How long before Valve start charging a subscription to play Half-Life 2 online through Steam and then disable users accounts of those who refuse to fork over the cash, hand over fist?
Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere. My brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game. Now he can't have a no CD crack, can't resell the game, and (so he tells me) can't get unofficial mods for the game without being booted). He bought an over the shelf game, no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count. "By opening the box containing this agreement you agree to all these terms etc...." WTF! Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement). Valve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made. They are two completely different things. I can understand the need for security against warez, but you can't just apply an essentially illegal practice either(i.e. get kids to sign EULAs, after they buy the product). It's just dishonest.
Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc... . And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.
Will Valve do all this? Maybe. Will companies who follow Valves' example do this?
I can feel the fans flames beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this. Remember, this is why so many moved to FOSS. EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game player, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.
The old Dooms were hilarious. The facial expressions, the whole senario. I loved the guys shifty sideways glances, and the way the imps keened over and the shotgun went BOOM-CHA-CUCK, in just the right way.
I chuckle to myself whenever I play it now.
I also set my monitors settings to normal, but that's another story.
I didn't want surround sound. I wanted the gamma to be increased so I could actually see things instead of shooting at siloeuettes.
Maybe this is all still part of the 'atmosphere' scam that they put us through. No thanks iD, I preferred Doom 2. Faster, funnier, and better to play. If I'd wanted to shoot at blacker areas of dark screen, I'd have turned down the brightness on my monitor. Dark areas aren't scary. They're just annoying.
Instead of spending hours philosophising over how TV shows will effect your kids, why not sit down and talk with them for a few hours instead.
Violent INSERT_MEDIA_HERE will effect kids whos parents ahve close relationships with them much less than parents who see them for 40 minutes each day, excluding TV zombie time together and car trips.
I think we can all say with certainty, that any OS based on latin script, along with (still largely) latin based keyboards and paradigms, which dominates in south east asia, will lead only to a great wailing and a gnashing of teeth. Perhaps what is really needed is for south east asia to develop an OS based on their written and syntactic paradigms, rather that a latin based left to right, 26 letters, scheme. The best thing Intel could do to win customers would be to try to develop such a solution, rather than simply hacking english OSes to suit the rest of the world.
And to preempt the responses, what are the FOSS solutions to this problem? I hear chinese language support in linux is coming along. But what about the input issue?
No seriously this from the heirarchy of the people that brought you the Java API. The people who won't let ANYONE see their code. The people who dictate the form of java's every bytecode sequence. From the people who, by dictat, change, chop, depreciate and set every possible standard for java.
Compared to Sun, the catholic church is an anarchical movement. Compared to Sun, the Linux developers are like a diverging chaotical fractal matrix in 17 dimensions.
We wish to respond directly to the readers of slashdot.org, on the comments and complaints that have been voiced on this site, concerning the USPTO.
Here at the USPTO we grant patents without prejudice to trifling things like unoriginality, gross obviousness and indeed patentabiliy itself. Many posters on slashdot seem to think that this system is somehow flawed, and that it would be better that patents be thourghly and rigourously examined before they are granted. However, such a system would lead to CommuNaziTerrorists overrunning the US with cheap copyright infringing products. Hence it is proved that the system works and that slashdot readers are in league with the forces of evil.
Any attempts to undermine the credibility of the USPTO through subversive complaints or through the use of "common sense" arguments will be dealt with harshly under the terms of the DMCA, PATRIOT and (Insert Draconian Act Here) Acts.
Common Sense cannot and will not be tolerated by the USPTO.
Let us not forget the unmittigated disater that was the MGS2 story line. While the gameplay was good the plot was written by 666 old godzilla, soap opera and tales fron the crypt writers, stoned out on glue, buzzed up on caffine and living in a small mental asylum, with 333 monkey secretaries working on rusty typewriters.
Hopefully the same mistake has not been made during the production of MGS3.
Tagging children has nothing to do with their safety.
It is a means control them. And I don't mean control like, "Get that delinquient child under control". I mean control like "I own you child. You will not breath without my sayso."
Parent's don't _own_ their children. They're given a mandate by the society around them to raise that child to the best of their abilites(this can be revoked). Subjecting a child to invasive surveillance does not sound like good parenting.
Children have a right to privacy, just like everyone else.
Most people seem to be missing the central point of the article.
