I don't even get a shopping card from our local supermarket because I don't think it's necessary for them to have my personal information...
I've never given my personal information on one of those "loyalty" cards. When asked for a phone number, I'll typically give 867-5309. I've never, ever had anyone question it.
I'm not sure you're going about it the same way as me. Let me summarize from start to finish.. Perhaps it will help:
The polygon is a representation of the range in dotted-quad representation of the network address. For example, 3520957440 to 3520958463 (209.221.140.0 to 209.221.143.255).
The table definition is as follows:
CREATE TABLE `ip_ranges` ( `poly_ip` polygon NOT NULL, `range_start` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL, `range_end` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL, `location_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL, SPATIAL KEY `k_poly_ip` (`poly_ip`) )
I'd suggest looking into the polygon type. This article may be of some use.
The basic idea is that you create a polygon column and create an entry that corresponds to the start/end points for each row in your table, then you can run a query like this:
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE MBRContains(polyfield, POINTFROMWKB(POINT(INET_ATON('1.2.3.4'), 0)));
As a point of reference, the above query runs in my local DB here in 0.02 seconds for any IP I can throw at it.
As a native Brit living in America on a green card, I don't like sending payment to the IRS to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Ah, the cycle of life.
Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, has been talking about this problem since 2004. You can read his thoughts on it, and see a letter sent to ICANN in 2004here.
The point being, they're fully in favour of an end to "tasting" and have been calling for it for ~3 years.
Good times.. My first game that I can remember was Chucky Egg on the ZX Spectrum. Loved that game. My sister and I used to go around to our neighbour's house to play. One time, we got in a fight over whose turn it was next, and I ended up pushing her through a plate glass door. Whoops.
Anyone remember Chaos, on the Speccy? Awesome game. Might have to dig out the emulator some time..
I'll tell you what's making it more appealing too. It's these guys. 2 years ago, Linux on the desktop was no more compelling than it was when I first started using Slackware back in the early 90s. Getting simple things like audio and graphics working was still more of a chore than 99% of end users are willing to put up with.
It's still a long way from perfect, but the Ubuntu team are challenging all these things which should be completely hidden from the user so they don't have to know how to modify their X config, write a Modeline, or learn m4 so they can create a sendmail config. They're doing the things which have always been considered "good enough" to the hardcore, but which have prevented mainstream acceptance, and I think that's bloody great.
I recently reinstalled XP on my home machine due to a failed drive. I'd actually forgotten how horrible it was. Things like.. trying to get SP2. You go to Microsoft, and they have a whole 'SP2 is great!' page which extols the virtues of installing it, suggesting that the best way to get it is via Windows update.. So, you go to Windows update, and it says.. "Hey, you need SP2! You should check out this page which explains why it's great, and how to get it!", and links back to the first page. Took me a few hours to figure out how to bypass that one.
Anyway, my point is.. I installed Ubuntu about 3 weeks ago, at my new job. Took about an hour from when I first put the CD in the drive to the point where I had fired up Eclipse and was writing code. It used to be that Linux on the desktop was as much of a pain in the ass as Windows was, but for different reasons. That's not true any more, and it can only get better from here, and I see things accelerating with the Ubuntu team putting so much effort into it.
2007, the year of Linux? Yeah. And 2008, and 2009, and 2010, and...
I've reached a time in my life where I'm no longer the hardcore gamer I was when growing up. I still play games, but they're more along the lines of online poker, sudoku, or casual game downloads. These can be had for as little as $7 each, and can provide multiple hours of enjoyment. (Disclaimer, I work for a casual game company).
I have 2 kids and work full time, so the available time for gaming is pretty small. When I play, it needs to be something I can drop at a moments notice, as well as pick up at a moments notice. I don't have the time/patience to spend 4 hours learning/playing an RTS, so this works well for me. Likewise, the Wii works very well. I find myself more inclined to buy "social" games that are played with friends/family than buying the $60 game that would have me locked in a room on my own for days at a time.
