Human: it is raining ALICE: Really? It is? Human: look outside ALICE: Sorry my eye is not attached right now. Human: ewww!! ALICE: If you could have any kind of robot what would it be? Human: a ninja death robot that also made hamburgers ALICE: Go on. Human: seriously! ALICE: I am always serious.
Well, I run a MAngband server, and we have a sort of perma-death there. If your player croaks, then he turns into a ghost... which can be revived, or die horribly. It seems like a good balance. The players don't mind too much. It works because hey, they had a chance to avoid perma-death. Most of the time.
Now... about large memory systems... what is the purpose of such a large device? Databases? Image manipulation? Analysis? If the PHB just told you to go out and buy something with more buzzwords, I'm sorry, but that's probably not going to solve whatever problem you have. What would the benefit be of having a single machine, as opposed to an expandable cluster of machines? Besides the cooling and electrical, anyway. If you have a legitimate need for such a large amount of memory in a SINGLE computer, you should definitely consider a Sun workstation or (more appropriately) a brand new Sun server.
RO was my first MMO, and I still miss some aspects of it (now playing FFXI)... RO is the closest to perfect I've experienced, and I've been regaled with tales of EQ, PSO, and all the others till I was bored to tears. It's a GREAT game.
There's more truth to that than you'd think... even though the point was to ridicule the anti-theft point of view.
Most bands make their money from concerts, not CD sales or other merchandise sales. That's the same for small bands like my old band, and large bands like... say... U2. For a big band on tour, imagine this. Ten thousand fans, times ten bucks for a ticket, times two shows per week: That's 200,000 dollars a week. It's the recording labels that publish the CDs that stand to lose from file sharing. That's who gives the bands publicity, most of the time. Most bands get less than 50% of the profit from CD sales, too. So, imagine an insanely popular album sells (in one year) one million copies at $18 per copy, profiting about $6 per disc - that's three million bucks for the band. If they go on a six month tour playing twice a week for ten thousand fans, charging ten bucks... that's 26 weeks X 2 shows/week X 10,000 fans/show X 10 bucks/fan = 5,200,000 dollars -- almost twice as much as they made off CDs. Do you follow? Yeah... CD sales are not the biggest moneymaking venture.
By pirating CDs, you're mostly hurting CD production and publicity. But: Most bands have their CDs for sale at shows and word-of-mouth is better advertising than a plug on MTV.
Not to play devil's advocate or anything! *Ahem* Stealing is wrong all the same.
What was that Nickelodeon game show, where you had to play video games? There were a few good games on that show... and that Mikey on the sidewalk game!
This is pretty much the news-article equivalent of a troll, right?
Okay. Real content. We all know when we break the law. Some choose to do so, and some choose not to break the law. It's not like these anti-copying notices and end user license agreements (EULAs) are written in some foreign language. They're written in English, and distributed with each copy of the game, and even the system. If you want to copy a game, you know whether it's legal. "Desired by the manufacturer" and "Legal" are NOT THE SAME. If you do something that makes the manufacturer frown, boo hoo. If you do something illegal, shame on you. Illegal things are illegal whether you get caught or not, and copying some software you don't own and distributing it *against its EULA* is in fact illegal.
It is legal to make something that works like something else. Suppose you wanted to make your own blenders, and sell them. Go ahead. You can do that. However, you may need to work around existing patents when it comes to the gray areas where our patent system doesn't know how to deal properly with electronics and software. From what I've seen, all that's been patented is hardware that does this and that, not software algorithms to do the same thing. Making an emulator is not a crime, right? Well, if you make it for the purpose of stealing money from the emulatee, that's obviously wrong. But I don't think that's the idea behind most emulators. I think the crew made ZSNES (for example) for a fun project, and also so they could play their games on their computers instead of on the television.
I think it's already been established that downloading copyrighted material without an agreement between yourself and the owner of the material is illegal.
Why write more inflamatory articles about it? Just to have all the discussion massage the old ego? "Oh, look, I wrote and 100,000 people talked about it! I am the MAN!!!"
Can we please not encourage these authors to write what's already been written?
Oh, definitely. I don't have a problem selling a Belkin pre-N part to someone, because they merit special attention due to their good features, but I do have a problem with the literature distributed with them. I also have reservations about Belkin parts:-\
We just started carrying these at Staples. At least, the store I work at carries them now. They're still in a special shipper with propa^H^H^H^H^Hinformational brochures attached so everyone can ogle their new improved protocol details, which is not clearly marked as something not yet finalized...
