Currently, I'm using SageTV [www.sage.tv] It's a PC based DVR software package. With it, I can currently;
- Record two standard def stations, and a high def station at the same time while watching a fourth video of any type. (Obviously, this requires having two tuners and an HDTV tuner.) - Record standard TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, or just about any other format. This makes it easier to make VCDs, DVDs, or just play the program back on a standard PC. - Playback using Dscalar to deinterlace the video. - Play DVDs - Play DivX - Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons) - Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee. - Play and manage my MP3 library (I think you can do ogg, ape, etc. with some tweaks to the config) - Stream video and audio to another PC over my LAN.
I'm sure I'm missing much more. This thing does way more than any tivo, even a hacked tivo, and it's constantly being expanded. It surpasses TiVo and ReplyTV in every way. I've even found it to be more flexible than MythTV and Showstopper (though they do have a few benefits in some areas.)
I think that the idea of artificially enhancing ourselves with technology is the right approach, but the BORG technique of implanting high-tech computerized devices seems the wrong approach. Basically, this would open up our very bodies to hackers. By now we should all be aware how very difficult a problem computer security is. Personally I feel that computers and networks can never be made secure, and thus we should stop trying. Just imagine the inevitable result when some black-hat cracker breaks through the encryption protecting your enhanced liver, and proceeds to turn it into 'reverse', whereby it spews toxins into your bloodstream? Compound this with the fact that probably our bodies will be running Microsoft operating systems, and you see why this is the wrong approach.
The correct way to enhance ourselves is the technique outlined by Science Fiction Author Larry Niven. In variou Niven novels and short stories, the characters can live for hundreds of years by means of organ banks. If you lose an arm, use nanotechnology to put on a new arm. Of course, this will require two developments: improved nanotechnology, and the development of organ banks for all body parts. Probably this will lead to the death penalty becoming the standard punishmnent for every minor crime, so as to keep the organ banks full of fresh organs, allowing rich people to live forever at the expense of everybody else.
I hope this happens within my lifetime, as it is a Utopian scenario indeed.
Yet at the same time you CAN play 'small scale' in a full blown MMORPG.
While I played EQ I knew plenty of people who never wanted to go over lvl 45 and spent YEARS in the game doing nothing but roleplaying, hanging out with friends, etc.
It didn't fail due to market saturation at all. I wish they listed the number of people who tried the free trial of Evertide but didn't sign up. I personaly know 8 people (including myself) who tried RoE and canceled within 5 days.
We're all MMORPG veterans, we've all loved the genre, we all played EQ and DAoC till we 'exausted' those games (reached max lvl, had uber gear etc). We were starved for something new. (SWG is a joke. There is nothing to achieve in that game)
RoE failed simply because it sucks and nobody signed up after their trail. (Believe me a LOT of people tried it, the noob area was packed.
Having played RoE I am not one bit surprised that nobody signed up for the game after the trial. Here's why:
The game felt like a MMORPG aimed at the bargin bins of Walmart.
The graphics are horrid. By that I do not just mean the visual quality, which does suck pretty bad. Bad graphics are nothing new to Everquest or DAoC. No it's much worse, the game has NO sense of scale. For example you will find a castle and a warrior about 20% taller than the 'caste' door standing next to it. Walking into the said 'castle' puts you into a MUCH larger area than it looked from the outside.
The characters are not drawn anatomicaly correct. Humans have HUGE feet, all the faces are hideous etc.
Pretty bad so far, but good gameplay and enviroments could save it right?
Sadly the game has neither. The enviroment is a joke, mostly level terrain with a few shrugs here and there. It's more borring than South Ro in EQ (It's a frickign desert. But it has hills..)
Gameplay? Don't make me laugh. Combat is turn based. A first for MMORPGs, but its' also tediously dull and your control of it is very very limited. In a two words. "Not Fun". Combat needs to be fun. Say what you will but EQ combat WAS fun (unless you soloed..than it was thrilling)
Group play? Ha. You wish. You can't find groups. Half the people I found online either couldn't play or didn't want to group.
Fact is..the game just sucks. The market isn't saturated. This is just another Neocron or Mimisis headed to the MMORPG graveyard.
It is interesting, because when it all comes down to it, the "good guys" are hurt due to restrictions, and the "bad guys" always end up pirating, etc. I am not sure there really is an answer as to how to protect information 100% without it both hurting the consumer and being crackable by a cracker. Of course, the governments can keep passing laws that make reverse engineering illegal, etc, but again, that's just going to scare the average Joe much more than it would scare someone who really wants to crack a DRM transmission. Only time will tell where the DRM issue ends up.
