So if my character name, "Phaltran Pogammon," is on a gravestone in Skara Brae in Ultima VII, does that mean EA now owns my character name and I no longer have the right to use it?
Guess I'll get the GMs in WoW to change it to "Phuquea" (phuq you EA)
I'm sure someone with more time to research than I will come up with this answer, but what is the limitation of IP? When does software become "abandonware" as so many products out there are? An Ultima 4 port to Windows was given away with a magazine in the mid- late 90s.
Just because EA plans to re-release (and likely ruin) a title, does that mean they have the right to stop all the independent, original and to the best of my knowledge *non-profit" work? If people were making money off of it, I could understand, but how does freeware harm EA? Oh, yeah, because a handful of independents will do much better work than EA and their legion of slave coders.
EA will never get another dollar of mine. They've ruined enough games and there are plenty of other developers taking the time to deliver quality.
Lose an eighth? I don't think EA as an entity would ever get past "Name? Job? Join?"
In U4 you gained "skill" in each of the eight virtues. Once you "ascended" in each virtue you gained an eighth of an ankh. If you took any action counter to that ascended virtue, you lost it and had to again work through regaining it. Even if you were fully ascended (all eight pieces of the ankh) and did something that went against honesty and the other three virtues based upon the axiom of Truth, you might see...
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
Story depth and complexity of the interwoven virtue "formula."
Games used to be about story, plot and themes and not simply hack and slash. While I've enjoyed all of the Ultimas (even 8,/shudder), 5's combat system, while allowing plenty of control, took too long and slowed down the flow of the game. It was almost as cumbersome as the Times of Lore combat system where one battle of a group of 6 against 6 monsters took a good 20 minutes.
I am, of course, talking about playing on the Apple/PC. Combat on consoles was simplified because consoles require simple interfacing.
U4 to this day ranks as one of the best games of the past decades due to the seamless integration of quest objectives with free form world interaction.
Actually I'd say Windows users would have Bill on their s#!t list, not the admire list. In fact I'd have to extrapolate that the people polled were not in the IT industry, do not use Windows computer and probably don't read any technical journal or blog.
My thoughts exactly.
Instead of showing some semblance of integrity and honor by admitting mistakes, unveiling all the secrecy and working on open, honest, namely "transparent" operations, negotiations, discussions, etc., they continue the process-heavy, morale dropping business of legislative power exercises.
I mean just read the memo. If you want people to understand, get away from the lengthy business-speak. This isn't even legalese, it's just excessive verbiage meant to constrain and confuse instead of being a clear and concise message. This lack of communication skill is the basic problem our politicians suffer. They're so used to double-talking and spinning they don't know how to speak plainly and openly.
I was thoroughly unhappy, disgusted and by definition disgruntled while supporting the a government agency. Did I bother copying, viewing or distributing the sensitive files I had access to (interim 6C)? Not in the slightest. I have a reputation in the IT industry and if you break that trust relationship once, your career is over.
They will easily find unhappy and disgruntled employees. Will they find those with the motive, means and chutzpa to carry out such acts? Almost definitely not.
I seem to recall when modems with lights were still in use, that a video tape of the flashing lights on the modem could be slowed down enough to read the stream of bits. Granted 3mb/s is a great deal faster than 56kb/s, but video technology is faster now, too.
I would presume there is encryption on both ends, but I see a small IR led "bug" left on top of a computer, cube wall, file cabinet, etc. serving as a middle man pickup of the stream while it is decoded on the other end.
*Whoosh* That's the sound of the point of the above post going over your head. Not talking about YOU, current employees, delaying retirement or any such bunk.
Thanks for proving a point about government employees.
Government IT is pathetic by many means. Having supported the DoEd in the past, I know what kind of IT-ignorant, over-process oriented, near-brain dead people are running your agency. I pity you.
I did exactly what you are doing. I virtualized 75% of the DoEd infrastructure. Sure it was only 600 or so computers, but it only took one year, $250,000 in hardware and the cost of my meager salary. WTF is taking $500million?!?!?!
