The reaction the open source community finally arrives at as a whole will be an indication of wether or not it has matured to the point where it can function as a legitimate entity in the business world.
Fortunately for a lot of us, open source is not linux and linux is not open source. And what one company does to "fight" my righ of givinvg away for free my code (not that I do it, I like being payed for what I program).
I have always thought that, whatever happens with specific companies that are using open source technology can not affect "the open source community", what is the open source community? it is in some way similar to the P2P community. I just can not be shut of, sure, some companies will stop using open source, but so what? no company used open source 10 years ago, and some companies started using it.
As we say in Mexico, do not drawn in a glass of water, if Novell wants to get bought by Microsoft and all that, let them do it. If there are companies that are happy following them GREAT!, at the end, it is about choice and every one of us have maid our choice.
Darn, if there is a place in Mexico with the MOST beautiful women (and the concentration of them) is Culiacan Sinaloa just take a look at this pictures (no need español).
Oh and about the telescope, in one side it is nince that they are doing something for science (hey I am in UK because of a scolarship I won from the Mexican government) but on the other side, I agree with the people that say that the money could be used for better things
I agree, I hope they can stand the rough climates of some of the third world countires... for example Chiapas climate (in Mexico) can be really hard for electronics (humidity and rain) and if this is going to kids who have never owned a high tech portable equipment they must be quite durable.
One thing I was wondering while watching the video is that it seems there is no way to open a terminal. I agree that the interface MUST be dumbed down a lot but I am also completely sure that there MUST be a terminal in order to access more "complex" things in the computer. I know (from personal experience) that the kids are the first ones to learn the new technologies and exploit them. If you are going to give them this computer, then lets make them able to get the most out of it.
A terminal and a python enabled system would be enough (IMHO).
Sure, some people may end up downloading pirated games instead of buying them from Nintendo, but as iTunes shows, people are perfectly willing to pay reasonable prices for things they can get free elsewhere.
And I am sure their primary userbase is not the hacker that downloads from romhustler or priarrrbay but mom and dad that get out of work, turn on their Wii and choose the newly released game from the Wii Channel.
Microsoft is really the only console maker that has ventured online in any substantial way. They locked down their hardware and sealed off the wild wild internet (no IE on the 360) for good reason.
That is something I found very interesting about Microsoft's new console. I kept hearing about the Hypervisor this and the Hypervisor that and the new Xbox was unbreakable and antihacker box and all that from Microsoft, after it was released I followed some of the hacking efforts and it seemed to be very heavy locked. (of course it is now possible to play pirated games... duh!).
Au contraire, neither Nintendo or Sony have braged about any antipiracy methods... I could think that 10% of the Xbox360 power is wasted in the Hypervision anti haxx0rs software (the most funny thing is that they still think they can fix a HARDWARE PROBLEM [this is the reproduction of illegal copies] with a software patch...).
I for one am really happy to have preordered my Wii yesterday (Comet shop in UK) I am waiting for it as the first console I have got in 5 years .
Darn, too bad I came late to the discussion. You are 100% right. The main problem with the number of choices is their presentation. I will never forget the horror the first time I tried FreeBSD X-window configuration utility (back in 1996) which was a huge window that was bigger than my screen resolution could handle and in there it had what seemed hundreds of checkboxes and textboxes. Sure, so much for making it "graphical user interface" based.
This is where usuability and intuitivity [spell?] comes to play. And it is not about making it cuter and more shining and with 3D effects, it is about presenting the different options as coherent sets and subsets of choices. But it takes more than John Developer sitting at his toilet thinking how to arrange the menues in his application, it takes some real research about user reasoning. Of course open source software can not pay for that.
And the same happens with the hundreds (or thousands?) of Linux distributions now, distrowatch or linuxcd or anyone else should spend some time researching what are each one of those distros for and order them accordingly.
I could not agree more with you, that is in my opinion the problem with Linux, even if they choose Ubuntu then you have Xubuntu, Kubuntu or GUbuntu (the standard gnome). I recently replaced my Ubuntu installation with the Xubuntu one. I found Kubuntu and Ubuntu to be VERY unstable (not slow, unstable) and now that I installed Xubuntu my machine is running perfectly. (BTW Xubuntu ppl when you install the 6.10 the homepage in firefox still has 6.06 number... mmm).
