Installing Windows has a tendency to make you drool. It's just an unavoidable fact. In fact, in the (as yet unpublished) Windows installation manual, the first step is to get one of those keyboard cover membranes (you know, the ones they used to put on all the lab PC's in high school). That way, you won't short anything out or have burnt lips from becoming the shortest path to ground.
Umm... Were you born that wrong, or did you learn your ways over time?
Install Apache (1.3 or 2.0) on Windows sometime. If you open up Computer Management (quite possibly the best and maybe even the only good feature of Windows) and go to the Services section, you'll find Apache in the list. Select it. Now, at the top of the window, there's a button with a "play" arrow. Click it. Wow! Apache started! Next to that, there's a "stop" square. Next is a "pause" double bar. Last in line is a "restart" square/arrow combo. All of these work with Apache.
Another poster mentioned the Apache Service Monitor tool. It's handy if you have more than one server around, since it lets you control them remotely without hassle. It too has the start/stop/restart buttons.
And again, on Windows... Look in your Start menu. Apache creates a program group during installation that contains a Control Apache Server folder, in which you'll find some batch files... One for Stop Apache Server, one for Start Apache Server, and one for Restart Apache Server.
There are plenty of "stupid" ways of running apachectl -whatever in Windows. But only the first one above allows you to right click and go to properties. And guess what you find in that properties window... Yeah. [Start] [Stop] [Pause] [Resume] - More buttons. But only stupid newbies would use those, right?
(Before you reply to this assuming that I'm serious, I'd like to present you with a gift: A nice, shiny, new electric sarcasm carving knife.)
Funny that you should mention SGI and Apple together and how SGI was faring 7 years ago.
In 1998 (that's 7 years ago, right?), I was looking to buy an O2 system. I was looking at a system with a price tag of around $6000. (Now, I know that it was way too much, but back then I was convinced that "more expensive" meant "better".)
I ended up buying a Power Mac G3 (beige) instead. And thank goodness. And it only cost me $5000 for that system, including the monitor. (Eep!)
You, sir, are the reason the words "nutjob" and "hippie" were invented. Let me count the ways...
1) We're not running out of oil anytime soon.
Oil isn't just a biomatter byproduct, it's also a naturally-occurring geochemical substance. Remember, this planet has been here for billions of years, and has had life on it for most (80% or more) of that time. That alone provides more biological oil than we could use in thousands of years.
Add to that the quantity of geochemical oils that are produced by normal geological processes in Earth's mantle layer. Animal and plant life are not the only sources of carbon on this planet.
Now add to that agricultural oils that we produce from recently-departed plants. We use those to further dilute the other types of oil we find, and stretch it further. And despite what you probably think, oil doesn't degrade over time unless you expose it to oxygen (which doesn't happen in pressurized underground deposits).
We won't be running out of oil anytime soon.
2) Oil doesn't have to be a huge source of pollution.
True, we're misusing oil, but we are improving in our understanding and methods of using it. Cars now burn fuel noticably cleaner than cars from 10 years ago. And cars from 10 years ago burn fuel noticably cleaner than cars 10 years before them. And so on, all the way back to when cars were invented. It's not just about cleaner emissions, though, since burning a fuel in a cleaner way causes more energy to be released from it, causing more power output. Theoretically, only water and a little carbon dioxide should be left after gasoline oxidation. The more engines improve, the closer we'll get to that theoretical limit point.
Not using oil is just a stupid suggestion.
3) This planet can easily sustain a lot more than 6 billion people.
Given current usable land area on Earth, if everyone (man, woman, and child) was allowed an acre of land (so a normal family would have around 3-5 acres), the Earth can sustain 46 billion people. No one would starve. No one would be homeless. No one would be crammed in a tiny apartment with a couch, a TV, and a hot plate.
The "land area" calculation used for this example purposely excluded deserts, mountain peaks, and the polar regions (all of which are nearly uninhabitable).
Clearly, reducing the population is not necessary.
Your point number 3 is a sensible one, however. But unfortunately, I fear there are far too many people in power that want to keep that power. This would remove their power over the rushed, oppressed, poor common people who are locked-in to central government and locked-in to inefficient and costly utilities controlled by... the same people who have the power.
That said, I doubt people ever lived in caves when houses were available, and I don't think an asteroid will ever hit Earth again. But that's just me.
old models of spawning monsters behind you when you pick up something doesn't work anymore. That worked in an arcade game, but not in a story driven game focusing on realism
I disagree. There are multiple points where that happens in Unreal (the old original one).
Probably the most memorable one is the Stone Titan battle. You see him on his throne, but he doesn't move. You can walk up to him, walk on him, shoot him, make noise, fight the other enemies in the area, whatever. But the moment you steal his treasure, he's gonna try to whoop your ass! It was CLASSIC pick-up-the-item-and-get-ambushed. And it was good.
Why was it good? Because they did it right. They didn't make enemies suddenly appear all around you. They had an enemy that was inactive become active when you stole his stuff. It's something that would be believable in real life (if real life included crash-landing on a planet full of reptile warriors and being the one and only human to whoop ass and live through the ordeal).
This illustrates the difference between "arcade" gamers (as you claim to be), and "realism" gamers (which I seem to share more traits with).
"Arcade" gamers play games for the sake of games. They understand how games work, and therefore, couldn't care less how the enemies got there. They already know how the enemies got there. They understand that The Game deposits enemies into the playing field when it's supposed to, and it's your "job" to kill them.
"Realism" gamers play games to be immersed in a world. They may or may not know how games work, and their pickiness about just how real a game has to be varies from player to player. They see enemies dropping in as a story element rather than a command to blast things to smithereens. They want enemies that appear to be accompanied by dropships or the sparky fizzle of a transporter beam or at least fall through holes in the roof (Unreal did this a lot). But the enemies have to come from somewhere. They can't just randomly appear. (There are exceptions - like random battles in Final Fantasy games, which happen in areas where your zoomed-out view wouldn't allow you to see the enemies anyway.)