The statement of your IG says it all for how behind government agencies are. "...COBOL is dead or dying..." Really?!??! How 1990's of him. ANYTHING written in COBOL could and should have been replaced by a C script in 1999.
My main issue with SSA and ALL government departments is the lack of accountability. SSA has been undergoing a restructuring since 1990, spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars with little to nothing to show for it. Yet how does everyone react? "Oh, that's the government for you. Give them another half a billion $$ and we'll see how they're doing in another 10 years."
If our government agencies and departments were businesses, they'd have been shut down decades ago and gone the way of Enron after a few audits for misappropriated spending.
I think you missed constantnormal's point.
This potential "collapse" should be treated with the same urgency as Y2K.
As the legacy applications factor into the infrastructure re-vamp, employing older coders and engineers would bring in the right experience, delay their retirement and effectively defer some of the outgoing funds they'd be calling upon by keeping them employed.
I don't necessarily agree with (or can verify) your suggestion for a solution, but I do agree the SSA (and all government departments) should be run like a business.
Mostly they need to be held accountable. What happens when a department in a business goes over budget? They get their budget for the next year cut or they have to implement methods to generate more revenues.
As a shareholder (taxpayer) the SSA is not performing up to my standards for which I am paying and they are grossly misusing appropriated funds. They simply need to hire the right company to do the job correctly and in a timely manner. Having experience in this field and such exercises, I know it could be done in three years with one fifth of the amount in the article.
I thought everyone, including our own backwards government, learned to get rid of COBOL during Y2K. In fact I thought all the COBOL was *replaced* with C, but apparently they simply applied script bandages.
I seem to recall the "re-vamp" of the SSA IT infrastructure began in 1990 and awarded so many hundreds of millions of dollars to the contracting company to get it done by 2000.
2000 rolls around, no re-vamp, complete and utter failure and complete loss of the money. What does the SSA do? Award another 10 year contract to the SAME contracting company for even more money.
No, that IS a ridiculous amount even considering everything you listed.
Say the SSA employs 20,000 people and uses 2,000 servers. $1,000 per user and $10,000 per server equates to and $20mil and $20mil or $40 million total. Yes, many severs cost more than $10k, but many, many more cost much, much less than $10k.
I've worked in IT for 27 years so I know a great deal about systems, upgrades, data centers, licensing and many associated costs. Even the largest corporation employing 500,000 people and using 50,000 servers would be thrilled to have a $500mil budget. They'd build a new datacenter, deploy all new network systems, new servers, new storage and new desktops/laptops for everyone and simply abandon the old datacenter.
Only because this is a government agency are they allowed to get away with this. Who is going to hold them accountable? The government?
I had no idea this related to the real world until reading the details. I thought this was a tease of an upcoming episode.
I could see the Doctor marrying his clone/daughter, they go on their honeymoon and the night of their first copulation dozens of future Timelords (their offspring) show up to witness the event.
Diary of a London Call Girl is not BDSM. Belle experimented with it on one episode because a regular customer requested it. It was a rather interesting series about a real life call girl's experience towards fame. Of course my initial attraction was seeing Billie nude and in provocative situations.
And yes, Matt Smith the current Doctor, was one of her clients.
During the infancy of computers, various quotes were flung about such as "The world will never need more than six computers," and "No one would ever want a computer at home." I'll file this along with these outlandishly wrong statements, but I'm guessing "end of PC era" will be forgotten much sooner than the others.
People that know how to use a computer to its full potential will continue to do so. Those that use a computer for e-mail and internet might as well use a smart phone. Of course shipments of phones will outnumber PCs. Phones are much cheaper, more available, less complicated and more disposable than a PC. Service providers *want* every person to have a phone so they get cheaper and cheaper. If Microsoft wanted a PC in every house, they'd give away a computer with every copy of Windows sold.
