Most of the content that I download is firmly in the legal realm, with a smidgeon of not-licensed-in-your-country television from Europe and Asia. I'm not honestly too concerned about running afoul of this outside of false positives, but I also don't want to take any chances either. Shame I don't have the option of switching to a different ISP.
So, any recommendations for good VPNs that are reasonably priced and don't keep logs?
I should probably clarify that I wasn't saying it was "game of the year" or anything like that, but it was the most overlooked game this year that was worthy of people's time.
As someone in the industry, it pains me greatly to see the hard work of many people fall by the wayside just because other titles released in the same season got more advertising. You can debate forever which game is "best", but it seems to me that it would be wiser to try and help the wheat rise out of the proverbial chaff.
And for the record, yes, I enjoyed MGS4 immensely. I thought it was a fantastic game, but it wasn't the best experience I had this year. Which, I should add, is no knock against it.
As a fan of strategy games and RPGs, I was sad that this title was overlooked by so many. Whatever the reason, it is always painful to see an innovative title do poorly -- especially when it is one as enjoyable as this.
From the unique rendering style (which is not well conveyed in screenshots, sort of like okami) to the inventive gameplay which skillfully blends real time turn-based actions together, the soaring Sakimoto score, and unique storybook presentation, there's not much to dislike about Valkyria.
If you have a PS3, I highly recommend you give it a look.
Just tried it. They are indeed blocking Youtube links; You'll get an error immediately if you try to send someone a message including a URL with youtube.com in it.
Densha Otoko was a miniseries that ran in 2005 on Fuji TV in Japan, and chronicled one man's attempts to woo the woman of his dreams with the help of an internet message board. The really remarkable thing about the series (apart from being based on a true story) is that every computer-related thing in it is 100% accurate. While the series has quite a few unrealistic and silly elements, I was impressed by the technical accuracy... right down to using the real BBS that the actual "Densha Otoko" thread occurred on.
I tried the game originally when it was linked on Penny Arcade, but found it to be both incredibly buggy (I had to resort to manually editing the config keys in the registry to adjust the resolution and the tutorials routinely locked up) and with overly simplistic gameplay that frankly wasn't very interesting. There was also the fact that the matches routinely timed out for seemingly no reason.
Ultimately, I find myself incapable of really recommending it to anyone. That's a shame too, since I really wanted to like it.
I'm already enjoying HD content on all of my systems (two windows, one ubuntu) using VLC, so I suspect as soon as HD-DVD and Bluray are reverse-engineered, I'll be using it for those too.
Assuming I ever actually buy a BD or HD-DVD drive, of course.
... when the first thing you do when you are thinking about buying a game is check what sort of copy protection it uses before even considering the purchase itself.
And what if the game happens to have one of the more offensive copy protection schemes? (Safedisc, Starforce) Well, you're forced to download cracks from questionable websites if you want to avoid dealing with them. This is coming from someone who wants to buy their products.
This is a good first step for Ubisoft, but they should realize that all restrictive copy protection schemes do nothing but hurt their business in the long run.
...would content providers trust a DRM solution created by the very group of people who they (rightly) see as some of their staunchest opponents? Even if there were to be an open source DRM system which was both (nearly) uncrackable and out-performed everything else on the market, I think content producers would still be afraid to use it when they considered that this was the same community that supported DeCSS etc.
It would be nice if more companies realized that the internet is not one-way communications, and that its real strength lies in allowing everyone to both create and share content. Of course, considering that Time Warner is a media company at its core, they have a bit of conflict of interest with providing lots of upstream bandwidth as long as they continue to fear file-sharing.
Parent is right, I'm on my third PS2 as well. Actually, I wonder what Sony and Microsoft set as their desired Mean Time Between Failure?
It would be interesting to find out if the console producers pick low MTBFs with the expectation that consumers will ultimately buy replacement consoles. While this might seem initially to be counter-intuitive since the first revision of the hardware is sold at a loss, later revisions are often sold at considerable profit.
Wouldn't being aware that it was a meme in the first place reduce the effect on the audience? I imagine for these things to be truly effective, you have to be unaware of their purpose.
Maybe I misunderstood TFA, but how is this any different from IE's security zone/trusted sites model? I thought that model had been proven to be ineffectual and flawed, so it really shocks me that AOL would try and add it to Firefox...
It just isn't. Computers are complex things, and it is both logical and more importantly, reasonable to expect people to do a minor amount of work to maintain them, the same way you do a automobile. Surely, any motorist knows how to check his tire pressure, oil, and can replace a flat when necessary. A car is an investment, and people who do not treat one as such do so to their detriment. A computer is no different.
Similarly, anyone using a computer should be able to understand and implement basic security practices and do minor OS and hardware maintenance and repairs. The fundamental problem is that people are just too damn lazy to learn how to do these simple things, and Symantec is capitalizing on that.
Mizuguchi is obviously a bit uncomfortable with the English language, even if he is fairly competent with it. Perhaps if he wasn't reaching for words all the time, the interviews would be a bit more interesting.