I hate to admit it, but I've actually bought a few id games. Quake 3, which people swore was better than Unreal Tournament (damn liars...), Return to Castle Wolfenstein (good, but somehow felt too stiff), and... well... no, that's it. I guess I really don't care if id makes a comeback, and perhaps you can see why. I don't begrudge anyone their favorites, though, so good luck to them and you.
Yes, but he would be scum without a way to transmit his scumminess without the efforts of the *AA's.
If they had just left things alone (as the laws were a mere 15 years ago, even), this guy would be so far up shit creek he'd think it was swiss chocolate.
I'm more than positive that the Motion Picture Association of America is more than prepared for dealing with that sort of chaff in today's legal atmosphere.
That's because they are that sort of chaff in today's legal atmosphere. This is the problem they've caused coming back to bite them in the ass. More "intellectual property" rights means they lose too. It's just a matter of how quickly they buy laws to undo the ones they've recently purchased to cause this sort of imbalance.
Ack! Phooey. Here I thought I had magically invented numbers that didn't exist before. But you're right. It's 2^32*2, not 32^32.
The remaining points still stand, however. It would be trivial for organizations that need more address space to simply make another subnet.
And I later thought of something that would allow easier-to-remember numbers (though it's not completely perfect, since lazy people would still have to make an effort to remember something). Break it into 16-bit chunks. instead of "19.128.77.198::0.0.0.2" put "4992.19910::0.2". Or start issuing phone numbers like "1380.4dc6::0.2" and see how fast people learn hex. It's not like most people remember numbers these days anyway. They just program them into their phones.
I just read through way too much drivel about IPv6 vs. NAT just now.
Here's the way things really should go. There are two possibilities, and they're not mutually exclusive.
1) For mobile devices:
Mobile devices should be addressed by a hardware address. This hardware address shouldn't be tied directly to the device, however, as mobile devices can be broken or lost easily. This is do-able right now with SIM cards. They have a SIM ID that could be used in place of an outdated phone number system. (Let's face it, POTS is ancient and crufty, and so are its numbering systems.) If you drop your cell phone and break it, move the SIM card to the new one.
One thing to watch out for here, though: All cell phones must use the same protocols, and all cell providers must use the same protocols. This ends their convenient lock-in semi-monopolies on their customers. This is a practice that isn't going to end without a fight.
2) Wired devices:
Wired devices should use an assigned address. IPv4-style 4-octet addresses are fine. But the arrangement needs to be a bit more logical. They need to be arranged in a hierarchy. From 0.0.0.2 to 255.255.255.255, every address should be valid. 0.0.0.0 should be reserved as a null address (duh) and 0.0.0.1 should be the localhost address (or "self" or "this" or "me"). Any other address can be a node. Any node can serve as a gateway to a COMPLETE subnet.
So if I want to reach grandma's wired VoIP phone, her number is "233.67.94.199::0.0.0.2". A phone keypad wouldn't have to be changed, as you could use * for . and # for:: when dialing, so the above number would be dialed as "233*67*94*199#0*0*0*2". And if I wanted to connect to her webserver, I'd point my browser at "233.67.94.199::0.0.0.3".
And there would, with only a two-level hierarchy, be more addresses than IPv6 offers(*). With more levels in that hierarchy, there would be no such thing as an address shortage. And to top it all off, I'm guessing the top-level routing equipment wouldn't have to be substantially changed. It's still just routing from one IPv4 address to another. The gateways would all have to change, though.
Notice another thing about this IPv4^n idea: Hierarchical NAT bypass. Notice how it resembles a C++ (and copycats) scope-resolution operator and how it resolves the scope of the actual device address and how it could easily be extended to multiple levels beyond what I've suggested.
With those IPv4^n address spaces, you have to remember that you don't get quite that many addresses, as you lose 0.0.0.0 and 0.0.0.1 from each range and subrange. In IPv4^2, you lose 8-billion-something addresses - 2 main-range addresses plus 2 addresses from each of the 4-billion-something-minus-two subranges. That's a trivial loss in the scope of this scheme, and yet is almost twice as many addresses as we have available right now.
Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't "autoconfiguration" be the same thing as DynamicHardware ConfigurationProtocol? In which case, a non-NAT firewall and router would still need to have it. The only thing that should disappear is NAT.
No, you have your enemies confused with those who could be turned to serve your purposes.
Call the *AA's "child rapists" for what they've done to some less-than-18-year-old file sharers. Then unleash the media on this wonderful new catchphrase. Media attention works both ways, and not every media outlet is in bed with the music and movie industries. Yet. Move quickly and the mouth froth may belong to the good guys.
If the DA "slaps a terrorist label on my forehead" for anything that isn't actually terrorism, he'll be facing a libel and/or slander suit. At least the DA personally, if not the whole DA's office. This shit has to stop.
And before you trot out the argument that you can't sue him for that, you'd be dead wrong. If there's suspicion that I'm distributing copyrighted goods, then fine. Let them investigate. If there's suspicion that I'm in posession of stolen goods, again, let them investigate. But when they lose both of those trails and decide to label me a terrorist without sufficient cause, that's slander.
And I'll take their backers (read: *AA) to task for it too. Libel and/or slander (depending on whether it made it into print or not) is enough to cost the *AA's a lot, especially if it becomes known that you can do it. They expect people to just roll over and take it. It's like the mob. When you fight back, they're suprised. That's your cue to obliterate them. Sue for ownership if you can get it.
Though I'm not a complete newb, I am a newb to Linux. I did some research a few months back because I wanted to try Linux. I tried all the big names and found that they all had something huge in common - none of them have a decent website. Finding a download page is like herding cats. After finding download pages on each one, I found that I liked the install options for Debian best. They offer a bootable CD for their net-install, so I grabbed it and tried it.
It asked a half-dozen questions (most of which are asked when you install Windows from scratch too), then asked something along the lines of: "What will you be using this machine for? Pick one: 1) Desktop/Workstation 2) Web server 3) File server 4) Print server 5)..." It then asked something like: "Would you like to add any major functionality? Pick as many as you like: 1) Web server 2) Samba server 3)..." Then it took an hour and a half to download and install the packages I selected. At that point, it asked to restart without the CD (note: Windows does this twice during install, so it's NOT going to detract from Linux). Once it rebooted, there was a login screen and then a working desktop.
