First part of Season 1 you are correct. It was that exact formula of "Which terminator did they send back this week that needs to be stopped". But about 3/4 of the way in the storyline changed a lot.
From what I can gather of season 2 is that there are multiple AI's playing the long con to try and get come out top. Meanwhile people coming back in time are from alternate timelines making matters a bit more complex.
Well there are many other things wrong with it as well. Basically all the content is in one building in the game (cloned through different zones). So at level 10 you only need enter this building and never leave except having to sell stuff on auction house or level up.
so you never actually have to explore the game. As the missions are more or less the same formula (with different stories, rather then different maps) you start to wonder why your paying for an MMO that feels more like a lan game.
IANAL.. As I understand it if any of your patents are challenged in court they only need to point to this post with a very good chance of having the patent invalidated.
"was to ail a very real problem of people taking literature, translating it and selling it in foreign countries with no revenue going to the original artist or publisher."
Sorry this as the main excuse is total tosh. This happening would have no effect if it was in eReader or book form. This has been going on for years. If anything the eReader makes this more annoying to do (can't distribute pages among multiple people to type faster, can't OCR).
The reason why they have it like this is simply for the real world book stores. It isn't easy to print up books elsewhere for worldwide distribution so if the eReader version comes out sooner then the book stores lose out.
Actually I have been itching for a full on PVP CoX server and I know numerous people who would join up for this in a heart beat.
But the player community whine like little girls when ever it is mentioned. When in fact it would have no impact on them at all.
I play in the PvP zones a lot. It is good fun, a challenge and 99% of the time the people attacking you are not douches. Most of the whining comes from non-PvP who cry when someone has beaten them up before they could make it to a mission point. If it was up to me I'd make the mission doors open to anyone to stop people exploiting it.
I can see where Manjoo is coming from. For example I would quite happily pay 2-3 euros for a new release that I could download from the net and watch at my leisure. Better yet if it was like STEAM where I buy the right to watch it whenever so I am not forced to rebuy new formats when they come out (or offer discount for extras later on).
As it stands now I have to go to a shop and buy it, or buy it online as a DVD set and pay extra costs. Or go to a movie theater where you basically get legally mugged.
So yea the media companies are the ones who are selling dated business models and they wonder why people may go to the easier models.
I think learning curve for a new OS has dropped dramatically. If you can use windows you can use pretty much any other major GUI based operating system out there with little learning curve.
In some cases you give up windows habits altogether. For example my mother switched from windows to a mac mini. Within two days she gave up on the concept of directories/folders. Instead uses a combination of coverflow and spotlight to find her stuff.
Pro - Linux is cheapest (even if you factor in your time costs). - Mac is the easiest to maintain - Windows still wins out for games.
Con - Linux is the most annoying to get set up in for beginners. If it was as simple to maintain as OSX for an end user it would be the winner straight off. - Windows I seem to spend most my time fighting spyware or trying to figure out why it is suddenly running slowly. - The only problem with the mac so far is I didn't fully lock down an account and my son managed to temporarily trash machine (my fault really and very easy to recover from).
I used to be just windows mainly but I moved full time over to Macs now and haven't looked back. For most of my PC 3D games collection I use parallels on the Mac. It isn't good for hard core gaming but grand for 90% of PC games I own and well I have a console for the rest.
I know I come off as a mac fanboi (my initial reason for not getting a mac), but all I can say is use one for two weeks. Beyond games, I think you would be hard pressed to say anything bad about it (well price as well).
I Agree with you. I owned a DELL XPS laptop and while it is portable it is not something I would lug around. Was handy for lan parties (set up fast, leave fast.:)
a) Send you out a random part that may or may not fix the issue but keep you away for a week or so.
b) Keep asking what items are installed on the machine until they find something that has changed and claim it is no longer supported ("What's that you have automatic update on? Tough luck").
c) They will punt you from engineer to engineer who will all ask the exact same questions to you before sending you onto someone else.
I have been for the most part a die hard PC owner (windows at that, some linux) for years. When I started off I would build the machine from scratch, upgrade parts, etc.
Now from a few years ago I could care less about that anymore. I want a machine that runs the programs I need. I could care less about anything else (like operating system) and I want piece of mind.
So I got Dell initially. Premium support was what made me buy 3 other machines after my first laptop (no questions asked hardware fixed). Funny enough, it was the standard support for those other machines that turned me off dell.