The idea seems to be to scan P2P networks for tracks. If the tracks on your PC have been downloaded "illegally", then the RIAA will send you a bill for the tracks, and a little extra for costs. Effectivly they will say: "You've got our tracks. Pay us money"
Now you can say, "Tsk,Tsk. Not a shread of proof do you have private company boy, except for your(possibly falsified) records. I might have borrowed the tracks from my friends, direct exchange etc. And besides, I had to format my disk yesterday anyway."
To which they will say(in the initial letter they sent you): "You can pay us the $100 you owe us now, or we will sue you under the DMCA, PATRIOT, HR2391, and just about any other bullshit law we got past the braindead zombies on capitol hill. You don't like it? We can sue you for that too. Pay us the danm money of face a lifetime of bankruptcy. P.S. Any attempts to start a protest group will also lead to instant litigation. Have a merry fucking christmas. Buy a CD for $30! Now piss off!"
But seriously, a PC could easily perform TiVO like functions, given the right hardware to interface with the TV. The hardware could just be a dumb comm interface, sold seperately.
Now here's one for the legal eagles.
The software performing the commercial skipping is simply a standardised FOSS program you download off the net. It wasn't a product, no one is selling it, so shouldn't it be exempt from FCC regulations? In other words, is software I write, or modify, at home myself, or software someone had freely given to me(gratis), subject to FCC regulations on commercial products?
Seriously, most proponents of RFID technology site its benefits in stock and supply line management only, and keep assurring us that RFID tags embedded in products will never be used to track people. And yet we're now seeing instances of the middleman, i.e the product tag, being bypassed altogether and people being tagged outright. Is this really what RFID was developed for in the first place? Tracking people?
OK, these people are children. But that doesn't make this any less wrong. First criminals, then kids. They'll start on employees next, move it up to registered drivers, you'll see.
Of course tagging children has nothing to do with their safety. Anyone who says so is a liar or an idiot. As has been mentioned numerous times, the legions of pedophiles that lurk outside scholl gates every day will simply take off the tag, as will the kids when they want to leave for that matter. Of course the response from RFIDphiles is "Let's implant the tag subdermally!!!! FOREVER!!!! What a great(completeely consistent with a free society) idea!!!". *Sigh*. Why can't so many people think past their next meal?
The purpose of RFID tracking people is to cause a chilling effect. This is denied in the case of children and the public, but is the primary reason given for tagging criminals. Bit of a contridiction there. Effectively tagging children is a form of control, and an extreamly invasive one at that. I don't care what age I am, or who you are. No-one should know and have a documented record of my exact movements. Period. You want to protect your kids? Sit down and talk with them once in a while. Find out where they go rather than right clicking on a toolbar icon to see where they are. Don't squash their, or my, freedoms just because your too busy watching fear factor to look after your own kids.
And of course when I start using by blocker tag, I'll be accused of aiding pedophiles and endangering the children. Won't someone please think of the children!!? I am!
I'm ready for people to start with the tinfoil hat cracks, but to them I say, this is the exact kind of thing you said would never happen!! Well it's happening right now! What are you going to do about it.
At last we'll have Hard data on Halo 2. Hopefully this will help clear the smog of positive Hype and negative FUD surrounding the game and potential buyers will actually be able to buy a game based on cold facts for once in the history of gaming. There should be more of this kind of thing.
This of course doesn't take into account the fact that most potential buyers have already gotten/ordered Halo 2 anyway.
Googling your medical symptoms, and going for trips to Fargo while seriously ill is _not_ the way to get better.
If the US health system wasn't on a "pay us money or drop dead" basis, he probobly would have gotten serious treatement by now. Probobly another reason to go to Canada.
Advice: Get to a hospital NOW Get serious treatement for disease Bed Rest until COMPLETELY cured. No not under any circumstances do anything at all related to computers, no matter how much you want to. Administrating Slackware systems is probobly half the cause of the disease.
About the best thing/.'ers could do right now is buy more slackware T-Shirts I guess.
Whatever about security flaws and errors introduced in SP2, it accommplpished one thing very well. It makes users more security conscious
The XP SP2 security center is the greatest thing to come out of Redmond since the start button. it forces users, through alerts to be aware of the vunerabilities of their own system. if they are without Antivirus, Firewall or automatic update, it tells them, and keeps telling them, until they fix the problem. This alone has saved me countless hours of explaining why security is important to people who just don't give a shit. For some bizarre reason, lecture after lecture from a techie on security will result in a user who still installs spyware ridden file sharers and smileys, browses on IE and won't install a simple antivirus, and who thinks your being paranoid. And yet a simple taskbar bubble proclaiming 'Your computer may be at risk' grabs and holds their attendion, to the extent that they actually do secure their PC(In as much as a windows PC can be secured). Security Center Rocks! Time for a Gnome Version methinks.