On each of those "extra" screens that Windows doesn't have (because they bilk you for a desktop version, a workstation version, and a server version in three different packages and pricing schemes), the default was what a newb would probably want. It defaulted to Desktop/Workstation on the "pick one" option, and it defaulted to nothing selected on the "pick as many as you want" options. In all this, it installed a default email client, a default web browser, a default everything else. And a bunch of games. All in a default window manager that worked just fine for my purposes.
Now for the point of this post... I disagree with both the parent and the grandparent posters. A newb doesn't need to know what those things are. I don't know what those things are, and I had a working desktop up and running inside of two hours (again, net-install is slow). What matters is not the number of choices, but what those choices are. If you're asking them to decide what the machine is supposed to be used for, people are going to be able to answer that. But if you're asking them whether they want Thing A or Thing B and they have no clue what either of them is, then they can't answer it because... they have no clue what either of them is!
There's another point here, though. And it comes in the form of apt-get's GUI. If I'm a newb that has a clue (which I am), I can go to this cool GUI pane in the system config menu that lets me go get new stuff for free. I checkmark a bunch of items that I want (like Samba, which I didn't install at first), a tool here, a game there, whatever. Then I can hit the "go get my new free stuff" button and in a few minutes have (dun dun dun) security holes! Whee! It's not that Samba (or whatever else I get) isn't secure. It may be completely secure. It's just not configured for my setup, which means I, as a newb, have to go dick around in config files and change stuff.
Fortunately, it seems they thought of that already. Whatever window manager it is that comes with Debian by default (Gnome, I think) doesn't have any sort of "Welcome to Linux/Debian/Gnome/Your-New-Unfamiliar-System" screen, or even a Read/IgnoreMeFirst file in plain view. For a user that's clueful enough to get this far and not much farther, that would be a welcome addition. Tell them where to go to change config files. Have a universal config file editor (with color highlighting, like a code editor). Heck, throw in a list of available config files and let them pick from a list which one they want to screw around with. And keep a backup when they do. Do it transparently. Once they're comfortable with that, they can read the next section in the readme/welcome-screen and find out how to get into the CLI and ls/cp/mv/rm/sudo/grep/tail and all that other stuff. Warn the
I like your dig at underpaid workers with the "cashiers can't give change" thing. I don't agree, though.
Change is not a complex calculation. It's a lookup and a running total. You take the 10's complement of the smallest non-zero digit. You take the 9's complement of the rest of the larger digits. You start grabbing change and keep a running total, checking that total with each piece of money you pick up that you're not grabbing too much.
Cashiers do that sort of thing enough that any one of them with two braincells to rub together has figured it out, though possibly not quite in the terms I state it above.
But most cashiers aren't paid enough to care. So, if you really want to rant about a society with no losers, why not try using an example of someone who isn't on the losing end of society's shitter?
No, glitches are perfectly acceptable, even in online play. It's uptight people that lack a grip on reality that ruin games for everyone. Life isn't fair. It never was. It never will be. Those people need to get used to it.
Making a UT keybind to zoom by changing FOV is allowed by the game, only to be disabled at the behest of pathetic whiners calling it "cheating". It is NOT cheating. It doesn't magically play the game for you. It doesn't give you any more advantage than anyone else has. It got so bad that at one point, UT servers wouldn't allow me to connect because my DesiredFOV and DefaultFOV were set to 120 and my.ini file was read only. Only an asshat would gripe about such trivial things. But someone must've griped, because that anti-"cheat" script was written to look for that.
Then there are all the "CE" maps that people make because there are minor BSP holes and such. Get over it. Those things happen, and they make the game that much more real, more fun, deeper, and more challenging. Personally, I always view the ductwork in the foyer of the blue base in CTF-Coret to be a hideout for a flak whore. If I'm attacking, I take a run through there to ensure it's clear. The end. Problem solved. No whining, no griping, no wadded shorts.
Aimbots should be dealt with harshly, however. That much we can agree on.
Wow... I went to that Game List page you linked...
There's a guy on there that beat metroid in 29 minutes, beating both minibosses, and not using the NARPASSWORD code. "Most impressive."
My personal best (using the above password) is 18 minutes. But I don't have a video because I don't think using that password should count. Especially when you escape from both miniboss areas by using the pause, controller 2 -> up + A reset code.
In case you want to try it: 1) Start a game by using the password NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000 (gives all items including both freeze and wave beams, unlimited missiles and unlimited energy) 2) Make a dead run for Ridley and beat his sorry ass. 3) Pause, press Up+A on controller 2. Unlike a normal game, since you used NARPASSWORD, this warps you to the start of the *game* instead of the last elevator you used. 4) Make a beeline for Kraid. Whoop him. 5) Warp to the start again. 6) Run to Tourian and romp the Mother Brain. 7) Exit to the ending. (I got >800 left on that timer once...)
I timed it with a stopwatch, so it's not perfect to the nanosecond or anything, but it took right around 18 minutes. It breathed a little life back into a game I had so thoroughly enjoyed as an 8 year old. I wish I knew that code back in the day...
Only in Soviet America, and only if you're caught.
The vast majority of Americans couldn't figure out who Deep Throat was. And this despite the fact that he was the #2 guy in the FBI at the time. Do you think they're gonna be able to deduce who "the guy that broke those annoying restrictions that wouldn't let me get the latest top 40 songs off of kazaa" is?
And that's just if it's a guy that lives in the USA. I don't see too many countries following the lead of the USA on this DMCA thing. Just a few "western" countries, which are all lapdog countries anyway. I don't see Taiwan or any number of other countries making a DMCA clone in their neck of the woods. One company there could make the chips, and the company next door could be writing software to bypass them with valid (but fake) responses. Heck, they could be the same company.
So... who's going to jail for breaking a law that doesnt exist and isn't viewed as legitimate by anyone, anywhere? That's a tough one.