If I were a commercial game development house I would choose Red Hat or Suse (although I dont like suse right now because of the Novel_MS deal...) and state in BIG RED LETTERS at the beginning of the EULA that the software is supported only on such specific platform (i.e. RH Enterprise Linux Desktop 2.0 ). Of course it *might* run on other "compatible" OSes.but those would not be supported.
Hey, what about the crpytographer Lady that is even in slashdot? She got an article some time ago IIRC. I can not remember her name (yah, I am reeeeeeeeeally bad at names) but I remember she amazed me.
Oh, and if we are talking about fiction characters I would add Susan Calvin (from Asimov's universe) as my favourite, of course I preffer Gladia Solaria [Delmarre] but she is not a geek... [yeah, I am an Asimov fan...]
I agree from the perspective that I am sure nobody will *rush* to implement the new interface design on its products. I was pissed off when I downloaded the new Messenger from microsoft which had the menu bar hidden (you could enable it but meh!).
Also, just 2 days ago a flatmate who is VERY computer illiterate asked me to help her making Adobe documents appear in the Firefox Window. I was surprised she said "Firefox Window" and as she explained me she downloaded firefox because after accepting the upgrade of Interet Explorer a lot of things where broken (this is translated to, the UI got SO different on IE7... and Firefox had a very similar UI to IE6).
I fixed that by reinstalling Adobe Reader. Then she asked me for something (unfortunately I dont know how to achieve that). The problem she had is that on IE6 she had a Word icon (I remember that) which, when you pressed, the page she was looking at was "opened" in Word. I told she could do the same by Selecting all then copy and then paste in Word, but certainly she was right telling me that it was easier (her word was "better") before as she just had to click once. I don't know if this functionality is available in firefox, as I myself have tried to COPY+PASTE a page from Fx to Word and it only copies as text not as HTML. As IE7 I could not help her adding the Word button.
Anyway, returning to the Office matter, looking at my previous experience, I am sure a lot of people will feel similarly with the new office UI. I was discussing with a friend about the Linux vs Windows issue, this friend is computer illiterate and she knows Linux because some geek tried to push it into her work and they tried to teach them how to use it. She told me that, the problem is we are SO FAMILIAR with the current ways to do things (Windows XP) that anything different is going to "feel" difficult. And for the majority of people they "learnt" to use a computer when they learnt Windows95/ME/XP and Office98/2000/2003. And having to learn to use Linux implies having to learn *again* how to use it and they dont have the time to do it.
I remember when my father migrated from Win3.11 to Win95, the first thing he told me is that Microsoft had hidden everything very deep. The truth is that everything is there but we all had to re-learn how to use the computer (as we use the computer trough the OS).
The same thing will happen with the new Office UI. Of course, the current menu driven interface is terrible in my opinion. It is okey when you have few options, but as we have seen when you have *lots* of options what you will achieve is to hide those options in the deepest submenu entry along with 15 more options ont hat submenu.
Any site that uses financial information (my bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, or whatever I'm buying, my own servers, etc.) doesn't get the password stored in any form of password manager.
Well, I do the same thing but for every site. I do not like storing passwords even in my laptop as I do not mind entering them each time I want to log in for a service. Of course, I touch type at 100 wpm average and (and 110 on Dvorak) and I know it makes a difference.
As about the passwords, I used to have one password 3 passwords for all the sites, and I chose any of them to use but they where "weak". Some time ago I decided to get a "real" password and went to one of those random password generator sites and got a random password with 128 characters [A-Z][a-z][0-9]. I wrote it down in a postit note and put it in my wallet. What I do with it is divide it into subpasswords of 8 characters and use each of those passwords in some places. Until now I have just used the first 2 sub passwords and I have memorized them. You memorize them similarly to how you memorize your girlfriend (or the pizza man for hardcore slashdotters) telephone number [which is the same principle how you memorize the keys when you learn to touchtype].
I use the 16 characters for things like paypal and my email. Unfortunately my bank has a special system of security number (which asks for specific digits of sec number) hence I cant use my pass.
I really recommend people to get one of those passwords, when you first get it (and write it down) it wont make any sense "QA4adsfk lkHadsoP" but after using it for one month you will memorize it. Oh and once you have that password memorized you can make any kind of combination writing it backwards or choosing the 4 last and first characters of two subsequents subsets...
