There's no difference, mech-jockey is just slang for a mech pilot.
The way I see it, yes, most people would want to run mechs. It's Battletech and mechs are the big draw. I don't see a problem with making it a class choice situation, same as aerospace pilot, armoured infantry, tanker, etc. Each of those professions require years of training to become truly good at (and the point of MMO's for the most part is to play the heroes, not the regular cannon fodder) so it is reasonable to me to just pick what you want to use as a class choice. Want to try something different? Hello alt character. Perhaps combining general infantry and vehicle use into one class, as unarmoured infantry don't stand up well in mech combat unless there are hordes of them, or they have vehicle support.
The potential for RP elements to work in is pretty large as well. Choice between which military to join, or to become a merc, each offering access to specific equipment and resources. Military units get equipment and upgrades based on rank and mission performance, whereas mercs have to buy, salvage or steal what they need.
The key will be to focus only on the popular point of the BT universe, ie. the combat. You want to be a dancer or a cargo hauler or a miner? Go play something else. This is a game about war. War with big mechs. Focus on that, and make it the best in can possibly be, and this game will be a hit. Lose that focus and try do too much, and it will suck balls.
Please show me exactly where in my post I called you a moron? I called "anyone who purchased D&D books as a financial investment" a moron. I did not say "Sudog is a moron for buying D&D books". You would only be taking my broad statement as a personal slander if you are one of those morons who bought them as a financial investment.
I have old Heinlein books here that I can still get a few reasonable dollars for, especially if they're in mint condition.
I'm not looking for *appreciation* you idiot. I'm looking for *some reasonable semblance of value after buying a huge collection of books.*
Old Heinlein books in mint condition get a few dollars. Early publishings with limited covers perhaps? Most SF in the 50's and 60's never had more than 100,000 copies printed in one publishing. Scarcity raises value. There are millions of copies of the 3rd ed. books. Considering this, $5-10 for a used 3.0 book is pretty reasonable.
When I use the term "investment" I do not mean investment in the "get more out than I put in" economic sense. Do you even speak fucking English?
Yes, quite well. I even look up definitions when I'm not sure. For example:
investment
n.
1. The act of investing.
2. An amount invested.
3. Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit.
4. A commitment, as of time or support.
From your previous post, your implication was towards people who bought the books as an investment, as per definition 3. You rant about buying "an expensive hardcover book that... can't even be sold... for more than $5" kind of leads on to think that was the focus of your post. If you were referring to an investment for a return of time and enjoyment, I still fail to see the problem. Did you not enjoy using the material in the books? Do you not still possess the books? Did evil WotC enforcers come to your house and threaten you with bodily harm if you ever played a game with them again? To me, all the good times you had gaming with the 3/3.5 ed. would be your return on the money you spent. I certainly felt that I got my money's worth from the expense. If you feel you didn't get your dollar's worth from it, that's totally your call.
And you're proving my point! 2nd Ed still has value as a game and as books! You're using them in 3.5! Are you still using 3.0? No?
Yes, as the majority of the 3.0 material is fully compatible with 3.5, we still use a lot of it. Just as with 2nd ed. material, we pick and choose what we like and discard what we don't. I foresee us doing the same with 4th ed. That's the wonderful thing about tabletop gaming; unless you are playing in a tournament where the rules are strictly defined, you can use whatever rules your group wants to do, rulebook edition be damned.
...there's no guarantee that 4.5 won't come out in a few years and destroy any playing value in 4.0.
You mean there's no guarantee 5.0 won't come out and destroy 4.0, right? If a 4.5 is released under the same model as 3.0/3.5, most of the material will be completely compatible between the two versions, just as it is with 3.0 and 3.5.
For the 3.x series, I can't even recoup a *used book* value from my initial purchases as an exit strategy to put towards the new books.
Being a voracious reader, I deal a lot in used books, and in my experience getting a 5-10% return when selling a used book is pretty much standard, especially if the book is more than a few years old. Getting 5 bucks for a mass market book that sold for 60 new is about par for the course.
Even Amazon is selling huge amounts of d20 stuff at a steep discount because they know the exact same thing. So why should I bother buying any 4th ed?
Books aren't supposed to rapidly depreciate in value: they're made on a precious natural resource (trees) and to build in planned obsolescence is to slap not only environmentalists in the face by printing what will be trash (not treasure) in a handful of years, but to every gamer who's even remotely concerned about the books as an investment.