If you're getting fed up with paying $60 every year for an improved graphics version of the same games you've been playing for years, look into the casual game market. It's something I'd never considered until I started working in the industry, so it may surprise more people than me.
I can get you a power conditioner for your home entertainment center.
One costs $199.00 the other is $3500.00
One is from tripplite, is very nice but economy priced.
When I set up my home theater, they tried to sell me power conditioners, but I've built AC to DC converters from scratch (albeit quite a while ago), and it seems to me that even a very basic one would be able to contain most spikes/troughs on the AC line, at least to the point where it wouldn't have any noticeable impact on sound/picture quality. Am I wrong? Are these things really worth the money?
What happened to it? I've been waiting for years now. The latest update here seems hopeful, but nothing since.. and it was suggesting a release in time for the 25th anniversary..
While I was at the 2005 MysqlUC in Santa Clara, Microsoft put out one of their massive patch releases. Despite a large number of people running OS X or some Linux variant, there were still enough geeks in the hotel running Windows that they essentially DoS'ed the hotel's internet connection for about 2 days. I went down to reception at the time to find out if it was just the wireless, but the front desk people were similarly frustrated (they shared the same connection). Packet loss was at about 99%.
That was probably just a T1 or something, but still, pretty funny. I wonder if Microsoft realises the damage potential..
But of course, our dear leaders have to be willing to pay a miser upfront to avoid paying billions to pharmaceutical companies 10 or 20 years down the line.
You seem to think the government represents the interests of the people. You're wrong. They represent the interests of giant pharmaceutical companies (among others). So, given the choice between paying a small amount up front, or taking taxpayer's money and giving it to their pharmaceutical buddies for 10-20 years, it's a total no-brainer.
You only have to look at the complete lack of regulation in the healthcare insurance industry which leads to anti-competitive, extortionate (and yet still government sanctioned) behaviour to realise that the system is set up to benefit the corporations, not the people. If you susbcribe to the concept of "trickle down" economics, then this makes sense. Of course, anyone with more than 3 functioning braincells realises that "trickle down" ecomomics is a load of steaming horse crap.
I've always considered myself a fairly traditional gamer.. FPS, RTS.. that sort of thing. A year ago, I wouldn't have looked twice at the casual games market.. It's only because I started working at BFG that I did. Perhaps it's a factor of getting older, but a lot of the casual games really scratch an itch for me. They're easy to get into, for one. I don't have the time/patience any more to learn all the intricate details of modern RTS games, for example. I can sit down and play for half an hour.. an hour.. and if something comes up in the real world, I can walk away from it at a moment's notice.
I couldn't be more surprised myself, but I find myself more inclined to play some Sudoku, or Mystery Case Files, or Travelogue 360 than CS, DC, AoE, etc.. these days..
You can find the games I would personally recommend on my game space (Disclaimer: Any games bought through this link will result in 25% of the amount going to charity - if you sign up for your own account, it can go to you instead).
Also, I've seen a few comments on pricing.. Most games are $19.99, but most casual games sites (BFG included) have package deals.. buy x games, get them for $9.99, etc.. Best value, for sure. To be honest, I find it better value than paying $60 for BF2, for example..
It's a huge industry, and you're going to hear a lot more about it over the next few years.
In theory, sure.. In practice, it's a low volume forum and we don't see many signups (other than spam-bots, natch). Certainly not enough that we've ever had someone visit the signup page and then click submit either side of midnight.
It's a quick hack, and I wouldn't recommend using it on a high volume site. I really think that randomizing the field names once is probably enough to stop most scraping bots. There are alternate methods you could employ to make this more user friendly. Use random field names, but pass in an encrypted timestamp allowing, say, 10 minutes to populate the form. Or randomize the field names but make them valid for 10 minutes, etc.
The more people employ strategies like this, the harder it's going to be for the spammers. I think this is one arms race we can actually win, to be honest.