P.S. BITS is also a lifesaver! Now at least when little annie stops downloading MP3's for 5 minutes, updates will actually be downloaded. P.P.S. Remember to set the install time for the updates when you fix computers for friends and family. I find 0600 is good. Everyone is in bed, so no panic results when the installer dialog pops up. Of course the computer must be on 24/7 , but just tell them that turning it on and off too much will break it.
God!! Let's face it. Halo 2 was the most hyped game the world has ever seen. Never before has so much bulls*it, been spread around so such, for such a long time, by so many, for so little.
Not that Halo 2 wasn't an alright game. I thought it was quite good, except for the getting lost bits. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of Hype surrounding it could never have been matched by ANY game. I wrote a journal entry about this. Time to plug it. To sum it up, console patriotism, is bad m'kay.
First ILOVEBEES, now this. It would be better if Halo 2/3 just appeared in a puff of smoke and people enjoyed it for what it is, A Good game, rather than be dissappointed when the game fails to live up to the unmatchable hype.
if(RFID_scanning_is_illegal_search){ if(MoneysInvolved(massive_amount_of_data_in_privat e_hands) > A_LOT_OF_$$$) Appeal();
else
printf("You have no Privacy, get over it\n"); endl;
return A_LOT_OF_$$$; }
return OUTSCOURCED_RFID_PROFITS; }
bool JudgesRuling(double possible_infraction){
if(CongressApproves()) return false; else if(MoneysInvolved(possible_infraction) > A_LOT_OF_$$$) return false; else if(CorperationsArgueBetter()) return false; else return true;//should never get here }
We need a way to plug and play standard youypads in Linux AND a uniform method for programs to interface with them. Till then, emulation, as well as gaming in general will lag behind in linux.
How can you play Street Fighter II on a keyboard. It's inhuman I tell you!
Source code is text, a document like any other. How come the halloween documents and other internal memos can be printed, but source code cannot? Are we moving source code into a position more akin to blueprints?(Which incidently, need to be approved by planning officials before you put the building up)
I wonder what this bodes for the whole source code is free speech? (which it bloody well is!!)
No, A Dual Joystick Controller Really Is Better
on
Halo 2 Released
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Before I am modded to the bowels of hell, I just want to say that, while many slashdotters' only expierience with FPS games has been with a keyboard and mouse, this doesn't mean that a dual joystick controller is nessessarily inferior.
The advantages of keyboard and mouse are as follows: Can move mouse to shoot anywhere on the screen easily.
This is good, yes. But consider the disadvantages for a moment.
1) Out of mousemat error.
Sooner or later, your going run out of mousemat when your turning and will have to lift the mouse back onto the pad to continue. Meaning you'll simply stop turning while your doing this. On a DJC, you just tilt the right analouge stick right or left for continuous turning.
2) Out of fingers error.
With a keyboard and mouse, you aim with the mouse, meaning one hand, and all its fingers, can only access, 2-3 buttons.(Scrollwheels help with this a lot though) Usually these are shoot,change weapon and other. Meanwhile your other fingers, usually 2-3, are stuck on WASD for moving. If you want to crouch, reload, zoom, jump or perhaps change weapon reverse, you will need to do some keyboard gymnastics, look down, or (horror of horrors) stop moving to press other buttons. On a DJC, one thumb is used for movement, the other for aiming. Flipper pads mean four buttons are easily reachable by two more fingers, and the dpad and other buttons are acessable by a nimble other if required. Bottom line. You can keep moving while you perform on the fly weapon maitainance. DJC has a lot more buffer space for out of fingers errors.
3) Mouse Error, Error. Most comupter mice are fairly cheap anyaway. Mice get junk in the wheels. Even optical mice glitch from time to time. Buttons sometimes get stuck, and of course hands may slip or be jostled from time to time. The average DJC is of a higher quaility than the average mouse and suffers far less from any of these problems.
4) Keyboard limitations Open up a text editor. Press and hold E. Without letting go hold C. Now while holding, tap U. See the problem? Now try W,D and E. E will not register. Try WAQ. There are umpteen other combinations. Keyboards can't handle many multiple keydown combinations. DJC can.
