IBM Model M FOR THE FREAKING WIN. I definitely hear you with regards to the typing speed increase. I can just fly on my model m, but when I try typing on my laptop I type much slower.
Oh, and I love knowing that I could bludgeon someone to death with my keyboard and they would sustain more damage than my keyboard would.
If I were an asshole to a customer at work, one of the following would happen: A) My supervisor would congratulate me for standing up to the shithead customers, and tell me not to do it again. B) The customer would dive over the counter and try and beat the shit out of me right there. C) The customer would wait until I got off of work then knife me on my way home.
"(even though here in Europe right and left are somehow different than in the USA)"
I don't know about Europe, but I know in comparison to Canada, the 'left' American party (Democrats) is still right of our right party, the Conservatives.
"The school is In Loco Parentis... So by signing something during school hours in the presence of a school official is legally binding."
Ah, okay.
"my HS and College both had little blurbs every time you logged in that says "You may only log in if you agree to abide by all rules, you are responsible for anything that happens from your account, so be sure to log out"."
Yeah, my school's just say "All activity is being monitored.".
Anyways, on the original topic, I think the friend is in the wrong, but I don't think the school has any right to threaten legal action. Suspension (for unacceptable use of the computers or something), sure, but not legal action.
Well, I think my school requires it, but they're incredibly disorganized about it.
They handed one out to the whole class I was in to sign, then went and picked them back up, not checking if they were signed, and since then none of the CS classes I've taken have had a teacher who's bothered to check to make sure we've signed the agreement.
(Not that the agreement is any use, as a minor I'd need my legal guardian to sign it also, unless my understanding of the law is incorrect.)
"Your console games could be installed to the hard drive, so you should get free replacements there? In theory your DVDs could be ripped into memory in a DVD player. Free replacements?"
In theory.
In reality, for console games you need a mod chip installed, which the companies are quite against, and for DVD movies you have to break the CSS/other copy protection the companies have put on there to prevent exactly that.
"If you don't like it, don't buy them. You are agreeing to their terms by purchasing them. Period. End of story."
Agreeing to what terms? Sorry?
I don't recall signing any sort of contract the last time I bought a game, never mind even getting a chance to _read_ any terms.
And for the record, I don't like it, and I don't buy most games. I pirate most games so I can find out how shitty they are and remind myself why I don't buy them.
The odd time I do find one that's pretty good, I'll go out and buy it and leave it sit unopened on the shelf and continue to use my pirated version (why bother reinstalling?). Oh, and I did buy Galactic Civilization II without even trying a demo first just because of Stardock's enlightened views on copyright infringement and piracy.
Unless the game company puts the copy protection requiring a CD into the game, you could simply leave the CD in the case all the time, except the odd time you have to reinstall it, giving it almost no chance to be damaged. There is absoloutely no reason to require a CD simply to use a program besides the copy protection.
With something like an iPod, you have to actually pull it out to use it, etc, with the CD the only reason you have to pull it out of the case to use it is because it makes the game/software companies feel better.
Again: CD: Cause of 'wear & tear' is basically the software company and their pointless CD checks. Something the user doesn't want. iPod: Cause of 'wear & tear' is use for the intended purpose, which is something the user _wants_.
CD: Costs <$1 to replace. iPod: Costs >$100 to replace.
Your toaster sits on your counter all the time. You are required to constantly move CDs around because all the games require the CD to be in the drive to play.
If your toaster gets scratched or takes some slight damage, even just wear and tear, it stills works fine. You scratch the wrong sector off of a CD, it's toast (haha punny).
It would cost them what, $20? $30?, to replace a toaster. It probably costs a publisher $0.50 for a pressed CD. If that.
If they're going to require me to put the CD in the drive every damn time I want to use their software (it could sit safely in its case on my shelf if it weren't for the copy protection), then yes, I do expect them to replace it when it finally stops working.
I think the reason there aren't more games for females is because they're probably harder to make.
Most males will be happy with anything with some rigid rules and defined goals, like D&D-based games, FPSs, etc. A lot of them will also like more 'manly' things like fighting and racing.
Most females want somewhere they can go outside the bounds and express their creativity, etc.
(For example, I know of at least a couple females who can entertain themselves for hours with MS Paint, but can't stay interested in some sort of RPG long enough to even figure out what's going on. I imagine they like The Sims because it's very open-ended allowing them to experiment and create scenerios, etc.)
