I was actually thinking about this a few days ago and I think I will give them a hard time the next time this happens. First I'll ask why they want to know, and then I'll tell them I'm installing Windows because I'd like to use the product I purchased. I'll be sure to mention how insulting the whole ordeal is.
Well, one inconvenient install per year is palatable so I put up with it. Plus I bought the software so that I could keep up with updates and what have you.
Due to my poor experiences with activation and the very high price I've decided to wait quite some time before moving on to Vista. In fact, I tried Ubuntu and a few other Linux distros a few weeks ago just to see my alternatives. Believe it or not, I find the freeware/FOSS scene superior in Windows in terms of quality, availability, and all-round usefulness. Ubuntu was fun but I'm too much of a gamer to make that switch.
I'm a computer enthusiast who buys a lot of hardware. I was rather amazed when my previous install of XP worked fine when I upgraded from an Athlon XP to an Athlon 64, but I reinstalled anyway to avoid future issues. I did the same when upgrading to my dual core system recently. I've probably installed it 3 times in 3 years.
This is all well and good, but what about activation? I own a student edition of WinXP Pro and every time I install the OS the internet activation fails. I'm prompted (forced) to call a 1-800 number to activate manually within 30 days. When I do so I must key in or speak a 48-digit activation key which also fails every time. I'm then forwarded to a human being (in India, I'm quite positive) who asks me to repeat part of that 48-digit key, has the audacity to ask me WHY I'M INSTALLING WINDOWS, and then reads back a corresponding 48-digit key which always works.
I have never had trouble using pirated editions of Windows. Regardless of this softened WGA check, Microsoft punishes their legitimate customers. Period.
I can't wait for the next Postal game by Running With Scissors. That studio really knows how to exercise their freedom of speech. In Postal 2 you had the option to deal with many situations however you saw fit, with violence, stealth, by conforming to societal expectations, or by running like a coward. It's a first person shooter you can win without firing a shot (and can't win without pissing on your own father's grave).
One of the first missions in the game pits you against militant protesters picketing outside the Running With Scissors studio, brandishing guns and blunt objects. You may deal with them however you wish.
RWS is brilliant because any violence in the game exposes the will of the player more than the designer. Thus, all the people who protested the game for being morbid and sick were forced to eat their own words in the worst way. Just desserts.
Thanks so much for sharing that video with me. You just made my day.
I used to listen to MODs right in the tracker or with the DMP player which showed the hexadecimal "code". I used to track S3M, XM, MOD, and MDL (from Digitrakker) back in the mid 90's. Here's my discography, if you care. Mind the "web design".
Thanks for the link!! Vsnares is one of my all time favourite producers, and he uses tons of open source music tools (open source music, not tools) in his repertoire. I can't remember which MOD tracker is his favourite, but it's an old school 8 or 16 channel one.
Not some but MOST of the most beautiful music I know was written by MOD trackers. The free software and openness of the various MOD formats really captured the imagination of composer hobbyists over the last 15-odd years.
MOD is a testament to all that is possible in a society free of copyright, closed IP, and DRM. MODs convinced me long ago that as soon as music is broadcast publicly it is public domain.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years and my eyesight sucks. My entire immediate family wears glasses so I don't know what combination of genetics and staring at CRTs is responsible for this.
However, my perception is definitely better than many other people I know. Despite my glasses I was even given the nickname "The Eye" because of my knack for pointing out small details of importance or amusement. I don't know but have a good feeling that video games are largely responsible for this - especially graphical adventure games like old Sierra and Lucasarts titles where you had to study a scene extensively to determine the next course of action.
I felt exactly the same way last week so I started piddling around with some Linux distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian. I enjoyed an exciting round of Kolf but otherwise couldn't get anything good to run. I couldn't even figure out how to install NVidia drivers on Ubuntu. It's a good thing I took several Linux classes in college or I wouldn't have even gotten as far as that. Cedega looked like a probable solution but I hate the concept of having to subscribe monthly to play games I already bought.
Nuts to Linux. It ain't ready. I'm sticking with XP at least until Vista SP1.
I had only created one user in Vista and I don't remember whether I had admin privs. However, whenever I made changes to system configuration the screen went grey and I was prompted by a dialog with an OK button with a shield icon. I took this to mean that either I was admin or I had the capability to do administrative tasks without entering another password.
