The UHF spectrum is almost entirely licensed, and there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of licensed operators who use the spectrum on a daily basis. It can't be 'opened up' because then those licensed operators would no longer have the access they are entitled to -as- licensed operators.
IBM is one of the largest holders of Lenovo stock, and Lenovo's HQ is in NYC, soon to be moving to North Carolina to be closer to... you guessed it. IBM.
When the evidence surfaced, there was the usual fracas about rights and privacy and yadda yadda, and then nothing got done for a few days. Then, the contents of this so-called secret room became public knowledge (Those commercially available network monitoring devices that were mentioned in a previous slashdot article.)
Those few days were more than enough to completely change the contents of that room. I'm not saying that that is what happened, I'm just saying that there is no way for us to know if the contents of the supposed secret room stayed the same. What would you do if you were the NSA and you were monitoring a goodly percentage of internet traffic and got found out? You'd try your damndest to hide it, because you're the NSA and that's what you do.
Plus, if any of this gets successfully filed under 'Homeland Security' you're never going to get a judge to do anything but blow smoke.
This study can't be trusted any farther than it can be thrown, to mangle an age-old aphorism.
To put it simply, the MPAA sponsored this study, therefore it will be slanted as they desire. I'm sure there's some element of truth to these estimates, but the MPAA has as a goal the elimination of piracy, so the more inflated they can make the losses seem, the closer they get to their goal.
SharePoint puts me in touch with lots of people deep in the organization. It's like having a super-website that lets many people edit and discuss--far more than the standard practice of sending e-mails with enclosures. And it notifies you if anything comes up in an area you're interested in.
So... Microsoft invented web forums? and they chose to call it a 'super-website'. Someone should have told bill about phpbb.
During his emotional testimony, Strickland lashed out at games' impact on society. "As I gather more information on the games and the people who call themselves 'gamers,' I could see how someone like Devin, who at one minute did not put up any resistance... [could take] my brother's gun from him in the police station, shooting him and then killing two other men in a matter of less than two minutes," said Strickland. "A game such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City could and did teach him how to do this."
Anyone who thinks GTA can teach someone how to shoot has either A) Never played GTA or B) Never fired a weapon, ever.
I just bought an nVidia 7800, the AGP version because I don't have a PCI-X motherboard, and the -game- runs amazingly. 1280x1024 w/4x AA and all that, and -very- nice framerates, considering. However, the cutscenes are barely intelligible, apparently thanks to my mobo not supporting 'AGP fast write' which is something I hadn't even -heard- of prior to getting Oblivion. Now, I bought that video card -solely- so that I could have a great gaming experience with Oblivion, and now it looks like I'm gonna be either trading it in, or trading it -and- my mobo in so I can go PCI-X. It's a pain in the ass... but I've played the earlier games in the series, and I'll do what's necessary without blinking an eye. I think the game is worth it.
The question is, do you? Ask yourself how much you're willing to put up with before investing in this title. Maybe just head over to your favorite torrent site and download it first, make sure it runs.
But pay for it after you download it. This is one of the few games that is worth far more than they charge for it, imho.
These guys started at the bottom of the pile, right? Just like the great majority of us, they were workers. Then they had a great idea, and now years later, they're billionaires because of it. It's the american dream. Why does everyone assume that just because they've made money they've turned to the dark side? 99% of you put in the same position wouldn't be turning down the billion dollars from stock sales. You'd have earned it fair and square, and you'd be very happy with yourself. I'm happy for them too, they've created probably -the- most useful tool on the internet, IMHO.
Dave
...After reading hundreds upon hundreds of horror stories about Vonage's customer service at places like VOIP-Forums, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. I'm sure I'm not alone. Everyone's blaming the FCC for trying to shut down Vonage and whatnot, has nobody considered that maybe it's just not all that great a company?
1. Radio is used to dispatch Police and Fire personnel to your home if you are getting robbed, or if your home is on fire. This can't be done over the internet or over phone systems because they aren't reliable enough. There is almost nothing short of a nuclear blast that can stop you from using your radio.
2. Radio provides two-way communications in areas where cell phone coverage is non-existant. (i.e., camping trips, mountainous areas, etc. If you select your radio properly, even a handheld tranceiver can give you a bare minimum of two miles of range (5 watt tranceiver under bad geographical conditions) or even up to 25 miles under optimum conditions. And that's for -handheld- radios. HF transceivers (3,000 to 30,000 kilohertz) can reach around the world, bounce signals off of the moon, and communicate with orbiting satelites or space stations.
3. Oh yeah, cell phones. Those all operate over... guess what? RF! Nextel, for example, operates primarily on the 800 mhz band. A cell phone -is- a radio, a digital, duplexing, low-power radio that communicates with cell towers, which relay the signal into the POTS system.
