I'm tired of the sci-fi groupies latching on to every new and terrible show that comes out.
The last episode I saw, Starbuck stranded on a planet, was terrible. The writing was bad, the acting was poor, and the camera work will make people sea sick.
Yes the production values are good but since when has production values been more important than the story.
Get this she, starbuck, flies a crashed ship that was designed to hookup directly to the nervous system of non-humanoid cyborg pilot, and you though case modding was hard. Not only did she fly it(by grabbing wires I guess), she out flew another pilot to the point of getting close enough to the other fighter to have that pilot read a message written in tape on her wings.
Simply a bad show. It's the sci-fi equivalent of Joey.
I looked at the original Treo 600 but lack of bluetooth, wifi, and development put me off. There are bluetooth SD cards out there problem is no one is writing drivers for the Treo.
I'm going to buy the IPAq 6300 instead. It has a large screen, wifi, bluetooth, and a detachable keyboard.
I don't know if this fits what you're looking for but a nice feature for firefox 2.0 would be a hosts file like functionality. My hosts file lets me block all traffic from specified dns names. This let me avoid numorous adverts and other annoyances.
I did a bunch of work on the Dali Lama's PC. Got rid of the spyware and got him a bunch of MP3s. The guy wears a big robe which doesn't have pockets so he doesn't carry cash.
Suffice it to say I was feeling pretty ripped off. But he told me that in return for my good work right before my death I'd have one moment of perfect clarity.
I saw a poratable game in japan that had a light sensor and the gameplay was effected by how much light you were playing in(it was a vampire type game).
Imagine a game that was effected by where you were. You could have kids exploring libraries and museums to find a rare item or a level boss. This could be very cool.
Ask yourself, What main reason that Half Life 2 is so anticiapted after a six year interval between games?
You could say that Half Life was voted best game of the year in 1998.
So what though. Many games were lauded in the late 90's and are nowhere to be seen now.
What has kept Half Life alive and at the forefront of people minds is the plethora of mods that the gaming community has created over those six years. From Counter Strike to Day of Defeat you find hundreds if not thosands of people playing Half Life mods every month.
A subscription game probably won't be mod-able and Valve will have lost the best advertising any company could ever want.
Are subscription games coming? The answer is a definite Yes. Is that a bad thing? Maybe. Well have to see if the monthly fees are enough incentive to game companies for them to build and maintain their games better.
Because just as no one has ever washed a rented car, no one will Mod rented software.
From a Law class I had a while back I can tell you that security guards(even bar bouncers) are endowded with some of the same rights the property owner has. So it the case of a Macy's guard arresting a shoplifter and putting them in a holding cell until the police arrive has little difference from you holding onto a burglar who broke into you home until the authorities show up.
"[The Judge] noted that WhenU places the 1-800 Contacts.com Web address in an internal database that is used to trigger the display of competitors' ads. That, she wrote, violates the Lanham Act's trademark protections, because WhenU has used the trademark of 1-800 Contacts in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion." ____
Since it is an internal database which is entirely transparent to the end user I doubt this ruling will stand at trial.
Also I'm sure in the 8 billion page Eula the End-user agreed to when they installed what ever free software this pop-up program resides in that they (end users)are aware that they can be re-directed to another site depending on their activitites. If not I'm sure a new Eula is being written right now.
As a side note using a combination of Mozilla and Adaware I haven't had a pop-up in months.
"Repeat after me: government interference in markets, other than to address market failures or personal safety, is bad for the market, and bad for those who buy and sell in it in the long run. We have a history of lobbyists destroying the global competitiveness of their industry: don't become one of those people."
Really. As someone who spent some time getting an Economics degree please help me out with a few terms and then explain why governments shouldn't intfere with markets.
1)Monoploy 2)Dumping 3)Collusion 4)Insider trading 5)Gaming the market (also know as painting the tape)
Many countries round the globe don't play by the same rules as we do so some protectist policies are valid and can PREVENT market failures. Becareful about painting markets with too broad a brush let alone the whole of economic theory.
I use Sprint PCS and for the last few months (as many of know) Sprint (and the other phone companies) have been charging a $1.10 portability fee. BTW when I called the customer service line and asked what the fee was for I was told it was a tax and told to call the "tax people".
Anyway, you are being charged this fee even if you don't plan on moving to another service. Now compare the number of people with land lines to the number of people with cell phones. Now imagine that your a Phone executive looking to bost the bottom line. Answer just charge the fee to everyone with a landline. Land line number poratability is nothing more than a landline surchage.