And moreso, being a pirate gives you several advantages:
1. Get rid of all the annoyances that cripple the software (there are REALLY GOOD WinXP distributions out there in torrent sites which come patched to fix the WGA problem). 2. Get the software FAST (torrent distribution technology is really fast) 3. Get a better value distribution (Have you seen those WinXP distros that provide common applications like nero burning rom and lots os bundled drivers for scsi and the like?, oh and the Service Packs) and eliminate software you dont need (like Windows Messenger). 4. It is free. Well, actually you are breaking the law [IN SOME COUNTRIES!!!!] if you download or upload them, but if you are of the ones that dont passing the red light and paying the ticket then I guess you wont have problem doing this (they are both law violations...).
I would of course suggest anyone pissed of with windows to try Linspire, Mandriva, Xandros or even Ubuntu distributions for a month. I removed WinXP from my laptop one month ago and I am very happy using Xubuntu (Ubuntu and Kubuntu where VERY unstable, crashing all the time and the sound was buggy).
I have realized that there is nothing I *really need* which I can do in Linux... the only issue (and I am sure it is the same issue for a lot of people) is the lazyness to learn.
But I got really pissed of Windows when it told me that my copy of XP was pirated... when it came PREINSTALLED in my HP Pavillion ZV5000 machine... which has a Microsoft Windows XP Proffessional 1-2CPU sticker under it. Oh, And it wont allow getting into my computer "windows can not verify the genuinity of this software"... FUCK YOU!!.
scientists or the media have a bias at all on this issue
Scientists can have whatever bias they want, but science will be the same.
We are in danger of becoming a society where science is the new priesthood, universities are the new temples, and PhDs are the new bishops of a timid and trusting flock.
Yeah, the danger has always been there. Normal people see scientists almost as priests who have "The Truth". The reality is that we do not have "The Truth", we *try* to look for the truth, science is about *understanding* the phenomena of the universe. In fact, there is no truth after all, there are only *accepted models* (theory).
The issue here is that, scientists have discovered information that shows the impact that humans are making to the environment, the problem is that normal people (non scientists) always look for a black and white "simple" answer (thats why "God" was invented).
It is, fundamentally, the same monstrosity that corrupted organized religion 1,000s of years ago. It must be rejected if science is to escape the fate of those organized religions.
Oh no it is not, the difference is that for any scientist to get reputation, it must have published some work which is *peer reviewed* by other scientists. And, as we saw with the chinesse scientist, it is very easy to lose the reputation if they make fraud.
And ultimately, no mattering the reputation of the scientists, science will continue to grow and our understanding will continue to grow.
The real problem is in pollitics, the governments do not care about global warming, as they do not care about lots of other things just because they do not understand it. To understand it, the problem must be stated in terms of profit or loss (of wealth or mind-share).
I watched this movie and I think it was great. I would really invite other people to watch it. But the sad thing is that, anyone who refuses to accept the issues of global warming will just waste 2 hours and then after watching the movie will just try to make excuses.
Hah! I have to wait until December 8th to get it as the olde continent is always the last one to get all the fun.
I got really angry when I realized the Wii was going to be released first on Mexico and then on the UK!!! So much for the "first world" and "third world" countries hehe...
Anyway, I will preorder it tomorrow from Amazon.co.uk... I hope they sell unbundled wiis because I have already preordered Zelda (for my girlfriend darn I am lucky =o) [for having a gf that likes to play Zelda] and Red Steel for me)
Of course, who could forget the TMNT arcade game [wikipedia.org] and all the numerous 4-player clone games after it... like the Xmen and Simpsons version of the games (which had either 2, 4 or 6 player coin-ops).
Yep, I used to love that game to the point that I bought (ahem... also begged to my parents =op) the NES port of it TMNT II for the NES... lots of fun ahhh those days..
Oh and there was also the RCPro-AM series... I played that on my brother's rich friend house who had the golden Zelda cartdrige...
Anyone know of a tcp/ip multiplayer updated version
I think the PC Atari Emulator has the Kaillera client which allows you to play on internet any console based game (whose emulator supports it of course..).
Nah, the English concept of "muliplayer" gane is Playstation Monopoly, Football Managers and Who Wants to be a Millionary...
Shees really, where the heck are the *real* Arcades in this country...