As owner of a.net domain, I do not greet this news with the warmth and happiness they might have expected.
I already pay a reasonable fee for my domain! Why is it absolutely necessary that I pay ANOTHER fee for it?
I sincerely hope that they do not impose such a tax on my desire to provide a free resource for people seeking information. All I wanted was a cost-effective way to share with other people, and transfer files between laboratories and my computer.
This move will make a lot of people have second thoughts about providing their valuable resources. I need resources to do my work, and those resources I need are in small enough supply already. Folks... Are you prepared to force the world to lose unique and precious information just to make a quick few bucks for you and your buddies?
I hope they also got a good deal on rubber and uranium from the trade. Maybe after their envoys have created such a good relationship, the two companies will unite in an alliance to smite down the Ottoman Empire, too.
Perhaps if you stopped posting as an AC, that would be more obvious. What makes you assume that I AM American? Am I? But, regardless, Sharpie is sold around the world, and is the standard for writing on CDs pretty much everywhere. I have a hard time believing that you've never at least heard of them. The same people also make Expo if I recall correctly, perhaps you use those instead?
What is a "terrestrial/BS/CS110 digital tuner" and what makes it so special? The first term is Terrestrial, and I know that means over-the-air. Also sometimes satellite, but I don't think so in this case. What about "BS" or "CS110" though? Does it/can it double as a digital cable box, so I don't have to buy one from the cable company?
DVD drives are too inexpensive for the tired (and increasingly expensive) old argument of "Oh, I don't need to upgrade, my 16X CD drive works just fine. Eight or nine CDs is fine". Seriously, you can get a 16X DVD-ROM drive at Staples (AT STAPLES FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!) for $45. And that's not a sale price, folks. If your system is of high enough caliber to run these games, it should have either come with a DVD drive, or you should have bought one when you built it. A combo DVD-ROM/CDRW drive shouldn't run you over $60. (It will at Staples, though.) I paid that for one over a year ago.
It's time to upgrade now if you haven't yet. Just imagine. No more "Oh, I HAVE to buy the CD version because I was too cheap awhile back." Instead, you'll be saying: "Sweet, my first DVD is Half-Life 2!" And soon enough you'll be saying, "Whoa, my computer monitor is far better for watching DVDs than my 19 inch Walmart special television!"
As far as media longevity, I have this to say. Stop storing your media outside the proper cases! If you've got a problem with piles of discs lying around, then get cases, and a shelf or box for your cases to sit in, and keep that by/on/under your computer desk. Don't use those awful sleeves or books for storage, either, because they contact the disc surface. If you don't think it matters, why is there an ISO standard (18925) for disc storage? There is no difference between the media's protective surface in either technology, so they are equally easy to scratch, break and gouge. If your drive can't read a scratched disc, then your drive is bad. I have DVDs that are as old as purchasable DVDs can be, and they have not degraded one bit due to age.
Who wants to go to the store, and have to buy the CD version because the DVD version is sold out and nobody thus far has purchased the CD version? Not me. It's almost happened.
Remember floppies? Must we go through the same thing again? Please insert Disc 6 to continue!
I don't know who told you that, but there haven't been any differences that a gamer would care about between ATI's and NVidia's offerings since the Radeon 9200/GeForce 5200 series a few years ago.
If you're in the market, my advice would be to check reviews on cards in your price range from both brands, from multiple sources. You just can't trust an NVidia or ATI fanboy to provide accurate data, so the only way to get that is to read around.
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Human: it is raining
ALICE: Really? It is?
Human: look outside
ALICE: Sorry my eye is not attached right now.
Human: ewww!!
ALICE: If you could have any kind of robot what would it be?
Human: a ninja death robot that also made hamburgers
ALICE: Go on.
Human: seriously!
ALICE: I am always serious.
Welll.... we use the @ symbol to represent a player, so it's fairly common to get the terminology confused (oops)
Well, I run a MAngband server, and we have a sort of perma-death there. If your player croaks, then he turns into a ghost... which can be revived, or die horribly. It seems like a good balance. The players don't mind too much. It works because hey, they had a chance to avoid perma-death. Most of the time.