However if the game itself aka "the original media" is no longer commercially available as in the case of most Atari, Coleco, and early Nintendo it could be considered abandoned, therby allowed under this exception.
I was called out of the blue by a Sprint PCS rep to ask how I liked the service. Living next to NYC I said I thought the service could be better and that in an emergency (Blackout, terrorist attact, ect . ..)Sprint was totaly useless.
I also mentioned that I'd probably be changing carriers on Nov-24 when number portability kicked in. The rep quickly offered me a deal that is only a penny higher than I pay now that included unlimited nights and weekend, 50 more anytime minutes, and kept my evenings start of 8pm, but with a one year contract.
I didn't take the offer, if they're willing to give this now I can only imagine what they'll be willing to do once the panic fully sets in.
AS a side note I called Sprint on the number portability charge and the rep told me it was a tax and that I'd have to talk to the tax authority about it. I said Okay if it's a tax who gets the menoey, the local, state, or federal gov? After about 10 minutes she finally admitted they (Sprint) got the money. Gotta love em.
I used Talk on a VMS Vax machine in '94 and it was basicly an IM app. Heck the other user could see the letters as you typed them. So unless M$FT started the patent process before Talk was invented I'd say their SOL.
>Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, >this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
Ok I'll grant you being without your +9 vs orges simitar is a loss but what is the value of that loss. Could you have legaly sold the simitar in the real world? In everquest no, so there is no resale loss to you. What is the cost of replacing the item? Nothing, the item is virtual and can be perfectly recreated an infinite number of times.
You could claim being without you +9 Vs orges simitar for a time reduced your enjoyability but the idiot who yells at the screen during a movie reduces yor enjoability as well and what damages can you claim from him.
In short I think the user has a very limited claim on the the craker/exploiter in the online mud world and would have to demonstrate a real loss.
Let's say you and a friend go to the store to buy CDs. Getting there both of you discover that neither one has enough money alone to buy the CD they want, so you pool your money to buy the CD.
Now who has ownership of the CD? I'd say you now have shared ownership of the property. Could both of you make a copy for backup, probably. Could both of you transfer the music to MP3, yes, however my understanding of the law would say that the mp3 copies of the song could not be used at the same time. There is the problem. Otherwise Blockbuster could make DVD copies of all there VHS tapes and form a a mini-partership which would allow all parterns to have unfettered access to the material.
I think Cringley is onto something though, morph his idea into a music rental system, similar to Blockbuster. Form a company, buy CDs (you'll need multiple copies of popular CDs) and offer streaming access to that music though a subscription service.
However the max amount of people who can listen to the same song at the same time is limited to the number of copies of the song that have been purchased. Example you buy 10 copies of CD "X" you can now offer out 10 streams of each song on CD "X", if an 11th person wanted to listen to that song they would need to be queued.
Would probably be legaly viable now would it be practical from a business view.
Normally I'm in agreement with the privazy advocates however on any public mode of accomdation, whether it be a bus, a train, or a plane I don't see the right to privacy.
I would be in support of limations of the uses for records collected, but as you are in public the government and private concers are, to my understanding, free to keep a record.
Does this strike anyone one else as the online equivalent of a nerd slap fight?
Oh no don't take my tree of life, what ever shall I do without it. I realize the game is a business and needs to be protected from exploiters or it will die (see Counter Strike) but the self important tone which permeates the post makes me want to push them down and kick cyber sand in their eyes.
If it was a hack ban them, if it was an exploit demote the project manager. Prosecuting/banning players(the customers) that use loopholes in the rules is like taking the ball away and going home. Hell hire the exploiters as testers cause it sounds like they need better ones.
Ug.
We now return you to Fox's "When Nerds Attack"(tm).
Slashdot Mirror
Picking up Greg Bear's book "Forge of God".
There may be a very good reason everyone isn't noisily babbling out there.
Does Anybody Here Remember When Hanz Gubenstein Invented Time Travel?
I loved the game at first but after the American Farmers got involved the economy was ruined!
They should add Leo Laporte to the line up. He was one of the few good things on TechTV.
I'm tired of the sci-fi groupies latching on to every new and terrible show that comes out.
The last episode I saw, Starbuck stranded on a planet, was terrible. The writing was bad, the acting was poor, and the camera work will make people sea sick.
