Now the issue is always going to be "how much is too much?". I'll take WoW as an example. From most people that I've interacted with in the game, accumulating the 90 gold or so necessary for a mount at level 40 is a challenge, but it's something that everyone achieves. However at level 60, the epic mount costs around 800-900 gold, and that's something that many people (myself probably included) will never reach.
Disagree. Generating the cash for an epic mount isn't hard. What's apparently hard for people is bothering to remember to do the things that generate gold. Take a gathering skill, loot and sell, daytrade or act as a supplier in the auction house, etc... They'd rather spend all their time grinding in dungeons for the current level version of the Awesome Scepter of Elite Uberness, than clearing zones with friends for cash, or constantly keeping an eye on profitable opportunities, or any of the other dozen plus things that generate cash while you're moving up. And this is even before you get to the task of actually grinding for gold when at high level.
Does this mean people are lazy and take the easy way out? Yup; but it's been that way since the first guy figured out if he could talk Joe the Caveman into doing the hunting for him, he could still eat without having to use a spear. WOW gold sellers are simply the latest example of that same behavior.
Gold Sellers will always be around as long as people are willing to pay others to play the game for them. That's the ultimate point in this discussion. Until the users as a whole are unwilling to pay third parties for game advantages, Gold Selling isn't going anywhere. Since I figure you're unlikely to change basic human behavior, the only way to curb Gold Sellers would be for Blizzard to devote serious attention to transactions in game. Since this is a task they're clearly unwilling to apply the necessary resources to deal with, I suspect come this time in 2016 (or 2026, or 3006) we'll have vocal members of the MMORG community bitching about Gold Sellers, and still have that silent percentage of the same that continue to make purchases.
If you can fix it, Nobel or someone should honor you since that would mean major change in humanity. Easy way out is genetically coded.
The last few weeks have been hellish. My house in New Orleans flooded out, my TV was stolen by looters, my food and water by the mayor's thugs, and now there's a bunch of dolphins in my living room making me type for them. If there are any search geniuses out there, please help me find the current whereabouts of Flipper, as the lasers on their heads are starting to get unnerving. They promised to fry me if I can't find their god... er... Flipper.
"THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH"
Alternately... "don't fear the squeaker"
Oh, how cute a mouse... hey he bit me... hey I feel like BRAINS! MMM BRAINS!
I'd have had a TIVO years ago, but they insist on charging me for the box AND charging me a monthly fee. Sorry, no. Pick one.
Let me pay you for the box, and even double the cost out of spite that I won't weld myself to your ongoing revenue stream. The box should be programable like a plain old VCR (i.e., recordable on channel X at time Y for Z length of content), or it should pull data from the "Channel Channel", or both.
Sadly, no one seems interested in building a DVR that isn't subscription based. Up yours corporations!
Yes but most corporations have horrible computer security. You can get the employee's userID, and their SSN, and call the company's help line to have the password reset and/or the account unlocked. It's security by assumption that only employees will contact the help center and use the unlock / reset method.
For the record, I'm very confident the company I work for (a bank) would probably unlock an account 3-5 times in one day with a 0% chance of "noticing" anything wrong with that may requests.
As usual, Mitnick is / was right. Humans are the weakness, not the system.
The point of a DVR is to control your TV watching time. This would include the ad time as well.
Strange as it may sound, there are, occasionally, ads that actually are of use and inform one of something that's interesting and needed. Most ads may be useless and boring, but occasionally a marketer or a service/product provider come up with something that one might wish to know more about.
For these circumstances, this functionality rocks. It's a win-win feedback loop.
Unlike the SCO silliness, the allegations being levied have substantial physical, technical, and witness evidence to support them.
Intel deserves to go down. Since it's AMD suing in civil court, Intel can't do what M$ did and make deals with the government to kill the suit.
Go AMD!
Re:Interview with the author
on
The Escapist
·
· Score: 1
So if I self publish a cyber book will/. put me on the front gd page too?
I wonder who submitted the article... connections to author?
You know it's sad with something that used to be as cool as/. now has patronage to put up with...