Not in Vista, though I assume it would have the same problem since all it does is modify the txt file. I think users only have access to save files in the Documents folder. What a hassle.
When I tried Vista Beta 2 RC1 I put a few games through the paces. I was quite impressed to see WoW work flawlessly with NVidia's beta drivers, though the framerate was definitely about 10% slower than on XP. I couldn't run Guild Wars at all, though this incompatibility is known by the developers and they're working on it. I also tried Half Life 2 which displayed really freaky polygonal artifacts - clustered red polygons on the torsos of NPCs that looked like throbbing tumors.
Finally, I tried DOSBox with many old games which all worked great, except that I couldn't figure out how to save a customized version of the text config file so I had to mount virtual hard drives manually from the command line every time.
I'd be using Vista right now if the game compatibility was up to snuff. I use my PC for gaming more than anything else and I find dual boot a real hassle. Considering the class action lawsuit swelling against NVidia for their inability to release drivers on time I see no compelling reason to become an early Vista adopter. I'll probably wait for SP1 like I did with XP.
Becaaaause it clearly says "Ad hoc network" instead of "Wireless Access Point" in a bold font on the connection manager, complemented by an icon depicting 2 laptops communicating instead of one wireless antenna broadcasting. Couldn't be clearer.
I've seen connections like these available in airports and hotels. I actually tried to connect but my crappy 802.11b NIC wouldn't let me.
WinXP makes it very obvious that it's an ad-hoc network and not a WAP. The icon is completely different. I guess I'll be avoiding those connections from now on.
Too bad. Google Video's interface is far better than YouTube's. The dealbreaker that keeps me loyal to Google Video (not that there's anything worth watching on either) is the ability to skip forward in the video to a part that hasn't yet been cached. I sometimes like to skip through a video to see whether it's worth my while to watch and it makes me nuts having to wait for the whole thing to download first.
During our vacation a few weeks ago my girlfriend really enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express. We needed to consult a walkthrough a few times since the designers obviously slapped-on some silly logic puzzles, but otherwise we had a great day playing through. Great graphics and a fun premise. We'll certainly check out And Then There Were None.
Wing Commander is sorely missed and would indeed make an unbelievable MMO. Upgrading ships little by little would be sublime! I doubt we'll see that IP resurrected any time soon, unfortunately, due to the shitty movie and EA's stranglehold.
Graphic adventures are making a comeback in a huge way, though. I'll be especially interested to see how episodic gaming works out. I'm rather enjoying the new Sam and Max series, though it's so easy that the game is just an excuse to play the dialogue. That's okay by me, though. Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry) and Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight) are both in the middle of making new adventure games with fresh new characters so I'm highly anticipating those releases. Plus, groundbreakers like Indigo Prophecy are breathing new life into the genre, though I'd be thrilled to have a quality point-and-click game any day.
I really enjoyed Mega Man 2 for the NES. I tried the first in the series after that but was disappointed to see that it was the same game. Ditto for 3, 4, 5, 6... Then in Mega Man X you could hold down the shoot button to charge a shot. I've seen like 2 games worth of innovation spanned across how many games in the Mega Man series? 20?
My girlfriend moved from Ottawa when she was 18. She has nothing nicer to say about the city than this guy. I'm not crazy about the place either. How a city full of politicians gets to be recognized as one of the world's most intelligent completely escapes me.
FTA: (my emphasis) one of the biggest annoyances out of the gate was the lack of pixel-perfect compatibility, despite being one of Sony's most touted features over Xbox 360, which has to software emulate each game in its back catalog.
I thought the PS3 had a whole Emotion Engine in it. Doesn't that mean that the entire legacy PS2 rendering engine is present? I figured the blurriness was due to a dirty bridge between the legacy and current hardware.
The only currently planned price drop for PS3 is in Japan. Considering the production yields are way under their expectation, people would have to buy like 20 games at full price for Sony to break even on prematurely discounted hardware.
My girlfriend and I, both huge computer nerds, just moved into a new apartment. We put our computers side-by-side on a big table right in front of our huge living room window overlooking the city. We geek it up with our single player games but we're always poking eachother to come look at something cool in our games. It's quite romantic, actually.
Slashdot Mirror
If there's a sequel, and there's no reason not to think there won't be
Two wrongs don't make a write. This double negative, with a negative chaser, is painful.