Having worked in IT for 26+ years, I'm pretty tired of computers. I know I'll always be using a computer as a basic tool, but I (hopefully) won't be working ON them for the rest of my life. Still I'd much rather use a PC for anything that a smart phone offers. I just last year upgraded to a phone that can text. I certainly don't want one to surf the internet and cost me extra for such a service when I can get the exact same content with a better interface and experience for much cheaper on a PC, mobile or otherwise.
The PC era will never end. We're doomed to evolve with them.
Slashdot Mirror
Guess I'll get the GMs in WoW to change it to "Phuquea" (phuq you EA)
Of course, the purist that I am, I cursed my friend for using my U7 save game and killing Lord British with the Blacksword. :-)
Just because EA plans to re-release (and likely ruin) a title, does that mean they have the right to stop all the independent, original and to the best of my knowledge *non-profit" work? If people were making money off of it, I could understand, but how does freeware harm EA? Oh, yeah, because a handful of independents will do much better work than EA and their legion of slave coders.
EA will never get another dollar of mine. They've ruined enough games and there are plenty of other developers taking the time to deliver quality.
Lose an eighth? I don't think EA as an entity would ever get past "Name? Job? Join?"
In U4 you gained "skill" in each of the eight virtues. Once you "ascended" in each virtue you gained an eighth of an ankh. If you took any action counter to that ascended virtue, you lost it and had to again work through regaining it. Even if you were fully ascended (all eight pieces of the ankh) and did something that went against honesty and the other three virtues based upon the axiom of Truth, you might see...
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
"Thou hast lost an eighth!!!"
...and half of your ankh just disappeared.
I guess they have Valor because they never seem to stop or back down from anything especially where money is involved.
Aw hell, I'm quite certain EA as a whole *is* The Guardian, Mr. Muppet himself.
Games used to be about story, plot and themes and not simply hack and slash. While I've enjoyed all of the Ultimas (even 8, /shudder), 5's combat system, while allowing plenty of control, took too long and slowed down the flow of the game. It was almost as cumbersome as the Times of Lore combat system where one battle of a group of 6 against 6 monsters took a good 20 minutes.
I am, of course, talking about playing on the Apple/PC. Combat on consoles was simplified because consoles require simple interfacing.
U4 to this day ranks as one of the best games of the past decades due to the seamless integration of quest objectives with free form world interaction.
I mean, how can it look cool without being mounted on a shark's head?
I wonder if there is some connection between the catfish Charlie and the Don Knotts' movie, "The Incredible Mr. Limpet?"
Actually I'd say Windows users would have Bill on their s#!t list, not the admire list. In fact I'd have to extrapolate that the people polled were not in the IT industry, do not use Windows computer and probably don't read any technical journal or blog.
Instead of showing some semblance of integrity and honor by admitting mistakes, unveiling all the secrecy and working on open, honest, namely "transparent" operations, negotiations, discussions, etc., they continue the process-heavy, morale dropping business of legislative power exercises.
I mean just read the memo. If you want people to understand, get away from the lengthy business-speak. This isn't even legalese, it's just excessive verbiage meant to constrain and confuse instead of being a clear and concise message. This lack of communication skill is the basic problem our politicians suffer. They're so used to double-talking and spinning they don't know how to speak plainly and openly.
I was thoroughly unhappy, disgusted and by definition disgruntled while supporting the a government agency. Did I bother copying, viewing or distributing the sensitive files I had access to (interim 6C)? Not in the slightest. I have a reputation in the IT industry and if you break that trust relationship once, your career is over.
They will easily find unhappy and disgruntled employees. Will they find those with the motive, means and chutzpa to carry out such acts? Almost definitely not.
I seem to recall when modems with lights were still in use, that a video tape of the flashing lights on the modem could be slowed down enough to read the stream of bits. Granted 3mb/s is a great deal faster than 56kb/s, but video technology is faster now, too.
I would presume there is encryption on both ends, but I see a small IR led "bug" left on top of a computer, cube wall, file cabinet, etc. serving as a middle man pickup of the stream while it is decoded on the other end.
*Whoosh* That's the sound of the point of the above post going over your head. Not talking about YOU, current employees, delaying retirement or any such bunk.