Re:Only going to work if it became standard
on
Advocating Dvorak
·
· Score: 1
Bingo. If DVORAK becomes the standard, I'll switch. not until then. Having to remember both, and having to convince my muscle memory about which should be used at any given typing moment.... not worth the hastle. I type over 100 via QWERTY, and it rocks.
Trackballs don't catch on because they're generally harder to use. A mouse is pretty intutive; move mouse, cursor moves. Trackball requires you roll in a direction, and then you have to get used to how much rolling to produce how much cursor movement.... not impossible but tricker. More an adjustment curve.
As a gamer, I'm never using a trackball. Hell, I don't understand how anyone can play a FPS on a console controller thumbstick, much less a trackball!
I bet this has something to do with TV vs DVD division within Fox. The TV division probably has numbers for revenue per hour that indicate they prefer to pass on airing Futurama... but I bet the DVD division has numbers for cost to produce vs expected returns for direct-dvd sales that show they can have fun with it.
This is good if it catches on, direct-dvd content avoids the mass market bullshit a lot of us hate so much. It could easily give 'niche' or 'genre' programming that isn't as widely embraced as crap like Am.Idol or Surv. a real chance to catch on.
Wow, the dialog coach is what Lucas has frickin' needed all along. I don't object to (hardly any) of his visual or plot decisions as a director, only his complete inability to direct actors and write.
It's not freedom if you're never given the option, or chance, to even consider a different choice.
We're about to stop having laws, and start having strictures. If you don't know the difference... www.dictionary.com. There *is* a difference.
"First they came for the communists but I was not a communist so I kept quiet. Then they came for the socialists and the trade unionists but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." Martin Niemoller, after being released from Dachau, 1945
Yet put it in print, and people become more sceptical.
No... put it in print, and people aren't there.
Folks don't read anymore, and are happy about it. Most people don't see any need to be able to read well, in pursuing reading as a hobby. I bus/train into work every day, which would seem to be a slam-dunk open-shut case of a period of time begging for a book or a magazine. Know how many people in the train card are reading each morning or afternoon; 1 in 50, *maybe*.
That really should say it all when one ponders the sad state of literacy. They're happier sitting there doing nothing than they apparently would be reading something (fiction, non-fiction, magazine, newspaper)
Although, come to think of it, this is probably why it's so uncool to be able to spell properly... if literacy isn't cool, neither is spelling I guess.
No, users are just really goddamn stupid. I (very unfortunately) currently work in tech support. The same people call like clockwork with the same problems all the time.
They never listen to anything offered that would educate them and prevent a repeat of their reoccurring issues. Simple rules designed to educate are always ignored. Basic warnings and instructions, reminder emails, popup boxes, it doesn't matter if the user won't do his part.
Really though, the reason techs and support folks feel users deserve every ill they bring upon themselves is simple. Users love to explain how some problem they're having is the fault of the tech or of tech support. One user in fifty, maybe, will actually admit the problem is related to their inexperience, ignorance, ineptiude, or inattention.
News Flash: if something's wrong with your computer and you're an end-user, it's usually your fault. You have ignored a rule, a warning, a message box, an email, or a memo. You have forgotten that passwords expire every month (yes, this month too; same as last month, and the month before that also), or that passwords do not magically update across all your applications just because you changed one of them.
We can fix it so that it'll stay fixed, but not if you continue to insist anything that happens with it isn't your fault. You have to take charge. If you don't change your car's oil, the engine is toast. If you don't learn the simplest of basics of computer operation, so is your productivity. It is no one's fault but yours.
Techs know users don't know about computers. This doesn't bother 95%+ of techs. What does bother us is users who don't listen, who don't learn, who don't read, and who don't take responsibility. If you ask a question, LISTEN to the answer. Take and write notes that you refer to. Why do you think Techs write stuff down; we're not smarter or better, we just use the advantages of evolution and technology to help us make things happen correctly. Please join us.
And above all, thank your technicians and tech-support folks. Everyone has time to scream about how pissed they are because they've again created their own problem (but, of course, is always the fault of the tech), but one in one million has the goddamned time to send an email or make a phone call that says "hey, the help I received was great and now I'm all good, thanks."