OK, the disadvantage of DJCs will no doubt be blasted endlessly at me. Less precision, etc, etc. But consider for a moment? Is a game filled with head shot hunting, rail driver packing, KBM gurus more or less fun than a game filled with DJC toting, ultra mobile, shotgun blasting, upclose and personal players?
And before you knock DJC, Try it out!! They're dirt cheap now, and are available anywhere. I know some will never budge from dogma, but if enough people follow me, then maybe I'll get more joypad support in Linux from now on.
Slashdot Mirror
BEGIN RAVING
Sweet, sweet justice!!!
Yah fork it over you data raping bastards! And I WILL take my custom elsewhere if you've been keeping too many tabs.
Get ready all you marketer scum! Your next!
END RAVING
On the down side, I can see them hiking extra fees on people to pay for 'cost increases' effectivly charging for the service.
Nonotheless, it will be VERY interesting to see what their keeping on us, assumming that is, that they will turn over ALL they have on us.
How long before Valve start charging a subscription to play Half-Life 2 online through Steam and then disable users accounts of those who refuse to fork over the cash, hand over fist?
Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere. My brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game. Now he can't have a no CD crack, can't resell the game, and (so he tells me) can't get unofficial mods for the game without being booted). He bought an over the shelf game, no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count. "By opening the box containing this agreement you agree to all these terms etc...." WTF! Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement). Valve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made. They are two completely different things. I can understand the need for security against warez, but you can't just apply an essentially illegal practice either(i.e. get kids to sign EULAs, after they buy the product). It's just dishonest.
Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc... . And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.
Will Valve do all this? Maybe.
Will companies who follow Valves' example do this?
I can feel the fans flames beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this. Remember, this is why so many moved to FOSS. EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game player, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.
What Distro(s) are you running?
Have you got any programming projects in the works?
The old Dooms were hilarious. The facial expressions, the whole senario. I loved the guys shifty sideways glances, and the way the imps keened over and the shotgun went BOOM-CHA-CUCK, in just the right way.
I chuckle to myself whenever I play it now.
I also set my monitors settings to normal, but that's another story.
I didn't want surround sound. I wanted the gamma to be increased so I could actually see things instead of shooting at siloeuettes.
Maybe this is all still part of the 'atmosphere' scam that they put us through. No thanks iD, I preferred Doom 2. Faster, funnier, and better to play. If I'd wanted to shoot at blacker areas of dark screen, I'd have turned down the brightness on my monitor. Dark areas aren't scary. They're just annoying.
Instead of spending hours philosophising over how TV shows will effect your kids, why not sit down and talk with them for a few hours instead.
Violent INSERT_MEDIA_HERE will effect kids whos parents ahve close relationships with them much less than parents who see them for 40 minutes each day, excluding TV zombie time together and car trips.
I think we can all say with certainty, that any OS based on latin script, along with (still largely) latin based keyboards and paradigms, which dominates in south east asia, will lead only to a great wailing and a gnashing of teeth. Perhaps what is really needed is for south east asia to develop an OS based on their written and syntactic paradigms, rather that a latin based left to right, 26 letters, scheme.
The best thing Intel could do to win customers would be to try to develop such a solution, rather than simply hacking english OSes to suit the rest of the world.
And to preempt the responses, what are the FOSS solutions to this problem? I hear chinese language support in linux is coming along. But what about the input issue?
BWAH HAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHA!!!!!
AHA! AHA!! Ahhhaa!
No seriously this from the heirarchy of the people that brought you the Java API. The people who won't let ANYONE see their code. The people who dictate the form of java's every bytecode sequence. From the people who, by dictat, change, chop, depreciate and set every possible standard for java.
Compared to Sun, the catholic church is an anarchical movement. Compared to Sun, the Linux developers are like a diverging chaotical fractal matrix in 17 dimensions.
Sarge! How did you escape from Halo AND land a multimillion dollar cameo role in a movie of your exploits?
Sarge: "That's classified."
Dear Slashdot Readers
We wish to respond directly to the readers of slashdot.org, on the comments and complaints that have been voiced on this site, concerning the USPTO.