Yes the production values are good but since when has production values been more important than the story.
Get this she, starbuck, flies a crashed ship that was designed to hookup directly to the nervous system of non-humanoid cyborg pilot, and you though case modding was hard. Not only did she fly it(by grabbing wires I guess), she out flew another pilot to the point of getting close enough to the other fighter to have that pilot read a message written in tape on her wings.
Simply a bad show. It's the sci-fi equivalent of Joey.
I looked at the original Treo 600 but lack of bluetooth, wifi, and development put me off. There are bluetooth SD cards out there problem is no one is writing drivers for the Treo.
I'm going to buy the IPAq 6300 instead. It has a large screen, wifi, bluetooth, and a detachable keyboard.
I don't know if this fits what you're looking for but a nice feature for firefox 2.0 would be a hosts file like functionality. My hosts file lets me block all traffic from specified dns names. This let me avoid numorous adverts and other annoyances.
I did a bunch of work on the Dali Lama's PC. Got rid of the spyware and got him a bunch of MP3s. The guy wears a big robe which doesn't have pockets so he doesn't carry cash.
Suffice it to say I was feeling pretty ripped off. But he told me that in return for my good work right before my death I'd have one moment of perfect clarity.
So I got that going for me.
I saw a poratable game in japan that had a light sensor and the gameplay was effected by how much light you were playing in(it was a vampire type game).
Imagine a game that was effected by where you were.
You could have kids exploring libraries and museums to find a rare item or a level boss. This could be very cool.
The French courts would probably back down if you threaten to invade.
Heck I'll help. I could use a spare country.
No one ever washed a rented car.
Ask yourself, What main reason that Half Life 2 is so anticiapted after a six year interval between games?
You could say that Half Life was voted best game of the year in 1998.
So what though. Many games were lauded in the late 90's and are nowhere to be seen now.
What has kept Half Life alive and at the forefront of people minds is the plethora of mods that the gaming community has created over those six years. From Counter Strike to Day of Defeat you find hundreds if not thosands of people playing Half Life mods every month.
A subscription game probably won't be mod-able and Valve will have lost the best advertising any company could ever want.
Are subscription games coming? The answer is a definite Yes. Is that a bad thing? Maybe. Well have to see if the monthly fees are enough incentive to game companies for them to build and maintain their games better.
Because just as no one has ever washed a rented car, no one will Mod rented software.
From a Law class I had a while back I can tell you that security guards(even bar bouncers) are endowded with some of the same rights the property owner has. So it the case of a Macy's guard arresting a shoplifter and putting them in a holding cell until the police arrive has little difference from you holding onto a burglar who broke into you home until the authorities show up.
"[The Judge] noted that WhenU places the 1-800 Contacts.com Web address in an internal database that is used to trigger the display of competitors' ads. That, she wrote, violates the Lanham Act's trademark protections, because WhenU has used the trademark of 1-800 Contacts in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion."
____
Since it is an internal database which is entirely
transparent to the end user I doubt this ruling will stand at trial.
Also I'm sure in the 8 billion page Eula the End-user agreed to when they installed what ever free software this pop-up program resides in that they (end users)are aware that they can be re-directed to another site depending on their activitites. If not I'm sure a new Eula is being written right now.
As a side note using a combination of Mozilla and Adaware I haven't had a pop-up in months.
"Repeat after me: government interference in markets, other than to address market failures or personal safety, is bad for the market, and bad for those who buy and sell in it in the long run. We have a history of lobbyists destroying the global competitiveness of their industry: don't become one of those people."
Really. As someone who spent some time getting an Economics degree please help me out with a few terms and then explain why governments shouldn't intfere with markets.
1)Monoploy
2)Dumping
3)Collusion
4)Insider trading
5)Gaming the market (also know as painting the tape)
Many countries round the globe don't play by the same rules as we do so some protectist policies are valid and can PREVENT market failures. Becareful about painting markets with too broad a brush let alone the whole of economic theory.
I use Sprint PCS and for the last few months (as many of know) Sprint (and the other phone companies) have been charging a $1.10 portability fee. BTW when I called the customer service line and asked what the fee was for I was told it was a tax and told to call the "tax people".
Anyway, you are being charged this fee even if you don't plan on moving to another service. Now compare the number of people with land lines to the number of people with cell phones. Now imagine that your a Phone executive looking to bost the bottom line. Answer just charge the fee to everyone with a landline. Land line number poratability is nothing more than a landline surchage.
