
Some less-than-scrupulous telemarketers do the same thing by calling people and telling them that they just won something, and then asking for a subscription to a magazine or whatnot as almost a side portion of the call. However, cancelling the latter results in a hang-up.
Finally, sending a million letters via USPS costs something like $380,000. Sending a million phishing emails is considerably cheaper and more likely to get the info you want.
Finally, on an off-topic note... Dear Slashdot : Make Plain Old Text the fucking default or give me the option to. WTF is WRONG with you.
First off, they'd need to cut off an ARM; they're usually placed in your bicep.
Finally, no one in their right minds would ever take this approach. It's just not efficient enough. Identity theft works best in VOLUME.
So at that point, you need to start seeing things in a "scarier" light.
Remember how in movies it only takes an expert thief bumpin into you at the shoulder to take your wallet? Now they can grab a whole lot more with a wireless scanner.
RFID devices outright GIVE OUT their information. That's all they know how to do. There's no two-way communication. Their basic approach is to announce information given what little power they were provided with in the original radio signal.
Just how hard would it be to scan and spoof RFID given the right equipment?
WHOOOOOOSH!
That is, in fact, the sound of the great-grandparent's original joke going over the heads of both parent and grandparent.
omfg phony:_ F.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060207/1817205
Just for clarification, Romero never made brain eating zombies. His particular breed just ate people alive. (best part of a zombie movie, really, is when they decide to rip someone to pieces. See : Shaun of the Dead, or any of Romero's films)
_ Dead
The brain-eating cliché came from Return of the Living Dead, which had nothing to do with Romero's movie, save for a producer involved, I believe.
To be quite honest, I thought this wasp had stronger horror movie ties to the Alien series, and was probably even a direct influence on Giger's design (or was the Ridley's? I'm not sure who invented the creature's actual properties). I mean, when they hatch, those wasp larvae DO in fact, eat their way out of the roach.
errr, thanks to Wikipedia, a clarification on that Romero bit :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Living
- peace