I moved recently to Macs. I initially got mid spec minimac. After two weeks using it I realized that it not only did exactly what I wanted but the OS is so much simpler to use and find what I need. Because of that I sold the other machines and went full mac (all minimacs). For the 1-2 apps I need still in windows I use parallels.
Yes the price is more, but one thing to stress here is that I already had keyboard/mouse+very good monitors. So there was no reason to buy any more them.
I am by no means a fanboi, but the PC/Mac is just an appliance and I picked one that is easier to use and maintain.
What is interesting though is the attitude in general from other people who own a PC who go on to me about how much Macs suck when they haven't even used one. I could care less, but I can understand why some Mac owners get sick of it.
"They blocked basically every application for any domain name that was any way lucrative, exciting, or with a potential to make a profit, and took an amazing amount of time to actually get anything done."
I knew guys that worked there. Basically they saw what a mess of what.com became (cybersquatting, typo urls) and made it hard to do this. Of course that is no longer the case.
"As for Java, I'm more comfortable with it being under Sun than IBM."
IBM already have their own JVM. The only Java bit that would be taken over is probably the spec. I don't see what SCO has to do about anything unless we are talking about pump-n-dump scams.
IEEE did a nice article on it a year or two back. Showed a system where you got a receipt that you could check online to ensure the end value was not changed.
Also the way the receipt worked it stopped others from seeing who you voted for (so you couldn't be threatened into voting for someone).
I have met people like that. That seem to think the company revolves around them.
Like who was told he was being moved onto a different project (because the developers on the team couldn't put up with him). He proceeded to convert all the java class files to single lines (no cr/lf/formatting) and then erased the CVS server and checked it all in. Three guesses who was in charge of the back ups. Months of work. Still he programmed in his own text editor when we just did reformatted the classes back to spec I might add with Eclipse.
If it had been anyone else they would of been fired but there was so much trash code that only he knew we couldn't replace him so quickly.
And another where I had spent 2 days trying to figure out why an API call was failing and when I mailed the developer working on that area his response was "You are doing something wrong". Well duh. A day later after going "WTF?" to my manager he comes around and explains that I had to send in a string with an id of his initials in order for the API to work. Ignoring how screwed up that was it was totally undocumented and obfuscated in the source.
These were in production products we were trying to sell to customers. o_O
Depends on the nature of the security. In such a case it would be something like.
Example: 100 cards with sequential numbers with checksum A. Every card that can be divided by 3 use Checksum B. Every card that can be divided by 13 use Checksum C. Cards ending with 2,27,14,55,98 are trap cards. These numbers are never released to the public.
Normally when such cards are hacked they would be done sequentially. So the checksum is to stop casual creation of new numbers and the trap cards are if that number is used, then any numbers near the trap card used recently would also be marked as suspect.
So from what you say they are not employing any serial number protection systems.
> all you need to do is know your number, add about 100, > put that number on your card, and wait for it to be activated > so you can use it.
I worked on such cards many years ago and just doing this would not work. The systems would have a large number of trap codes. For example 5-20 random numbers out of every hundred are removed, or generated using alternate checksums. So generating just a string of sequential numbers would trigger the trap. With the trap activated you could then map it to a bank of numbers to check for and cancel them.
But I am guessing Amazon didn't do that. Also your blank giftcard scam would probably work but again if they have an anyway secure system put up the system would cop onto someone entering in inactive numbers over and over and pull those numbers from the system.
Not all illegal ones are stupid/uneducated. I applied for a job in the US many years ago. The interview was for developing UI systems to custom hardware (pretty cool stuff) during the interview it became quite evident that while they were willing to give me a job they weren't going to do the Visa system. Instead the interviewer kept talking about Mexico and what areas I should visit and what streets/areas will allow me to jump the fence as it were.
I didn't take the job (for obvious reasons) but I suspect they were not the only company doing it back then.
Slashdot Mirror
First part of Season 1 you are correct. It was that exact formula of "Which terminator did they send back this week that needs to be stopped". But about 3/4 of the way in the storyline changed a lot.
From what I can gather of season 2 is that there are multiple AI's playing the long con to try and get come out top. Meanwhile people coming back in time are from alternate timelines making matters a bit more complex.
Well there are many other things wrong with it as well. Basically all the content is in one building in the game (cloned through different zones). So at level 10 you only need enter this building and never leave except having to sell stuff on auction house or level up.
so you never actually have to explore the game. As the missions are more or less the same formula (with different stories, rather then different maps) you start to wonder why your paying for an MMO that feels more like a lan game.