Here at the USPTO we grant patents without prejudice to trifling things like unoriginality, gross obviousness and indeed patentabiliy itself. Many posters on slashdot seem to think that this system is somehow flawed, and that it would be better that patents be thourghly and rigourously examined before they are granted. However, such a system would lead to CommuNaziTerrorists overrunning the US with cheap copyright infringing products. Hence it is proved that the system works and that slashdot readers are in league with the forces of evil.
Any attempts to undermine the credibility of the USPTO through subversive complaints or through the use of "common sense" arguments will be dealt with harshly under the terms of the DMCA, PATRIOT and (Insert Draconian Act Here) Acts.
Common Sense cannot and will not be tolerated by the USPTO.
Good day to your sirs.
Yours sincerly
USPTO
Let us not forget the unmittigated disater that was the MGS2 story line. While the gameplay was good the plot was written by 666 old godzilla, soap opera and tales fron the crypt writers, stoned out on glue, buzzed up on caffine and living in a small mental asylum, with 333 monkey secretaries working on rusty typewriters.
Hopefully the same mistake has not been made during the production of MGS3.
No-one needs plug and play!
/mnt/djuh /dev/rtv7 | grep /etc/fstab "df5b" | less -i | umount /dev/null /mnt/floppy | rm -i -v /*
:E
All we need is
# mount -auto uid 0x0546
What could be simpler!
Tagging children has nothing to do with their safety.
It is a means control them. And I don't mean control like, "Get that delinquient child under control". I mean control like "I own you child. You will not breath without my sayso."
Parent's don't _own_ their children. They're given a mandate by the society around them to raise that child to the best of their abilites(this can be revoked). Subjecting a child to invasive surveillance does not sound like good parenting.
Children have a right to privacy, just like everyone else.
Most people seem to be missing the central point of the article.
The idea seems to be to scan P2P networks for tracks. If the tracks on your PC have been downloaded "illegally", then the RIAA will send you a bill for the tracks, and a little extra for costs. Effectivly they will say:
"You've got our tracks. Pay us money"
Now you can say,
"Tsk,Tsk. Not a shread of proof do you have private company boy, except for your(possibly falsified) records. I might have borrowed the tracks from my friends, direct exchange etc. And besides, I had to format my disk yesterday anyway."
To which they will say(in the initial letter they sent you):
"You can pay us the $100 you owe us now, or we will sue you under the DMCA, PATRIOT, HR2391, and just about any other bullshit law we got past the braindead zombies on capitol hill. You don't like it? We can sue you for that too. Pay us the danm money of face a lifetime of bankruptcy. P.S. Any attempts to start a protest group will also lead to instant litigation. Have a merry fucking christmas. Buy a CD for $30! Now piss off!"
To which you will say:
NO CARRIER
EMACS already does this.
But seriously, a PC could easily perform TiVO like functions, given the right hardware to interface with the TV. The hardware could just be a dumb comm interface, sold seperately.
Now here's one for the legal eagles.
The software performing the commercial skipping is simply a standardised FOSS program you download off the net. It wasn't a product, no one is selling it, so shouldn't it be exempt from FCC regulations? In other words, is software I write, or modify, at home myself, or software someone had freely given to me(gratis), subject to FCC regulations on commercial products?
Bear this in mind though.
bool The_System_Works{
if(A_LOT_OF_$$$ > 0)
return false;
else
return true;
}
Are these guys trying to piss off the volcano!?
Seriously, most proponents of RFID technology site its benefits in stock and supply line management only, and keep assurring us that RFID tags embedded in products will never be used to track people.
And yet we're now seeing instances of the middleman, i.e the product tag, being bypassed altogether and people being tagged outright. Is this really what RFID was developed for in the first place? Tracking people?
OK, these people are children. But that doesn't make this any less wrong. First criminals, then kids. They'll start on employees next, move it up to registered drivers, you'll see.
Of course tagging children has nothing to do with their safety. Anyone who says so is a liar or an idiot. As has been mentioned numerous times, the legions of pedophiles that lurk outside scholl gates every day will simply take off the tag, as will the kids when they want to leave for that matter. Of course the response from RFIDphiles is "Let's implant the tag subdermally!!!! FOREVER!!!! What a great(completeely consistent with a free society) idea!!!". *Sigh*. Why can't so many people think past their next meal?
