(Ignoring the fact that routing tables are propogated automatically)
Yes, the issues of porting a handful of small addresses can be handled from a financial standpoint. However, if this sort of thing is done regularly, we're going to surpass the technical limits of the Internet infrastructure. It's analagous to paying taxes. Sure, a decent number can get by without paying, and the system can take the strain. But if everyone stopped paying their taxes, the government would literally collapse. Likewise, if it's ruled that everyone has the right to keep their IP's when they move, then it will reach a point where the Internet simply cannot work.
I question if the simple act of changing the IP address of a device is the hard part. It wouldn't surprise me if their internal network has proprietary software that uses hardcoded IP addresses. Yes, that sounds amazingly stupid. But even my inexperienced butt has seen that before. A NAT would at least allow their internal workings to stay the same, while not breaking the entire Internet.
The entire Internet is based on hierarchical IP space. Portable IP's aren't a huge issue when the internet is small. When the total number of used networks can fit in a routing table, it's survivable. But since the Internet exploded in the 90's, it's basically impossible for a router to keep track of every single valid IP addresses. (4 Billion possibilities)
The solution was CIDR, in which IP address were grouped in big clumps, and rented out to different companies. Those companies broke it into smaller chunks, and rented them out again. Thus, if you need to send a message to 1.2.3.4, all you really need to know who controls the 1.0.0.0, and send it that way. 1.0.0.0 can send it on to the 1.2.0.0 guys, so on, and so forth. Yes, this is drastic oversimplification and thus prone to error, but I think it helps with comprehension.
As you've seen other people mention, this is analagous to porting zip codes.
I spent half my day yesterday reading the NANOG thread related to this. Knew I should have submitted it. =)
Anyways, the customer wanted to avoid renumbering their network computers. Their argument was that there is a significant amount of inconvenience involved in renumbering their network. (Yes, we all know how easy it would be to use a NAT. The judge obviously does not.) The original NANOG discussion started here.
I think they were also leveraging a supposed anti-competitiveness nature to non-portable IP space. Yes, that's right. One of a bajillion ISP's is hurting competition by following the globally accepted rules of the Internet that is the foundation of CIDR.
Now defunct PC Accelerator had the balls to give crappy games crappy reviews. They even went so far as to graphically mutilate a shoddy game disk each month.
Of course, they managed to go under after they alienated too much of their advertisers. Apparently, game producers don't like it when you rag on their shitty releases. Go figure.
What ?!? Real is no longer Evil ? For the past several years this has been a foundation of The Internet. Next thing you know, Microsoft and AOL will release software that is not a bloated PC catastrophe.
Starcraft has average mutliplayer (the interface isn't optimally designed)
I think the entire country of South Korea would disagree with you there. Probably the entire Asain continent. Heck, to throw the racial jokes aside, just about every gamer on the face of the planet would disagree.
OK, I'll stop being facetious. Seriously though, StarCraft has supurb multiplayer gameplay. It's one of the best balanced RTS *ever*. New strategies are formulated and refined long after the game's release. But you are correct in saying that single and multi play are two different elements. What makes StarCraft such an excellent game when played against another human is not the same that makes it enjoyable to play the campaign.
No, it's not perfect. But not much is. People can and always will be able to spam. However, this measure does help. A lot.
For starters, sending out 1/10 your E-Mail means you're no longer making a pile of money. Odds are, it will still be profitable. But that's not very motivating. Some spammers might not mind just running a few scripts to automate getting 1/10 of a pile money. However, the drop in profits will significantly ruin the market for spamming tools. If spammers no longer make a boatload, they're no longer going to pay a boatload for anonymailers, zombies, E-Mail lists, etc. Thus, people are going to be less motivated to code these damn things in the first place. That will make it a lot more difficult for those who actually want to spam to actually pull it off.
And with the more obvious symptoms of infection, more people will get it cleared up. And the more this happens, the more word will spread. Nobody educates a luser like another luser. (They at least speak a common language.:]) Heck, even mainstream outlets like CNN would be more likely to report on the issue if it's this obvious. Now, there will always be the utterly clueless who will continue to operate regardless. But there will be not be enough of them to provide the critical mass needed for spammers.