I implemented something like this on a phpBB forum I run. The 'Register' link is linked to a file called 'register.php' which in turn redirects you to Google. This link is hidden using stylesheets. After that, there's a second Register link which goes to a file called 'logout.php' which in turn redirects to the correct registration page.
I also randomized the form field names.. They're all now md5(fieldname+day-year).. which means they change every day at midnight. This should completely block any bot which searches for fieldnames like 'login' and 'password' to populate.
Sadly, this hasn't completely eliminated the spam bots. I found that preventing them from adding a URL to their profile until they've been a member for a set amount of time has helped, as has automatically purging accounts which don't make posts within 48 hours.. but ultimately, a few still get through. As the article says, however, these have to be done manually. There's no way it's an automated bot.. so we're wasting their time. The more people who do that, the better..
It's an interesting point.. Probably the beverage market is big enough that there are several crappy choices which they can sell as generic. It's when you look at much more speciality items like formula and diapers (to pick 2 items which have featured heavily in my life for the last 9 months) that you're getting basically re-branded versions of the real things. This is definitely true for Costco, at least.
Do you really think that every bulk purchasing or cheapo store has their own brand of, say, baby formula? Is it logical that they'd develop and sell their own version of every single generic item in their store? Of course not..
What you're seeing is market segmentation. The companies which make the "branded" formula sell it under their brand at every possible location, and at full price, and then license it out to the people like Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam's Club, etc.. to sell as a generic, at a much lower price. Given the choice between not selling it at all at the full price to a section of the market, and selling it at a lower price, they're going to go for selling it at a lower price every time. You can read an interesting explanation of this technique in the context of software over here.
The same is true for most of the "generic" items you're going to find at these stores. If you can get over the fact that you're not buying the branded item, you can save a boatload of money while not sacrificing quality one iota.
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I don't even get a shopping card from our local supermarket because I don't think it's necessary for them to have my personal information...
I've never given my personal information on one of those "loyalty" cards. When asked for a phone number, I'll typically give 867-5309. I've never, ever had anyone question it.
The polygon is a representation of the range in dotted-quad representation of the network address. For example, 3520957440 to 3520958463 (209.221.140.0 to 209.221.143.255).
The table definition is as follows:
The poly_ip column is generated as follows:
GEOMFROMWKB(POLYGON(LINESTRING(POINT(3520957440, -1), POINT(3520958463, -1), POINT(3520958463, 1), POINT(3520957440, 1), POINT(3520957440, -1))))
Note that we're describing a rectangle here. Doing it on a line doesn't seem to work, hence the -1,1.
If that doesn't help. Feel free to e-mail me to continue this discussion.
I'd suggest looking into the polygon type. This article may be of some use.
The basic idea is that you create a polygon column and create an entry that corresponds to the start/end points for each row in your table, then you can run a query like this:
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE MBRContains(polyfield, POINTFROMWKB(POINT(INET_ATON('1.2.3.4'), 0)));
As a point of reference, the above query runs in my local DB here in 0.02 seconds for any IP I can throw at it.
HTH.
As a native Brit living in America on a green card, I don't like sending payment to the IRS to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Ah, the cycle of life.
Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, has been talking about this problem since 2004. You can read his thoughts on it, and see a letter sent to ICANN in 2004 here.
The point being, they're fully in favour of an end to "tasting" and have been calling for it for ~3 years.
Anyone remember Chaos, on the Speccy? Awesome game. Might have to dig out the emulator some time..
This guy does very funny reviews.. Pretty much hits the nail on the head for Orange Box here..
Way to go, moderators. Did you read the parent post?
Well, I've read this post now. How do I go about deleting it?
AT&T doesn't exist anymore, except in name only. They were purchased by SBC about six(?) months ago. SBC then changed their name to AT&T.
Well, it's not quite that simple.. AT&T Wireless was bought by Cingular which then renamed to AT&T.. and then.. Well, let Stephen Colbert explain it.