Still, the interviews are interesting, and there's no doubt the guy is a genius: How many people can claim to have created not one, but two tetris-calibur puzzle games in the span of less than a year?
Ever since the dot-com crash, advertising hasn't been very profitable for most websites. Only sites that run invasive pop-ups or use unscrupulous techniques to install spyware typically have any sort of decent returns on advertising.
Considering that even those techniques aren't enough for many sites to even pay for upkeep, it seems obvious that the expenses of quality news reporting make "free" news nearly impossible without the support of for-pay print media paying the bills. It's going to take some sort of revolutionary payment system that actually works (unlike micropayments) to maintain the current system once physical newspaper readership really starts to decline.
... as the preferred choice for small-to-mid sized DB projects. I'm sure Sun is aware of this, so this "SunDB" is probably not something you're going to run for a typical website.
This begs the question; exactly what role would high-end Open Source DB software be able to fill today? Oracle is well entrenched with both DBAs and businesses -- Unless there are serious flaws in it that I am unaware of, I don't see the SunDB going very far.
Actually it runs Doom3 pretty well at 1024x768, as long as you're satisfied with the detail being on medium (high would run well too, but it really needs a 256MB card).
I haven't played Celestia, so I can't comment on that. It does, however, run World of Warcraft very nicely at 1600x1200, and that is all that matters to me currently. Heh.
... with regards to the availbility of their high-end cards. When was the last time you saw a store (online or otherwise) that had a x800 (of any stripe) or high end 6800 in stock? Probably not in the last 3 or 4 months.
I was considering upgrading from my 9800pro, but until better cards become more widely available the costs are going to remain prohibitive.
Considering how closely the Source engine is tied to DirectX, it's unlikely that it would be easy to port it to another OS.
While the HL2 leak had support for OpenGL rendering, the current version of CS: Source does not even allow you to choose that. You're probably looking at a near-total rewrite if you want to run HL2 on another OS that doesn't support MS' APIs.
Uh, you may have loved it, but this is often cited as the exact reason the DC failed.
You see, the DC does not allow you to boot with your own code... those ripped games you burned are abusing a backdoor boot trick put in by the DC's designers to test software on a system before it was burned as a copy-protected GD-ROM. People always claim to love the DC, but I think that has more to do with the ease of piracy than it's (admittedly great) library of software or excellent hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the content that I download is firmly in the legal realm, with a smidgeon of not-licensed-in-your-country television from Europe and Asia. I'm not honestly too concerned about running afoul of this outside of false positives, but I also don't want to take any chances either. Shame I don't have the option of switching to a different ISP.
So, any recommendations for good VPNs that are reasonably priced and don't keep logs?
That which is lost can often be regained, and we are usually wiser for the experience... at least for a time.
I should probably clarify that I wasn't saying it was "game of the year" or anything like that, but it was the most overlooked game this year that was worthy of people's time.
As someone in the industry, it pains me greatly to see the hard work of many people fall by the wayside just because other titles released in the same season got more advertising. You can debate forever which game is "best", but it seems to me that it would be wiser to try and help the wheat rise out of the proverbial chaff.
And for the record, yes, I enjoyed MGS4 immensely. I thought it was a fantastic game, but it wasn't the best experience I had this year. Which, I should add, is no knock against it.
As a fan of strategy games and RPGs, I was sad that this title was overlooked by so many. Whatever the reason, it is always painful to see an innovative title do poorly -- especially when it is one as enjoyable as this.
From the unique rendering style (which is not well conveyed in screenshots, sort of like okami) to the inventive gameplay which skillfully blends real time turn-based actions together, the soaring Sakimoto score, and unique storybook presentation, there's not much to dislike about Valkyria.
If you have a PS3, I highly recommend you give it a look.
Just tried it. They are indeed blocking Youtube links; You'll get an error immediately if you try to send someone a message including a URL with youtube.com in it.
Densha Otoko was a miniseries that ran in 2005 on Fuji TV in Japan, and chronicled one man's attempts to woo the woman of his dreams with the help of an internet message board. The really remarkable thing about the series (apart from being based on a true story) is that every computer-related thing in it is 100% accurate. While the series has quite a few unrealistic and silly elements, I was impressed by the technical accuracy... right down to using the real BBS that the actual "Densha Otoko" thread occurred on.
I tried the game originally when it was linked on Penny Arcade, but found it to be both incredibly buggy (I had to resort to manually editing the config keys in the registry to adjust the resolution and the tutorials routinely locked up) and with overly simplistic gameplay that frankly wasn't very interesting. There was also the fact that the matches routinely timed out for seemingly no reason.
Ultimately, I find myself incapable of really recommending it to anyone. That's a shame too, since I really wanted to like it.
I'm already enjoying HD content on all of my systems (two windows, one ubuntu) using VLC, so I suspect as soon as HD-DVD and Bluray are reverse-engineered, I'll be using it for those too.
Assuming I ever actually buy a BD or HD-DVD drive, of course.