If anybody can generate a stamp, what is to stop a spammer from generating stamps?
Nothing. In fact, we want spammers to spend as much time as they can generating stamps because it will undermine their economic foundations. As a spammer generates messages with stamps, people can raise their postage based on the spam. Everyone's rates will increase and it'll only affect the spammer and stranger-to-stranger e-mail. Friend-to-friend e-mail doesn't use work stamps and will be unaffected by any postage increases.
"
And....
The second attack utilizes zombies as a compute array. But if you run the numbers, you'll find out that the number of zombies known, if run perfectly and full tilt, cannot generate enough stamps for all of the spam in the world today. A tremendous number of stamps would be generated, but not enough for everybody. One benefit of zombies being used to generate stamps is that the machines will become hot, slow, and probably unreliable, all of which will be noticeable to the end-user. With luck, this means some people will get their machines fixed and reduce the zombie issue. Again, if the zombies the start generating stamps, one can always change stamp definitions or value.
[all emphasis theirs]
It's almost like they anticipated this sort of thing. Or, like, thought out their design beforehand. Crazy concept, no ?
One benefit of zombies being used to generate stamps is that the machines will become hot, slow, and probably unreliable, all of which will be noticeable to the end-user. With luck, this means some people will get their machines fixed and reduce the zombie issue.
You just have to love a product that has the potential to toast a clueless luser's computer. I would be more than happy to shell out good money for software that has "Makes PC's burst into flames" listed as one of the features. And this stuff is Free !
Attacking North Korea would have some pretty catastrophic results. They've got one of the largest standing armies on the face of the planet, and a good deal of long range missles. Last I heard, they were believed to posses the capability to lob a warhead into California. (!!!) And that's not to mention the fact that N. Korean would probably burn its effort attacking our allies in Asia, rather than the continental US.
The resulting shitstorm would basically obliterate South Korea and Japan. Regardless of of your opinion on Iraq, war with North Korea would be a Very Bad Thing. Not to be taken unless we have absolutely no other choice.
If you go by the word of the mainstream review sites, you're still going to buy crap. Perhaps just a different sort of crap than usual. Heck, even the epitome of gaming mags, PCXL, wasn't perfect. They bought into the hype at times. (See: Quake III winning GOTY, while SystemShock2 got the Golden Crack Pipe award.)
The fact of the matter is, you need someone with similar interests/intelligence to give you any idea what is worth buying. Someone has got to buy this stuff first. Otherwise, you're just moving the 'Crap, I just bought a piece of shit' moment to a month after release.
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
I think the slow/boring charge has less to do with the episodic content as it did the gameplay itself. It was designed to be tied into the real quite heavily - and unfortunately, stuff isn't always happening. So you might want to play, except that the characters are all stuck in a van twiddling their thumbs during a cross-country road trip. It certainly adds to the immersion, but it's nothing like your normal MMOG. And this is what really killed the game. Their target audiance was the relatively hardcore MMOG player, who will be bored shitless with the gameplay. But to anyone with a busy schedule and limited time, it fits in perfectly.
Unfortunately, you've got a very good point in regards to the community. Like any online game, they can really make or break the fun. Solving Majestic's (Or any MMOG's) puzzles was twice as enjoyable when it's done in a group. But that assumes everyone is equally ignorant. The inability to ensure that all participants are at the exact same place likely means that plot/puzzle based online games aren't going to do very well.
Did anyone ever play Majestic ? This was the 'MMo' that attempted to integrate itself with your real life via faxes, phone calls, E-Mail, and WWW browsing. Think: The Game.
Besides its incredibly unique method of interaction, the gameplay was also structured into 'episodes'. I think they were officially called "Chapters". This was quite nice for several reasons. As mentioned in the article, you didn't need to devote yourself entirely to playing. But it also helped structure players together that are in roughly the same place in the game. It also allowed the developers to craete the content as the game went along. I was blessed to be one of the beta testers for Majestic, and new chapters were rolled out to us about a month before everyone else. That sort of development model can really cut down on the initial investment required for a MMO. It requires less content to start, and thus a quicker revenue stream.