I bought a G3 tower (beige) in 1998. I still use it. It's a Debian PPC Samba domain controller.
I bought a G3 Powerbook in 1999. I still use it. It's a chat/email/web-surfing machine, running OSX 10.3.9.
I bought a generic PC in 2002 to make Unreal Tournament maps and playing games (like UT, of course). I've since upgraded it and it has become 2 PC's, but I gave the old one away to my dad (for use as a word/excel/notepad-type record keeping machine for his business). Mine runs Win2k+SP4. Dad's runs the same, but doesn't have an internet connection, so it doesn't get updated (or exposed to nasties, so no harm no foul).
I bought a Mac Mini for use as a HTPC. It's working well. It runs 10.3.whatever-it-shipped-with, and is not (yet) connected to my network (and therefore not the internet either).
Mac installed-base is 75%, PC gets 25%. Are my numbers factored in correctly? Probably not. I'm guessing that I'm counted as 1 Mac. That's either by chalking me up to whatever I have the most of, or by counting my last purchase (the Mac Mini) as replacing whatever the previous purchase was. And one of those PC's wouldn't be counted at all because I acquired it over the course of a year and a half as parts (and shouldn't be counted, since I gave the old one away).
Another thing to consider: Mac people tend not to replace their Macs at all. They add to the collection. It's amazing to see, but you can take a totally clueless designer-type, sell them a new Mac, and watch them become a combination of designer and geek. Once they have 2 Macs, they start asking questions about "how do I get them to talk to each other?" and "wait, can't I make the old one do work just like it used to and still use the new one?", which are questions that the typical disposable-PC person won't even dream of. Once they see that they can indeed use more than one computer at once, they quickly learn some basic networking and system admin stuff, which leads them to more and more geek stuff. Eventually, they leave the newbie-geek phase and head off into more difficult stuff.
It happened to me (though I wasn't a designer to start with, I was a wannabe geek), and I've seen it happen to others. PC's hold people back by being cheap, disposable crap.
Bungie used to sell their games (Marathon and Myth series) with two keys. One was for the primary machine it was to be played on (which was considered the server in a network game). The other key was for a network client only. IIRC, you could call Bungie and get more LAN keys for little to no cost.
Of course, I never had much reason to copy their games, since I've never found a Bungie game that was worth the powder it takes to blow it to hell. Not Halo, not any of the Marathons, and certainly not Myth or its sequels. They're one of those companies that gets a lot of hype and a few rabid fans (for reasons unknown to sane humans anywhere), but their products suck rocks.
I'm gonna go a little farther with this set of critiques...
1 - Very limited due to hardware of the day. Desperately needs a remake to at least bring it up to the level of 6. Magic system was far too simple. Item system was OK.
2 - Needs a *real* US release. Playstation ports are slow and sucky. GBA lacks the living-room-comfort factor Also should get "the treatment" and bring it up to more modern standards. Once they've done that, I could play it and comment on it as a game.
3 - Has anyone that doesn't read/speak Japanese even seen this one? Same stuff as 2.
4 - Fuck "easytype". Give me the real deal. And a sequel. They did X-2, why not IV-2? Then again, there really wasn't much left to do at the end. As far as the game goes, Magic left much to be desired, though weapons/armor were fleshed out quite nicely. Needs a few more special items (tails and such) and some side quests.
5 - Ownage. Needs an update, but not much of one. A few more secrets and side quests would be nice. The Job/Ability system kicks ass, as does most of the magic. It would be nice if you couldn't just walk into shops in the first 3 towns and buy 90% of the black/white spells in the game, though. 1 had them spread out through the entire game, which was nice.
6 - Perfection. Scads of playable characters, and a way to configure your battle parties accordingly. Spells were restricted at first (making them precious), then opened up to all (making them powerful). This was balanced by the large numbers of MP needed to cast anything worthwhile and the small MP gained on each level-up. Weapons/Armor is fleshed out to the max. Plenty of secrets, special items, and side quests to go around.
7 - OH GOD IT BURNS! No story, awful magic system, weapons/armor are pathetic at best, secrets, special items, and side quests all spring from a crunched release schedule and the inability for Square to release a finished game on time combined with the odd quirks of leftover code that had to be cordoned off from the player's view. How many billion hours of perfectly useable geek time were wasted trying to figure out how to get Aeris back?
8 - The story is just... odd. It makes NO sense. None. It's there, it's trying, but all you can get from it are bits and pieces due to crappy cutscenes and lack of meaningful dialogue. But all the FF's have suffered from a distinct lack of meaningful dialogue (like "..." in, well, all the FF games and check out Zany Videogame Quotes for more). The magic system was interesting and refreshing. It would've worked better if it was added onto one of the other FF magic systems. Weapons/Armor were virtually nonexistent.
9 - I only played this one a little bit. I remember getting to disc 2. The constant splitting of your party got annoying very quickly. Every cutscene would send someone else out of your party in a game where you would barely survive even regular random fights. Very difficult. And the story was getting weird by disc 2. I don't remember magic being crap like some of the others, so it must've been ok. Weapons and armor were hard to come by, I recall. I never made it far enough to get to any special stuff or side quests.
And that's when I gave up on Final Fantasy. I don't have as much time to play as I used to, and I think that's part of why I didn't enjoy the more recent games. Or maybe they really were just that crappy, and I just lost interest quickly due to that. One thing is for sure... whether they make their games for Nintendo or not, they need to go back to making them like the ones they used to make for Nintendo. The ones on Sony systems should be destroyed, buried, and forgotten.
Slashdot Mirror
Installing Windows has a tendency to make you drool. It's just an unavoidable fact. In fact, in the (as yet unpublished) Windows installation manual, the first step is to get one of those keyboard cover membranes (you know, the ones they used to put on all the lab PC's in high school). That way, you won't short anything out or have burnt lips from becoming the shortest path to ground.
Umm... Were you born that wrong, or did you learn your ways over time?