You can sum this entire post up thusly: Users Suck.
I was thinking the same thing. Isn't he using a ghost/co writer also? He antes up a few bits and pays probably US$1-2K for about a dozen others and presto, insta book.
Unless we're talking about a tiny fraction of the overall book being hacker-submitted, seems to me the payout should be pro-rated based on the length of the story, etc... Otherwise Mit's making out like a bandit. We all should get gigs this good.
Anyone who submits a story is either foolish or desperate for attention.
Pretty sure this makes Microsoft look really inept. I mean, if the largest and richest software company in the world can't patch their own products before a group of volunteer coders can figure out a fix... seems to me that makes M$ look like fools.
The scene with the baby-killing was sick. Pure and simple. It added nothing to the story.
So millions/billions of humans being nuked in the twelve colonies was okay, but a Cylon sleeper agent deciding to break an infant's neck was sick and added nothing.
?
Perhaps it showed an, well, *ALIEN* quality of the artifical intelligence that was in the process of anihilating humanity. Perhaps it showed some sort of fascination with humans by the AIs. Perhaps it showed the Cylons have already decided humanity's fate? Perhaps you could think about it from a story standpoint instead of demanding a G rated version of war.
I don't like Chainsaw or Chipper-Shredder scenes; that doesn't make Natural Born Killers or Fargo base and vile stories. It simply means they're violent.
Violence is a legimate storytelling tool. If you like war stories, you need to remember horrific things happen during war. It's not all heroic and bloodless like 50s war films so often were.
Slashdot Mirror
Disagree. Generating the cash for an epic mount isn't hard. What's apparently hard for people is bothering to remember to do the things that generate gold. Take a gathering skill, loot and sell, daytrade or act as a supplier in the auction house, etc... They'd rather spend all their time grinding in dungeons for the current level version of the Awesome Scepter of Elite Uberness, than clearing zones with friends for cash, or constantly keeping an eye on profitable opportunities, or any of the other dozen plus things that generate cash while you're moving up. And this is even before you get to the task of actually grinding for gold when at high level.
Does this mean people are lazy and take the easy way out? Yup; but it's been that way since the first guy figured out if he could talk Joe the Caveman into doing the hunting for him, he could still eat without having to use a spear. WOW gold sellers are simply the latest example of that same behavior.
Gold Sellers will always be around as long as people are willing to pay others to play the game for them. That's the ultimate point in this discussion. Until the users as a whole are unwilling to pay third parties for game advantages, Gold Selling isn't going anywhere. Since I figure you're unlikely to change basic human behavior, the only way to curb Gold Sellers would be for Blizzard to devote serious attention to transactions in game. Since this is a task they're clearly unwilling to apply the necessary resources to deal with, I suspect come this time in 2016 (or 2026, or 3006) we'll have vocal members of the MMORG community bitching about Gold Sellers, and still have that silent percentage of the same that continue to make purchases.
If you can fix it, Nobel or someone should honor you since that would mean major change in humanity. Easy way out is genetically coded.
The last few weeks have been hellish. My house in New Orleans flooded out, my TV was stolen by looters, my food and water by the mayor's thugs, and now there's a bunch of dolphins in my living room making me type for them. If there are any search geniuses out there, please help me find the current whereabouts of Flipper, as the lasers on their heads are starting to get unnerving. They promised to fry me if I can't find their god ... er ... Flipper.
Please help.
"THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH" Alternately ... "don't fear the squeaker"
Oh, how cute a mouse ... hey he bit me ... hey I feel like BRAINS! MMM BRAINS!
(ding) You've got monopoly!
Because I don't need or want the "additional services". Clearly, that you assume I need them shows how little you know about this subject.
Yes, but Chaotic Evil means never having to say you're sorry.
No kidding, dead on.
I'd have had a TIVO years ago, but they insist on charging me for the box AND charging me a monthly fee. Sorry, no. Pick one.
Let me pay you for the box, and even double the cost out of spite that I won't weld myself to your ongoing revenue stream. The box should be programable like a plain old VCR (i.e., recordable on channel X at time Y for Z length of content), or it should pull data from the "Channel Channel", or both.