I'm going to be real blunt here: Anyone who bought D&D books as a financial investment is a moron. They're gaming books, and there are millions of copies in print. They will never be rare collector's items, and they're value will never go up. If you're looking to invest money, buy something that's actually worth it (antique cars, real estate, stock, F$%king baseball cards even). The value of gaming books is strictly intellectual, and unless there's a plan somewhere for WotC people to track down everyone who doesn't upgrade and smash them in the head with a brick, that value is not going to go away. Sure, fewer people will play with the core 3rd ed. rules, but that doesn't invalidate the rest of the material. Like the way an old rule or bit of fluff was, then use it. My group still uses a pile of 2nd ed material in our games, even though we play 3.5 rules. And we'll probably do the same with 4th.
As for slapping evironmentalists in the face, what about newspapers? Magazines? More of them get trashed in a day then all the gaming books in a year. Not to mention the fact that pulp trees are grown on farms, N. America has more forested acerage now then in the last 1000 years and a whole bunch of other facts that are completely off topic to discuss here.
At least 1st and 2nd were so radically different they were essentially completely different games.
Indeed, and from the looks of things, 4th is going to be quite a bit different from 3rd. So what's your point? If it's an improvement, everyone will play it and like it and everyone who has 3rd ed. books will have to suck it down. If it sucks, everyone will continue to play 3rd and nothing changes. So you bought a bunch of 3rd ed. books. Big deal, so did I...over the last 8 years. And 4th isn't actually coming out until next year. That means that 3rd edition will be verging on 10 years old by then, and 3.5 almost 5. That's a damn long time when you sit down and think about it. To take your example of GW, they crap out new stuff every 2 years, and contrary to what you think, base armies do not last decades. Half my second ed. 40K army was invalidated by 3rd ed., and if you try to bring old minis to an official tournament, you'll be SOL.
So in the end, I fail to see the big deal. Sure, we're all going to have to buy new books. Our old books are going to have diminished gameplay value (I have shelves of books from dozens of games in the same state). So what? It's still a ways off. On the other hand, there are some major changes coming down in this edition, and it looks like it will really change the way things run. And there's a lot of talk about more focus on modular adventures, something that was a bit thin in 3rd ed. And if they do things right, it will be another 10 years before 5th ed. (and maybe we won't need a 4.5 to fix all the broken shit).
It may not pan out. 4th ed. may suck balls. Or it might re-invent the way D&D is played. We'll see in May. Make the call then.
Heh, not so sure Comcast ever had an explicit "routers is stealing" policy. They sure didn't support them though. Again, no docs for the phone monkeys. Hell, we didn't even have docs for the "Comcast Certified Networking Device", aka POS router/modem combo that you got to pay an extra $10/month for. So most people just told callers to disconnect any routers they had before doing any troubleshooting. In fairness, I'd say ~60% of the people I talked to who had routers were just as clueless as most of the agents, so troubleshooting routers was often a painful experience. I can see some agents taking that to mean that Comcast did not allow routers. This wouldn't be helped by the fact that agents on the phone never got the same answer twice from higher up. Nobody ever really knew what was going on there.
As for flustering agents when getting technical, yeah, that's common when you know the person on the other end of the line knows more than you do. Happened to a lot of agents; not surprising with the level of technical competence most of them had. A good number of the people I worked with had never even used a computer before getting the job, I $hit you not. Start throwing around things like Linux and FreeBSD, and most agents would go catatonic. Actually quite funny to watch sometimes. Mouth goes slack, eyes start to roll back, much to the amusement of everyone around them.
So yeah, a total lack of technical ability and knowledge really made their techsupport suck. As for the grandparent's comment about in-house being as bad, I'm not even sure you were talking to any actual Comcast employees, unless you were talking right with your local office. I'm not kidding when I say that *ALL* of Comcast's internet support is outsourced. But if you were indeed talking to a local office tech, then I feel your pain. I think I talked to exactly two actual Comcast techs who weren't completely inept. Especially if you're referring to one of the actual techs that does installs and troubleshooting. They're all cable guys, not computer techs. Most of the ones I talked to were barely qualified for that. The big joke used to be that the only thing required to be a Comcast cable tech was a driver's license, and in some states, they'd waive even that.