Thanks for proving a point about government employees.
I did exactly what you are doing. I virtualized 75% of the DoEd infrastructure. Sure it was only 600 or so computers, but it only took one year, $250,000 in hardware and the cost of my meager salary. WTF is taking $500million?!?!?!
The statement of your IG says it all for how behind government agencies are. "...COBOL is dead or dying..." Really?!??! How 1990's of him. ANYTHING written in COBOL could and should have been replaced by a C script in 1999.
My main issue with SSA and ALL government departments is the lack of accountability. SSA has been undergoing a restructuring since 1990, spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars with little to nothing to show for it. Yet how does everyone react? "Oh, that's the government for you. Give them another half a billion $$ and we'll see how they're doing in another 10 years."
If our government agencies and departments were businesses, they'd have been shut down decades ago and gone the way of Enron after a few audits for misappropriated spending.
This potential "collapse" should be treated with the same urgency as Y2K.
As the legacy applications factor into the infrastructure re-vamp, employing older coders and engineers would bring in the right experience, delay their retirement and effectively defer some of the outgoing funds they'd be calling upon by keeping them employed.
Mostly they need to be held accountable. What happens when a department in a business goes over budget? They get their budget for the next year cut or they have to implement methods to generate more revenues.
As a shareholder (taxpayer) the SSA is not performing up to my standards for which I am paying and they are grossly misusing appropriated funds. They simply need to hire the right company to do the job correctly and in a timely manner. Having experience in this field and such exercises, I know it could be done in three years with one fifth of the amount in the article.
I thought everyone, including our own backwards government, learned to get rid of COBOL during Y2K. In fact I thought all the COBOL was *replaced* with C, but apparently they simply applied script bandages.
I seem to recall the "re-vamp" of the SSA IT infrastructure began in 1990 and awarded so many hundreds of millions of dollars to the contracting company to get it done by 2000.
2000 rolls around, no re-vamp, complete and utter failure and complete loss of the money. What does the SSA do? Award another 10 year contract to the SAME contracting company for even more money.
Whose failure is that?
Say the SSA employs 20,000 people and uses 2,000 servers. $1,000 per user and $10,000 per server equates to and $20mil and $20mil or $40 million total. Yes, many severs cost more than $10k, but many, many more cost much, much less than $10k.
I've worked in IT for 27 years so I know a great deal about systems, upgrades, data centers, licensing and many associated costs. Even the largest corporation employing 500,000 people and using 50,000 servers would be thrilled to have a $500mil budget. They'd build a new datacenter, deploy all new network systems, new servers, new storage and new desktops/laptops for everyone and simply abandon the old datacenter.
Only because this is a government agency are they allowed to get away with this. Who is going to hold them accountable? The government?
the scene matches all the manure Micro$oft has been shoveling on us all these years.
I could see the Doctor marrying his clone/daughter, they go on their honeymoon and the night of their first copulation dozens of future Timelords (their offspring) show up to witness the event.
Or the Austin Powers version, "Oh dear, my eyes have gone crossed."
And yes, Matt Smith the current Doctor, was one of her clients.
People that know how to use a computer to its full potential will continue to do so. Those that use a computer for e-mail and internet might as well use a smart phone. Of course shipments of phones will outnumber PCs. Phones are much cheaper, more available, less complicated and more disposable than a PC. Service providers *want* every person to have a phone so they get cheaper and cheaper. If Microsoft wanted a PC in every house, they'd give away a computer with every copy of Windows sold.
Having worked in IT for 26+ years, I'm pretty tired of computers. I know I'll always be using a computer as a basic tool, but I (hopefully) won't be working ON them for the rest of my life. Still I'd much rather use a PC for anything that a smart phone offers. I just last year upgraded to a phone that can text. I certainly don't want one to surf the internet and cost me extra for such a service when I can get the exact same content with a better interface and experience for much cheaper on a PC, mobile or otherwise.
The PC era will never end. We're doomed to evolve with them.
Those that are smart enough use a PC; the rest will use a smart phone.