Linus can ASK the world to do something, but if they don't like the way he's thinking, they won't do it. Linus controls the world as long as the world likes the orders. So in a sense he's just a way to focus the desires of the majority of developers.
Gates on the other hand can ORDER everyone in his employ to jump around and shout "I'm a little idiot!" and they'll have to do it wether they like it or not. Thats a huge difference. Gates has the world as his playground.
Having done over 110 in a RL car many many many times I am here to say : You're not missing much.
The whole point is ZERO RISK in a game. HUGE risk in RL. Taking a car over 110 in RL is NOT fun. It's THRILLING. Games are FUN. It can be somewhat thrilling, but worrying about getting the best time is not the same as worrying about cops, and managing to stay on the road.
It's common place for a company to produce many products and for some to lose money but the company to come out with a profit thanks to the other products.
By getting rid of the "losers" the company can raise profits by doing "less"
Well what would be a better one? This:
"Say you're walking down the street and somebody tells you that your shoe laces are untied and your stupid ass is likely to fall on your face and with your luck right into something a dog did and your stupid ass tries to sue them for it instead of tying your damn shoe laces!"
That better?
For some odd reason the formating didn't paste into Slashdot...odd
I have always been a frequent visitor of Gamespy websites, be it the Gamespy site itself or the Planet sites, I've also been a long time FilePlanet subscribed. Yet this will cease to be the case forever now that I have been made aware of your recent C&D letter to a security researcher who was trying to help you fix the flaws in your software.
I'm outraged at your response for numerous reasons.
First of all I would have thought that a company such as GameSpy is well aware of the issues of today and would find a document such as the DMCA to disagree with their views and those of its customers. I like many if not most of your customers feel that the DMCA is a troubled and over reaching document that limits user rights, threaten research and lowers the need for true progress in the field of security.
Second, I am disgusted by your handling of security issues. If there are problems in your software then the way to fix them is with patches - not C&D letters. I would have expected GameSpy, a news site, to know that not once in the history of the DMCA has a C&D letter or even a full lawsuit ever fixed a security hole. Why attack the messenger?
And finally I am baffled by the fact that the person you have sent a C&D letter to has in fact notified you of the holes and means to fix them before posting them online. I do not see how suing somebody who has just done some valuable QA for you is justified. It's just absurd!
Imagine this, you are driving down the street in your car when all of a sudden the car behind you starts flashing your lights to get your attention, then pulls up to you and tells you that you're leaking gas. You instead of thanking the driver for making you aware of the risk you are under threaten him with a lawsuit because now that your gas leak has been noticed, somebody may light it.
This is what's happening now. You are attacking somebody who helped you. You are trying to keep your software secure by hiding its flaws. It's the same as the car with the gas leak; no matter how you hide it, it's still there and a spark can make it all blow up in your face.
Having said that, I will no longer be a customer of GameSpy, I will no longer visit any GameSpy affiliated site and I will contact every developer who promotes GameSpy services with their games to suggest using other services until some sort of public apology is offered to Luigi Auriemma.
I have always been a frequent visitor of Gamespy websites, be it the Gamespy site itself or the Planet sites, I've also been a long time FilePlanet subscriber. Yet this will cease to be the case forever now that I have been made aware of your recent C&D letter to a security researcher who was trying to help you fix the flaws in your software.
I'm outraged at your response for numerous reasons.
First of all I would have thought that a company such as GameSpy is well aware of the issues of today and would find a document such as the DMCA to disagree with their views and those of its customers. I like many if not most of your customers feel that the DMCA is a troubled and over reaching document that limits user rights, threaten research and lowers the need for true progress in the field of security.
Second, I am disgusted by your handling of security issues. If there are problems in your software then the way to fix them is with patches - not C&D letters. I would have expected GameSpy, a news site, to know that not once in the history of the DMCA has a C&D letter or even a full lawsuit ever fixed a security hole. Why attack the messenger?
And finally I am baffled by the fact that the person you have sent a C&D letter to has in fact notified you of the holes and means to fix them before posting them online. I do not see how suing somebody who has just done some valuable QA for you is justified. It's just absurd!
Imagine this, you are driving down the street in your car when all of a sudden the car behind you starts flashing your lights to get your attention, then pulls up to you and tells you that you're leaking gas. You instead of thanking the driver for making you aware of the risk you are under threaten him with a lawsuit because now that your gas leak has been noticed, somebody may light it.
This is what's happening now. You are attacking somebody who helped you. You are trying to keep your software secure by hiding its flaws. It's the same as the car with the gas leak; no matter how you hide it, it's still there and a spark can make it all blow up in your face.