Having actually worked tech support for Comcast, I can tell you exactly why they only support IE 5.5. No one wrote a guide for anything else.
Comcast outsources its tech support to a third party call center provider. 90% of the agents on the phone have no idea how to use a computer and can only troubleshoot according to the guides that are provided. And Comcast only provided IE 5.5 guides. They don't even have IE 6.0 guides. Firefox actually works quite well with Comcast's $hit, they just can't offer any technical support for it.
And don't even get me started on their service, or that email change over program. That POS service is provided by some other company, and it doesn't work worth crap.
Preposterous? More like retarded, unfortunately. I'm an avid GW gamer, primarily due to the setting (WH:Fantasy is pretty bland, but 40K has a really deep story. And the gothic setting with tanks just looks cool), and am not ashamed to admit that I have spent many a paycheck on their products. But I will not defend them when they do something stupid like this.
You are right on the money about them stomping something that will generate interest and excitement for free. Sadly, this is not the first time that GW has taken such a stance over their IP. Way back in the distant 90's a group of modders set out to create a 40K QuakeII mod. Unfortunately, once well into the process, they were told in no uncertain terms that they would need to pay a licensing fee for the 40K setting and properties. And since the Quake EUL states that no id product can be sold without paying licensing for the engine, the group abandoned the project as too costly to produce a free mod for a game they loved.
This time it appears that GW's problem stems from being unable to secure the rights to the movie itself, which would allow them control over distribution. As in the past, this inability to maintain absolute control over every aspect of their IP has led them to quash something that would otherwise prove a boon to the company's flagship product.
Sad, really. I know they're in the business of making money, but this could really have been turned to their advantage. Hell, they could have even offered to bundle it with future products as a purchase incentive or to sell it on DVD in their stores (at production cost, unless they decided to pay the makers of the film). But alas, I doubt this will ever occur.
She installs Blue Pill, and if they detect it, great. If not, she has to show them it's there to prove they missed it, and they get a clue how to find it.
Wow, nice to see the ESRB really on the ball here. That trailer came out in March. Good work protecting the childrens from the evils of the intraweb trailers there....
Quite true. And if you send sensitive information (credit card #, etc) over anything without some kind of protection, you cannot reasonably expect it to stay private. This is even true for snail mail, hence the lining of envelopes with random ink patterns to obscure the contents from a bright light.
However, the problem I see here is that once that data has moved through my server, and I have copied it out of RAM, that copy is my property. I can do whatever I want with it, including running it through decryption software to read the contents. As long as I can prove that I'm using a copy of the RAM, this writ supports my right to use that data anyway I see fit. While I do not see corporations and ISPs doing this on a broad scale, the potential for it to be abused is there. Just think, now the gov't can legally obtain the data moving through, say, one of AT&Ts backbone switches, by executing a simple civil discovery motion, and use that data however they see fit. No need for a warrant, no need to prove a criminal event has, is or could occur, just a quick little motion and they can monitor your email to their hearts content.
Will that happen? Probably not, but the potential remains.
While I object to some of the conclusions that the court has drawn in this particular case, I am far more concerned with the broader implications of the paragraph starting line 20 of page 24, referring to the the US Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. 2510-22).
"First, the court concludes that this statute is not implicated because, as to electronic communications, it only prohibits interceptions during transmission (not while in electronic storage, i.e. RAM), and the disclosure of electronic communications intercepted during transmission. See Konop v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.302 F.3d 868, 878-879 (9th Cir. 2002). This is true even though storage is a necessary incident to transmission."
This is an explicit writ authorizing anyone the legal right to record any and all information that passes through the RAM on their computer. I.E. if I own webserver X, I am within my legal right to log all information, or a portion thereof, that passes through my system, by virtue that it will reside, however briefly, in that system's RAM. This includes data for which my server is not the intended recipient, as it has still been electronically stored on my system. For example, I could record the addresses of all emails that route through my server. And since this recording is my property, my consequent sale of said information to interested third parties is completely legal. This also means that any gov't agency that so desires this information can acquire it via a straightforward civil information discovery request, bypassing the more stringent requirements to obtain a valid wiretap warrant.
The implications of this ruling for the future of data protection and security are frightening. While I am confident that it will be overturned or at least limited in the future, the potential for abuse is mind-boggling (like most things governments seems to do these days).