I'll tell you what's making it more appealing too. It's these guys. 2 years ago, Linux on the desktop was no more compelling than it was when I first started using Slackware back in the early 90s. Getting simple things like audio and graphics working was still more of a chore than 99% of end users are willing to put up with.
It's still a long way from perfect, but the Ubuntu team are challenging all these things which should be completely hidden from the user so they don't have to know how to modify their X config, write a Modeline, or learn m4 so they can create a sendmail config. They're doing the things which have always been considered "good enough" to the hardcore, but which have prevented mainstream acceptance, and I think that's bloody great.
I recently reinstalled XP on my home machine due to a failed drive. I'd actually forgotten how horrible it was. Things like.. trying to get SP2. You go to Microsoft, and they have a whole 'SP2 is great!' page which extols the virtues of installing it, suggesting that the best way to get it is via Windows update.. So, you go to Windows update, and it says.. "Hey, you need SP2! You should check out this page which explains why it's great, and how to get it!", and links back to the first page. Took me a few hours to figure out how to bypass that one.
Anyway, my point is.. I installed Ubuntu about 3 weeks ago, at my new job. Took about an hour from when I first put the CD in the drive to the point where I had fired up Eclipse and was writing code. It used to be that Linux on the desktop was as much of a pain in the ass as Windows was, but for different reasons. That's not true any more, and it can only get better from here, and I see things accelerating with the Ubuntu team putting so much effort into it.
2007, the year of Linux? Yeah. And 2008, and 2009, and 2010, and...
I've reached a time in my life where I'm no longer the hardcore gamer I was when growing up. I still play games, but they're more along the lines of online poker, sudoku, or casual game downloads. These can be had for as little as $7 each, and can provide multiple hours of enjoyment. (Disclaimer, I work for a casual game company).
I have 2 kids and work full time, so the available time for gaming is pretty small. When I play, it needs to be something I can drop at a moments notice, as well as pick up at a moments notice. I don't have the time/patience to spend 4 hours learning/playing an RTS, so this works well for me. Likewise, the Wii works very well. I find myself more inclined to buy "social" games that are played with friends/family than buying the $60 game that would have me locked in a room on my own for days at a time.
If you're getting fed up with paying $60 every year for an improved graphics version of the same games you've been playing for years, look into the casual game market. It's something I'd never considered until I started working in the industry, so it may surprise more people than me.
When I set up my home theater, they tried to sell me power conditioners, but I've built AC to DC converters from scratch (albeit quite a while ago), and it seems to me that even a very basic one would be able to contain most spikes/troughs on the AC line, at least to the point where it wouldn't have any noticeable impact on sound/picture quality. Am I wrong? Are these things really worth the money?
What happened to it? I've been waiting for years now. The latest update here seems hopeful, but nothing since.. and it was suggesting a release in time for the 25th anniversary..
While I was at the 2005 MysqlUC in Santa Clara, Microsoft put out one of their massive patch releases. Despite a large number of people running OS X or some Linux variant, there were still enough geeks in the hotel running Windows that they essentially DoS'ed the hotel's internet connection for about 2 days. I went down to reception at the time to find out if it was just the wireless, but the front desk people were similarly frustrated (they shared the same connection). Packet loss was at about 99%.
That was probably just a T1 or something, but still, pretty funny. I wonder if Microsoft realises the damage potential..
But of course, our dear leaders have to be willing to pay a miser upfront to avoid paying billions to pharmaceutical companies 10 or 20 years down the line.
You seem to think the government represents the interests of the people. You're wrong. They represent the interests of giant pharmaceutical companies (among others). So, given the choice between paying a small amount up front, or taking taxpayer's money and giving it to their pharmaceutical buddies for 10-20 years, it's a total no-brainer.