4. If you think that you can connect to someone around the world, via the internet, without at some point using RF, you're kidding yourself. What, do you think there's a big wire running from the ground up to the satellites? Do you think terrestrial microwave operates by magic?
5. Last, but certainly not least. Cell phones developed from radio, I already said that... there wouldn't be cell phones if there weren't radios, and without RF, cell phones would be nothing. But so would the internet. Packetized data was originally meant for transmission via radio. It was a major advance in the field of RF, reliably transmitting digital data over long ranges using radios. THAT is the technology that eventually evolved into IP.
Do your homework before you knock RF, rookie.
-One of the many very busy RF engineers, amazingly still employed! Gasp!
Most likely I am posting this in vain, because odds are all the people who posted negative replies to this comment have already forgotten about it. But here's what I have to say:
I never once mentioned the USA in my post, nor did I mention any country. I am no more in favor of america-centric news items than I am australia-centric items. Also, everyone seems to be assuming that I'm an American. Granted, I am, but that was an assumption on the part of most of the replies.
And yes, I think it would be worthwhile to use a syntax along the lines of "GST (Goods and Services Tax, Australia)" When including references of that sort in postings. This would not make all news items dozens of paragraphs long, and it would give someone the proper frame of reference if they want to go learn more about the subject. Also it would provide at least a clue as to what the article is about so you don't have to stop reading halfway through to go google something and hope that you've come up with the correct definition.
You insensitive fucking clods.
Methinks that the international nature of the/. audience needs to be considered before posting new items. Am I the only one who doesn't know what this is? Probably not.
In short, Galaxies was a tepid, soulless experience that failed to live up to the hype.
I don't think it's quite fair for them to name best and worst in categories that only have two games in them. I mean, usually, one of those games is going to be clearly the better of the two, but that doesn't mean the second one is bad. They remembered to include that caveat in the RPG category, but they resorted to bashing and ridiculous exaggerations in the MMO category.
Slashdot Mirror
The UHF spectrum is almost entirely licensed, and there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of licensed operators who use the spectrum on a daily basis. It can't be 'opened up' because then those licensed operators would no longer have the access they are entitled to -as- licensed operators.
Semantics.
IBM is one of the largest holders of Lenovo stock, and Lenovo's HQ is in NYC, soon to be moving to North Carolina to be closer to... you guessed it. IBM.
Whatever the reasons, it's very satisfying to see a corporate entity exploiting cheap labor and losing out because of it (indirectly or not)
Nothing will come of this.
When the evidence surfaced, there was the usual fracas about rights and privacy and yadda yadda, and then nothing got done for a few days. Then, the contents of this so-called secret room became public knowledge (Those commercially available network monitoring devices that were mentioned in a previous slashdot article.)
Those few days were more than enough to completely change the contents of that room. I'm not saying that that is what happened, I'm just saying that there is no way for us to know if the contents of the supposed secret room stayed the same. What would you do if you were the NSA and you were monitoring a goodly percentage of internet traffic and got found out? You'd try your damndest to hide it, because you're the NSA and that's what you do.
Plus, if any of this gets successfully filed under 'Homeland Security' you're never going to get a judge to do anything but blow smoke.
When I was in the service, we just called them hookers ;)
1. Create website about some new and controversial technology, add Google Ads. ...
2.
3. Get slashdotted.
4. Profit!
I -knew- that you would have google ads before I even clicked the link.
This study can't be trusted any farther than it can be thrown, to mangle an age-old aphorism.
To put it simply, the MPAA sponsored this study, therefore it will be slanted as they desire. I'm sure there's some element of truth to these estimates, but the MPAA has as a goal the elimination of piracy, so the more inflated they can make the losses seem, the closer they get to their goal.
So you're saying gamers want an overpriced, poorly assembled PC that you won't be able to get customer support for?
...I changed my mind. I'm not even going to dignify that.
Is for someone to tell me whether or not you can run Oblivion on Mac hardware.
Well, I -loved- Fable. It was a new direction for RPGs, and while it was too short, I'd rank it among my most-liked games in recent memory.
Ask yourself, has Rare put out anything worth a shit since they were acquired by Microsoft? The bell tolls for thee, Lionhead.
So much for the Heroes Guild and those funny talking doors...
From TFA:
SharePoint puts me in touch with lots of people deep in the organization. It's like having a super-website that lets many people edit and discuss--far more than the standard practice of sending e-mails with enclosures. And it notifies you if anything comes up in an area you're interested in.
So... Microsoft invented web forums? and they chose to call it a 'super-website'. Someone should have told bill about phpbb.
Yes, but 'Spray and Pray' is how -NOT- to fire a weapon.
From TFA:
... [could take] my brother's gun from him in the police station, shooting him and then killing two other men in a matter of less than two minutes," said Strickland. "A game such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City could and did teach him how to do this."