Having said that, I will no longer be a customer of GameSpy, I will no longer visit any GameSpy affiliated site and I will contact every developer who promotes GameSpy services with their games to suggest using other services until some sort of public apology is offered to Luigi Auriemma.
Sincerley yours,
Frankly I think it's worth it. I almost see it as a "montly" subscription to using an OS. It came with the Mac and every year you shell out $129 to keep using the latest and greatest version.
Mac OS is steadily improving and improvment costs money.
I almost feel like it's payment for a MMORPG where new content is release all the time in the form of patches and free additional features.
Gamespot also has a report on the PSP, as well as the listing of the PSP's specs.
http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6078 174.html
Woo! Lithium ion battery! I guess the days of having battery eating handheld systems are finally gone. But 'regional code system'? Uh oh.. 'Shock proof'? I don't think they understand the kind of stress gamers put their handhelds' through.. 'Expansion port'!? Uh oh, this means they'll end up releasing some kind of add-on(s) in the future. Maybe a mini-hard drive?
Based on the specs, Nintendo is gonna have a run for its money, but I'm not laying any bets down until I see the games and play them myself.
But then google is also starting to suck. People are learning how to cheat their page ranking system, more and more "trap" sites exist which do nothing but link to a central site while also linking to each other. (For example, try finding jewlery sites - at least 30% of the responses will be fake sites that point to ONE site.)
Sure Google isn't "dead" and it's not "dying" but it's certainly becoming more vulnerable to abuse and less accurate than it once was.
With the millions that MS has to invest in an engine it's likley that they'll be able to provide just slighly better results than Google and use the "default page", "page not found" etc traps to promote their seach engine.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes,
There are plenty of guides on how to use different types of remotes and IR controllers on the Sage TV message board
Currently, I'm using SageTV [www.sage.tv] It's a PC based DVR software package. With it, I can currently;
- Record two standard def stations, and a high def station at the same time while watching a fourth video of any type. (Obviously, this requires having two tuners and an HDTV tuner.)
- Record standard TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-1, or just about any other format. This makes it easier to make VCDs, DVDs, or just play the program back on a standard PC.
- Playback using Dscalar to deinterlace the video.
- Play DVDs
- Play DivX
- Record shows as favorites (just like season passes) or let SageTV record things based on my past viewing habits (much like tivo's suggestions only I don't have to bother with thumbs up and down buttons)
- Do all of the above with an integrated schedule, which is free. No need to pay a monthly fee.
- Play and manage my MP3 library (I think you can do ogg, ape, etc. with some tweaks to the config)
- Stream video and audio to another PC over my LAN.
I'm sure I'm missing much more. This thing does way more than any tivo, even a hacked tivo, and it's constantly being expanded. It surpasses TiVo and ReplyTV in every way. I've even found it to be more flexible than MythTV and Showstopper (though they do have a few benefits in some areas.)
Actualy...
Alaska is the largest state.
No...
That was "Burt Siena" and they're not discontinuing it.
I think that the idea of artificially enhancing ourselves with technology is the right approach, but the BORG technique of implanting high-tech computerized devices seems the wrong approach. Basically, this would open up our very bodies to hackers. By now we should all be aware how very difficult a problem computer security is. Personally I feel that computers and networks can never be made secure, and thus we should stop trying. Just imagine the inevitable result when some black-hat cracker breaks through the encryption protecting your enhanced liver, and proceeds to turn it into 'reverse', whereby it spews toxins into your bloodstream? Compound this with the fact that probably our bodies will be running Microsoft operating systems, and you see why this is the wrong approach.
The correct way to enhance ourselves is the technique outlined by Science Fiction Author Larry Niven. In variou Niven novels and short stories, the characters can live for hundreds of years by means of organ banks. If you lose an arm, use nanotechnology to put on a new arm. Of course, this will require two developments: improved nanotechnology, and the development of organ banks for all body parts. Probably this will lead to the death penalty becoming the standard punishmnent for every minor crime, so as to keep the organ banks full of fresh organs, allowing rich people to live forever at the expense of everybody else.
I hope this happens within my lifetime, as it is a Utopian scenario indeed.
Ah..but that's the catch.
You can't really make a small scale MMORPG.
Yet at the same time you CAN play 'small scale' in a full blown MMORPG.
While I played EQ I knew plenty of people who never wanted to go over lvl 45 and spent YEARS in the game doing nothing but roleplaying, hanging out with friends, etc.
It didn't fail due to market saturation at all. I wish they listed the number of people who tried the free trial of Evertide but didn't sign up. I personaly know 8 people (including myself) who tried RoE and canceled within 5 days.
