I call BS. Valve isn't the CIA, their system is not inscrutable. There are enough people out there that know enough to be able to 'crack' that even assuming that everyone in Valve suddenly become gamer hating Christian Fundies who pull the game to save our souls, come 2015 you'll still be able to play the game the same way you play your old DOS games now.
Launch your Athalon/ATI emulator, load up the latest release of FreetosXP, launch your Vapor Steam Server emulator and then run HL2.
Look at who is directing, it. Look at his 'credits' again. Is there really any question that it will suck?
The real question will be will he be able to screw it up badly enough that the sucky meter rolls over and we can atleast enjoy it in the same vein as Plan 9 from Outer Space.
This is mostly a stunt. NASA is saying "Ok, you want to cut our budget? Well here are the programs we are going to drop then." They are purposfully picking popular ones because they think that the fuss of "Bush is killing Voyager" will save their necks when push comes to shove.
Unfortunately, I doubt the nation cares anymore.
We've seen time and time again that without something like an active competition from a precived real threat, we could care less about expanding our scientific horizons unless we happen to know someone impacted by our lack of knowledge. And AFAIK, no one is claiming you can cure cancer by knowing what's beyond the solar system.
It's illegal in most places for municipalities to provide comercial services unless those services are considered of essential public value and not suitable for comercial involvement. That's why most utility companies are run by companies who purchase a contract from the company rather than the company itself.
1. IRC is one of the major "pre-P2P" file distribution networks. You can do more than chat on it.
2. Many trojans/spyware/zombie-maker's use IRC as their communication network. Block the ability to communicate and you effectively render the infection impotent. An important consideration when you are hosting 1000's of computers, many of which are not under your direct control in regards to protection.
Not that I agree 100% with them, but those are the reasons I'm normally given for blocking IRC on your network.
And the worse thing is everyone is assuming that it will be two of the three, instead of more than likely being two of the same.
I.E. "Here is your password, and here is the secret 'scheme' you need to use when we give you a random number. Type in your password, and then use the scheme to figure what to type in for the next part."
Workplaces are normally noisy, so the addition your workstations are making is little.
Home environments are normally tomb silent outside intentional noise like the TV, children, or music. Your workstations _would_ seem like jackhammers in that scenario.
The sad thing is looking at Will's and Peter's ideas and comparing them to what Will and Peter are actually making in RL.
Will's idea: "Eliza bot cum Sims! The first one will more than likely be boring but we'll make a killing on selling the expansion packs!"
Peter's idea: "I have an idea that really has nothing to do with Emily Dickenson! I'll market it as the best Emily Dickenson game out there but the only thing you'll learn about her from playing my game is that appearently she liked clay alot! Of course, since I don't really know anyhting about Emily, the game will be rather short."
All we need is John Romero to show up and talk about Emily being sent to hell after she commits suicide and the entire game is her killing demons in an attempt to escape, in the dark! I can see the adversiting now. "Emily Dickenson is going to make you her...."
Because so many people seem to have this hang-up about why many/.'ers (and IT geeks in general) adore Google and loathe Microsoft, allow me to point out the differences between the two companies from my viewpoint.
Microsoft is a company that, for much of it's existence, has ascribed to the Robber Baron school of business ethics. Namely, no holds are barred, it's only illegal if you are caught and the only reason not to do something illegal is if the cost of being caught is more than the profit expected.
They've exploited holes in contracts.
They've stolen code.
They've intentionally broken compatibility with their competitor's products, just to break it.
They've lied about their practices.
They've financed studies to lie about their competitors.
Google on the other hand, and for the time being, has marked their existence by providing numerous free services to the public. They have provided free software. Nothing they've done so, that we know of, could be considered malicious or underhanded. Nothing they've done so far seems unethical or aimed purely at being cutthroat or killing their competition in any way other than by providing a better service.
When I read Microsoft's history, what I see is littany of cut throat, semi-legal, unethical conduct. If corporations were really people, Microsoft would be a top hat wearing, handlebar mustached, sterotypical Dirk Dastardly, doing their best to stay the top dog, not through the quality of their work but by sabatoging everyone elses.