--LordPixie
p.s.Did anyone else play this game ? I personally loved even the unpolished beta version I played. A real shame when it went under.
Users do not need to be aware of something to voluntarily agree to it. Think: Adware. If RandomISP includes "We will kill your connection if you spam" in their terms of service, people will still blindly sign it. Heck, they can probably jut 'update' the current ToS, and still consider it voluntary.
Looks like even evil can be used to fight spam. >:)
I went along with it because my gf keeps telling me that i need to play more video games. ...
my video card is still the old STB Velocity 4400
The geek with the gamer GirlFriend has a video card that's more than six years old !! What. The. Fuck. Any gamer knows that those things are meant to be upgraded every six months.
This is why it's so hard for a gamer to find a decent girlfriend. They've all been stolen by people with 30 times as much system RAM as VRAM. I guess the size of your Video Card really doesn't matter !
It doesn't exactly take a leap of faith to see scenarios in 2005-2006 where a single game level or visible scene will require >2GB RAM at full detail.
<Insert obligatory Microsoft Longhorn joke here>
Kidding aside, this really isn't surprising in the slightest. Games and memory have all been exhibiting 'Moore's Law'-like performance. Heck, most high end rigs nowadays could easily install and play, in memory, an entire game less than a few years old.
Exactly how much toe fungus do you have to smoke to come up with a "Beef Bowl Simulator" ?
Honestly, though. We should only be so lucky to have anything like this sort of creativity with our big US game developers. There may not be anything all that awe inspiring about FoodSims, but I'd prefer it to mindless name-brand knockoffs based on a lame formula for success.
Nemo was really fun to watch and pick up the controller at difficult portions. Frankly it was fun reliving the movie.
Unless I'm totally mistaken, the Nemo video game came out far before the movie did. So that really doesn't have its own curse going for it. That's why there can be DnD video games that are good - they weren't based on the abysmal movie. (Of Daily Radar "DnD movie fails saving throw against sucking ass" fame)
Namely, you can't contend that you can't have 'expected' a company to act a certain way with your information based on a Privacy Policy you haven't read. Buying something over the counter/phone gives a certain expection of privacy. But that is often different than what you expect out of a website. The PP creates a pretty definite expectation for that site, but the plaintiffs seem to be trying to apply that elsewhere. It's pretty hard to do that if they hadn't read the damn thing.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am the son of a NWA pilot. So perhaps I'm just biased.
As lifted from their website. This is only the first portion, but I felt it was most relevant. For the record, the bold emphasis is not mine, but is included on the original.
nwa.com Reservations and WorldPerks Award Travel Reservations Usage Agreement And Notices
AGREEMENT BETWEEN USER AND NORTHWEST AIRLINES
This Web site is offered to the user conditioned on acceptance by the user ("User") without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein. By accessing and using this Web site, the User is deemed to have agreed to all such terms, conditions, and notices (the "Agreement").
PRIVACY POLICY
As a User of nwa.com Reservations, you are in complete control of your travel planning needs. This includes controlling the use of information you provide to Northwest Airlines and its affiliates.
When you reserve or purchase travel services through nwa.com Reservations, we provide only the relevant information required by the car rental agency, hotel, or other involved third party to ensure the successful fulfillment of your travel arrangements. We also use information you provide during User registration or as part of the reservation process to customize the content of our site to meet your specific needs and to make product improvements to nwa.com Reservations.