As an EB Games sales associate, I can perhaps shed some light on why the pre-order numbers are so small. Basically, without going to much into detail, EB Games wants to not get sued this year. So to avoid the messy situation that occured last year with the 360 launch, EB Corporate has under cut the preorder allocation to all stores.
Yes, there will probably be 70-80 units per store on launch day, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some more preorders released as the logistics firm up over the next few weeks, but we are definitely going to avoid last years situation where a whole bunch of people who preordered get a call 2 days before launch telling them "Umm, no sorry, no console for you." Having people scream at me repeatedly that I personally ruined their Christmass is a tad irratating.
Dear god, tell me about it. That little feature drove me to turn off the "Enable Web Content in Folders" option. First I have to wait 5 seconds for the damn thing to load the 300mb vid file, then it won't F***ing let me deleted. BAH! Features be damned.
I have a helluva lot of female friends who think so anyway. Girl-on-girl is hot to many guys, but a lot of girls (that I know at least) are just as turned on by guy-on-guy as guys are by girl-on-girl.
Most of the girls I know think that that's a waste of 2 perfectly good guys attention that could be focussed on them instead. Preferably at the same time;)
You can always ensure an identical hash and size by filling the file with identical data and then uploading the new file to the P2P network. Imagine how quick filesharing would stop if all of the major industry groups started doing this. P2P wouldn't stand a chance, no siree.
We know this is bad, and our founding fathers would throw quite a hissy-fit about this if they were alive today.
Hissy-fit? They instigated an armed rebellion and militarily defeated an gov't that was oppressing them in a very similar manner. So, when does it start, and where can I get my rifle?
That all of the examples of "what is in these horrible horrible games all come from one specific game? Namely GTA, everyone's favourite whipping boy.
They should really pass a law that forces politicians to actually have a clue about things before they shoot there mouths off. Of course, that will never happen, as it would put them all out of work.
Slashdot Mirror
There's no difference, mech-jockey is just slang for a mech pilot.
The way I see it, yes, most people would want to run mechs. It's Battletech and mechs are the big draw. I don't see a problem with making it a class choice situation, same as aerospace pilot, armoured infantry, tanker, etc. Each of those professions require years of training to become truly good at (and the point of MMO's for the most part is to play the heroes, not the regular cannon fodder) so it is reasonable to me to just pick what you want to use as a class choice. Want to try something different? Hello alt character. Perhaps combining general infantry and vehicle use into one class, as unarmoured infantry don't stand up well in mech combat unless there are hordes of them, or they have vehicle support.
The potential for RP elements to work in is pretty large as well. Choice between which military to join, or to become a merc, each offering access to specific equipment and resources. Military units get equipment and upgrades based on rank and mission performance, whereas mercs have to buy, salvage or steal what they need.
The key will be to focus only on the popular point of the BT universe, ie. the combat. You want to be a dancer or a cargo hauler or a miner? Go play something else. This is a game about war. War with big mechs. Focus on that, and make it the best in can possibly be, and this game will be a hit. Lose that focus and try do too much, and it will suck balls.
I have old Heinlein books here that I can still get a few reasonable dollars for, especially if they're in mint condition.
I'm not looking for *appreciation* you idiot. I'm looking for *some reasonable semblance of value after buying a huge collection of books.*
Old Heinlein books in mint condition get a few dollars. Early publishings with limited covers perhaps? Most SF in the 50's and 60's never had more than 100,000 copies printed in one publishing. Scarcity raises value. There are millions of copies of the 3rd ed. books. Considering this, $5-10 for a used 3.0 book is pretty reasonable.
When I use the term "investment" I do not mean investment in the "get more out than I put in" economic sense. Do you even speak fucking English?
Yes, quite well. I even look up definitions when I'm not sure. For example:
... can't even be sold ... for more than $5" kind of leads on to think that was the focus of your post. If you were referring to an investment for a return of time and enjoyment, I still fail to see the problem. Did you not enjoy using the material in the books? Do you not still possess the books? Did evil WotC enforcers come to your house and threaten you with bodily harm if you ever played a game with them again? To me, all the good times you had gaming with the 3/3.5 ed. would be your return on the money you spent. I certainly felt that I got my money's worth from the expense. If you feel you didn't get your dollar's worth from it, that's totally your call.
investment
n.
1. The act of investing.
2. An amount invested.
3. Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit.