[p.s. I am a frustrated Mexican gamer who has not been able to find a typical arcade (King of Fighters, or any other like machine which is not "gambling" centered)] in the UK...
Interesting list, I agree about Rock&Roll racing, it is one of the games I played with my brother long time after SNES emulators (with networking) appeared, over telephone lines.
This ask slashdot question is quite convenient, I have been wandering which games to play. My girlfriend likes playing video games but we have had hard time finding good multiplayer games.
The ones we usually play are N64 ones (yep, in emulator, yep pir8ed, yep so what?): - Worms Armaggedon (we even managed to get one absoluteley non-player friend to try it and he LIKED it). - Armorines (its nice but I *hate* to play FPS with joystick... - Army Men Air Combat (very fun to play). - Mario Tennis (nice to play in pairs, although I HATE that it is not possible to play some kind of tournament in multiplayer...) - Mario Golf (okey, although we dont play it as much as the others) - Mario Kart (we played it a lot but now we have finished all the tournaments and it got boring [but it is a good option]).
Overall, what I want are cooperative multiplayer games. I do not like P v P games, thats why I dont like one of everybody's favorite game (Smash Bros) I played it a bit (my girlfriend loves it...) but I never liked it... I felt it was like a half assed fighting game (sorry, I am of the Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat/Mk2 fighting games generation).
So, if anyone has any other recommendation I would also love to read it... I agree that SNES has several of the best games made, multiplayer or not, darn, we played Chip&Dale rescue rangers (NES) and Goofy's adventure (the SNES one about the island, quite nice coop).
Doesany of you remember Cybernator? I remember shitting my pants when it got out for the SNES (it was just SOO COOL)... unfortunately it is not multiplayer (sorry, just remembered those times =oP )
Ohh! and dont forget the SNES racing game which you could play with up to 4 friends, what is its name? you participated in races in the sand (top view) with trucks. That was quite fun...
and RPM Racing was also good... now get out of my lawn =oP (except you the one playing Warlords)
Well yeah but the difference is that that BSD code has been explicitley licensed to use in whichever way you want meanwhile Microsoft's (code?, how did Open source developers got it?) is not licensed at all...
Scientific jouranls corporations are a mafia, I could not found (in google) a very nice article I read written by Prof. Donald Knuth criticising the current state of the scientific journals. In summary, they are all owned by Elsevier. At least the valuable ones (for example AI Journal).
And, to be able to read any of those journals you would have to pay a high fee. Also, given the "publish or perish" culture in the academia now, everyone and their mother are figthing to be accepted in those "high profile" journals which of course welcome the demand very much. This of course is also creating the problem that *anyone* and their mother want to publish whatever they want. Just take a look at the current papers (for exampe www.scopus.com) you will see that 80% of the articles published nowadays are just "whatif" and just a really tiny fractions are articles with *real* useful scientific achievements.
I myself am being pressured by my supervisor (PhD) who is pressured by the department to publish, whatever you have but publish. And just because they want to be qualified 5* at the next RAE and they want more money.
Yeah, the current academia state sucks, I can not wait to finish my PhD and go away from academia. Research is not what it used to be. I remember reading a *really good* account of what has happened by a ver respected Chemist in Mexico, a man with more than 40 years of trayectory in research and he talked about all I have written which he lived by himself.
Capitalism is a bitch, it gets its claws in every place, and it is breaking science development .
"Money does not makes happiness, it buys it made".
What I would do is go for the.NET job. Not because it is.NET or whatever, but because I would be working on this "nationwide IT company" which will provide if anything else a very nice line in my C.V.
The other reason is that if you go to the small Perl shop the most you can get from that is developing and developing all the way until the shop is closed (or assimilated by the other big company) while if you go to the big.NET company you might start being "a very small cog in a very large machine" but consider that you could (if after some time working there you like it) climb up that large machine and be better.
Isn't it one of the tenets of Open Source, that with enough eyes on the code, bugs are shallow? Why would that work for Linux and other Open Source projects, and not for Microsoft?
Ah but the truth is that it does not make a real difference; just look at any open source software (say Mozilla Firefox) and then its "closed source" counterpart (say Opera). I have seen bugs in the Firefox database that have been there for more than 5 years. As an example, there is this bug that I have had since Fx 0.9 where you sometimes cant use the search bar because nothing happens when you press ENTER. I just experienced this bug wih Fx 2.0.