We're all MMORPG veterans, we've all loved the genre, we all played EQ and DAoC till we 'exausted' those games (reached max lvl, had uber gear etc). We were starved for something new. (SWG is a joke. There is nothing to achieve in that game)
RoE failed simply because it sucks and nobody signed up after their trail. (Believe me a LOT of people tried it, the noob area was packed.
Having played RoE I am not one bit surprised that nobody signed up for the game after the trial. Here's why:
The game felt like a MMORPG aimed at the bargin bins of Walmart.
The graphics are horrid. By that I do not just mean the visual quality, which does suck pretty bad. Bad graphics are nothing new to Everquest or DAoC. No it's much worse, the game has NO sense of scale. For example you will find a castle and a warrior about 20% taller than the 'caste' door standing next to it. Walking into the said 'castle' puts you into a MUCH larger area than it looked from the outside.
The characters are not drawn anatomicaly correct. Humans have HUGE feet, all the faces are hideous etc.
Pretty bad so far, but good gameplay and enviroments could save it right?
Sadly the game has neither. The enviroment is a joke, mostly level terrain with a few shrugs here and there. It's more borring than South Ro in EQ (It's a frickign desert. But it has hills..)
Gameplay? Don't make me laugh. Combat is turn based. A first for MMORPGs, but its' also tediously dull and your control of it is very very limited. In a two words. "Not Fun". Combat needs to be fun. Say what you will but EQ combat WAS fun (unless you soloed..than it was thrilling)
Group play? Ha. You wish. You can't find groups. Half the people I found online either couldn't play or didn't want to group.
Fact is..the game just sucks. The market isn't saturated. This is just another Neocron or Mimisis headed to the MMORPG graveyard.
It is interesting, because when it all comes down to it, the "good guys" are hurt due to restrictions, and the "bad guys" always end up pirating, etc. I am not sure there really is an answer as to how to protect information 100% without it both hurting the consumer and being crackable by a cracker. Of course, the governments can keep passing laws that make reverse engineering illegal, etc, but again, that's just going to scare the average Joe much more than it would scare someone who really wants to crack a DRM transmission. Only time will tell where the DRM issue ends up.
But there is a huge difference.
Linus can ASK the world to do something, but if they don't like the way he's thinking, they won't do it. Linus controls the world as long as the world likes the orders. So in a sense he's just a way to focus the desires of the majority of developers.
Gates on the other hand can ORDER everyone in his employ to jump around and shout "I'm a little idiot!" and they'll have to do it wether they like it or not. Thats a huge difference. Gates has the world as his playground.
Doesn't this seem of limited use?
I mean if it only encrypts for other cellphones of it's type on it's network the usability is rather limited.
You might as well use encrypted walkie talkies, it's not too different when you think about it.
Having done over 110 in a RL car many many many times I am here to say : You're not missing much.
The whole point is ZERO RISK in a game. HUGE risk in RL. Taking a car over 110 in RL is NOT fun. It's THRILLING. Games are FUN. It can be somewhat thrilling, but worrying about getting the best time is not the same as worrying about cops, and managing to stay on the road.
"Slashdot has covered TMDC before"...
And nobody cared then....nobody cares now.
First post please?
Thank you.
Cool game yes.
Why don't they make maps like that of say the telephone network?
That'd be very interesting to see with very similar benifits.
Why bother with Amazon? It's $8 on Half.com
The Scar on Half.com
A product losing money!= company losing money.
It's common place for a company to produce many products and for some to lose money but the company to come out with a profit thanks to the other products.
By getting rid of the "losers" the company can raise profits by doing "less"
Because it was loosing money. Next.
I thought that was obvious from the start...
Above is karma whoring troll...SirHaxalot..
Well what would be a better one? This: "Say you're walking down the street and somebody tells you that your shoe laces are untied and your stupid ass is likely to fall on your face and with your luck right into something a dog did and your stupid ass tries to sue them for it instead of tying your damn shoe laces!" That better?
For some odd reason the formating didn't paste into Slashdot...odd
I have always been a frequent visitor of Gamespy websites, be it the Gamespy site itself or the Planet sites, I've also been a long time FilePlanet subscribed. Yet this will cease to be the case forever now that I have been made aware of your recent C&D letter to a security researcher who was trying to help you fix the flaws in your software.
I'm outraged at your response for numerous reasons.
First of all I would have thought that a company such as GameSpy is well aware of the issues of today and would find a document such as the DMCA to disagree with their views and those of its customers. I like many if not most of your customers feel that the DMCA is a troubled and over reaching document that limits user rights, threaten research and lowers the need for true progress in the field of security.