We do not sell individual customer names or other private profile information to third parties and have no intention of doing so in the future. We do share User information with our partners only for specific and pertinent promotional use but only if our customers have opted to receive such information. As a User of nwa.com Reservations you have the option to receive updates from Northwest and Northwest WorldPerks Partners about fare sales in your area, special offers, new Northwest Airlines services and noteworthy news. To receive this information you must register for our promotional email programs or check the appropriate box in your nwa.com Reservations Member Information profile. If you decide you would rather not receive these emails, you can always unregister or update your Member Information in nwa.com Reservations
We respect and will continue to respect the privacy of our customers who use nwa.com Reservations. For more information about protecting your privacy, please see Frequently Asked Questions or our Privacy Policy
Additionally, Northwest uses third-party advertising technology to serve ads when you visit sites upon which we advertise. This technology uses information about your visits to the sites upon which we advertise, (not including your name, address, or other personal information), to serve our ads to you. In the course of serving our advertisements to you, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. In addition, we use web beacons, provided by our ad serving partner, to help manage our online advertising. These web beacons enable our ad server to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits this site and to learn which banner ads bring users to nwa.com. The information we collect and share through this technology is not personally identifiable. To learn more about our third party ad serving partner, cookies, and how to "opt-out," please click here
Honestly, Invisible War wasn't horrible gameplay wise, once patched. It was basically a mediocre adventure game. However, Deus Ex was an amazing game. Had Ion Storm simply made more levels with the DE engine, and released it as a sequel, it would have turned out better than IW. This is what irks many people. Not that the game was amazingly crappy, but that it had fallen quite far from an amazingly good game. Plenty of the design decisions subtracted from what they had to build on.
Secondly, DE:IW gets flak for the slipshod way several features were implemented. Without the patch, the lighting engine killed performance on the PC, with no way to turn it off. The.ini configuration file contained values set for the X-Box. (And clearly marked so: 'This is for X-Box, should be ## for the Pc...') In designing the game with the X-Box limitations in mind, the game had cramped level design, and a horrific game interface. And this ignores the abysmal way they stored things like video settings in the save game, so the game starts up at 800x600 until you load your game. A necessary evil on the X-Box, but an insult to PC gamers everywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Must every slashdot article mention MicroSoft in the headline ?!?
--LordPixie
(Ignoring the fact that routing tables are propogated automatically)
Yes, the issues of porting a handful of small addresses can be handled from a financial standpoint. However, if this sort of thing is done regularly, we're going to surpass the technical limits of the Internet infrastructure. It's analagous to paying taxes. Sure, a decent number can get by without paying, and the system can take the strain. But if everyone stopped paying their taxes, the government would literally collapse. Likewise, if it's ruled that everyone has the right to keep their IP's when they move, then it will reach a point where the Internet simply cannot work.
--LordPixie
I question if the simple act of changing the IP address of a device is the hard part. It wouldn't surprise me if their internal network has proprietary software that uses hardcoded IP addresses. Yes, that sounds amazingly stupid. But even my inexperienced butt has seen that before. A NAT would at least allow their internal workings to stay the same, while not breaking the entire Internet.
--LordPixie
The entire Internet is based on hierarchical IP space. Portable IP's aren't a huge issue when the internet is small. When the total number of used networks can fit in a routing table, it's survivable. But since the Internet exploded in the 90's, it's basically impossible for a router to keep track of every single valid IP addresses. (4 Billion possibilities)
The solution was CIDR, in which IP address were grouped in big clumps, and rented out to different companies. Those companies broke it into smaller chunks, and rented them out again. Thus, if you need to send a message to 1.2.3.4, all you really need to know who controls the 1.0.0.0, and send it that way. 1.0.0.0 can send it on to the 1.2.0.0 guys, so on, and so forth. Yes, this is drastic oversimplification and thus prone to error, but I think it helps with comprehension.
As you've seen other people mention, this is analagous to porting zip codes.
--LordPixie
I spent half my day yesterday reading the NANOG thread related to this. Knew I should have submitted it. =)
Anyways, the customer wanted to avoid renumbering their network computers. Their argument was that there is a significant amount of inconvenience involved in renumbering their network. (Yes, we all know how easy it would be to use a NAT. The judge obviously does not.) The original NANOG discussion started here.
I think they were also leveraging a supposed anti-competitiveness nature to non-portable IP space. Yes, that's right. One of a bajillion ISP's is hurting competition by following the globally accepted rules of the Internet that is the foundation of CIDR.
--LordPixie
Now defunct PC Accelerator had the balls to give crappy games crappy reviews. They even went so far as to graphically mutilate a shoddy game disk each month.