... when the first thing you do when you are thinking about buying a game is check what sort of copy protection it uses before even considering the purchase itself. And what if the game happens to have one of the more offensive copy protection schemes? (Safedisc, Starforce) Well, you're forced to download cracks from questionable websites if you want to avoid dealing with them. This is coming from someone who wants to buy their products. This is a good first step for Ubisoft, but they should realize that all restrictive copy protection schemes do nothing but hurt their business in the long run.
Athlon XP64 4200 X2 - 38 Seconds.
I'm also running Win64, so I'm not sure how huge a difference that makes.
...would content providers trust a DRM solution created by the very group of people who they (rightly) see as some of their staunchest opponents? Even if there were to be an open source DRM system which was both (nearly) uncrackable and out-performed everything else on the market, I think content producers would still be afraid to use it when they considered that this was the same community that supported DeCSS etc.
It would be nice if more companies realized that the internet is not one-way communications, and that its real strength lies in allowing everyone to both create and share content. Of course, considering that Time Warner is a media company at its core, they have a bit of conflict of interest with providing lots of upstream bandwidth as long as they continue to fear file-sharing.
Parent is right, I'm on my third PS2 as well. Actually, I wonder what Sony and Microsoft set as their desired Mean Time Between Failure?
It would be interesting to find out if the console producers pick low MTBFs with the expectation that consumers will ultimately buy replacement consoles. While this might seem initially to be counter-intuitive since the first revision of the hardware is sold at a loss, later revisions are often sold at considerable profit.
Wouldn't being aware that it was a meme in the first place reduce the effect on the audience? I imagine for these things to be truly effective, you have to be unaware of their purpose.
Yeah, but might doesn't make it right!
Maybe I misunderstood TFA, but how is this any different from IE's security zone/trusted sites model? I thought that model had been proven to be ineffectual and flawed, so it really shocks me that AOL would try and add it to Firefox...
It just isn't. Computers are complex things, and it is both logical and more importantly, reasonable to expect people to do a minor amount of work to maintain them, the same way you do a automobile. Surely, any motorist knows how to check his tire pressure, oil, and can replace a flat when necessary. A car is an investment, and people who do not treat one as such do so to their detriment. A computer is no different.
Similarly, anyone using a computer should be able to understand and implement basic security practices and do minor OS and hardware maintenance and repairs. The fundamental problem is that people are just too damn lazy to learn how to do these simple things, and Symantec is capitalizing on that.
Meteos.
Mizuguchi is obviously a bit uncomfortable with the English language, even if he is fairly competent with it. Perhaps if he wasn't reaching for words all the time, the interviews would be a bit more interesting.
Still, the interviews are interesting, and there's no doubt the guy is a genius: How many people can claim to have created not one, but two tetris-calibur puzzle games in the span of less than a year?
Ever since the dot-com crash, advertising hasn't been very profitable for most websites. Only sites that run invasive pop-ups or use unscrupulous techniques to install spyware typically have any sort of decent returns on advertising.
Considering that even those techniques aren't enough for many sites to even pay for upkeep, it seems obvious that the expenses of quality news reporting make "free" news nearly impossible without the support of for-pay print media paying the bills. It's going to take some sort of revolutionary payment system that actually works (unlike micropayments) to maintain the current system once physical newspaper readership really starts to decline.
... as the preferred choice for small-to-mid sized DB projects. I'm sure Sun is aware of this, so this "SunDB" is probably not something you're going to run for a typical website.
This begs the question; exactly what role would high-end Open Source DB software be able to fill today? Oracle is well entrenched with both DBAs and businesses -- Unless there are serious flaws in it that I am unaware of, I don't see the SunDB going very far.
Actually it runs Doom3 pretty well at 1024x768, as long as you're satisfied with the detail being on medium (high would run well too, but it really needs a 256MB card).
I haven't played Celestia, so I can't comment on that. It does, however, run World of Warcraft very nicely at 1600x1200, and that is all that matters to me currently. Heh.
... with regards to the availbility of their high-end cards. When was the last time you saw a store (online or otherwise) that had a x800 (of any stripe) or high end 6800 in stock? Probably not in the last 3 or 4 months. I was considering upgrading from my 9800pro, but until better cards become more widely available the costs are going to remain prohibitive.
Considering how closely the Source engine is tied to DirectX, it's unlikely that it would be easy to port it to another OS.
While the HL2 leak had support for OpenGL rendering, the current version of CS: Source does not even allow you to choose that. You're probably looking at a near-total rewrite if you want to run HL2 on another OS that doesn't support MS' APIs.
Uh, you may have loved it, but this is often cited as the exact reason the DC failed.
You see, the DC does not allow you to boot with your own code... those ripped games you burned are abusing a backdoor boot trick put in by the DC's designers to test software on a system before it was burned as a copy-protected GD-ROM. People always claim to love the DC, but I think that has more to do with the ease of piracy than it's (admittedly great) library of software or excellent hardware.