However if the game itself aka "the original media" is no longer commercially available as in the case of most Atari, Coleco, and early Nintendo it could be considered abandoned, therby allowed under this exception.
I was called out of the blue by a Sprint PCS rep to ask how I liked the service. Living next to NYC I said I thought the service could be better and that in an emergency (Blackout, terrorist attact, ect . . .)Sprint was totaly useless.
I also mentioned that I'd probably be changing carriers on Nov-24 when number portability kicked in. The rep quickly offered me a deal that is only a penny higher than I pay now that included unlimited nights and weekend, 50
more anytime minutes, and kept my evenings start of 8pm, but with a one year contract.
I didn't take the offer, if they're willing to give this now I can only imagine what they'll be willing to do once the panic fully sets in.
AS a side note I called Sprint on the number portability charge and the rep told me it was a tax and that I'd have to talk to the tax authority about it. I said Okay if it's a tax who gets the menoey, the local, state, or federal gov? After about 10 minutes she finally admitted they (Sprint) got the money. Gotta love em.
Great chineese food delivery goes orbital. I bet they'll be making devileries to the ISS by 2006.
Possible names for their space crafts:
1) The General Tso
2) The Sweet and Sour Shuttle
3) The Communist Surprise
I used Talk on a VMS Vax machine in '94 and it was
basicly an IM app. Heck the other user could see the letters as you typed them. So unless M$FT started the patent process before Talk was invented I'd say their SOL.
>Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
>this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
Oh no, Now he's gonna get it.
Ok I'll grant you being without your +9 vs orges simitar is a loss but what is the value of that loss. Could you have legaly sold the simitar in the real world? In everquest no, so there is no resale loss to you. What is the cost of replacing the item? Nothing, the item is virtual and can be perfectly recreated an infinite number of times.
You could claim being without you +9 Vs orges simitar for a time reduced your enjoyability but the idiot who yells at the screen during a movie reduces yor enjoability as well and what damages can you claim from him.
In short I think the user has a very limited claim on the the craker/exploiter in the online mud world and would have to demonstrate a real loss.
Let's say you and a friend go to the store to buy CDs. Getting there both of you discover that neither one has enough money alone to buy the CD they want, so you pool your money to buy the CD.
Now who has ownership of the CD? I'd say you now have shared ownership of the property. Could both of you make a copy for backup, probably. Could both of you transfer the music to MP3, yes, however my understanding of the law would say that the mp3 copies of the song could not be used at the same time. There is the problem.
Otherwise Blockbuster could make DVD copies of all there VHS tapes and form a a mini-partership which would allow all parterns to have unfettered access to the material.
I think Cringley is onto something though, morph his idea into a music rental system, similar to Blockbuster. Form a company, buy CDs (you'll need multiple copies of popular CDs) and offer streaming access to that music though a subscription service.
However the max amount of people who can listen to the same song at the same time is limited to the number of copies of the song that have been purchased. Example you buy 10 copies of CD "X" you can now offer out 10 streams of each song on CD "X", if an 11th person wanted to listen to that song they would need to be queued.
Would probably be legaly viable now would it be practical from a business view.
Normally I'm in agreement with the privazy advocates however on any public mode of accomdation, whether it be a bus, a train, or a plane I don't see the right to privacy.
I would be in support of limations of the uses for records collected, but as you are in public the government and private concers are, to my understanding, free to keep a record.
Oh this sounds real safe. You get an instant message which directs you to a website that says you'll get a 1000 dollars if enter your SS#.
I have a better deal. I'll IM you and if you give me your bank account and Pin numbers I'll deposit 1000 dollars into your account within 24 hours.
If when you check you see a zero balance IM me back, I'm sure it's a mistake.
>The code is 1 2 3 4 that's something an idiot would have on his luggage!
Does this strike anyone one else as the online equivalent of a nerd slap fight?
Oh no don't take my tree of life, what ever shall I do without it. I realize the game is a business and needs to be protected from exploiters or it will die (see Counter Strike) but the self important tone which permeates the post makes me want to push them down and kick cyber sand in their eyes.
If it was a hack ban them, if it was an exploit demote the project manager. Prosecuting/banning players(the customers) that use loopholes in the rules is like taking the ball away and going home.
Hell hire the exploiters as testers cause it sounds like they need better ones.
Ug.
We now return you to Fox's "When Nerds Attack"(tm).