Of course, they managed to go under after they alienated too much of their advertisers. Apparently, game producers don't like it when you rag on their shitty releases. Go figure.
--LordPixie
What ?!? Real is no longer Evil ? For the past several years this has been a foundation of The Internet. Next thing you know, Microsoft and AOL will release software that is not a bloated PC catastrophe.
The Internet is now officially one step away from unravelling the enitre universe.
--LordPixie
p.s.Jokes aside, I'm more than glad to see a new business model over at Real.
Starcraft has average mutliplayer (the interface isn't optimally designed)
I think the entire country of South Korea would disagree with you there. Probably the entire Asain continent. Heck, to throw the racial jokes aside, just about every gamer on the face of the planet would disagree.
OK, I'll stop being facetious. Seriously though, StarCraft has supurb multiplayer gameplay. It's one of the best balanced RTS *ever*. New strategies are formulated and refined long after the game's release. But you are correct in saying that single and multi play are two different elements. What makes StarCraft such an excellent game when played against another human is not the same that makes it enjoyable to play the campaign.
--LordPixie
No, it's not perfect. But not much is. People can and always will be able to spam. However, this measure does help. A lot.
:]) Heck, even mainstream outlets like CNN would be more likely to report on the issue if it's this obvious. Now, there will always be the utterly clueless who will continue to operate regardless. But there will be not be enough of them to provide the critical mass needed for spammers.
For starters, sending out 1/10 your E-Mail means you're no longer making a pile of money. Odds are, it will still be profitable. But that's not very motivating. Some spammers might not mind just running a few scripts to automate getting 1/10 of a pile money. However, the drop in profits will significantly ruin the market for spamming tools. If spammers no longer make a boatload, they're no longer going to pay a boatload for anonymailers, zombies, E-Mail lists, etc. Thus, people are going to be less motivated to code these damn things in the first place. That will make it a lot more difficult for those who actually want to spam to actually pull it off.
And with the more obvious symptoms of infection, more people will get it cleared up. And the more this happens, the more word will spread. Nobody educates a luser like another luser. (They at least speak a common language.
--LordPixie
The nerds will rebuild, and will be filthy rich. Women will throw themselves at us.
If you see women throwing themselves at Nerds, the second coming is about 5 seconds away.
Here's hoping that Slashdot karma is redeemable for entrance into heaven. Otherwise I'm screwed.
--LordPixie
Ripped right from their website's Frequently Raised Objections:
If anybody can generate a stamp, what is to stop a spammer from generating stamps?
Nothing. In fact, we want spammers to spend as much time as they can generating stamps because it will undermine their economic foundations. As a spammer generates messages with stamps, people can raise their postage based on the spam. Everyone's rates will increase and it'll only affect the spammer and stranger-to-stranger e-mail. Friend-to-friend e-mail doesn't use work stamps and will be unaffected by any postage increases. "
And....
The second attack utilizes zombies as a compute array. But if you run the numbers, you'll find out that the number of zombies known, if run perfectly and full tilt, cannot generate enough stamps for all of the spam in the world today. A tremendous number of stamps would be generated, but not enough for everybody. One benefit of zombies being used to generate stamps is that the machines will become hot, slow, and probably unreliable, all of which will be noticeable to the end-user. With luck, this means some people will get their machines fixed and reduce the zombie issue. Again, if the zombies the start generating stamps, one can always change stamp definitions or value.
[all emphasis theirs]
It's almost like they anticipated this sort of thing. Or, like, thought out their design beforehand. Crazy concept, no ?
--LordPixie
From Camran's FRO
One benefit of zombies being used to generate stamps is that the machines will become hot, slow, and probably unreliable, all of which will be noticeable to the end-user. With luck, this means some people will get their machines fixed and reduce the zombie issue.
You just have to love a product that has the potential to toast a clueless luser's computer. I would be more than happy to shell out good money for software that has "Makes PC's burst into flames" listed as one of the features. And this stuff is Free !