The fact is that, if you tell me, I believe the same number of people that will notice bugs in Open Source will do it for any given closed source program, and those are THE USERS who really do not care about the source code.
It is then the programmers who will going to fix these bugs and of course here, "closed source" (specifically commercial software) have an advantage which is that the programmers are PAID to fix those bugs full time, whereas in open source Linus Stallman has to be in the mood and have some spare time to even get into his software bug database.
Slashdot Mirror
At one point there were 26000 Wiis and approximately 50 wiis were selling each minute
Yeah but how many of those Wiis were fake and scams?
The reaction the open source community finally arrives at as a whole will be an indication of wether or not it has matured to the point where it can function as a legitimate entity in the business world.
Fortunately for a lot of us, open source is not linux and linux is not open source. And what one company does to "fight" my righ of givinvg away for free my code (not that I do it, I like being payed for what I program).
I have always thought that, whatever happens with specific companies that are using open source technology can not affect "the open source community", what is the open source community? it is in some way similar to the P2P community. I just can not be shut of, sure, some companies will stop using open source, but so what? no company used open source 10 years ago, and some companies started using it.
As we say in Mexico, do not drawn in a glass of water, if Novell wants to get bought by Microsoft and all that, let them do it. If there are companies that are happy following them GREAT!, at the end, it is about choice and every one of us have maid our choice.
Darn, if there is a place in Mexico with the MOST beautiful women (and the concentration of them) is Culiacan Sinaloa just take a look at this pictures (no need español).
Oh and about the telescope, in one side it is nince that they are doing something for science (hey I am in UK because of a scolarship I won from the Mexican government) but on the other side, I agree with the people that say that the money could be used for better things
I agree, I hope they can stand the rough climates of some of the third world countires... for example Chiapas climate (in Mexico) can be really hard for electronics (humidity and rain) and if this is going to kids who have never owned a high tech portable equipment they must be quite durable.
One thing I was wondering while watching the video is that it seems there is no way to open a terminal. I agree that the interface MUST be dumbed down a lot but I am also completely sure that there MUST be a terminal in order to access more "complex" things in the computer. I know (from personal experience) that the kids are the first ones to learn the new technologies and exploit them. If you are going to give them this computer, then lets make them able to get the most out of it.
A terminal and a python enabled system would be enough (IMHO).
Sure, some people may end up downloading pirated games instead of buying them from Nintendo, but as iTunes shows, people are perfectly willing to pay reasonable prices for things they can get free elsewhere.
And I am sure their primary userbase is not the hacker that downloads from romhustler or priarrrbay but mom and dad that get out of work, turn on their Wii and choose the newly released game from the Wii Channel.
Microsoft is really the only console maker that has ventured online in any substantial way. They locked down their hardware and sealed off the wild wild internet (no IE on the 360) for good reason.
That is something I found very interesting about Microsoft's new console. I kept hearing about the Hypervisor this and the Hypervisor that and the new Xbox was unbreakable and antihacker box and all that from Microsoft, after it was released I followed some of the hacking efforts and it seemed to be very heavy locked. (of course it is now possible to play pirated games... duh!).
Au contraire, neither Nintendo or Sony have braged about any antipiracy methods... I could think that 10% of the Xbox360 power is wasted in the Hypervision anti haxx0rs software (the most funny thing is that they still think they can fix a HARDWARE PROBLEM [this is the reproduction of illegal copies] with a software patch...).
I for one am really happy to have preordered my Wii yesterday (Comet shop in UK) I am waiting for it as the first console I have got in 5 years .
Darn, too bad I came late to the discussion. You are 100% right. The main problem with the number of choices is their presentation. I will never forget the horror the first time I tried FreeBSD X-window configuration utility (back in 1996) which was a huge window that was bigger than my screen resolution could handle and in there it had what seemed hundreds of checkboxes and textboxes. Sure, so much for making it "graphical user interface" based.
This is where usuability and intuitivity [spell?] comes to play. And it is not about making it cuter and more shining and with 3D effects, it is about presenting the different options as coherent sets and subsets of choices. But it takes more than John Developer sitting at his toilet thinking how to arrange the menues in his application, it takes some real research about user reasoning. Of course open source software can not pay for that.