Install Apache (1.3 or 2.0) on Windows sometime. If you open up Computer Management (quite possibly the best and maybe even the only good feature of Windows) and go to the Services section, you'll find Apache in the list. Select it. Now, at the top of the window, there's a button with a "play" arrow. Click it. Wow! Apache started! Next to that, there's a "stop" square. Next is a "pause" double bar. Last in line is a "restart" square/arrow combo. All of these work with Apache.
Another poster mentioned the Apache Service Monitor tool. It's handy if you have more than one server around, since it lets you control them remotely without hassle. It too has the start/stop/restart buttons.
And again, on Windows... Look in your Start menu. Apache creates a program group during installation that contains a Control Apache Server folder, in which you'll find some batch files... One for Stop Apache Server, one for Start Apache Server, and one for Restart Apache Server.
There are plenty of "stupid" ways of running apachectl -whatever in Windows. But only the first one above allows you to right click and go to properties. And guess what you find in that properties window... Yeah. [Start] [Stop] [Pause] [Resume] - More buttons. But only stupid newbies would use those, right?
(Before you reply to this assuming that I'm serious, I'd like to present you with a gift: A nice, shiny, new electric sarcasm carving knife.)
Funny that you should mention SGI and Apple together and how SGI was faring 7 years ago.
In 1998 (that's 7 years ago, right?), I was looking to buy an O2 system. I was looking at a system with a price tag of around $6000. (Now, I know that it was way too much, but back then I was convinced that "more expensive" meant "better".)
I ended up buying a Power Mac G3 (beige) instead. And thank goodness. And it only cost me $5000 for that system, including the monitor. (Eep!)
You, sir, are the reason the words "nutjob" and "hippie" were invented. Let me count the ways...
1) We're not running out of oil anytime soon.
Oil isn't just a biomatter byproduct, it's also a naturally-occurring geochemical substance. Remember, this planet has been here for billions of years, and has had life on it for most (80% or more) of that time. That alone provides more biological oil than we could use in thousands of years.
Add to that the quantity of geochemical oils that are produced by normal geological processes in Earth's mantle layer. Animal and plant life are not the only sources of carbon on this planet.
Now add to that agricultural oils that we produce from recently-departed plants. We use those to further dilute the other types of oil we find, and stretch it further. And despite what you probably think, oil doesn't degrade over time unless you expose it to oxygen (which doesn't happen in pressurized underground deposits).
We won't be running out of oil anytime soon.
2) Oil doesn't have to be a huge source of pollution.
True, we're misusing oil, but we are improving in our understanding and methods of using it. Cars now burn fuel noticably cleaner than cars from 10 years ago. And cars from 10 years ago burn fuel noticably cleaner than cars 10 years before them. And so on, all the way back to when cars were invented. It's not just about cleaner emissions, though, since burning a fuel in a cleaner way causes more energy to be released from it, causing more power output. Theoretically, only water and a little carbon dioxide should be left after gasoline oxidation. The more engines improve, the closer we'll get to that theoretical limit point.
Not using oil is just a stupid suggestion.
3) This planet can easily sustain a lot more than 6 billion people.
Given current usable land area on Earth, if everyone (man, woman, and child) was allowed an acre of land (so a normal family would have around 3-5 acres), the Earth can sustain 46 billion people. No one would starve. No one would be homeless. No one would be crammed in a tiny apartment with a couch, a TV, and a hot plate.
The "land area" calculation used for this example purposely excluded deserts, mountain peaks, and the polar regions (all of which are nearly uninhabitable).
Clearly, reducing the population is not necessary.
Your point number 3 is a sensible one, however. But unfortunately, I fear there are far too many people in power that want to keep that power. This would remove their power over the rushed, oppressed, poor common people who are locked-in to central government and locked-in to inefficient and costly utilities controlled by... the same people who have the power.
That said, I doubt people ever lived in caves when houses were available, and I don't think an asteroid will ever hit Earth again. But that's just me.
The party is just beginning.
old models of spawning monsters behind you when you pick up something doesn't work anymore. That worked in an arcade game, but not in a story driven game focusing on realism
I disagree. There are multiple points where that happens in Unreal (the old original one).
Probably the most memorable one is the Stone Titan battle. You see him on his throne, but he doesn't move. You can walk up to him, walk on him, shoot him, make noise, fight the other enemies in the area, whatever. But the moment you steal his treasure, he's gonna try to whoop your ass! It was CLASSIC pick-up-the-item-and-get-ambushed. And it was good.
Why was it good? Because they did it right. They didn't make enemies suddenly appear all around you. They had an enemy that was inactive become active when you stole his stuff. It's something that would be believable in real life (if real life included crash-landing on a planet full of reptile warriors and being the one and only human to whoop ass and live through the ordeal).
This illustrates the difference between "arcade" gamers (as you claim to be), and "realism" gamers (which I seem to share more traits with).
"Arcade" gamers play games for the sake of games. They understand how games work, and therefore, couldn't care less how the enemies got there. They already know how the enemies got there. They understand that The Game deposits enemies into the playing field when it's supposed to, and it's your "job" to kill them.
"Realism" gamers play games to be immersed in a world. They may or may not know how games work, and their pickiness about just how real a game has to be varies from player to player. They see enemies dropping in as a story element rather than a command to blast things to smithereens. They want enemies that appear to be accompanied by dropships or the sparky fizzle of a transporter beam or at least fall through holes in the roof (Unreal did this a lot). But the enemies have to come from somewhere. They can't just randomly appear. (There are exceptions - like random battles in Final Fantasy games, which happen in areas where your zoomed-out view wouldn't allow you to see the enemies anyway.)
I hate to admit it, but I've actually bought a few id games. Quake 3, which people swore was better than Unreal Tournament (damn liars...), Return to Castle Wolfenstein (good, but somehow felt too stiff), and... well... no, that's it. I guess I really don't care if id makes a comeback, and perhaps you can see why. I don't begrudge anyone their favorites, though, so good luck to them and you.
No. Or even any of them past 6. There's just no way they could make something as good ever again. Unless they redid 6.
Yes, but he would be scum without a way to transmit his scumminess without the efforts of the *AA's.