When I read Google's history, what I see is a list of free services provided to the public which are paid for through advertising (notably, unobstrusive, targeted adverstising.) If Google was a person, they might not be the sterotypical hero of the story, but they most certainly would NOT be a villian.
In short, Google's deserved their accolades. Microsoft deserves their heckling. Get over the fact that Google is a corporation. Not ever company is evil, not every action one performs is designed to accomplish some secret plan to take over the world.
The drift is actually what they are using to do the finger printing. They are figuring how much 'drift' you actually have and using that to decide later on that another machine with a similar drift is you. They beleive they can do this because the drift itself is mostly constant.
This isn't censorship anymore than it's censorship for NBC not to run ads for ABC's shows.
It is anti-competitive behavior. Which means if it's being done by one of the Baby Bell's he could probably get them to stop with the threat of legal problems.
However there is nothing in the law which states your compediters have to facilitate you doing business. The only reason most people think it's illegal is they believe the special rules that apply to monopolies apply to everyone instead of just monopolies.
A smart person can find a good job, one that they like, one that they love, if they look hard enough.
And if you aren't a smart person, you deserve to be homeless and die of exsposure. Die idiot! Die!
A great indications of when you should quit your job is when they show you out the door and tell you not to come back. Before then, I'd suggest either being independantly wealthy or already having something lined up.
The gun I have in my hand was never meant to kill anyone. The fact that I point it at you making bang bang noises was never meant to indicate I wanted to kill you. It was merely an accident that I pulled the trigger, I shouldn't be responsible.
Tying SSN's to a citizen as your 'identity number' was something that most railed against as the main problem with the SS plan back when it was introduced. It was a foreseable consequence. It IS the government's responsiblity that it happened.
Ford didn't get out of an anti-trust lawsuit by signing a consent agreement specificly stating they would not ever again tie two products together in a manner which required the customer to purchase the second product as well.
Microsoft did. This was during the time when they forced Windows to be sold with MS-DOS to kill off their compitition. They knew what they were doing was wrong and they signed a consent agreement with the DOJ as part of their settlement.
While the article states that you can download updates for Office off another website, Office is only one of the many products they sell. And it's also about the only one that has it's own update site. Admittedly, using Office was a bad choice for an example. However outside Office, they _are_ blocking anyone from updating.
They don't need to prove OS updates to Wine users, but given they aren't blocking OS updates but updates to all of their products, including Office, that really isn't the issue.
If I purchase a license to use Office, and they are telling me that I must use Windows over any other OS to be able to use Office, especially if there are no technical reasons for this restriction, then they are breaking their settlement agreement from way back in the Windows 3.1/DOS days.
Is it that people are not any more productive on their new computers than they would have been on this mythical "optimally programmed" c64?
Or is it just that YOU are no more productive today than you were then because you still think in terms of the way the c64 worked?
I respectfully submit that it's the latter rather than the former. Which is a common enough issue today. Too many people don't get any benefit out of the improvements that have come out over time, not because the changes weren't improvements, but because they are unable or unwilling to change their behavior in a way that would allow them to take advantage of them.
Part of my job is data entry, I am the fastest person in my group in processing this side of the job. It isn't that I'm a faster typer, it isn't that I'm a better worker, it's that I've taken the time to learn how the system I'm using works and optimized how I did things to it. I know the shortcut-keys, my hand isn't swaping back and forth from the keyboard every 30 seconds. I do things in an order that minimizes having to go back and look information up. I use the copy buffer to save information I know I'll need shortly.
Yeah, you could do a lot with a c64. But it's NOTHING compared to what you can do with today's computer. Neither in terms of pure productivity, or in terms of versatility.
Check the code to a normal add-on and then check thotbot's code to understand that I'm talking about. I'm not saying what is in thotbot's code is impossible to decypher, but they go to alot of effort to keep you from being able to.
Does Allakhazam have an Add-On I can install to update their info? I can't seem to find one on their main site.