Sadly, no one seems interested in building a DVR that isn't subscription based. Up yours corporations!
Yes but most corporations have horrible computer security. You can get the employee's userID, and their SSN, and call the company's help line to have the password reset and/or the account unlocked. It's security by assumption that only employees will contact the help center and use the unlock / reset method. For the record, I'm very confident the company I work for (a bank) would probably unlock an account 3-5 times in one day with a 0% chance of "noticing" anything wrong with that may requests. As usual, Mitnick is / was right. Humans are the weakness, not the system.
The point of a DVR is to control your TV watching time. This would include the ad time as well.
Strange as it may sound, there are, occasionally, ads that actually are of use and inform one of something that's interesting and needed. Most ads may be useless and boring, but occasionally a marketer or a service/product provider come up with something that one might wish to know more about.
For these circumstances, this functionality rocks. It's a win-win feedback loop.
Unlike the SCO silliness, the allegations being levied have substantial physical, technical, and witness evidence to support them.
Intel deserves to go down. Since it's AMD suing in civil court, Intel can't do what M$ did and make deals with the government to kill the suit.
Go AMD!
So if I self publish a cyber book will /. put me on the front gd page too?
I wonder who submitted the article ... connections to author?
You know it's sad with something that used to be as cool as /. now has patronage to put up with...
Bingo. If DVORAK becomes the standard, I'll switch. not until then. Having to remember both, and having to convince my muscle memory about which should be used at any given typing moment .... not worth the hastle. I type over 100 via QWERTY, and it rocks.
Trackballs don't catch on because they're generally harder to use. A mouse is pretty intutive; move mouse, cursor moves. Trackball requires you roll in a direction, and then you have to get used to how much rolling to produce how much cursor movement .... not impossible but tricker. More an adjustment curve.
...
As a gamer, I'm never using a trackball. Hell, I don't understand how anyone can play a FPS on a console controller thumbstick, much less a trackball!
That new Logitech 518 looks awesome
I bet this has something to do with TV vs DVD division within Fox. The TV division probably has numbers for revenue per hour that indicate they prefer to pass on airing Futurama ... but I bet the DVD division has numbers for cost to produce vs expected returns for direct-dvd sales that show they can have fun with it.
This is good if it catches on, direct-dvd content avoids the mass market bullshit a lot of us hate so much. It could easily give 'niche' or 'genre' programming that isn't as widely embraced as crap like Am.Idol or Surv. a real chance to catch on.
Some studios know how to sell a product at a reasonable price.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Third Season, 22 episodes, 6 discs, US$46, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 06RCNX/qid=1115987644/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/103-088309 5-5083010?v=glance&s=dvd
Simpsons Third Season, 24 episodes, 4 discs, US$33 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 067DNE/qid=1115987840/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-088309 5-5083010?v=glance&s=dvd
Stargate Third Season, 22 episodes, 5 discs, US$53, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 08PC0W/qid=1115987554/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-088309 5-5083010?v=glance&s=dvd
Others, however, apparently only know how to price themselves out of the sweet spot
Babylon 5 Third Season (22 episodes, 6 discs) US$80 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 09OOFK/qid=1115987327/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-088309 5-5083010?v=glance&s=dvd
Star Trek: TNG Fifth Season (22 episodes, 7 discs) US$112 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000063V8T/ qid%3D1115987479/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/103-08830 95-5083010
Wow, the dialog coach is what Lucas has frickin' needed all along. I don't object to (hardly any) of his visual or plot decisions as a director, only his complete inability to direct actors and write.
God bless Chris Neil!
We're about to stop having laws, and start having strictures. If you don't know the difference ... www.dictionary.com. There *is* a difference.
"First they came for the communists but I was not a communist so I kept quiet. Then they came for the socialists and the trade unionists but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." Martin Niemoller, after being released from Dachau, 1945
Dramatic though it may be, it's also true.
I thought the comment was vaguely funny but somewhat mean until I saw the signature (NetZero User), which makes it pretty damn funny. :D :D :D
I would agree with the repetition part of this post. In the last several months, it has become a very sad trend for /. to duplicate stories.