If they had just left things alone (as the laws were a mere 15 years ago, even), this guy would be so far up shit creek he'd think it was swiss chocolate.
I'm more than positive that the Motion Picture Association of America is more than prepared for dealing with that sort of chaff in today's legal atmosphere.
That's because they are that sort of chaff in today's legal atmosphere. This is the problem they've caused coming back to bite them in the ass. More "intellectual property" rights means they lose too. It's just a matter of how quickly they buy laws to undo the ones they've recently purchased to cause this sort of imbalance.
Ack! Phooey. Here I thought I had magically invented numbers that didn't exist before. But you're right. It's 2^32*2, not 32^32.
The remaining points still stand, however. It would be trivial for organizations that need more address space to simply make another subnet.
And I later thought of something that would allow easier-to-remember numbers (though it's not completely perfect, since lazy people would still have to make an effort to remember something). Break it into 16-bit chunks. instead of "19.128.77.198::0.0.0.2" put "4992.19910::0.2". Or start issuing phone numbers like "1380.4dc6::0.2" and see how fast people learn hex. It's not like most people remember numbers these days anyway. They just program them into their phones.
I just read through way too much drivel about IPv6 vs. NAT just now.
:: when dialing, so the above number would be dialed as "233*67*94*199#0*0*0*2". And if I wanted to connect to her webserver, I'd point my browser at "233.67.94.199::0.0.0.3".
:: x.x.x.x :: x.x.x.x)
Here's the way things really should go. There are two possibilities, and they're not mutually exclusive.
1) For mobile devices:
Mobile devices should be addressed by a hardware address. This hardware address shouldn't be tied directly to the device, however, as mobile devices can be broken or lost easily. This is do-able right now with SIM cards. They have a SIM ID that could be used in place of an outdated phone number system. (Let's face it, POTS is ancient and crufty, and so are its numbering systems.) If you drop your cell phone and break it, move the SIM card to the new one.
One thing to watch out for here, though: All cell phones must use the same protocols, and all cell providers must use the same protocols. This ends their convenient lock-in semi-monopolies on their customers. This is a practice that isn't going to end without a fight.
2) Wired devices:
Wired devices should use an assigned address. IPv4-style 4-octet addresses are fine. But the arrangement needs to be a bit more logical. They need to be arranged in a hierarchy. From 0.0.0.2 to 255.255.255.255, every address should be valid. 0.0.0.0 should be reserved as a null address (duh) and 0.0.0.1 should be the localhost address (or "self" or "this" or "me"). Any other address can be a node. Any node can serve as a gateway to a COMPLETE subnet.
So if I want to reach grandma's wired VoIP phone, her number is "233.67.94.199::0.0.0.2". A phone keypad wouldn't have to be changed, as you could use * for . and # for
And there would, with only a two-level hierarchy, be more addresses than IPv6 offers(*). With more levels in that hierarchy, there would be no such thing as an address shortage. And to top it all off, I'm guessing the top-level routing equipment wouldn't have to be substantially changed. It's still just routing from one IPv4 address to another. The gateways would all have to change, though.
Notice another thing about this IPv4^n idea: Hierarchical NAT bypass. Notice how it resembles a C++ (and copycats) scope-resolution operator and how it resolves the scope of the actual device address and how it could easily be extended to multiple levels beyond what I've suggested.
(*)If you don't believe me, do the math:
IPv6:
2^128 = 3.402823669e38
IPv4^2 (IPv4-sqared)
32^32 = 1.461501637e48
IPv4^3 (x.x.x.x
32^32^32 = 1.461501637e1536
With those IPv4^n address spaces, you have to remember that you don't get quite that many addresses, as you lose 0.0.0.0 and 0.0.0.1 from each range and subrange. In IPv4^2, you lose 8-billion-something addresses - 2 main-range addresses plus 2 addresses from each of the 4-billion-something-minus-two subranges. That's a trivial loss in the scope of this scheme, and yet is almost twice as many addresses as we have available right now.
Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't "autoconfiguration" be the same thing as Dynamic Hardware Configuration Protocol? In which case, a non-NAT firewall and router would still need to have it. The only thing that should disappear is NAT.
No, you have your enemies confused with those who could be turned to serve your purposes.
Call the *AA's "child rapists" for what they've done to some less-than-18-year-old file sharers. Then unleash the media on this wonderful new catchphrase. Media attention works both ways, and not every media outlet is in bed with the music and movie industries. Yet. Move quickly and the mouth froth may belong to the good guys.
If the DA "slaps a terrorist label on my forehead" for anything that isn't actually terrorism, he'll be facing a libel and/or slander suit. At least the DA personally, if not the whole DA's office. This shit has to stop.
And before you trot out the argument that you can't sue him for that, you'd be dead wrong. If there's suspicion that I'm distributing copyrighted goods, then fine. Let them investigate. If there's suspicion that I'm in posession of stolen goods, again, let them investigate. But when they lose both of those trails and decide to label me a terrorist without sufficient cause, that's slander.
And I'll take their backers (read: *AA) to task for it too. Libel and/or slander (depending on whether it made it into print or not) is enough to cost the *AA's a lot, especially if it becomes known that you can do it. They expect people to just roll over and take it. It's like the mob. When you fight back, they're suprised. That's your cue to obliterate them. Sue for ownership if you can get it.
Though I'm not a complete newb, I am a newb to Linux. I did some research a few months back because I wanted to try Linux. I tried all the big names and found that they all had something huge in common - none of them have a decent website. Finding a download page is like herding cats. After finding download pages on each one, I found that I liked the install options for Debian best. They offer a bootable CD for their net-install, so I grabbed it and tried it.
It asked a half-dozen questions (most of which are asked when you install Windows from scratch too), then asked something along the lines of:
"What will you be using this machine for? Pick one:
1) Desktop/Workstation
2) Web server
3) File server
4) Print server
5)..."
It then asked something like:
"Would you like to add any major functionality? Pick as many as you like:
1) Web server
2) Samba server
3)..."