Yes, it's called WoWReader and I'm behind a corporate firewall right now or I'd post the link to it. Check the left sidebar, near the top of the page, IIRC that's around where the link is.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude! Have you followed his research at Black Mesa? He's an up and comer! Oh wait....
Ok, is it realy inovative to introduce a new method of spawn camping into the mix?
I can just see it now:
Would we even need to aim?
I call BS. Valve isn't the CIA, their system is not inscrutable. There are enough people out there that know enough to be able to 'crack' that even assuming that everyone in Valve suddenly become gamer hating Christian Fundies who pull the game to save our souls, come 2015 you'll still be able to play the game the same way you play your old DOS games now.
Launch your Athalon/ATI emulator, load up the latest release of FreetosXP, launch your Vapor Steam Server emulator and then run HL2.
Look at who is directing, it. Look at his 'credits' again. Is there really any question that it will suck?
The real question will be will he be able to screw it up badly enough that the sucky meter rolls over and we can atleast enjoy it in the same vein as Plan 9 from Outer Space.
This is mostly a stunt. NASA is saying "Ok, you want to cut our budget? Well here are the programs we are going to drop then." They are purposfully picking popular ones because they think that the fuss of "Bush is killing Voyager" will save their necks when push comes to shove.
Unfortunately, I doubt the nation cares anymore.
We've seen time and time again that without something like an active competition from a precived real threat, we could care less about expanding our scientific horizons unless we happen to know someone impacted by our lack of knowledge. And AFAIK, no one is claiming you can cure cancer by knowing what's beyond the solar system.
It's illegal in most places for municipalities to provide comercial services unless those services are considered of essential public value and not suitable for comercial involvement. That's why most utility companies are run by companies who purchase a contract from the company rather than the company itself.
And the immediate return to celluar once public wireless is saturated and no one cal use it.
Pandaren is a Blizzard created race of Panda men. I believe it's first introduction into their games was WC3. However I could be wrong.
The name is more than likely a play on Panda Express, a chinese food company. http://www.pandaexpress.com/
If you are doing Photoshop while driving, I think you have more to worry about than the number of buttons.
Two reasons.
1. IRC is one of the major "pre-P2P" file distribution networks. You can do more than chat on it.
2. Many trojans/spyware/zombie-maker's use IRC as their communication network. Block the ability to communicate and you effectively render the infection impotent. An important consideration when you are hosting 1000's of computers, many of which are not under your direct control in regards to protection.
Not that I agree 100% with them, but those are the reasons I'm normally given for blocking IRC on your network.
This will go with that free email account that I signed up for four years ago that was suppose to be free for a lifetime....
Well, it would if the email company hadn't decided to switch to "pay or you lose your address" model a year later.
And the worse thing is everyone is assuming that it will be two of the three, instead of more than likely being two of the same.
I.E. "Here is your password, and here is the secret 'scheme' you need to use when we give you a random number. Type in your password, and then use the scheme to figure what to type in for the next part."
Workplaces are normally noisy, so the addition your workstations are making is little.
Home environments are normally tomb silent outside intentional noise like the TV, children, or music. Your workstations _would_ seem like jackhammers in that scenario.
The sad thing is looking at Will's and Peter's ideas and comparing them to what Will and Peter are actually making in RL.
...."
Will's idea: "Eliza bot cum Sims! The first one will more than likely be boring but we'll make a killing on selling the expansion packs!"
Peter's idea: "I have an idea that really has nothing to do with Emily Dickenson! I'll market it as the best Emily Dickenson game out there but the only thing you'll learn about her from playing my game is that appearently she liked clay alot! Of course, since I don't really know anyhting about Emily, the game will be rather short."
All we need is John Romero to show up and talk about Emily being sent to hell after she commits suicide and the entire game is her killing demons in an attempt to escape, in the dark! I can see the adversiting now. "Emily Dickenson is going to make you her
When I read Microsoft's history, what I see is littany of cut throat, semi-legal, unethical conduct. If corporations were really people, Microsoft would be a top hat wearing, handlebar mustached, sterotypical Dirk Dastardly, doing their best to stay the top dog, not through the quality of their work but by sabatoging everyone elses.