Or at least this is how I see it. I think it just boils down to males being more left-brained where-as females are more right-brained. Making a game like The Sims or something is going to be a lot more work than mashing out another FPS or RPG.
If you enjoy first-person shooters, do you think of the games as actually very different from each other
I think if you ask any person who plays FPSs they will find the differences quite obvious, eg:
FEAR: Provides the 'slow-mo' thing. More futuristic weapons. Rewards a bit of stealth and strategy by becoming a lot easier. Not the greatest storyline ever but good for a bit of a scare;)
Splinter Cell: Heavy emphasis on stealth and finding alternate solutions rather than killing people. Small selection of weapons, none of them very powerful.
HL/HL2: Great story, lots of puzzles.
SWAT 4: Completely different rules of engagement than the other FPSs. Provides a wide selection of weapons with emphasis on realism. Requires lots of quick thinking (should I shoot? am I authorized to shoot here?) and strategy (if you try and go rambo you _will_ either die or lose by some other means).
or is there something enjoyable about the repetition of them?
Idunno, personally I don't really play any FPS that are like the others. This probably makes me a pretty terrible person to be answering this question, but maybe your assumption that all people who play FPSs play a bunch of redundant ones is wrong?
I'm pretty sure this trick you speak of has nothing to do with spoofing anything, it goes something like this:
Host A and B are behind seperate NAT gateways.
Host A sends a UDP packet from port 1234 to NAT B port 1234. NAT A creates the reverse rule for the UDP (Allow NAT B 1234 -> Host A 1234). Host B Sends a UDP packet from port 1234 to NAT A port 1234. NAT B creates the reverse rule for the UDP (Allow NAT A 1234 -> Host B 1234).
Host A & B can now send UDP packets to each other through the NAT.
No spoofing involved...
Of course, I've been wrong before, but unless we're thinking of different methods that is how it's accomplished.
The question is, what exact compiler, version, OS, architecture, compiler flags, etc were used to compile it in the first place so we can compare the binaries? The better question is why bother when you can just compile it yourself and obtain the same result (reasonable proof that the binary you're running came from the source you're reading)?
Wanna take a look at the code for a second? Maybe think about it?
Here, lemme guide you:
getuid()==0
`get uid`, as in `get user id`. What makes you think 0 has anything to do with an error condition? 0 simply means the user's user-id is 0, which, on most *nix systems, happens to be root.
if (getuid() == 0 || geteuid() != 0)
If the user is logged in as root, but their effective uid is not root (they're running this via sudo, su, something), then run this block of code...
This license is much more entertaining than any one you'd copy from a competitor, and about as effective;)
USER TERMS OF SERVICE AND VERY BORING CONTRACT
The "USER" (you) of this Program shall agree to not steal, sell, rent to others, copy, burn or otherwise destroy Program. Program's rights are obtained, reserved and withheld by Program's programmers, artists, designers and composers. Plagiarism and theft is a breach of the Terms of Service, and Breacher is subject to the full extent of the law against computer and computer software theft, both of which are pure EEEEEVIL. By breaching this Terms of Service document, the game's creators will get very, very mad and say mean things about you. You also do not void the terms in this contract, for the User has agreed to buy this game and use it in the proper way prior to signing Terms of Service.
Good, you got past the important part. User agrees to forfeit their soul and give up all other past-times, including but not limited to sports, eating, sleeping, conversation, friendship, family, pets and civilization. Also, User agrees to hand over all assets, amounts of money of greater total than -$10 and maiden sacrifices to further our evil diabolical means to almost definitely form an army of darkness that will take over the world as well as the gaming industry by 1997.
User also agrees to allow the game's creators (hereby referred to as "The Imperials") to exploit User's body for fighting, manual labour, washing dishes, and eating 99% dolphin free soap. Breach of this contract is punishable by any combination of book beatings, forced reading of The Place of Lions and/or Hunter in the Dark, forced viewing of Wit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour and/or Ishtar, forced listening of The Land of Fruit by 4th of July Toilet, reporting other people who have breached the contract, and/or the testing of explosive and/or nuclear and nukuler weapons on User's house, estate, body or pets. If breach occurs, User will expect to be nuked in 2-6 weeks, and User agrees to pay all shipping, handling and terrorist negotiation fees.