While this is a nice device, it's still bottlenecked by the PCI bus. Notice the speed on the specifications page - a true SATA drive can achieve this, and Ultra320 SCSI can shame it as long as you get a 64-bit PCI or PCI-X controller (like http://www1.shopping.com/xPF-IBM_ULTRA320_SCSI_CTR LR_2, although I suggest Adaptec instead of IBM). See http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/ultra320/faq.html for info on Ultra320. You get a lot more storage for the buck here. It's not solid-state, but a 73GB drive (15k RPM) -- see http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200209/20020 901ST373453LW_1.html -- can be had for under a grand.
Now... about large memory systems... what is the purpose of such a large device? Databases? Image manipulation? Analysis? If the PHB just told you to go out and buy something with more buzzwords, I'm sorry, but that's probably not going to solve whatever problem you have. What would the benefit be of having a single machine, as opposed to an expandable cluster of machines? Besides the cooling and electrical, anyway. If you have a legitimate need for such a large amount of memory in a SINGLE computer, you should definitely consider a Sun workstation or (more appropriately) a brand new Sun server.
RO was my first MMO, and I still miss some aspects of it (now playing FFXI) ... RO is the closest to perfect I've experienced, and I've been regaled with tales of EQ, PSO, and all the others till I was bored to tears. It's a GREAT game.
I second that! Game companies, don't forget about New York City! Another two viable locations: Atlanta, GA and Chicago, IL.
(Do they even read this though?)
Hmmm. Any idea how they will be enumerated then?
Will core 1 be CPU 0 and 1, or CPU 0 and 2?
There's more truth to that than you'd think... even though the point was to ridicule the anti-theft point of view.
... say... U2. For a big band on tour, imagine this. Ten thousand fans, times ten bucks for a ticket, times two shows per week: That's 200,000 dollars a week. It's the recording labels that publish the CDs that stand to lose from file sharing. That's who gives the bands publicity, most of the time. Most bands get less than 50% of the profit from CD sales, too. So, imagine an insanely popular album sells (in one year) one million copies at $18 per copy, profiting about $6 per disc - that's three million bucks for the band. If they go on a six month tour playing twice a week for ten thousand fans, charging ten bucks... that's 26 weeks X 2 shows/week X 10,000 fans/show X 10 bucks/fan = 5,200,000 dollars -- almost twice as much as they made off CDs. Do you follow? Yeah... CD sales are not the biggest moneymaking venture.
Most bands make their money from concerts, not CD sales or other merchandise sales. That's the same for small bands like my old band, and large bands like
By pirating CDs, you're mostly hurting CD production and publicity. But: Most bands have their CDs for sale at shows and word-of-mouth is better advertising than a plug on MTV.
Not to play devil's advocate or anything! *Ahem* Stealing is wrong all the same.
What was that Nickelodeon game show, where you had to play video games? There were a few good games on that show... and that Mikey on the sidewalk game!
Umm.. that's not off-topic. It's informational discussion on the phones that the article is about.
Dang it, no moderation points.
This is pretty much the news-article equivalent of a troll, right?
Okay. Real content. We all know when we break the law. Some choose to do so, and some choose not to break the law. It's not like these anti-copying notices and end user license agreements (EULAs) are written in some foreign language. They're written in English, and distributed with each copy of the game, and even the system. If you want to copy a game, you know whether it's legal. "Desired by the manufacturer" and "Legal" are NOT THE SAME. If you do something that makes the manufacturer frown, boo hoo. If you do something illegal, shame on you. Illegal things are illegal whether you get caught or not, and copying some software you don't own and distributing it *against its EULA* is in fact illegal.
It is legal to make something that works like something else. Suppose you wanted to make your own blenders, and sell them. Go ahead. You can do that. However, you may need to work around existing patents when it comes to the gray areas where our patent system doesn't know how to deal properly with electronics and software. From what I've seen, all that's been patented is hardware that does this and that, not software algorithms to do the same thing. Making an emulator is not a crime, right? Well, if you make it for the purpose of stealing money from the emulatee, that's obviously wrong. But I don't think that's the idea behind most emulators. I think the crew made ZSNES (for example) for a fun project, and also so they could play their games on their computers instead of on the television.
I think it's already been established that downloading copyrighted material without an agreement between yourself and the owner of the material is illegal.
Why write more inflamatory articles about it? Just to have all the discussion massage the old ego? "Oh, look, I wrote and 100,000 people talked about it! I am the MAN!!!"
Can we please not encourage these authors to write what's already been written?
It's a joke, son! Don'tcha get it?
(mumbles aside) I say, that boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball.