I was actually thinking about this a few days ago and I think I will give them a hard time the next time this happens. First I'll ask why they want to know, and then I'll tell them I'm installing Windows because I'd like to use the product I purchased. I'll be sure to mention how insulting the whole ordeal is.
Well, one inconvenient install per year is palatable so I put up with it. Plus I bought the software so that I could keep up with updates and what have you.
Due to my poor experiences with activation and the very high price I've decided to wait quite some time before moving on to Vista. In fact, I tried Ubuntu and a few other Linux distros a few weeks ago just to see my alternatives. Believe it or not, I find the freeware/FOSS scene superior in Windows in terms of quality, availability, and all-round usefulness. Ubuntu was fun but I'm too much of a gamer to make that switch.
I'm a computer enthusiast who buys a lot of hardware. I was rather amazed when my previous install of XP worked fine when I upgraded from an Athlon XP to an Athlon 64, but I reinstalled anyway to avoid future issues. I did the same when upgrading to my dual core system recently. I've probably installed it 3 times in 3 years.
But thanks for assuming the worst.
This is all well and good, but what about activation? I own a student edition of WinXP Pro and every time I install the OS the internet activation fails. I'm prompted (forced) to call a 1-800 number to activate manually within 30 days. When I do so I must key in or speak a 48-digit activation key which also fails every time. I'm then forwarded to a human being (in India, I'm quite positive) who asks me to repeat part of that 48-digit key, has the audacity to ask me WHY I'M INSTALLING WINDOWS, and then reads back a corresponding 48-digit key which always works.
I have never had trouble using pirated editions of Windows. Regardless of this softened WGA check, Microsoft punishes their legitimate customers. Period.
I can't wait for the next Postal game by Running With Scissors. That studio really knows how to exercise their freedom of speech. In Postal 2 you had the option to deal with many situations however you saw fit, with violence, stealth, by conforming to societal expectations, or by running like a coward. It's a first person shooter you can win without firing a shot (and can't win without pissing on your own father's grave).
One of the first missions in the game pits you against militant protesters picketing outside the Running With Scissors studio, brandishing guns and blunt objects. You may deal with them however you wish.
RWS is brilliant because any violence in the game exposes the will of the player more than the designer. Thus, all the people who protested the game for being morbid and sick were forced to eat their own words in the worst way. Just desserts.
If it ain't broke...
... just increment by 1
I love counting to 7.
Thanks so much for sharing that video with me. You just made my day.
I used to listen to MODs right in the tracker or with the DMP player which showed the hexadecimal "code". I used to track S3M, XM, MOD, and MDL (from Digitrakker) back in the mid 90's. Here's my discography, if you care. Mind the "web design".
http://www.demodulated.com/mods.html
Thanks for the link!! Vsnares is one of my all time favourite producers, and he uses tons of open source music tools (open source music, not tools) in his repertoire. I can't remember which MOD tracker is his favourite, but it's an old school 8 or 16 channel one.
Not some but MOST of the most beautiful music I know was written by MOD trackers. The free software and openness of the various MOD formats really captured the imagination of composer hobbyists over the last 15-odd years.
MOD is a testament to all that is possible in a society free of copyright, closed IP, and DRM. MODs convinced me long ago that as soon as music is broadcast publicly it is public domain.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years and my eyesight sucks. My entire immediate family wears glasses so I don't know what combination of genetics and staring at CRTs is responsible for this.
However, my perception is definitely better than many other people I know. Despite my glasses I was even given the nickname "The Eye" because of my knack for pointing out small details of importance or amusement. I don't know but have a good feeling that video games are largely responsible for this - especially graphical adventure games like old Sierra and Lucasarts titles where you had to study a scene extensively to determine the next course of action.
I felt exactly the same way last week so I started piddling around with some Linux distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian. I enjoyed an exciting round of Kolf but otherwise couldn't get anything good to run. I couldn't even figure out how to install NVidia drivers on Ubuntu. It's a good thing I took several Linux classes in college or I wouldn't have even gotten as far as that. Cedega looked like a probable solution but I hate the concept of having to subscribe monthly to play games I already bought.
Nuts to Linux. It ain't ready. I'm sticking with XP at least until Vista SP1.