Then it took an hour and a half to download and install the packages I selected. At that point, it asked to restart without the CD (note: Windows does this twice during install, so it's NOT going to detract from Linux). Once it rebooted, there was a login screen and then a working desktop.
On each of those "extra" screens that Windows doesn't have (because they bilk you for a desktop version, a workstation version, and a server version in three different packages and pricing schemes), the default was what a newb would probably want. It defaulted to Desktop/Workstation on the "pick one" option, and it defaulted to nothing selected on the "pick as many as you want" options. In all this, it installed a default email client, a default web browser, a default everything else. And a bunch of games. All in a default window manager that worked just fine for my purposes.
Now for the point of this post... I disagree with both the parent and the grandparent posters. A newb doesn't need to know what those things are. I don't know what those things are, and I had a working desktop up and running inside of two hours (again, net-install is slow). What matters is not the number of choices, but what those choices are. If you're asking them to decide what the machine is supposed to be used for, people are going to be able to answer that. But if you're asking them whether they want Thing A or Thing B and they have no clue what either of them is, then they can't answer it because... they have no clue what either of them is!
There's another point here, though. And it comes in the form of apt-get's GUI. If I'm a newb that has a clue (which I am), I can go to this cool GUI pane in the system config menu that lets me go get new stuff for free. I checkmark a bunch of items that I want (like Samba, which I didn't install at first), a tool here, a game there, whatever. Then I can hit the "go get my new free stuff" button and in a few minutes have (dun dun dun) security holes! Whee! It's not that Samba (or whatever else I get) isn't secure. It may be completely secure. It's just not configured for my setup, which means I, as a newb, have to go dick around in config files and change stuff.
Fortunately, it seems they thought of that already. Whatever window manager it is that comes with Debian by default (Gnome, I think) doesn't have any sort of "Welcome to Linux/Debian/Gnome/Your-New-Unfamiliar-System" screen, or even a Read/IgnoreMeFirst file in plain view. For a user that's clueful enough to get this far and not much farther, that would be a welcome addition. Tell them where to go to change config files. Have a universal config file editor (with color highlighting, like a code editor). Heck, throw in a list of available config files and let them pick from a list which one they want to screw around with. And keep a backup when they do. Do it transparently. Once they're comfortable with that, they can read the next section in the readme/welcome-screen and find out how to get into the CLI and ls/cp/mv/rm/sudo/grep/tail and all that other stuff. Warn the
I like your dig at underpaid workers with the "cashiers can't give change" thing. I don't agree, though.
Change is not a complex calculation. It's a lookup and a running total. You take the 10's complement of the smallest non-zero digit. You take the 9's complement of the rest of the larger digits. You start grabbing change and keep a running total, checking that total with each piece of money you pick up that you're not grabbing too much.
Cashiers do that sort of thing enough that any one of them with two braincells to rub together has figured it out, though possibly not quite in the terms I state it above.
But most cashiers aren't paid enough to care. So, if you really want to rant about a society with no losers, why not try using an example of someone who isn't on the losing end of society's shitter?
No, glitches are perfectly acceptable, even in online play. It's uptight people that lack a grip on reality that ruin games for everyone. Life isn't fair. It never was. It never will be. Those people need to get used to it.
.ini file was read only. Only an asshat would gripe about such trivial things. But someone must've griped, because that anti-"cheat" script was written to look for that.
Making a UT keybind to zoom by changing FOV is allowed by the game, only to be disabled at the behest of pathetic whiners calling it "cheating". It is NOT cheating. It doesn't magically play the game for you. It doesn't give you any more advantage than anyone else has. It got so bad that at one point, UT servers wouldn't allow me to connect because my DesiredFOV and DefaultFOV were set to 120 and my
Then there are all the "CE" maps that people make because there are minor BSP holes and such. Get over it. Those things happen, and they make the game that much more real, more fun, deeper, and more challenging. Personally, I always view the ductwork in the foyer of the blue base in CTF-Coret to be a hideout for a flak whore. If I'm attacking, I take a run through there to ensure it's clear. The end. Problem solved. No whining, no griping, no wadded shorts.
Aimbots should be dealt with harshly, however. That much we can agree on.
Wow... I went to that Game List page you linked...
There's a guy on there that beat metroid in 29 minutes, beating both minibosses, and not using the NARPASSWORD code. "Most impressive."
My personal best (using the above password) is 18 minutes. But I don't have a video because I don't think using that password should count. Especially when you escape from both miniboss areas by using the pause, controller 2 -> up + A reset code.
In case you want to try it:
1) Start a game by using the password NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000 (gives all items including both freeze and wave beams, unlimited missiles and unlimited energy)
2) Make a dead run for Ridley and beat his sorry ass.
3) Pause, press Up+A on controller 2. Unlike a normal game, since you used NARPASSWORD, this warps you to the start of the *game* instead of the last elevator you used.
4) Make a beeline for Kraid. Whoop him.
5) Warp to the start again.
6) Run to Tourian and romp the Mother Brain.
7) Exit to the ending. (I got >800 left on that timer once...)
I timed it with a stopwatch, so it's not perfect to the nanosecond or anything, but it took right around 18 minutes. It breathed a little life back into a game I had so thoroughly enjoyed as an 8 year old. I wish I knew that code back in the day...
I dare them to lock down the POTS. Perhaps the days of the BBS are merely in a sleeping state... And Winmodems are just sound cards. Fight the power!
Only in Soviet America, and only if you're caught.
The vast majority of Americans couldn't figure out who Deep Throat was. And this despite the fact that he was the #2 guy in the FBI at the time. Do you think they're gonna be able to deduce who "the guy that broke those annoying restrictions that wouldn't let me get the latest top 40 songs off of kazaa" is?
And that's just if it's a guy that lives in the USA. I don't see too many countries following the lead of the USA on this DMCA thing. Just a few "western" countries, which are all lapdog countries anyway. I don't see Taiwan or any number of other countries making a DMCA clone in their neck of the woods. One company there could make the chips, and the company next door could be writing software to bypass them with valid (but fake) responses. Heck, they could be the same company.
