"without the users' explicit consent and out of their control, which raises further concerns about privacy, security and quite frankly, customer abuse."
No, in the ToS for gold it clearly mentions this (likely its in the ToS for the whole online service as it'd effect silver players too) - and the most obivious point here is - Dont play online if you dont want that.
The fact you can't really put any infomation INTO a game, no "real" infomation at least. A gamertag, an IP, maybe some address info, but thats not going to give you a very well customised advert. The way it'll work most likely is how it already works - you go into the game and attach you "ubisoft"/EA/Microsoft/other publisher account to your gamertag via the game and it gives you "free items" to use in game. In return, they know who you are if you ever use the website.
The fact is, you'll still have adverts while playing the game, the question is just if they are aimed at "you" or not.
But the whole of WoW can be automated... And then you'll get crazy things like that guy who runs agroup of 36 shamans together - I dont play WoW so I'm not sure of what exactly they do but I'd guess they can put out a fair amount of DPS and self healing... Suddenly people stop playing because they can't farm anywhere near as fast as people with more subscriptions...
I was thinking something along these lines too - H2G2 Has something about making predictions of the future - one nice tip - Predict something that can never be proven wrong (or at least is very unlikely to be proven wrong).
Isn't this what these guys have done, but instead taken a bit of the past, and proven it, without it being unprovable? Also if one of these horns was now found in original condition, they could simply go "well thats not the right horn, this : (insert newly created horn) is the one we remade, that must be some other type of horn!".
And its likely some students passed their courses via this too. I mean, they have created some impressive technology, the ability to create usable, realistic instruments... but dont claim its solving some unsolvable problem. To solve that problem it must come up with ONE and ONLY ONE solution, and im sure you could do lots of with the horn and still get something which sounds close enough to be concidered the "correct" one.
My employeer(?) asks me to not mention who I work for on any kind of social networking site/chat rooms, but the reasoning for this is my work has implications which may lead people to believe that I am able to access things which I can't, and its a blanket request for the whole company, who I just happen to be covered with (I work in IT... lol, so unless its a request for data they are out of luck anyway)
I'm sure if people actually read their contracts this kind of thing is pretty normal/standard but sometimes presented under another light of "I wont do anything to make the company look bad, be it while I'm working, or while im not".
Even in my previous retail roles as a shop assistance all the contracts I've signed had this sort of agreement - covers them if you say something stupid/incriminating and they suddenly need you to "disappear" out of the company.
In game they dont have any kind of check out procedure which I ever had the power to use - sometimes we got promo copies of games which would be handed out as prizes to staff and then the staff would share them, but they were mostly shit games and no one gave a crap (I got sega superstars tennis hahaha).
From my friends, gamestation (which game now owns) DOES allow employees to check out disks, paying for them if they break it etc. But now all GAME and gamestation stores have a disk cleaning machine which will remove like 75% of scratches leaving the disk looking "as new".
Both stores "gut" games and put real boxes onto the shop floor, along with inserts sent from H/O. Some inserts are crap/unreadable/wrong and so you sometimes need the real box for the customer to be able to see what they are really buying.
However, even if we didn't gut games, i'd still say that about 5% are scratched IN the box, due to them falling loose during shipping etc. Luckly we can just disk clean them for free in that case and the customer is happy 99% of the time. If they kick off we might swap the disk for them for a brand new copy, but note it and if they return that too then we will refuse to return it again generally - all this is at managers disgression.
I no longer work for game, but this is how it was up until about 2 months ago.
I swear there was some kind of bot for half life or CS which would "learn" from the players, i.e. you could stick it in a match and it would learn by how you were beating it and then use those tatics to beat you.... Anyone remember or even know if this is real or have I imagined it?:|
Anyhow, google is what most non-technical users consider the internet to be. Infact the way people browse after watching an advert for car insurance proved it to me. Instead of going to the url which the advert mentioned, they just google "car insurence". To us that seems strange as we are good at remembering or working out urls, but to people who dont understand the net, or dont care about various tlds google is the perfect answer.
I'll happily (well maybe not at first...) eat insects ground up and made into something that tastes good. I just dont want to much them raw, the same way I dont want to run into a field and take a bite out the backside of that cow over there...
I'm guessing its some way of getting people to agree without them knowing they have, or being unable to not agree. Double negitives etc? Or Opt-out system - Unless you tick this box and return it in 2 seconds then you agree to pay us?