/. stop letting the same stories get posted.
Please for the love of
No ... put it in print, and people aren't there.
Folks don't read anymore, and are happy about it. Most people don't see any need to be able to read well, in pursuing reading as a hobby. I bus/train into work every day, which would seem to be a slam-dunk open-shut case of a period of time begging for a book or a magazine. Know how many people in the train card are reading each morning or afternoon; 1 in 50, *maybe*.
That really should say it all when one ponders the sad state of literacy. They're happier sitting there doing nothing than they apparently would be reading something (fiction, non-fiction, magazine, newspaper)
Although, come to think of it, this is probably why it's so uncool to be able to spell properly ... if literacy isn't cool, neither is spelling I guess.
No, users are just really goddamn stupid. I (very unfortunately) currently work in tech support. The same people call like clockwork with the same problems all the time.
They never listen to anything offered that would educate them and prevent a repeat of their reoccurring issues. Simple rules designed to educate are always ignored. Basic warnings and instructions, reminder emails, popup boxes, it doesn't matter if the user won't do his part.
Really though, the reason techs and support folks feel users deserve every ill they bring upon themselves is simple. Users love to explain how some problem they're having is the fault of the tech or of tech support. One user in fifty, maybe, will actually admit the problem is related to their inexperience, ignorance, ineptiude, or inattention.
News Flash: if something's wrong with your computer and you're an end-user, it's usually your fault. You have ignored a rule, a warning, a message box, an email, or a memo. You have forgotten that passwords expire every month (yes, this month too; same as last month, and the month before that also), or that passwords do not magically update across all your applications just because you changed one of them.
We can fix it so that it'll stay fixed, but not if you continue to insist anything that happens with it isn't your fault. You have to take charge. If you don't change your car's oil, the engine is toast. If you don't learn the simplest of basics of computer operation, so is your productivity. It is no one's fault but yours.
Techs know users don't know about computers. This doesn't bother 95%+ of techs. What does bother us is users who don't listen, who don't learn, who don't read, and who don't take responsibility. If you ask a question, LISTEN to the answer. Take and write notes that you refer to. Why do you think Techs write stuff down; we're not smarter or better, we just use the advantages of evolution and technology to help us make things happen correctly. Please join us.
And above all, thank your technicians and tech-support folks. Everyone has time to scream about how pissed they are because they've again created their own problem (but, of course, is always the fault of the tech), but one in one million has the goddamned time to send an email or make a phone call that says "hey, the help I received was great and now I'm all good, thanks."
You can sum this entire post up thusly: Users Suck.
I was thinking the same thing. Isn't he using a ghost/co writer also? He antes up a few bits and pays probably US$1-2K for about a dozen others and presto, insta book.
Unless we're talking about a tiny fraction of the overall book being hacker-submitted, seems to me the payout should be pro-rated based on the length of the story, etc... Otherwise Mit's making out like a bandit. We all should get gigs this good.
Anyone who submits a story is either foolish or desperate for attention.
Pretty sure this makes Microsoft look really inept. I mean, if the largest and richest software company in the world can't patch their own products before a group of volunteer coders can figure out a fix ... seems to me that makes M$ look like fools.
My US$0.02, unadjusted for inflation of course.
Many many many resources are devoted to cancer and other medical researches. People are eternally self centered, after all.
Hardly any resources are devoted towards space exploration, even planet based exploration such as SETI.
Not only is SETI dilluting its user base with these non-space-exploration projects, but some folks are apparently going to crow about it.
A sad day for SETI indeed.
?
Perhaps it showed an, well, *ALIEN* quality of the artifical intelligence that was in the process of anihilating humanity. Perhaps it showed some sort of fascination with humans by the AIs. Perhaps it showed the Cylons have already decided humanity's fate? Perhaps you could think about it from a story standpoint instead of demanding a G rated version of war.
I don't like Chainsaw or Chipper-Shredder scenes; that doesn't make Natural Born Killers or Fargo base and vile stories. It simply means they're violent.
Violence is a legimate storytelling tool. If you like war stories, you need to remember horrific things happen during war. It's not all heroic and bloodless like 50s war films so often were.