Sorry but CoX has been a complete Monty Haul for some time now. That and the limited formula of missions is what is killing the game.
IANAL.. As I understand it if any of your patents are challenged in court they only need to point to this post with a very good chance of having the patent invalidated.
"was to ail a very real problem of people taking literature, translating it and selling it in foreign countries with no revenue going to the original artist or publisher."
Sorry this as the main excuse is total tosh. This happening would have no effect if it was in eReader or book form. This has been going on for years. If anything the eReader makes this more annoying to do (can't distribute pages among multiple people to type faster, can't OCR).
The reason why they have it like this is simply for the real world book stores. It isn't easy to print up books elsewhere for worldwide distribution so if the eReader version comes out sooner then the book stores lose out.
Actually I have been itching for a full on PVP CoX server and I know numerous people who would join up for this in a heart beat.
But the player community whine like little girls when ever it is mentioned. When in fact it would have no impact on them at all.
I play in the PvP zones a lot. It is good fun, a challenge and 99% of the time the people attacking you are not douches. Most of the whining comes from non-PvP who cry when someone has beaten them up before they could make it to a mission point. If it was up to me I'd make the mission doors open to anyone to stop people exploiting it.
Farming for gear I can understand and CoX team have dealt with that regarding the use of tickets.
However CoX is insanely easy to level up in. Even more so since the Cryptic Studios people left.
It is quite possibly one of the easiest games to level up in.
I can see where Manjoo is coming from. For example I would quite happily pay 2-3 euros for a new release that I could download from the net and watch at my leisure. Better yet if it was like STEAM where I buy the right to watch it whenever so I am not forced to rebuy new formats when they come out (or offer discount for extras later on).
As it stands now I have to go to a shop and buy it, or buy it online as a DVD set and pay extra costs. Or go to a movie theater where you basically get legally mugged.
So yea the media companies are the ones who are selling dated business models and they wonder why people may go to the easier models.
I think learning curve for a new OS has dropped dramatically. If you can use windows you can use pretty much any other major GUI based operating system out there with little learning curve.
In some cases you give up windows habits altogether. For example my mother switched from windows to a mac mini. Within two days she gave up on the concept of directories/folders. Instead uses a combination of coverflow and spotlight to find her stuff.
I have several windows/macs and linux machines.
Of them...
Pro
- Linux is cheapest (even if you factor in your time costs).
- Mac is the easiest to maintain
- Windows still wins out for games.
Con
- Linux is the most annoying to get set up in for beginners. If it was as simple to maintain as OSX for an end user it would be the winner straight off.
- Windows I seem to spend most my time fighting spyware or trying to figure out why it is suddenly running slowly.
- The only problem with the mac so far is I didn't fully lock down an account and my son managed to temporarily trash machine (my fault really and very easy to recover from).
I used to be just windows mainly but I moved full time over to Macs now and haven't looked back. For most of my PC 3D games collection I use parallels on the Mac. It isn't good for hard core gaming but grand for 90% of PC games I own and well I have a console for the rest.
I know I come off as a mac fanboi (my initial reason for not getting a mac), but all I can say is use one for two weeks. Beyond games, I think you would be hard pressed to say anything bad about it (well price as well).
I Agree with you. I owned a DELL XPS laptop and while it is portable it is not something I would lug around. Was handy for lan parties (set up fast, leave fast. :)
If they are cheap end support they will..
a) Send you out a random part that may or may not fix the issue but keep you away for a week or so.
b) Keep asking what items are installed on the machine until they find something that has changed and claim it is no longer supported ("What's that you have automatic update on? Tough luck").
c) They will punt you from engineer to engineer who will all ask the exact same questions to you before sending you onto someone else.
pretty sure that should be "They're too busy".
I have been for the most part a die hard PC owner (windows at that, some linux) for years. When I started off I would build the machine from scratch, upgrade parts, etc.
Now from a few years ago I could care less about that anymore. I want a machine that runs the programs I need. I could care less about anything else (like operating system) and I want piece of mind.
So I got Dell initially. Premium support was what made me buy 3 other machines after my first laptop (no questions asked hardware fixed). Funny enough, it was the standard support for those other machines that turned me off dell.