4. A commitment, as of time or support.
From your previous post, your implication was towards people who bought the books as an investment, as per definition 3. You rant about buying "an expensive hardcover book that
And you're proving my point! 2nd Ed still has value as a game and as books! You're using them in 3.5! Are you still using 3.0? No?
Yes, as the majority of the 3.0 material is fully compatible with 3.5, we still use a lot of it. Just as with 2nd ed. material, we pick and choose what we like and discard what we don't. I foresee us doing the same with 4th ed. That's the wonderful thing about tabletop gaming; unless you are playing in a tournament where the rules are strictly defined, you can use whatever rules your group wants to do, rulebook edition be damned.
...there's no guarantee that 4.5 won't come out in a few years and destroy any playing value in 4.0.
You mean there's no guarantee 5.0 won't come out and destroy 4.0, right? If a 4.5 is released under the same model as 3.0/3.5, most of the material will be completely compatible between the two versions, just as it is with 3.0 and 3.5.
For the 3.x series, I can't even recoup a *used book* value from my initial purchases as an exit strategy to put towards the new books.
Being a voracious reader, I deal a lot in used books, and in my experience getting a 5-10% return when selling a used book is pretty much standard, especially if the book is more than a few years old. Getting 5 bucks for a mass market book that sold for 60 new is about par for the course.
Even Amazon is selling huge amounts of d20 stuff at a steep discount because they know the exact same thing. So why should I bother buying any 4th ed?
Ok, so because Amazon
I'm going to be real blunt here: Anyone who bought D&D books as a financial investment is a moron. They're gaming books, and there are millions of copies in print. They will never be rare collector's items, and they're value will never go up. If you're looking to invest money, buy something that's actually worth it (antique cars, real estate, stock, F$%king baseball cards even). The value of gaming books is strictly intellectual, and unless there's a plan somewhere for WotC people to track down everyone who doesn't upgrade and smash them in the head with a brick, that value is not going to go away. Sure, fewer people will play with the core 3rd ed. rules, but that doesn't invalidate the rest of the material. Like the way an old rule or bit of fluff was, then use it. My group still uses a pile of 2nd ed material in our games, even though we play 3.5 rules. And we'll probably do the same with 4th.
As for slapping evironmentalists in the face, what about newspapers? Magazines? More of them get trashed in a day then all the gaming books in a year. Not to mention the fact that pulp trees are grown on farms, N. America has more forested acerage now then in the last 1000 years and a whole bunch of other facts that are completely off topic to discuss here.
At least 1st and 2nd were so radically different they were essentially completely different games.
Indeed, and from the looks of things, 4th is going to be quite a bit different from 3rd. So what's your point? If it's an improvement, everyone will play it and like it and everyone who has 3rd ed. books will have to suck it down. If it sucks, everyone will continue to play 3rd and nothing changes. So you bought a bunch of 3rd ed. books. Big deal, so did I...over the last 8 years. And 4th isn't actually coming out until next year. That means that 3rd edition will be verging on 10 years old by then, and 3.5 almost 5. That's a damn long time when you sit down and think about it. To take your example of GW, they crap out new stuff every 2 years, and contrary to what you think, base armies do not last decades. Half my second ed. 40K army was invalidated by 3rd ed., and if you try to bring old minis to an official tournament, you'll be SOL.
So in the end, I fail to see the big deal. Sure, we're all going to have to buy new books. Our old books are going to have diminished gameplay value (I have shelves of books from dozens of games in the same state). So what? It's still a ways off. On the other hand, there are some major changes coming down in this edition, and it looks like it will really change the way things run. And there's a lot of talk about more focus on modular adventures, something that was a bit thin in 3rd ed. And if they do things right, it will be another 10 years before 5th ed. (and maybe we won't need a 4.5 to fix all the broken shit).
It may not pan out. 4th ed. may suck balls. Or it might re-invent the way D&D is played. We'll see in May. Make the call then.
Heh, not so sure Comcast ever had an explicit "routers is stealing" policy. They sure didn't support them though. Again, no docs for the phone monkeys. Hell, we didn't even have docs for the "Comcast Certified Networking Device", aka POS router/modem combo that you got to pay an extra $10/month for. So most people just told callers to disconnect any routers they had before doing any troubleshooting. In fairness, I'd say ~60% of the people I talked to who had routers were just as clueless as most of the agents, so troubleshooting routers was often a painful experience. I can see some agents taking that to mean that Comcast did not allow routers. This wouldn't be helped by the fact that agents on the phone never got the same answer twice from higher up. Nobody ever really knew what was going on there.