Yeah I've seen problems like this too especially from people who should know better.
My sister phoned me up a few weeks ago to tell me her laptop had just "died". Now it had been making strange sounds so I sort of expected it. I asked her to check all teh cables which she "did". I then went though the half hour process of ordering a RMA and getting it picked up from her address.
Then she text me telling me her bf had noticed the power cable had fallen out of the adapter. Wheres that internet stabbing device again?
Oh and my dad presumes everything is a virus. If the PC's running slow? Its a virus! If the mouse is dirty? Its a virus!. I think I've only ever seen one virus on his PC, as I personally locked it down.... And magically these problems just "disappear" a week or so after hes told me. So now I just nod, agree to see to it if he can't work around it and just carry on with my life...
I'll admit right away that I dont know the really fine details...
But surely, at 25% pass rate, if someone put that computer online (hidden inside a wall - urban myths go crazy!) and left it online, with unfettered access to the net. It would eventually end up with some people believing that it was a real human being?
I know of times when I've had computer convo's with friends and family, and I'm actually asking myself if I am actually talking to the person I know, or if they have somehow got a virus which appears to be inteligent. Normally i solve it by some question concerning an outside force "What is the name of the grey cat?". The virus never knows the answer.
So far I've not found a virus yet which has managed to pull it off, but I've certainlly seen alot of humans who talk as I'd expect a computer to. Does the conditions of the test need to be re-thought? Surely its failed when someone either asks "Are you a computer?" or accuses "YOUR A COMPUTER!!!" rather than simply speculating that it is.
Also, anyone have any numbers of computer vs human ratios? Was it 50:50?... if so, a hit rate of 25% doesn't suddenly seem so strange?
I work in a shop selling computer games, whoop-de-do, even we have a small sticker which says "do no remove this blah blah employee handbook".
Refer to the employee handbook : "If you do anything to anything, without being told to, we reserve the right to fire your ass outta the door".
Infact, recently i was asked to help change the ADSL filter on the phoneline simply because something wasn't working right and no one else knew what they were looking at. I asked for it to be confirmed in writing (only took 5minutes anyway) before i actually did anything. I didn't want them coming back with that as a random excuse to get rid of me somewhere down the line.
"Reminds me of when I worked in IT support: no matter how many times we told users they weren't allowed to install ICQ, or to connect their personal laptops to the corporate network, they insisted on doing it. Frequently they even asked us to help them do it."
1. Users WILL attempt to install stuff 2. If they can't, they will eventually give up
However, if they manage, then they will push for more and more stuff, and demand support for stuff they never should of installed in the first place.
Surely they should never actually be able to install anything? Is it really THAT hard to lock a system down? My university never seems to have any problems unless people bring in external drives with stuff installed on them (someone managed to get wow running... but then the uni stopped it some how) and they could stop this easily enough by stopping USB.
I'm betting they would define unlimited as it supports all protocols and allows access to all sites, as apposed to accessing the internet via an iPhone, which doesn't (appently - according to various sources, dont have one myself) allow _ALL_ websites to work?
Oh, and as geeks we read "Unlimited bandwidth" when all it actually says is "Unlimited!". They prey on our presumptions, but then again we shouldn't be so happy to believe.
The game its self (story wise) can be ran through in a matter of hours... but then you can re-run the whole game over and over getting better equipment etc so you end up better/stronger/faster.
I know its a old idea, but its strange to see how well it still works. Also crazy how many people will just grind hours away going for one item which pops in huge rarities... (I remember spending weeks in parts of everquest trying to get said items off random bosses) and I'm pretty sure this must still happen in things like wow?
Really, where is this going to take us? I tend to wonder how this is going to change in the future, or will we always just be looking for the next great bit of loot? - Sounds like the other artical posted other day which basiclly said people grind for higher levels, when in reality i think better items are a far more lucritive reward.
Slashdot Mirror
chances are it goes "....Judges decision is final..." ;)
"without the users' explicit consent and out of their control, which raises further concerns about privacy, security and quite frankly, customer abuse."
No, in the ToS for gold it clearly mentions this (likely its in the ToS for the whole online service as it'd effect silver players too) - and the most obivious point here is - Dont play online if you dont want that.