If User (hereby referred to as, "Gullible Sucker") attempts to contact a lawyer through Gullible Sucker's now currently tapped phone lines, this is considered a breach in the Terms of Service, and will receive full repercussions nonetheless. If Gullible Sucker is in disagreement with Terms of Service, then User cannot use the Program, and is still bound to the Terms of Service.
Gullible Sucker is eligible to win prizes by registering through The Imperials' website! All you need to do is to tell The Imperials Gullible Sucker's Name, Address, Phone Number, E-mail, Credit Card Numbers and Expiration Dates, names of all female virgins in family and Work Address. Prizes include extra items for User's character in Program, and balls of drier lint. This entry form is designed to ultimately destroy the EVIL game thiefs that plague this planet, and may they all step on a porcupine barefooted, and eat a tree and die, and with all hope they will all spontaneously combust and burn into ashes, AND THEN...nevermind, back to the Terms of Service.
Gullible Sucker agrees to be nice to other online players, give away a free item once a week, co-operate, send a message to other users at least once a week, PVP fairly, avoid hacking, and most importantly, to not "player-kill" other users (hereby referred to as, "PK"). PKing will result in a super-special punishment involving Gullible Sucker's hands (or lack thereof, if PKing occurs).
Copyright 2003 The Imperials. All rights, programming, music, LYRICS, graphics, sprites, contracts, slaves and gold coins reserved. This at least applies to all the songs we made up, not the ones we stole. Used without permission. In other words, if you attempt to steal our idea, then you can just burn in !$%&.
Entry must be received by 02/31/1998. "Many will enter but few will win". Now that line sou
But that is one more hoop such an evil cop would have to leap through, and since it would be stored by a different agency, would require yet another member of the conspiracy.
'Is it fakable? Of course.'
That is the problem right there. All it does is provides absolute power to whoever is in charge of this system and to the government. Said something the government doesn't like? All they have to do is change this system and they've got evidence that no judge or jury in the country is going to disagree with showing you did something illegal.
Call me paranoid if you like. Somedays I make myself wonder, but even if you're not paranoid, this sounds like a pretty bad idea to me...
As for corrupt cops, the system is likely to protect me from them as let them accuse me of a crime of which I am innocent, as the system is likely to give good alibis.
Or gives the police air-tight evidence. You can't seriously believe the system will be absoloutely tamper-proof.
Prosecuter: "Look, your honour, the computer system shows the defendant was at the location of the murder at the time it occured, as was the only car there!"
Defendant: "What?! That's impossible! I was at home!"
Defendant is handcuffed and his being dragged away.
"I was at home! I was at home!"
This is all assuming you get any sort of open and fair trial, or hell, any trial at all.
ND
Re:Sounds nice, but will actually make it worse
on
Public Patents?
·
· Score: 1
"And if they fuck up and register something that was covered by prior art or is just current state of the art, fire them. Let them feel the pain and they will learn."
No they wont. They wont be around long enough to learn. The patent office would be training new employees every week or two.
Fact of Life: People make mistakes. Rather than simply punish people for them, try and plan around them so when they do happen, it's not a big deal. You'll find you get much less stressed (and thus usually more productive) employees if they aren't afraid to make every move. They may, *gasp* even take some initiative and try something new once and a while, which may turn out good!
Grandparent says: "There have been some reports of over 75% of Indian computer users using RealPlayer," Parent says: "most of the population in India doesnt even possess a PC,"
Need I elaborate?
"This minority of PC owners with net connections are mostly city dwellers with knowledge of English and wouldnt need Realplayer of all software in their vernacular language."
Let's break this down...
"mostly city dwellers" What does that have to do with it?
"wouldnt need Realplayer of all software" First off, I don't think the Asian countries have as many negative connotations attached to RealPlayer, as they haven't been on the internet quite as long (although I may just be ignorant in this regard).
"with knowledge of English"
Knowing English is irrelevent. I know a good chunk of Spanish speaking immigrants here that could easily have gotten their TV service in English, but instead chose Spanish. I can only venture guesses why, but I imagine it requires a lot less brain power to understand, allowing them to think more about what is being said rather than the words being used to say it. (Computer Analogy: It's like running code native to your processor versus code from another processor that you must emulate.)
Slashdot Mirror
IBM Model M FOR THE FREAKING WIN. I definitely hear you with regards to the typing speed increase. I can just fly on my model m, but when I try typing on my laptop I type much slower.