So... who's going to jail for breaking a law that doesnt exist and isn't viewed as legitimate by anyone, anywhere? That's a tough one.
You're making the same mistake as a lot of folks have...
Mac installed base (number of systems in use) is 16%.
Mac market share (number of systems sold in a given fiscal period) is 3%.
I could serve as an example here...
I bought a G3 tower (beige) in 1998. I still use it. It's a Debian PPC Samba domain controller.
I bought a G3 Powerbook in 1999. I still use it. It's a chat/email/web-surfing machine, running OSX 10.3.9.
I bought a generic PC in 2002 to make Unreal Tournament maps and playing games (like UT, of course). I've since upgraded it and it has become 2 PC's, but I gave the old one away to my dad (for use as a word/excel/notepad-type record keeping machine for his business). Mine runs Win2k+SP4. Dad's runs the same, but doesn't have an internet connection, so it doesn't get updated (or exposed to nasties, so no harm no foul).
I bought a Mac Mini for use as a HTPC. It's working well. It runs 10.3.whatever-it-shipped-with, and is not (yet) connected to my network (and therefore not the internet either).
Mac installed-base is 75%, PC gets 25%. Are my numbers factored in correctly? Probably not. I'm guessing that I'm counted as 1 Mac. That's either by chalking me up to whatever I have the most of, or by counting my last purchase (the Mac Mini) as replacing whatever the previous purchase was. And one of those PC's wouldn't be counted at all because I acquired it over the course of a year and a half as parts (and shouldn't be counted, since I gave the old one away).
Another thing to consider: Mac people tend not to replace their Macs at all. They add to the collection. It's amazing to see, but you can take a totally clueless designer-type, sell them a new Mac, and watch them become a combination of designer and geek. Once they have 2 Macs, they start asking questions about "how do I get them to talk to each other?" and "wait, can't I make the old one do work just like it used to and still use the new one?", which are questions that the typical disposable-PC person won't even dream of. Once they see that they can indeed use more than one computer at once, they quickly learn some basic networking and system admin stuff, which leads them to more and more geek stuff. Eventually, they leave the newbie-geek phase and head off into more difficult stuff.
It happened to me (though I wasn't a designer to start with, I was a wannabe geek), and I've seen it happen to others. PC's hold people back by being cheap, disposable crap.
Bungie used to sell their games (Marathon and Myth series) with two keys. One was for the primary machine it was to be played on (which was considered the server in a network game). The other key was for a network client only. IIRC, you could call Bungie and get more LAN keys for little to no cost.
Of course, I never had much reason to copy their games, since I've never found a Bungie game that was worth the powder it takes to blow it to hell. Not Halo, not any of the Marathons, and certainly not Myth or its sequels. They're one of those companies that gets a lot of hype and a few rabid fans (for reasons unknown to sane humans anywhere), but their products suck rocks.
I'm gonna go a little farther with this set of critiques...
1 - Very limited due to hardware of the day. Desperately needs a remake to at least bring it up to the level of 6. Magic system was far too simple. Item system was OK.
2 - Needs a *real* US release. Playstation ports are slow and sucky. GBA lacks the living-room-comfort factor Also should get "the treatment" and bring it up to more modern standards. Once they've done that, I could play it and comment on it as a game.
3 - Has anyone that doesn't read/speak Japanese even seen this one? Same stuff as 2.
4 - Fuck "easytype". Give me the real deal. And a sequel. They did X-2, why not IV-2? Then again, there really wasn't much left to do at the end. As far as the game goes, Magic left much to be desired, though weapons/armor were fleshed out quite nicely. Needs a few more special items (tails and such) and some side quests.
5 - Ownage. Needs an update, but not much of one. A few more secrets and side quests would be nice. The Job/Ability system kicks ass, as does most of the magic. It would be nice if you couldn't just walk into shops in the first 3 towns and buy 90% of the black/white spells in the game, though. 1 had them spread out through the entire game, which was nice.
6 - Perfection. Scads of playable characters, and a way to configure your battle parties accordingly. Spells were restricted at first (making them precious), then opened up to all (making them powerful). This was balanced by the large numbers of MP needed to cast anything worthwhile and the small MP gained on each level-up. Weapons/Armor is fleshed out to the max. Plenty of secrets, special items, and side quests to go around.
7 - OH GOD IT BURNS! No story, awful magic system, weapons/armor are pathetic at best, secrets, special items, and side quests all spring from a crunched release schedule and the inability for Square to release a finished game on time combined with the odd quirks of leftover code that had to be cordoned off from the player's view. How many billion hours of perfectly useable geek time were wasted trying to figure out how to get Aeris back?
8 - The story is just... odd. It makes NO sense. None. It's there, it's trying, but all you can get from it are bits and pieces due to crappy cutscenes and lack of meaningful dialogue. But all the FF's have suffered from a distinct lack of meaningful dialogue (like "..." in, well, all the FF games and check out Zany Videogame Quotes for more). The magic system was interesting and refreshing. It would've worked better if it was added onto one of the other FF magic systems. Weapons/Armor were virtually nonexistent.
9 - I only played this one a little bit. I remember getting to disc 2. The constant splitting of your party got annoying very quickly. Every cutscene would send someone else out of your party in a game where you would barely survive even regular random fights. Very difficult. And the story was getting weird by disc 2. I don't remember magic being crap like some of the others, so it must've been ok. Weapons and armor were hard to come by, I recall. I never made it far enough to get to any special stuff or side quests.
And that's when I gave up on Final Fantasy. I don't have as much time to play as I used to, and I think that's part of why I didn't enjoy the more recent games. Or maybe they really were just that crappy, and I just lost interest quickly due to that. One thing is for sure... whether they make their games for Nintendo or not, they need to go back to making them like the ones they used to make for Nintendo. The ones on Sony systems should be destroyed, buried, and forgotten.
Unhealthy?
Oh, dear lord... that's what's wrong with me. I knew there had to be some reason everyone kept calling me "sick".
No, The Picard Maneuver was when he would stand up and straighten his shirt.