As for flustering agents when getting technical, yeah, that's common when you know the person on the other end of the line knows more than you do. Happened to a lot of agents; not surprising with the level of technical competence most of them had. A good number of the people I worked with had never even used a computer before getting the job, I $hit you not. Start throwing around things like Linux and FreeBSD, and most agents would go catatonic. Actually quite funny to watch sometimes. Mouth goes slack, eyes start to roll back, much to the amusement of everyone around them.
So yeah, a total lack of technical ability and knowledge really made their techsupport suck. As for the grandparent's comment about in-house being as bad, I'm not even sure you were talking to any actual Comcast employees, unless you were talking right with your local office. I'm not kidding when I say that *ALL* of Comcast's internet support is outsourced. But if you were indeed talking to a local office tech, then I feel your pain. I think I talked to exactly two actual Comcast techs who weren't completely inept. Especially if you're referring to one of the actual techs that does installs and troubleshooting. They're all cable guys, not computer techs. Most of the ones I talked to were barely qualified for that. The big joke used to be that the only thing required to be a Comcast cable tech was a driver's license, and in some states, they'd waive even that.
It really was a horrible company to work for.
Having actually worked tech support for Comcast, I can tell you exactly why they only support IE 5.5. No one wrote a guide for anything else.
Comcast outsources its tech support to a third party call center provider. 90% of the agents on the phone have no idea how to use a computer and can only troubleshoot according to the guides that are provided. And Comcast only provided IE 5.5 guides. They don't even have IE 6.0 guides. Firefox actually works quite well with Comcast's $hit, they just can't offer any technical support for it.
And don't even get me started on their service, or that email change over program. That POS service is provided by some other company, and it doesn't work worth crap.
Preposterous? More like retarded, unfortunately. I'm an avid GW gamer, primarily due to the setting (WH:Fantasy is pretty bland, but 40K has a really deep story. And the gothic setting with tanks just looks cool), and am not ashamed to admit that I have spent many a paycheck on their products. But I will not defend them when they do something stupid like this.
You are right on the money about them stomping something that will generate interest and excitement for free. Sadly, this is not the first time that GW has taken such a stance over their IP. Way back in the distant 90's a group of modders set out to create a 40K QuakeII mod. Unfortunately, once well into the process, they were told in no uncertain terms that they would need to pay a licensing fee for the 40K setting and properties. And since the Quake EUL states that no id product can be sold without paying licensing for the engine, the group abandoned the project as too costly to produce a free mod for a game they loved.
This time it appears that GW's problem stems from being unable to secure the rights to the movie itself, which would allow them control over distribution. As in the past, this inability to maintain absolute control over every aspect of their IP has led them to quash something that would otherwise prove a boon to the company's flagship product.
Sad, really. I know they're in the business of making money, but this could really have been turned to their advantage. Hell, they could have even offered to bundle it with future products as a purchase incentive or to sell it on DVD in their stores (at production cost, unless they decided to pay the makers of the film). But alas, I doubt this will ever occur.
She installs Blue Pill, and if they detect it, great. If not, she has to show them it's there to prove they missed it, and they get a clue how to find it.
Either way, they can come out ahead here...
Wow, nice to see the ESRB really on the ball here. That trailer came out in March. Good work protecting the childrens from the evils of the intraweb trailers there....
but if they manage to make this V.A.T.S. system tight and intuitive, them may just have a serious case of awesome here.
Quite true. And if you send sensitive information (credit card #, etc) over anything without some kind of protection, you cannot reasonably expect it to stay private. This is even true for snail mail, hence the lining of envelopes with random ink patterns to obscure the contents from a bright light.
However, the problem I see here is that once that data has moved through my server, and I have copied it out of RAM, that copy is my property. I can do whatever I want with it, including running it through decryption software to read the contents. As long as I can prove that I'm using a copy of the RAM, this writ supports my right to use that data anyway I see fit. While I do not see corporations and ISPs doing this on a broad scale, the potential for it to be abused is there. Just think, now the gov't can legally obtain the data moving through, say, one of AT&Ts backbone switches, by executing a simple civil discovery motion, and use that data however they see fit. No need for a warrant, no need to prove a criminal event has, is or could occur, just a quick little motion and they can monitor your email to their hearts content.