During his emotional testimony, Strickland lashed out at games' impact on society. "As I gather more information on the games and the people who call themselves 'gamers,' I could see how someone like Devin, who at one minute did not put up any resistance
Anyone who thinks GTA can teach someone how to shoot has either A) Never played GTA or B) Never fired a weapon, ever.
Dave
I just bought an nVidia 7800, the AGP version because I don't have a PCI-X motherboard, and the -game- runs amazingly. 1280x1024 w/4x AA and all that, and -very- nice framerates, considering. However, the cutscenes are barely intelligible, apparently thanks to my mobo not supporting 'AGP fast write' which is something I hadn't even -heard- of prior to getting Oblivion. Now, I bought that video card -solely- so that I could have a great gaming experience with Oblivion, and now it looks like I'm gonna be either trading it in, or trading it -and- my mobo in so I can go PCI-X. It's a pain in the ass... but I've played the earlier games in the series, and I'll do what's necessary without blinking an eye. I think the game is worth it.
The question is, do you? Ask yourself how much you're willing to put up with before investing in this title. Maybe just head over to your favorite torrent site and download it first, make sure it runs.
But pay for it after you download it. This is one of the few games that is worth far more than they charge for it, imho.
Dave
Does -anyone- wear sandals and a ponytail anymore? That's kind of cliche.
Damn! I thought this said 'The Mythbusters Construct a Kill Bot' Now -that- would have been a story.
These guys started at the bottom of the pile, right? Just like the great majority of us, they were workers. Then they had a great idea, and now years later, they're billionaires because of it. It's the american dream. Why does everyone assume that just because they've made money they've turned to the dark side? 99% of you put in the same position wouldn't be turning down the billion dollars from stock sales. You'd have earned it fair and square, and you'd be very happy with yourself. I'm happy for them too, they've created probably -the- most useful tool on the internet, IMHO. Dave
...After reading hundreds upon hundreds of horror stories about Vonage's customer service at places like VOIP-Forums, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. I'm sure I'm not alone. Everyone's blaming the FCC for trying to shut down Vonage and whatnot, has nobody considered that maybe it's just not all that great a company?
Answers to parent:
1. Radio is used to dispatch Police and Fire personnel to your home if you are getting robbed, or if your home is on fire. This can't be done over the internet or over phone systems because they aren't reliable enough. There is almost nothing short of a nuclear blast that can stop you from using your radio.
2. Radio provides two-way communications in areas where cell phone coverage is non-existant. (i.e., camping trips, mountainous areas, etc. If you select your radio properly, even a handheld tranceiver can give you a bare minimum of two miles of range (5 watt tranceiver under bad geographical conditions) or even up to 25 miles under optimum conditions. And that's for -handheld- radios. HF transceivers (3,000 to 30,000 kilohertz) can reach around the world, bounce signals off of the moon, and communicate with orbiting satelites or space stations.
3. Oh yeah, cell phones. Those all operate over... guess what? RF! Nextel, for example, operates primarily on the 800 mhz band. A cell phone -is- a radio, a digital, duplexing, low-power radio that communicates with cell towers, which relay the signal into the POTS system.
4. If you think that you can connect to someone around the world, via the internet, without at some point using RF, you're kidding yourself. What, do you think there's a big wire running from the ground up to the satellites? Do you think terrestrial microwave operates by magic?
5. Last, but certainly not least. Cell phones developed from radio, I already said that... there wouldn't be cell phones if there weren't radios, and without RF, cell phones would be nothing. But so would the internet. Packetized data was originally meant for transmission via radio. It was a major advance in the field of RF, reliably transmitting digital data over long ranges using radios. THAT is the technology that eventually evolved into IP.
Do your homework before you knock RF, rookie.
-One of the many very busy RF engineers, amazingly still employed! Gasp!
Most likely I am posting this in vain, because odds are all the people who posted negative replies to this comment have already forgotten about it. But here's what I have to say: I never once mentioned the USA in my post, nor did I mention any country. I am no more in favor of america-centric news items than I am australia-centric items. Also, everyone seems to be assuming that I'm an American. Granted, I am, but that was an assumption on the part of most of the replies. And yes, I think it would be worthwhile to use a syntax along the lines of "GST (Goods and Services Tax, Australia)" When including references of that sort in postings. This would not make all news items dozens of paragraphs long, and it would give someone the proper frame of reference if they want to go learn more about the subject. Also it would provide at least a clue as to what the article is about so you don't have to stop reading halfway through to go google something and hope that you've come up with the correct definition. You insensitive fucking clods.
Methinks that the international nature of the /. audience needs to be considered before posting new items. Am I the only one who doesn't know what this is? Probably not.
I don't think it's quite fair for them to name best and worst in categories that only have two games in them. I mean, usually, one of those games is going to be clearly the better of the two, but that doesn't mean the second one is bad. They remembered to include that caveat in the RPG category, but they resorted to bashing and ridiculous exaggerations in the MMO category.
...And why do we care?