Oh, and I love knowing that I could bludgeon someone to death with my keyboard and they would sustain more damage than my keyboard would.
ND
Also: Don't connect your computer to the power grid.
Mine's been unplugged for years and it's never once caught a virus!
Same with Google Maps.
Sure, it's pretty annoying to use without JavaScript, but it works.
ND
I think if I had to stare at that giant smiling face long enough even *I* would start throwing chairs!
ND
Obviously you've never used Solaris.
When they say killall, they _mean_ killall.
ND
If I were an asshole to a customer at work, one of the following would happen:
A) My supervisor would congratulate me for standing up to the shithead customers, and tell me not to do it again.
B) The customer would dive over the counter and try and beat the shit out of me right there.
C) The customer would wait until I got off of work then knife me on my way home.
Listed in increasing order of likeliness.
ND
Int 21, when AH=4C, exits with a return code of AL.
Exits the program with a return code of 0?
ND
What site is this?
If it's a site about how to configure application X on Linux, well, then it'd make sense that most of the users use Linux, no?
You see my point? Having an unbiased sample is important.
ND
I don't know about Europe, but I know in comparison to Canada, the 'left' American party (Democrats) is still right of our right party, the Conservatives.
ND
Ah, okay.
Yeah, my school's just say "All activity is being monitored.".
Anyways, on the original topic, I think the friend is in the wrong, but I don't think the school has any right to threaten legal action. Suspension (for unacceptable use of the computers or something), sure, but not legal action.
Cheers,
ND
Well, I think my school requires it, but they're incredibly disorganized about it.
They handed one out to the whole class I was in to sign, then went and picked them back up, not checking if they were signed, and since then none of the CS classes I've taken have had a teacher who's bothered to check to make sure we've signed the agreement.
(Not that the agreement is any use, as a minor I'd need my legal guardian to sign it also, unless my understanding of the law is incorrect.)
ND
In theory.
In reality, for console games you need a mod chip installed, which the companies are quite against, and for DVD movies you have to break the CSS/other copy protection the companies have put on there to prevent exactly that.
Agreeing to what terms? Sorry?
I don't recall signing any sort of contract the last time I bought a game, never mind even getting a chance to _read_ any terms.
And for the record, I don't like it, and I don't buy most games. I pirate most games so I can find out how shitty they are and remind myself why I don't buy them.
The odd time I do find one that's pretty good, I'll go out and buy it and leave it sit unopened on the shelf and continue to use my pirated version (why bother reinstalling?). Oh, and I did buy Galactic Civilization II without even trying a demo first just because of Stardock's enlightened views on copyright infringement and piracy.
ND
How about thinking of this:
Unless the game company puts the copy protection requiring a CD into the game, you could simply leave the CD in the case all the time, except the odd time you have to reinstall it, giving it almost no chance to be damaged. There is absoloutely no reason to require a CD simply to use a program besides the copy protection.
With something like an iPod, you have to actually pull it out to use it, etc, with the CD the only reason you have to pull it out of the case to use it is because it makes the game/software companies feel better.
Again:
CD: Cause of 'wear & tear' is basically the software company and their pointless CD checks. Something the user doesn't want.
iPod: Cause of 'wear & tear' is use for the intended purpose, which is something the user _wants_.
CD: Costs <$1 to replace.
iPod: Costs >$100 to replace.
I've got all day. What about you?
ND
Your toaster sits on your counter all the time.
You are required to constantly move CDs around because all the games require the CD to be in the drive to play.
If your toaster gets scratched or takes some slight damage, even just wear and tear, it stills works fine.
You scratch the wrong sector off of a CD, it's toast (haha punny).
It would cost them what, $20? $30?, to replace a toaster.
It probably costs a publisher $0.50 for a pressed CD. If that.
If they're going to require me to put the CD in the drive every damn time I want to use their software (it could sit safely in its case on my shelf if it weren't for the copy protection), then yes, I do expect them to replace it when it finally stops working.
ND
I think the reason there aren't more games for females is because they're probably harder to make.
Most males will be happy with anything with some rigid rules and defined goals, like D&D-based games, FPSs, etc. A lot of them will also like more 'manly' things like fighting and racing.
Most females want somewhere they can go outside the bounds and express their creativity, etc.
(For example, I know of at least a couple females who can entertain themselves for hours with MS Paint, but can't stay interested in some sort of RPG long enough to even figure out what's going on. I imagine they like The Sims because it's very open-ended allowing them to experiment and create scenerios, etc.)