Will that happen? Probably not, but the potential remains.
Technically, it could be interpreted that way. Hmm, maybe we should spread this info around to all the defense lawyers in the RIAA suits.
While I object to some of the conclusions that the court has drawn in this particular case, I am far more concerned with the broader implications of the paragraph starting line 20 of page 24, referring to the the US Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. 2510-22). "First, the court concludes that this statute is not implicated because, as to electronic communications, it only prohibits interceptions during transmission (not while in electronic storage, i.e. RAM), and the disclosure of electronic communications intercepted during transmission. See Konop v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.302 F.3d 868, 878-879 (9th Cir. 2002). This is true even though storage is a necessary incident to transmission." This is an explicit writ authorizing anyone the legal right to record any and all information that passes through the RAM on their computer. I.E. if I own webserver X, I am within my legal right to log all information, or a portion thereof, that passes through my system, by virtue that it will reside, however briefly, in that system's RAM. This includes data for which my server is not the intended recipient, as it has still been electronically stored on my system. For example, I could record the addresses of all emails that route through my server. And since this recording is my property, my consequent sale of said information to interested third parties is completely legal. This also means that any gov't agency that so desires this information can acquire it via a straightforward civil information discovery request, bypassing the more stringent requirements to obtain a valid wiretap warrant. The implications of this ruling for the future of data protection and security are frightening. While I am confident that it will be overturned or at least limited in the future, the potential for abuse is mind-boggling (like most things governments seems to do these days).
As an EB Games sales associate, I can perhaps shed some light on why the pre-order numbers are so small. Basically, without going to much into detail, EB Games wants to not get sued this year. So to avoid the messy situation that occured last year with the 360 launch, EB Corporate has under cut the preorder allocation to all stores.
Yes, there will probably be 70-80 units per store on launch day, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some more preorders released as the logistics firm up over the next few weeks, but we are definitely going to avoid last years situation where a whole bunch of people who preordered get a call 2 days before launch telling them "Umm, no sorry, no console for you."
Having people scream at me repeatedly that I personally ruined their Christmass is a tad irratating.
Thanks. Now I have the mental image of a squad of SAS storming the RIAA building.
Actually, that's a movie I'd like to see :)
At $15+ a CD, all of their markets are poor. Or soon to be. :P
Additionally, while NASA has lost 14 people in flight, none of them were lost outside of the Earth's atmosphere.
The USSR is suspected to have lost at least two in orbit.
And this is a loss how?? (I've lived there ;)
Dear god, tell me about it. That little feature drove me to turn off the "Enable Web Content in Folders" option. First I have to wait 5 seconds for the damn thing to load the 300mb vid file, then it won't F***ing let me deleted. BAH! Features be damned.
No no, he's definitely dead. No living father would allow his daughter to marry Michael Jackson.
I have a helluva lot of female friends who think so anyway. Girl-on-girl is hot to many guys, but a lot of girls (that I know at least) are just as turned on by guy-on-guy as guys are by girl-on-girl.
Most of the girls I know think that that's a waste of 2 perfectly good guys attention that could be focussed on them instead. Preferably at the same time ;)
You can always ensure an identical hash and size by filling the file with identical data and then uploading the new file to the P2P network. Imagine how quick filesharing would stop if all of the major industry groups started doing this. P2P wouldn't stand a chance, no siree.
We know this is bad, and our founding fathers would throw quite a hissy-fit about this if they were alive today.
Hissy-fit? They instigated an armed rebellion and militarily defeated an gov't that was oppressing them in a very similar manner. So, when does it start, and where can I get my rifle?
Yes, but where in the NWT? I doubt that you live in an area where your nearest neighbour is 2 miles away (as it is in most of rural Canada.
I could have sworn that the Persians started their's in 1850, with the Babylonians scrambling to start their's in 1870.
Of course, we all know that the Germans had airplanes and the railroad before 1000AD, right?
That all of the examples of "what is in these horrible horrible games all come from one specific game? Namely GTA, everyone's favourite whipping boy.
They should really pass a law that forces politicians to actually have a clue about things before they shoot there mouths off. Of course, that will never happen, as it would put them all out of work.