You only have to look at the complete lack of regulation in the healthcare insurance industry which leads to anti-competitive, extortionate (and yet still government sanctioned) behaviour to realise that the system is set up to benefit the corporations, not the people. If you susbcribe to the concept of "trickle down" economics, then this makes sense. Of course, anyone with more than 3 functioning braincells realises that "trickle down" ecomomics is a load of steaming horse crap.
HD-DVD DVDA! I can hardly wait.
(Anyone who doesn't know the reference should watch this)
(Disclaimer: I work for Big Fish Games)
I've always considered myself a fairly traditional gamer.. FPS, RTS.. that sort of thing. A year ago, I wouldn't have looked twice at the casual games market.. It's only because I started working at BFG that I did. Perhaps it's a factor of getting older, but a lot of the casual games really scratch an itch for me. They're easy to get into, for one. I don't have the time/patience any more to learn all the intricate details of modern RTS games, for example. I can sit down and play for half an hour.. an hour.. and if something comes up in the real world, I can walk away from it at a moment's notice.
I couldn't be more surprised myself, but I find myself more inclined to play some Sudoku, or Mystery Case Files, or Travelogue 360 than CS, DC, AoE, etc.. these days..
You can find the games I would personally recommend on my game space (Disclaimer: Any games bought through this link will result in 25% of the amount going to charity - if you sign up for your own account, it can go to you instead).
Also, I've seen a few comments on pricing.. Most games are $19.99, but most casual games sites (BFG included) have package deals.. buy x games, get them for $9.99, etc.. Best value, for sure. To be honest, I find it better value than paying $60 for BF2, for example..
It's a huge industry, and you're going to hear a lot more about it over the next few years.
In theory, sure.. In practice, it's a low volume forum and we don't see many signups (other than spam-bots, natch). Certainly not enough that we've ever had someone visit the signup page and then click submit either side of midnight.
It's a quick hack, and I wouldn't recommend using it on a high volume site. I really think that randomizing the field names once is probably enough to stop most scraping bots. There are alternate methods you could employ to make this more user friendly. Use random field names, but pass in an encrypted timestamp allowing, say, 10 minutes to populate the form. Or randomize the field names but make them valid for 10 minutes, etc.
The more people employ strategies like this, the harder it's going to be for the spammers. I think this is one arms race we can actually win, to be honest.
I implemented something like this on a phpBB forum I run. The 'Register' link is linked to a file called 'register.php' which in turn redirects you to Google. This link is hidden using stylesheets. After that, there's a second Register link which goes to a file called 'logout.php' which in turn redirects to the correct registration page.
I also randomized the form field names.. They're all now md5(fieldname+day-year).. which means they change every day at midnight. This should completely block any bot which searches for fieldnames like 'login' and 'password' to populate.
Sadly, this hasn't completely eliminated the spam bots. I found that preventing them from adding a URL to their profile until they've been a member for a set amount of time has helped, as has automatically purging accounts which don't make posts within 48 hours.. but ultimately, a few still get through. As the article says, however, these have to be done manually. There's no way it's an automated bot.. so we're wasting their time. The more people who do that, the better..
Compare their Mission Control center, http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/out_there/mission_ control.php
Errr... is it just me, or do these images look rendered? wtf?
It's an interesting point.. Probably the beverage market is big enough that there are several crappy choices which they can sell as generic. It's when you look at much more speciality items like formula and diapers (to pick 2 items which have featured heavily in my life for the last 9 months) that you're getting basically re-branded versions of the real things. This is definitely true for Costco, at least.
What you're seeing is market segmentation. The companies which make the "branded" formula sell it under their brand at every possible location, and at full price, and then license it out to the people like Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam's Club, etc.. to sell as a generic, at a much lower price. Given the choice between not selling it at all at the full price to a section of the market, and selling it at a lower price, they're going to go for selling it at a lower price every time. You can read an interesting explanation of this technique in the context of software over here.
The same is true for most of the "generic" items you're going to find at these stores. If you can get over the fact that you're not buying the branded item, you can save a boatload of money while not sacrificing quality one iota.
Actually I'm English, but nice try.