Or at least this is how I see it. I think it just boils down to males being more left-brained where-as females are more right-brained. Making a game like The Sims or something is going to be a lot more work than mashing out another FPS or RPG.
ND, etc.
I think if you ask any person who plays FPSs they will find the differences quite obvious, eg:
FEAR: Provides the 'slow-mo' thing. More futuristic weapons. Rewards a bit of stealth and strategy by becoming a lot easier. Not the greatest storyline ever but good for a bit of a scare
Splinter Cell: Heavy emphasis on stealth and finding alternate solutions rather than killing people. Small selection of weapons, none of them very powerful.
HL/HL2: Great story, lots of puzzles.
SWAT 4: Completely different rules of engagement than the other FPSs. Provides a wide selection of weapons with emphasis on realism. Requires lots of quick thinking (should I shoot? am I authorized to shoot here?) and strategy (if you try and go rambo you _will_ either die or lose by some other means).
Idunno, personally I don't really play any FPS that are like the others. This probably makes me a pretty terrible person to be answering this question, but maybe your assumption that all people who play FPSs play a bunch of redundant ones is wrong?
ND
So, why did you not look it up in the first place rather than talking out of your ass and having me talk out of my ass? ;P
ND
I'm pretty sure this trick you speak of has nothing to do with spoofing anything, it goes something like this:
Host A and B are behind seperate NAT gateways.
Host A sends a UDP packet from port 1234 to NAT B port 1234.
NAT A creates the reverse rule for the UDP (Allow NAT B 1234 -> Host A 1234).
Host B Sends a UDP packet from port 1234 to NAT A port 1234.
NAT B creates the reverse rule for the UDP (Allow NAT A 1234 -> Host B 1234).
Host A & B can now send UDP packets to each other through the NAT.
No spoofing involved...
Of course, I've been wrong before, but unless we're thinking of different methods that is how it's accomplished.
ND
The question is, what exact compiler, version, OS, architecture, compiler flags, etc were used to compile it in the first place so we can compare the binaries? The better question is why bother when you can just compile it yourself and obtain the same result (reasonable proof that the binary you're running came from the source you're reading)?
Here, lemme guide you:
`get uid`, as in `get user id`. What makes you think 0 has anything to do with an error condition? 0 simply means the user's user-id is 0, which, on most *nix systems, happens to be root.
If the user is logged in as root, but their effective uid is not root (they're running this via sudo, su, something), then run this block of code...
ND
'Is it fakable? Of course.'
That is the problem right there. All it does is provides absolute power to whoever is in charge of this system and to the government. Said something the government doesn't like? All they have to do is change this system and they've got evidence that no judge or jury in the country is going to disagree with showing you did something illegal.
Call me paranoid if you like. Somedays I make myself wonder, but even if you're not paranoid, this sounds like a pretty bad idea to me...
ND
Or gives the police air-tight evidence. You can't seriously believe the system will be absoloutely tamper-proof.
This is all assuming you get any sort of open and fair trial, or hell, any trial at all.
ND
No they wont. They wont be around long enough to learn. The patent office would be training new employees every week or two.
Fact of Life: People make mistakes. Rather than simply punish people for them, try and plan around them so when they do happen, it's not a big deal. You'll find you get much less stressed (and thus usually more productive) employees if they aren't afraid to make every move. They may, *gasp* even take some initiative and try something new once and a while, which may turn out good!
ND
"There have been some reports of over 75% of Indian computer users using RealPlayer,"
Parent says:
"most of the population in India doesnt even possess a PC,"
Need I elaborate?
"This minority of PC owners with net connections are mostly city dwellers with knowledge of English and wouldnt need Realplayer of all software in their vernacular language."
Let's break this down...
What does that have to do with it?
First off, I don't think the Asian countries have as many negative connotations attached to RealPlayer, as they haven't been on the internet quite as long (although I may just be ignorant in this regard).
Knowing English is irrelevent. I know a good chunk of Spanish speaking immigrants here that could easily have gotten their TV service in English, but instead chose Spanish. I can only venture guesses why, but I imagine it requires a lot less brain power to understand, allowing them to think more about what is being said rather than the words being used to say it. (Computer Analogy: It's like running code native to your processor versus code from another processor that you must emulate.)
ND