The fact you can't really put any infomation INTO a game, no "real" infomation at least. A gamertag, an IP, maybe some address info, but thats not going to give you a very well customised advert. The way it'll work most likely is how it already works - you go into the game and attach you "ubisoft"/EA/Microsoft/other publisher account to your gamertag via the game and it gives you "free items" to use in game. In return, they know who you are if you ever use the website.
The fact is, you'll still have adverts while playing the game, the question is just if they are aimed at "you" or not.
He could attempt to do something totally pointless with it and post to twitter from it! :D
But the whole of WoW can be automated... And then you'll get crazy things like that guy who runs agroup of 36 shamans together - I dont play WoW so I'm not sure of what exactly they do but I'd guess they can put out a fair amount of DPS and self healing... Suddenly people stop playing because they can't farm anywhere near as fast as people with more subscriptions...
I was thinking something along these lines too - H2G2 Has something about making predictions of the future - one nice tip - Predict something that can never be proven wrong (or at least is very unlikely to be proven wrong).
Isn't this what these guys have done, but instead taken a bit of the past, and proven it, without it being unprovable? Also if one of these horns was now found in original condition, they could simply go "well thats not the right horn, this : (insert newly created horn) is the one we remade, that must be some other type of horn!".
And its likely some students passed their courses via this too. I mean, they have created some impressive technology, the ability to create usable, realistic instruments... but dont claim its solving some unsolvable problem. To solve that problem it must come up with ONE and ONLY ONE solution, and im sure you could do lots of with the horn and still get something which sounds close enough to be concidered the "correct" one.
My employeer(?) asks me to not mention who I work for on any kind of social networking site/chat rooms, but the reasoning for this is my work has implications which may lead people to believe that I am able to access things which I can't, and its a blanket request for the whole company, who I just happen to be covered with (I work in IT... lol, so unless its a request for data they are out of luck anyway)
I'm sure if people actually read their contracts this kind of thing is pretty normal/standard but sometimes presented under another light of "I wont do anything to make the company look bad, be it while I'm working, or while im not".
Even in my previous retail roles as a shop assistance all the contracts I've signed had this sort of agreement - covers them if you say something stupid/incriminating and they suddenly need you to "disappear" out of the company.
Or does the summary sound like someone coding in their bedroom? Oh and you dont _HAVE_ to work anywhere, its a choice you make, shut up and put up.
In game they dont have any kind of check out procedure which I ever had the power to use - sometimes we got promo copies of games which would be handed out as prizes to staff and then the staff would share them, but they were mostly shit games and no one gave a crap (I got sega superstars tennis hahaha).
From my friends, gamestation (which game now owns) DOES allow employees to check out disks, paying for them if they break it etc. But now all GAME and gamestation stores have a disk cleaning machine which will remove like 75% of scratches leaving the disk looking "as new".
Both stores "gut" games and put real boxes onto the shop floor, along with inserts sent from H/O. Some inserts are crap/unreadable/wrong and so you sometimes need the real box for the customer to be able to see what they are really buying.
However, even if we didn't gut games, i'd still say that about 5% are scratched IN the box, due to them falling loose during shipping etc. Luckly we can just disk clean them for free in that case and the customer is happy 99% of the time. If they kick off we might swap the disk for them for a brand new copy, but note it and if they return that too then we will refuse to return it again generally - all this is at managers disgression.
I no longer work for game, but this is how it was up until about 2 months ago.
So what is it?
so what is it?
I swear there was some kind of bot for half life or CS which would "learn" from the players, i.e. you could stick it in a match and it would learn by how you were beating it and then use those tatics to beat you.... Anyone remember or even know if this is real or have I imagined it? :|
Whos to say google didn't submit this story?
Anyhow, google is what most non-technical users consider the internet to be. Infact the way people browse after watching an advert for car insurance proved it to me. Instead of going to the url which the advert mentioned, they just google "car insurence". To us that seems strange as we are good at remembering or working out urls, but to people who dont understand the net, or dont care about various tlds google is the perfect answer.
Its game over,
Drowning? At least if that starts to happen you've got some chance of rescue.
In space dont you POP? :D
I'll happily (well maybe not at first...) eat insects ground up and made into something that tastes good. I just dont want to much them raw, the same way I dont want to run into a field and take a bite out the backside of that cow over there...
Living in the ocean wont save us from the earth being consumed by nuclear waste / aliens / zombies / etc
Also, the ocean is already inhabited.
Anyone shed some light on this?