When I read Google's history, what I see is a list of free services provided to the public which are paid for through advertising (notably, unobstrusive, targeted adverstising.) If Google was a person, they might not be the sterotypical hero of the story, but they most certainly would NOT be a villian.
In short, Google's deserved their accolades. Microsoft deserves their heckling. Get over the fact that Google is a corporation. Not ever company is evil, not every action one performs is designed to accomplish some secret plan to take over the world.
The money could be in the account, or it could not be in the account. You can only know how much money or which account the money is in, not both!
The drift is actually what they are using to do the finger printing. They are figuring how much 'drift' you actually have and using that to decide later on that another machine with a similar drift is you. They beleive they can do this because the drift itself is mostly constant.
It is anti-competitive behavior. Which means if it's being done by one of the Baby Bell's he could probably get them to stop with the threat of legal problems.
However there is nothing in the law which states your compediters have to facilitate you doing business. The only reason most people think it's illegal is they believe the special rules that apply to monopolies apply to everyone instead of just monopolies.
Allofmp3 is currently under investigation in Russia.
And if you aren't a smart person, you deserve to be homeless and die of exsposure. Die idiot! Die!
A great indications of when you should quit your job is when they show you out the door and tell you not to come back. Before then, I'd suggest either being independantly wealthy or already having something lined up.
The gun I have in my hand was never meant to kill anyone. The fact that I point it at you making bang bang noises was never meant to indicate I wanted to kill you. It was merely an accident that I pulled the trigger, I shouldn't be responsible.
Tying SSN's to a citizen as your 'identity number' was something that most railed against as the main problem with the SS plan back when it was introduced. It was a foreseable consequence. It IS the government's responsiblity that it happened.
Ford didn't get out of an anti-trust lawsuit by signing a consent agreement specificly stating they would not ever again tie two products together in a manner which required the customer to purchase the second product as well.
Microsoft did. This was during the time when they forced Windows to be sold with MS-DOS to kill off their compitition. They knew what they were doing was wrong and they signed a consent agreement with the DOJ as part of their settlement.
While the article states that you can download updates for Office off another website, Office is only one of the many products they sell. And it's also about the only one that has it's own update site. Admittedly, using Office was a bad choice for an example. However outside Office, they _are_ blocking anyone from updating.
They don't need to prove OS updates to Wine users, but given they aren't blocking OS updates but updates to all of their products, including Office, that really isn't the issue.
If I purchase a license to use Office, and they are telling me that I must use Windows over any other OS to be able to use Office, especially if there are no technical reasons for this restriction, then they are breaking their settlement agreement from way back in the Windows 3.1/DOS days.
I could care less about the OS updates.
Is it that people are not any more productive on their new computers than they would have been on this mythical "optimally programmed" c64?
Or is it just that YOU are no more productive today than you were then because you still think in terms of the way the c64 worked?
I respectfully submit that it's the latter rather than the former. Which is a common enough issue today. Too many people don't get any benefit out of the improvements that have come out over time, not because the changes weren't improvements, but because they are unable or unwilling to change their behavior in a way that would allow them to take advantage of them.
Part of my job is data entry, I am the fastest person in my group in processing this side of the job. It isn't that I'm a faster typer, it isn't that I'm a better worker, it's that I've taken the time to learn how the system I'm using works and optimized how I did things to it. I know the shortcut-keys, my hand isn't swaping back and forth from the keyboard every 30 seconds. I do things in an order that minimizes having to go back and look information up. I use the copy buffer to save information I know I'll need shortly.
Yeah, you could do a lot with a c64. But it's NOTHING compared to what you can do with today's computer. Neither in terms of pure productivity, or in terms of versatility.
Does Allakhazam have an Add-On I can install to update their info? I can't seem to find one on their main site.
Yes, it's called WoWReader and I'm behind a corporate firewall right now or I'd post the link to it. Check the left sidebar, near the top of the page, IIRC that's around where the link is.