--LordPixie
Attacking North Korea would have some pretty catastrophic results. They've got one of the largest standing armies on the face of the planet, and a good deal of long range missles. Last I heard, they were believed to posses the capability to lob a warhead into California. (!!!) And that's not to mention the fact that N. Korean would probably burn its effort attacking our allies in Asia, rather than the continental US.
The resulting shitstorm would basically obliterate South Korea and Japan. Regardless of of your opinion on Iraq, war with North Korea would be a Very Bad Thing. Not to be taken unless we have absolutely no other choice.
Yay for burning karma.
--LordPixie
If you go by the word of the mainstream review sites, you're still going to buy crap. Perhaps just a different sort of crap than usual. Heck, even the epitome of gaming mags, PCXL, wasn't perfect. They bought into the hype at times. (See: Quake III winning GOTY, while SystemShock2 got the Golden Crack Pipe award.)
The fact of the matter is, you need someone with similar interests/intelligence to give you any idea what is worth buying. Someone has got to buy this stuff first. Otherwise, you're just moving the 'Crap, I just bought a piece of shit' moment to a month after release.
--LordPixie
Majestic showed the main reason that episodic online games don't work too well. The Majestic episodes were way too short and people got bored with it quickly.
I think the slow/boring charge has less to do with the episodic content as it did the gameplay itself. It was designed to be tied into the real quite heavily - and unfortunately, stuff isn't always happening. So you might want to play, except that the characters are all stuck in a van twiddling their thumbs during a cross-country road trip. It certainly adds to the immersion, but it's nothing like your normal MMOG. And this is what really killed the game. Their target audiance was the relatively hardcore MMOG player, who will be bored shitless with the gameplay. But to anyone with a busy schedule and limited time, it fits in perfectly.
Unfortunately, you've got a very good point in regards to the community. Like any online game, they can really make or break the fun. Solving Majestic's (Or any MMOG's) puzzles was twice as enjoyable when it's done in a group. But that assumes everyone is equally ignorant. The inability to ensure that all participants are at the exact same place likely means that plot/puzzle based online games aren't going to do very well.
--LordPixie
Did anyone ever play Majestic ? This was the 'MMo' that attempted to integrate itself with your real life via faxes, phone calls, E-Mail, and WWW browsing. Think: The Game.
Besides its incredibly unique method of interaction, the gameplay was also structured into 'episodes'. I think they were officially called "Chapters". This was quite nice for several reasons. As mentioned in the article, you didn't need to devote yourself entirely to playing. But it also helped structure players together that are in roughly the same place in the game. It also allowed the developers to craete the content as the game went along. I was blessed to be one of the beta testers for Majestic, and new chapters were rolled out to us about a month before everyone else. That sort of development model can really cut down on the initial investment required for a MMO. It requires less content to start, and thus a quicker revenue stream.
--LordPixie
p.s.Did anyone else play this game ? I personally loved even the unpolished beta version I played. A real shame when it went under.
Users do not need to be aware of something to voluntarily agree to it. Think: Adware. If RandomISP includes "We will kill your connection if you spam" in their terms of service, people will still blindly sign it. Heck, they can probably jut 'update' the current ToS, and still consider it voluntary.
Looks like even evil can be used to fight spam. >:)
--LordPixie
I went along with it because my gf keeps telling me that i need to play more video games.
...
my video card is still the old STB Velocity 4400
The geek with the gamer GirlFriend has a video card that's more than six years old !! What. The. Fuck. Any gamer knows that those things are meant to be upgraded every six months.
This is why it's so hard for a gamer to find a decent girlfriend. They've all been stolen by people with 30 times as much system RAM as VRAM. I guess the size of your Video Card really doesn't matter !
--LordPixie
</joking>
It doesn't exactly take a leap of faith to see scenarios in 2005-2006 where a single game level or visible scene will require >2GB RAM at full detail.
<Insert obligatory Microsoft Longhorn joke here>
Kidding aside, this really isn't surprising in the slightest. Games and memory have all been exhibiting 'Moore's Law'-like performance. Heck, most high end rigs nowadays could easily install and play, in memory, an entire game less than a few years old.
--LordPixie
The Japanese are batshit crazy.