Second, I am disgusted by your handling of security issues. If there are problems in your software then the way to fix them is with patches - not C&D letters. I would have expected GameSpy, a news site, to know that not once in the history of the DMCA has a C&D letter or even a full lawsuit ever fixed a security hole. Why attack the messenger?
And finally I am baffled by the fact that the person you have sent a C&D letter to has in fact notified you of the holes and means to fix them before posting them online. I do not see how suing somebody who has just done some valuable QA for you is justified. It's just absurd!
Imagine this, you are driving down the street in your car when all of a sudden the car behind you starts flashing your lights to get your attention, then pulls up to you and tells you that you're leaking gas. You instead of thanking the driver for making you aware of the risk you are under threaten him with a lawsuit because now that your gas leak has been noticed, somebody may light it.
This is what's happening now. You are attacking somebody who helped you. You are trying to keep your software secure by hiding its flaws. It's the same as the car with the gas leak; no matter how you hide it, it's still there and a spark can make it all blow up in your face.
Having said that, I will no longer be a customer of GameSpy, I will no longer visit any GameSpy affiliated site and I will contact every developer who promotes GameSpy services with their games to suggest using other services until some sort of public apology is offered to Luigi Auriemma.
Sincerley yours,
I have always been a frequent visitor of Gamespy websites, be it the Gamespy site itself or the Planet sites, I've also been a long time FilePlanet subscriber. Yet this will cease to be the case forever now that I have been made aware of your recent C&D letter to a security researcher who was trying to help you fix the flaws in your software. I'm outraged at your response for numerous reasons. First of all I would have thought that a company such as GameSpy is well aware of the issues of today and would find a document such as the DMCA to disagree with their views and those of its customers. I like many if not most of your customers feel that the DMCA is a troubled and over reaching document that limits user rights, threaten research and lowers the need for true progress in the field of security. Second, I am disgusted by your handling of security issues. If there are problems in your software then the way to fix them is with patches - not C&D letters. I would have expected GameSpy, a news site, to know that not once in the history of the DMCA has a C&D letter or even a full lawsuit ever fixed a security hole. Why attack the messenger? And finally I am baffled by the fact that the person you have sent a C&D letter to has in fact notified you of the holes and means to fix them before posting them online. I do not see how suing somebody who has just done some valuable QA for you is justified. It's just absurd! Imagine this, you are driving down the street in your car when all of a sudden the car behind you starts flashing your lights to get your attention, then pulls up to you and tells you that you're leaking gas. You instead of thanking the driver for making you aware of the risk you are under threaten him with a lawsuit because now that your gas leak has been noticed, somebody may light it. This is what's happening now. You are attacking somebody who helped you. You are trying to keep your software secure by hiding its flaws. It's the same as the car with the gas leak; no matter how you hide it, it's still there and a spark can make it all blow up in your face. Having said that, I will no longer be a customer of GameSpy, I will no longer visit any GameSpy affiliated site and I will contact every developer who promotes GameSpy services with their games to suggest using other services until some sort of public apology is offered to Luigi Auriemma. Sincerley yours,
Frankly I think it's worth it. I almost see it as a "montly" subscription to using an OS. It came with the Mac and every year you shell out $129 to keep using the latest and greatest version. Mac OS is steadily improving and improvment costs money. I almost feel like it's payment for a MMORPG where new content is release all the time in the form of patches and free additional features.
Gamespot also has a report on the PSP, as well as the listing of the PSP's specs. http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6078 174.html Woo! Lithium ion battery! I guess the days of having battery eating handheld systems are finally gone. But 'regional code system'? Uh oh.. 'Shock proof'? I don't think they understand the kind of stress gamers put their handhelds' through.. 'Expansion port'!? Uh oh, this means they'll end up releasing some kind of add-on(s) in the future. Maybe a mini-hard drive? Based on the specs, Nintendo is gonna have a run for its money, but I'm not laying any bets down until I see the games and play them myself.
But then google is also starting to suck. People are learning how to cheat their page ranking system, more and more "trap" sites exist which do nothing but link to a central site while also linking to each other. (For example, try finding jewlery sites - at least 30% of the responses will be fake sites that point to ONE site.) Sure Google isn't "dead" and it's not "dying" but it's certainly becoming more vulnerable to abuse and less accurate than it once was. With the millions that MS has to invest in an engine it's likley that they'll be able to provide just slighly better results than Google and use the "default page", "page not found" etc traps to promote their seach engine.
There was also a time once when people said "But does anyone use anything but Netscape nowdays anyway?"