I moved recently to Macs. I initially got mid spec minimac. After two weeks using it I realized that it not only did exactly what I wanted but the OS is so much simpler to use and find what I need. Because of that I sold the other machines and went full mac (all minimacs). For the 1-2 apps I need still in windows I use parallels.
Yes the price is more, but one thing to stress here is that I already had keyboard/mouse+very good monitors. So there was no reason to buy any more them.
I am by no means a fanboi, but the PC/Mac is just an appliance and I picked one that is easier to use and maintain.
What is interesting though is the attitude in general from other people who own a PC who go on to me about how much Macs suck when they haven't even used one. I could care less, but I can understand why some Mac owners get sick of it.
"They blocked basically every application for any domain name that was any way lucrative, exciting, or with a potential to make a profit, and took an amazing amount of time to actually get anything done."
I knew guys that worked there. Basically they saw what a mess of what .com became (cybersquatting, typo urls) and made it hard to do this. Of course that is no longer the case.
why you have things like:
http://baords.ie/
http://board.ie/
"As for Java, I'm more comfortable with it being under Sun than IBM."
IBM already have their own JVM. The only Java bit that would be taken over is probably the spec. I don't see what SCO has to do about anything unless we are talking about pump-n-dump scams.
wonder if you can offset the heating bill against the PC's being on.
Wonder how well the fuse box will take a large number of PC's being started up early in the morning at the same time.
IEEE did a nice article on it a year or two back. Showed a system where you got a receipt that you could check online to ensure the end value was not changed.
Also the way the receipt worked it stopped others from seeing who you voted for (so you couldn't be threatened into voting for someone).
I have met people like that. That seem to think the company revolves around them.
Like who was told he was being moved onto a different project (because the developers on the team couldn't put up with him). He proceeded to convert all the java class files to single lines (no cr/lf/formatting) and then erased the CVS server and checked it all in. Three guesses who was in charge of the back ups. Months of work. Still he programmed in his own text editor when we just did reformatted the classes back to spec I might add with Eclipse.
If it had been anyone else they would of been fired but there was so much trash code that only he knew we couldn't replace him so quickly.
And another where I had spent 2 days trying to figure out why an API call was failing and when I mailed the developer working on that area his response was "You are doing something wrong". Well duh. A day later after going "WTF?" to my manager he comes around and explains that I had to send in a string with an id of his initials in order for the API to work. Ignoring how screwed up that was it was totally undocumented and obfuscated in the source.
These were in production products we were trying to sell to customers. o_O
"I'm not sure how your "trap" works."
Depends on the nature of the security. In such a case it would be something like.
Example:
100 cards with sequential numbers with checksum A.
Every card that can be divided by 3 use Checksum B.
Every card that can be divided by 13 use Checksum C.
Cards ending with 2,27,14,55,98 are trap cards. These numbers are never released to the public.
Normally when such cards are hacked they would be done sequentially. So the checksum is to stop casual creation of new numbers and the trap cards are if that number is used, then any numbers near the trap card used recently would also be marked as suspect.
So from what you say they are not employing any serial number protection systems.
> all you need to do is know your number, add about 100,
> put that number on your card, and wait for it to be activated
> so you can use it.
I worked on such cards many years ago and just doing this would not work. The systems would have a large number of trap codes. For example 5-20 random numbers out of every hundred are removed, or generated using alternate checksums. So generating just a string of sequential numbers would trigger the trap. With the trap activated you could then map it to a bank of numbers to check for and cancel them.
But I am guessing Amazon didn't do that. Also your blank giftcard scam would probably work but again if they have an anyway secure system put up the system would cop onto someone entering in inactive numbers over and over and pull those numbers from the system.
> For prior art, check out any MMORPG with a parental control feature, or firewalls with time lock options
They are not calendaring and scheduling systems though.
actually I must be the only one who read the patent. It makes no mention to Lotus Notes at all.
Remember these patent filings can take 5-6 years. So you need to ask if it was novel back then.
But your point is taken. I recommend people interested stopping non-novel patents try this website.
http://www.peertopatent.org/
Not all illegal ones are stupid/uneducated. I applied for a job in the US many years ago. The interview was for developing UI systems to custom hardware (pretty cool stuff) during the interview it became quite evident that while they were willing to give me a job they weren't going to do the Visa system. Instead the interviewer kept talking about Mexico and what areas I should visit and what streets/areas will allow me to jump the fence as it were.
I didn't take the job (for obvious reasons) but I suspect they were not the only company doing it back then.