The purpose of RFID tracking people is to cause a chilling effect. This is denied in the case of children and the public, but is the primary reason given for tagging criminals. Bit of a contridiction there. Effectively tagging children is a form of control, and an extreamly invasive one at that. I don't care what age I am, or who you are. No-one should know and have a documented record of my exact movements. Period. You want to protect your kids? Sit down and talk with them once in a while. Find out where they go rather than right clicking on a toolbar icon to see where they are. Don't squash their, or my, freedoms just because your too busy watching fear factor to look after your own kids.
And of course when I start using by blocker tag, I'll be accused of aiding pedophiles and endangering the children. Won't someone please think of the children!!? I am!
I'm ready for people to start with the tinfoil hat cracks, but to them I say, this is the exact kind of thing you said would never happen!! Well it's happening right now! What are you going to do about it.
RFID tracking is data rape.
At last we'll have Hard data on Halo 2.
Hopefully this will help clear the smog of positive Hype and negative FUD surrounding the game and potential buyers will actually be able to buy a game based on cold facts for once in the history of gaming.
There should be more of this kind of thing.
This of course doesn't take into account the fact that most potential buyers have already gotten/ordered Halo 2 anyway.
Googling your medical symptoms, and going for trips to Fargo while seriously ill is _not_ the way to get better.
/.'ers could do right now is buy more slackware T-Shirts I guess.
If the US health system wasn't on a "pay us money or drop dead" basis, he probobly would have gotten serious treatement by now. Probobly another reason to go to Canada.
Advice:
Get to a hospital NOW
Get serious treatement for disease
Bed Rest until COMPLETELY cured.
No not under any circumstances do anything at all related to computers, no matter how much you want to. Administrating Slackware systems is probobly half the cause of the disease.
About the best thing
Thank heaven for torrents!
I'd hate to see this guys internet bill if he puts up a download link!
Whatever about security flaws and errors introduced in SP2, it accommplpished one thing very well. It makes users more security conscious
The XP SP2 security center is the greatest thing to come out of Redmond since the start button. it forces users, through alerts to be aware of the vunerabilities of their own system. if they are without Antivirus, Firewall or automatic update, it tells them, and keeps telling them, until they fix the problem. This alone has saved me countless hours of explaining why security is important to people who just don't give a shit. For some bizarre reason, lecture after lecture from a techie on security will result in a user who still installs spyware ridden file sharers and smileys, browses on IE and won't install a simple antivirus, and who thinks your being paranoid. And yet a simple taskbar bubble proclaiming 'Your computer may be at risk' grabs and holds their attendion, to the extent that they actually do secure their PC(In as much as a windows PC can be secured).
Security Center Rocks!
Time for a Gnome Version methinks.
P.S.
BITS is also a lifesaver! Now at least when little annie stops downloading MP3's for 5 minutes, updates will actually be downloaded.
P.P.S.
Remember to set the install time for the updates when you fix computers for friends and family. I find 0600 is good. Everyone is in bed, so no panic results when the installer dialog pops up. Of course the computer must be on 24/7 , but just tell them that turning it on and off too much will break it.
God!! Let's face it. Halo 2 was the most hyped game the world has ever seen.
Never before has so much bulls*it, been spread around so such, for such a long time, by so many, for so little.
Not that Halo 2 wasn't an alright game. I thought it was quite good, except for the getting lost bits. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of Hype surrounding it could never have been matched by ANY game. I wrote a journal entry about this. Time to plug it. To sum it up, console patriotism, is bad m'kay.
First ILOVEBEES, now this. It would be better if Halo 2/3 just appeared in a puff of smoke and people enjoyed it for what it is, A Good game, rather than be dissappointed when the game fails to live up to the unmatchable hype.