I had only created one user in Vista and I don't remember whether I had admin privs. However, whenever I made changes to system configuration the screen went grey and I was prompted by a dialog with an OK button with a shield icon. I took this to mean that either I was admin or I had the capability to do administrative tasks without entering another password.
Not in Vista, though I assume it would have the same problem since all it does is modify the txt file. I think users only have access to save files in the Documents folder. What a hassle.
When I tried Vista Beta 2 RC1 I put a few games through the paces. I was quite impressed to see WoW work flawlessly with NVidia's beta drivers, though the framerate was definitely about 10% slower than on XP. I couldn't run Guild Wars at all, though this incompatibility is known by the developers and they're working on it. I also tried Half Life 2 which displayed really freaky polygonal artifacts - clustered red polygons on the torsos of NPCs that looked like throbbing tumors.
Finally, I tried DOSBox with many old games which all worked great, except that I couldn't figure out how to save a customized version of the text config file so I had to mount virtual hard drives manually from the command line every time.
I'd be using Vista right now if the game compatibility was up to snuff. I use my PC for gaming more than anything else and I find dual boot a real hassle. Considering the class action lawsuit swelling against NVidia for their inability to release drivers on time I see no compelling reason to become an early Vista adopter. I'll probably wait for SP1 like I did with XP.
Becaaaause it clearly says "Ad hoc network" instead of "Wireless Access Point" in a bold font on the connection manager, complemented by an icon depicting 2 laptops communicating instead of one wireless antenna broadcasting. Couldn't be clearer.
I've seen connections like these available in airports and hotels. I actually tried to connect but my crappy 802.11b NIC wouldn't let me.
WinXP makes it very obvious that it's an ad-hoc network and not a WAP. The icon is completely different. I guess I'll be avoiding those connections from now on.
Too bad. Google Video's interface is far better than YouTube's. The dealbreaker that keeps me loyal to Google Video (not that there's anything worth watching on either) is the ability to skip forward in the video to a part that hasn't yet been cached. I sometimes like to skip through a video to see whether it's worth my while to watch and it makes me nuts having to wait for the whole thing to download first.
During our vacation a few weeks ago my girlfriend really enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express. We needed to consult a walkthrough a few times since the designers obviously slapped-on some silly logic puzzles, but otherwise we had a great day playing through. Great graphics and a fun premise. We'll certainly check out And Then There Were None.
Wing Commander is sorely missed and would indeed make an unbelievable MMO. Upgrading ships little by little would be sublime! I doubt we'll see that IP resurrected any time soon, unfortunately, due to the shitty movie and EA's stranglehold.
Graphic adventures are making a comeback in a huge way, though. I'll be especially interested to see how episodic gaming works out. I'm rather enjoying the new Sam and Max series, though it's so easy that the game is just an excuse to play the dialogue. That's okay by me, though. Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry) and Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight) are both in the middle of making new adventure games with fresh new characters so I'm highly anticipating those releases. Plus, groundbreakers like Indigo Prophecy are breathing new life into the genre, though I'd be thrilled to have a quality point-and-click game any day.
I really enjoyed Mega Man 2 for the NES. I tried the first in the series after that but was disappointed to see that it was the same game. Ditto for 3, 4, 5, 6... Then in Mega Man X you could hold down the shoot button to charge a shot. I've seen like 2 games worth of innovation spanned across how many games in the Mega Man series? 20?
My girlfriend moved from Ottawa when she was 18. She has nothing nicer to say about the city than this guy. I'm not crazy about the place either. How a city full of politicians gets to be recognized as one of the world's most intelligent completely escapes me.
FTA: (my emphasis)
one of the biggest annoyances out of the gate was the lack of pixel-perfect compatibility, despite being one of Sony's most touted features over Xbox 360, which has to software emulate each game in its back catalog.
I thought the PS3 had a whole Emotion Engine in it. Doesn't that mean that the entire legacy PS2 rendering engine is present? I figured the blurriness was due to a dirty bridge between the legacy and current hardware.
The only currently planned price drop for PS3 is in Japan. Considering the production yields are way under their expectation, people would have to buy like 20 games at full price for Sony to break even on prematurely discounted hardware.
My girlfriend and I, both huge computer nerds, just moved into a new apartment. We put our computers side-by-side on a big table right in front of our huge living room window overlooking the city. We geek it up with our single player games but we're always poking eachother to come look at something cool in our games. It's quite romantic, actually.