Exactly how much toe fungus do you have to smoke to come up with a "Beef Bowl Simulator" ?
Honestly, though. We should only be so lucky to have anything like this sort of creativity with our big US game developers. There may not be anything all that awe inspiring about FoodSims, but I'd prefer it to mindless name-brand knockoffs based on a lame formula for success.
--LordPixie
I was thinking 'Little Nemo'. In which case, the game was released before the movie. My bad. =)
Of course, this was all based on a much older comic, if I'm not completely mistaken.
--LordPixie
Nemo was really fun to watch and pick up the controller at difficult portions. Frankly it was fun reliving the movie.
Unless I'm totally mistaken, the Nemo video game came out far before the movie did. So that really doesn't have its own curse going for it. That's why there can be DnD video games that are good - they weren't based on the abysmal movie. (Of Daily Radar "DnD movie fails saving throw against sucking ass" fame)
--LordPixie
Namely, you can't contend that you can't have 'expected' a company to act a certain way with your information based on a Privacy Policy you haven't read. Buying something over the counter/phone gives a certain expection of privacy. But that is often different than what you expect out of a website. The PP creates a pretty definite expectation for that site, but the plaintiffs seem to be trying to apply that elsewhere. It's pretty hard to do that if they hadn't read the damn thing.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am the son of a NWA pilot. So perhaps I'm just biased.
--LordPixie
As lifted from their website. This is only the first portion, but I felt it was most relevant. For the record, the bold emphasis is not mine, but is included on the original.
nwa.com Reservations and WorldPerks Award Travel Reservations Usage Agreement And Notices
AGREEMENT BETWEEN USER AND NORTHWEST AIRLINES
This Web site is offered to the user conditioned on acceptance by the user ("User") without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein. By accessing and using this Web site, the User is deemed to have agreed to all such terms, conditions, and notices (the "Agreement").
PRIVACY POLICY
As a User of nwa.com Reservations, you are in complete control of your travel planning needs. This includes controlling the use of information you provide to Northwest Airlines and its affiliates.
When you reserve or purchase travel services through nwa.com Reservations, we provide only the relevant information required by the car rental agency, hotel, or other involved third party to ensure the successful fulfillment of your travel arrangements. We also use information you provide during User registration or as part of the reservation process to customize the content of our site to meet your specific needs and to make product improvements to nwa.com Reservations.
We do not sell individual customer names or other private profile information to third parties and have no intention of doing so in the future. We do share User information with our partners only for specific and pertinent promotional use but only if our customers have opted to receive such information. As a User of nwa.com Reservations you have the option to receive updates from Northwest and Northwest WorldPerks Partners about fare sales in your area, special offers, new Northwest Airlines services and noteworthy news. To receive this information you must register for our promotional email programs or check the appropriate box in your nwa.com Reservations Member Information profile. If you decide you would rather not receive these emails, you can always unregister or update your Member Information in nwa.com Reservations
We respect and will continue to respect the privacy of our customers who use nwa.com Reservations. For more information about protecting your privacy, please see Frequently Asked Questions or our Privacy Policy
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--LordPixie
Honestly, Invisible War wasn't horrible gameplay wise, once patched. It was basically a mediocre adventure game. However, Deus Ex was an amazing game. Had Ion Storm simply made more levels with the DE engine, and released it as a sequel, it would have turned out better than IW. This is what irks many people. Not that the game was amazingly crappy, but that it had fallen quite far from an amazingly good game. Plenty of the design decisions subtracted from what they had to build on.
.ini configuration file contained values set for the X-Box. (And clearly marked so: 'This is for X-Box, should be ## for the Pc...') In designing the game with the X-Box limitations in mind, the game had cramped level design, and a horrific game interface. And this ignores the abysmal way they stored things like video settings in the save game, so the game starts up at 800x600 until you load your game. A necessary evil on the X-Box, but an insult to PC gamers everywhere.
Secondly, DE:IW gets flak for the slipshod way several features were implemented. Without the patch, the lighting engine killed performance on the PC, with no way to turn it off. The
--LordPixie