#include "CURRENT_POLITICAL_CLIMATE_DEFINITIONS.h"d e "iostream.h"
a nds);
t e_hands) > A_LOT_OF_$$$) Appeal();
//should never get here
#inclu
bool JudgesRuling(double);
bool CongressApproves();
bool CoperationsArgueBetter();
double MoneysInvolved(double);
void Appeal();
void GoAheadAnyWay();
bool The_System_Works();
int main(int argc,char* argv[]){
bool RFID_tags_become_popular = CONSUMER_APATHY_INDICATOR;
long number_of_consumers = NUMBER_OF_SUCKERS;
long number_of_RFID_readers = CORPERATION_RUTHLESSNESS_INDICATOR;
double massive_amount_of_personal_data_in_private_hands =
RFID_tags_become_popular * number_of_consumers * number_of_RFID_readers * AVG_READS_PER_DAY * AVG_READ_COOKIE_SIZE;
bool RFID_scanning_is_illegal_search =JudgesRuling(massive_amount_of_data_in_private_h
if(RFID_scanning_is_illegal_search){ if(MoneysInvolved(massive_amount_of_data_in_priva
else
printf("You have no Privacy, get over it\n"); endl;
return A_LOT_OF_$$$;
}
return OUTSCOURCED_RFID_PROFITS;
}
bool JudgesRuling(double possible_infraction){
if(CongressApproves()) return false;
else if(MoneysInvolved(possible_infraction) > A_LOT_OF_$$$) return false;
else if(CorperationsArgueBetter()) return false;
else return true;
}
bool CongressApproves(){
if(CorperationsArgueBetter())
return true;
else
return false;
}
bool CorperationsArgueBetter(){
if(A_LOT_OF_$$$ > PROTESTERS_FUNDS)//always true
return true;
else
return false;
}
double MoneysInvolved(double data_recieved){
return data_recieved * NUMBER_OF_SUCKERS * DOLLARS_PER_SUCKER;
}
void Appeal(){
if(The_System_Works())
return;
else
GoAheadAnyWay();
}
void GoAheadAnyWay(){
printf("We will find other methods to make life better for consumers\n");
exit(-1);
}
bool The_System_Works(){
if(A_LOT_OF_$$$ > 0)
return false;
else
return true;
}
....is more JOYPAD support in linux.
We need a way to plug and play standard youypads in Linux AND a uniform method for programs to interface with them. Till then, emulation, as well as gaming in general will lag behind in linux.
How can you play Street Fighter II on a keyboard. It's inhuman I tell you!
Source code is text, a document like any other. How come the halloween documents and other internal memos can be printed, but source code cannot? Are we moving source code into a position more akin to blueprints?(Which incidently, need to be approved by planning officials before you put the building up)
I wonder what this bodes for the whole source code is free speech? (which it bloody well is!!)
Before I am modded to the bowels of hell, I just want to say that, while many slashdotters' only expierience with FPS games has been with a keyboard and mouse, this doesn't mean that a dual joystick controller is nessessarily inferior.
The advantages of keyboard and mouse are as follows:
Can move mouse to shoot anywhere on the screen easily.
This is good, yes. But consider the disadvantages for a moment.
1) Out of mousemat error.
Sooner or later, your going run out of mousemat when your turning and will have to lift the mouse back onto the pad to continue. Meaning you'll simply stop turning while your doing this. On a DJC, you just tilt the right analouge stick right or left for continuous turning.
2) Out of fingers error.
With a keyboard and mouse, you aim with the mouse, meaning one hand, and all its fingers, can only access, 2-3 buttons.(Scrollwheels help with this a lot though) Usually these are shoot,change weapon and other. Meanwhile your other fingers, usually 2-3, are stuck on WASD for moving. If you want to crouch, reload, zoom, jump or perhaps change weapon reverse, you will need to do some keyboard gymnastics, look down, or (horror of horrors) stop moving to press other buttons. On a DJC, one thumb is used for movement, the other for aiming. Flipper pads mean four buttons are easily reachable by two more fingers, and the dpad and other buttons are acessable by a nimble other if required. Bottom line. You can keep moving while you perform on the fly weapon maitainance. DJC has a lot more buffer space for out of fingers errors.
3) Mouse Error, Error.
Most comupter mice are fairly cheap anyaway. Mice get junk in the wheels. Even optical mice glitch from time to time. Buttons sometimes get stuck, and of course hands may slip or be jostled from time to time. The average DJC is of a higher quaility than the average mouse and suffers far less from any of these problems.
4) Keyboard limitations
Open up a text editor. Press and hold E. Without letting go hold C. Now while holding, tap U. See the problem? Now try W,D and E. E will not register. Try WAQ. There are umpteen other combinations. Keyboards can't handle many multiple keydown combinations. DJC can.
OK, the disadvantage of DJCs will no doubt be blasted endlessly at me. Less precision, etc, etc.
But consider for a moment? Is a game filled with head shot hunting, rail driver packing, KBM gurus more or less fun than a game filled with DJC toting, ultra mobile, shotgun blasting, upclose and personal players?
And before you knock DJC, Try it out!! They're dirt cheap now, and are available anywhere. I know some will never budge from dogma, but if enough people follow me, then maybe I'll get more joypad support in Linux from now on.