Oh, definitely. I don't have a problem selling a Belkin pre-N part to someone, because they merit special attention due to their good features, but I do have a problem with the literature distributed with them. I also have reservations about Belkin parts :-\
We just started carrying these at Staples. At least, the store I work at carries them now. They're still in a special shipper with propa^H^H^H^H^Hinformational brochures attached so everyone can ogle their new improved protocol details, which is not clearly marked as something not yet finalized...
As owner of a .net domain, I do not greet this news with the warmth and happiness they might have expected.
.net = network resource?
I already pay a reasonable fee for my domain! Why is it absolutely necessary that I pay ANOTHER fee for it?
I sincerely hope that they do not impose such a tax on my desire to provide a free resource for people seeking information. All I wanted was a cost-effective way to share with other people, and transfer files between laboratories and my computer.
This move will make a lot of people have second thoughts about providing their valuable resources. I need resources to do my work, and those resources I need are in small enough supply already. Folks... Are you prepared to force the world to lose unique and precious information just to make a quick few bucks for you and your buddies?
Have we forgotten that
I hope they also got a good deal on rubber and uranium from the trade. Maybe after their envoys have created such a good relationship, the two companies will unite in an alliance to smite down the Ottoman Empire, too.
Perhaps if you stopped posting as an AC, that would be more obvious. What makes you assume that I AM American? Am I? But, regardless, Sharpie is sold around the world, and is the standard for writing on CDs pretty much everywhere. I have a hard time believing that you've never at least heard of them. The same people also make Expo if I recall correctly, perhaps you use those instead?
Sharpie "pen" = felt tip permanent marker. It's not technically a pen and shouldn't be called one, but local vernacular works that way in some areas.
How the heck could you know what to use, but not know what a Sharpie is?
Yes, the drive can read AND write the standard DVD format. It's in the article.
What is a "terrestrial/BS/CS110 digital tuner" and what makes it so special? The first term is Terrestrial, and I know that means over-the-air. Also sometimes satellite, but I don't think so in this case. What about "BS" or "CS110" though? Does it/can it double as a digital cable box, so I don't have to buy one from the cable company?
Who wants to write/alter a language to use "Ain't" instead, and patent THAT? (evil grin)
DVD drives are too inexpensive for the tired (and increasingly expensive) old argument of "Oh, I don't need to upgrade, my 16X CD drive works just fine. Eight or nine CDs is fine". Seriously, you can get a 16X DVD-ROM drive at Staples (AT STAPLES FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!) for $45. And that's not a sale price, folks. If your system is of high enough caliber to run these games, it should have either come with a DVD drive, or you should have bought one when you built it. A combo DVD-ROM/CDRW drive shouldn't run you over $60. (It will at Staples, though.) I paid that for one over a year ago.
It's time to upgrade now if you haven't yet. Just imagine. No more "Oh, I HAVE to buy the CD version because I was too cheap awhile back." Instead, you'll be saying: "Sweet, my first DVD is Half-Life 2!" And soon enough you'll be saying, "Whoa, my computer monitor is far better for watching DVDs than my 19 inch Walmart special television!"
As far as media longevity, I have this to say. Stop storing your media outside the proper cases! If you've got a problem with piles of discs lying around, then get cases, and a shelf or box for your cases to sit in, and keep that by/on/under your computer desk. Don't use those awful sleeves or books for storage, either, because they contact the disc surface. If you don't think it matters, why is there an ISO standard (18925) for disc storage? There is no difference between the media's protective surface in either technology, so they are equally easy to scratch, break and gouge. If your drive can't read a scratched disc, then your drive is bad. I have DVDs that are as old as purchasable DVDs can be, and they have not degraded one bit due to age.
Who wants to go to the store, and have to buy the CD version because the DVD version is sold out and nobody thus far has purchased the CD version? Not me. It's almost happened.
Remember floppies? Must we go through the same thing again? Please insert Disc 6 to continue!
I don't know who told you that, but there haven't been any differences that a gamer would care about between ATI's and NVidia's offerings since the Radeon 9200/GeForce 5200 series a few years ago.
If you're in the market, my advice would be to check reviews on cards in your price range from both brands, from multiple sources. You just can't trust an NVidia or ATI fanboy to provide accurate data, so the only way to get that is to read around.
The designers figured nobody would be able to handle that much evil, all at once.
Don't forget the keyboard shortcut: Apple-E