I'm guessing its some way of getting people to agree without them knowing they have, or being unable to not agree. Double negitives etc? Or Opt-out system - Unless you tick this box and return it in 2 seconds then you agree to pay us?
Someone help :|
Yeah I've seen problems like this too especially from people who should know better.
My sister phoned me up a few weeks ago to tell me her laptop had just "died". Now it had been making strange sounds so I sort of expected it. I asked her to check all teh cables which she "did". I then went though the half hour process of ordering a RMA and getting it picked up from her address.
Then she text me telling me her bf had noticed the power cable had fallen out of the adapter. Wheres that internet stabbing device again?
Oh and my dad presumes everything is a virus. If the PC's running slow? Its a virus! If the mouse is dirty? Its a virus!. I think I've only ever seen one virus on his PC, as I personally locked it down.... And magically these problems just "disappear" a week or so after hes told me. So now I just nod, agree to see to it if he can't work around it and just carry on with my life...
I'll admit right away that I dont know the really fine details...
But surely, at 25% pass rate, if someone put that computer online (hidden inside a wall - urban myths go crazy!) and left it online, with unfettered access to the net. It would eventually end up with some people believing that it was a real human being?
I know of times when I've had computer convo's with friends and family, and I'm actually asking myself if I am actually talking to the person I know, or if they have somehow got a virus which appears to be inteligent. Normally i solve it by some question concerning an outside force "What is the name of the grey cat?". The virus never knows the answer.
So far I've not found a virus yet which has managed to pull it off, but I've certainlly seen alot of humans who talk as I'd expect a computer to. Does the conditions of the test need to be re-thought? Surely its failed when someone either asks "Are you a computer?" or accuses "YOUR A COMPUTER!!!" rather than simply speculating that it is.
Also, anyone have any numbers of computer vs human ratios? Was it 50:50?... if so, a hit rate of 25% doesn't suddenly seem so strange?
Oh dear, XD
And get sacked...
I work in a shop selling computer games, whoop-de-do, even we have a small sticker which says "do no remove this blah blah employee handbook".
Refer to the employee handbook : "If you do anything to anything, without being told to, we reserve the right to fire your ass outta the door".
Infact, recently i was asked to help change the ADSL filter on the phoneline simply because something wasn't working right and no one else knew what they were looking at. I asked for it to be confirmed in writing (only took 5minutes anyway) before i actually did anything. I didn't want them coming back with that as a random excuse to get rid of me somewhere down the line.
"Reminds me of when I worked in IT support: no matter how many times we told users they weren't allowed to install ICQ, or to connect their personal laptops to the corporate network, they insisted on doing it. Frequently they even asked us to help them do it."
1. Users WILL attempt to install stuff
2. If they can't, they will eventually give up
However, if they manage, then they will push for more and more stuff, and demand support for stuff they never should of installed in the first place.
Surely they should never actually be able to install anything? Is it really THAT hard to lock a system down? My university never seems to have any problems unless people bring in external drives with stuff installed on them (someone managed to get wow running... but then the uni stopped it some how) and they could stop this easily enough by stopping USB.
I'm betting they would define unlimited as it supports all protocols and allows access to all sites, as apposed to accessing the internet via an iPhone, which doesn't (appently - according to various sources, dont have one myself) allow _ALL_ websites to work?
Oh, and as geeks we read "Unlimited bandwidth" when all it actually says is "Unlimited!". They prey on our presumptions, but then again we shouldn't be so happy to believe.
Ah but in too human you keep all your drops, did SoTN do this?
Surely then you could run thru 2-3 times and be some "uber" person who no one would mess with?
The game its self (story wise) can be ran through in a matter of hours... but then you can re-run the whole game over and over getting better equipment etc so you end up better/stronger/faster.
I know its a old idea, but its strange to see how well it still works. Also crazy how many people will just grind hours away going for one item which pops in huge rarities... (I remember spending weeks in parts of everquest trying to get said items off random bosses) and I'm pretty sure this must still happen in things like wow?
Really, where is this going to take us? I tend to wonder how this is going to change in the future, or will we always just be looking for the next great bit of loot? - Sounds like the other artical posted other day which basiclly said people grind for higher levels, when in reality i think better items are a far more lucritive reward.
gentoo-hardened?
dont know if this ACTUALLY provides what your talking about as i've never used it in reality, but it just seems to fit like a glove...