And the same happens with the hundreds (or thousands?) of Linux distributions now, distrowatch or linuxcd or anyone else should spend some time researching what are each one of those distros for and order them accordingly.
There are a small number of groups within the FOSS community who give it a bad name, however this is the same with most communities IMHO
Just give a small visit to the comp.linux.advocacy group and you will see what the GREAT Linux trolls and zealots are made of.
I could not agree more with you, that is in my opinion the problem with Linux, even if they choose Ubuntu then you have Xubuntu, Kubuntu or GUbuntu (the standard gnome). I recently replaced my Ubuntu installation with the Xubuntu one. I found Kubuntu and Ubuntu to be VERY unstable (not slow, unstable) and now that I installed Xubuntu my machine is running perfectly. (BTW Xubuntu ppl when you install the 6.10 the homepage in firefox still has 6.06 number ... mmm).
If I were a commercial game development house I would choose Red Hat or Suse (although I dont like suse right now because of the Novel_MS deal...) and state in BIG RED LETTERS at the beginning of the EULA that the software is supported only on such specific platform (i.e. RH Enterprise Linux Desktop 2.0 ). Of course it *might* run on other "compatible" OSes.but those would not be supported.
Hey, what about the crpytographer Lady that is even in slashdot? She got an article some time ago IIRC. I can not remember her name (yah, I am reeeeeeeeeally bad at names) but I remember she amazed me.
Oh, and if we are talking about fiction characters I would add Susan Calvin (from Asimov's universe) as my favourite, of course I preffer Gladia Solaria [Delmarre] but she is not a geek... [yeah, I am an Asimov fan...]
Well, I kind of agree.
I agree from the perspective that I am sure nobody will *rush* to implement the new interface design on its products. I was pissed off when I downloaded the new Messenger from microsoft which had the menu bar hidden (you could enable it but meh!).
Also, just 2 days ago a flatmate who is VERY computer illiterate asked me to help her making Adobe documents appear in the Firefox Window. I was surprised she said "Firefox Window" and as she explained me she downloaded firefox because after accepting the upgrade of Interet Explorer a lot of things where broken (this is translated to, the UI got SO different on IE7... and Firefox had a very similar UI to IE6).
I fixed that by reinstalling Adobe Reader. Then she asked me for something (unfortunately I dont know how to achieve that). The problem she had is that on IE6 she had a Word icon (I remember that) which, when you pressed, the page she was looking at was "opened" in Word. I told she could do the same by Selecting all then copy and then paste in Word, but certainly she was right telling me that it was easier (her word was "better") before as she just had to click once. I don't know if this functionality is available in firefox, as I myself have tried to COPY+PASTE a page from Fx to Word and it only copies as text not as HTML. As IE7 I could not help her adding the Word button.
Anyway, returning to the Office matter, looking at my previous experience, I am sure a lot of people will feel similarly with the new office UI. I was discussing with a friend about the Linux vs Windows issue, this friend is computer illiterate and she knows Linux because some geek tried to push it into her work and they tried to teach them how to use it. She told me that, the problem is we are SO FAMILIAR with the current ways to do things (Windows XP) that anything different is going to "feel" difficult. And for the majority of people they "learnt" to use a computer when they learnt Windows95/ME/XP and Office98/2000/2003. And having to learn to use Linux implies having to learn *again* how to use it and they dont have the time to do it.
I remember when my father migrated from Win3.11 to Win95, the first thing he told me is that Microsoft had hidden everything very deep. The truth is that everything is there but we all had to re-learn how to use the computer (as we use the computer trough the OS).
The same thing will happen with the new Office UI. Of course, the current menu driven interface is terrible in my opinion. It is okey when you have few options, but as we have seen when you have *lots* of options what you will achieve is to hide those options in the deepest submenu entry along with 15 more options ont hat submenu.
Any site that uses financial information (my bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, or whatever I'm buying, my own servers, etc.) doesn't get the password stored in any form of password manager.
Well, I do the same thing but for every site. I do not like storing passwords even in my laptop as I do not mind entering them each time I want to log in for a service. Of course, I touch type at 100 wpm average and (and 110 on Dvorak) and I know it makes a difference.
As about the passwords, I used to have one password 3 passwords for all the sites, and I chose any of them to use but they where "weak". Some time ago I decided to get a "real" password and went to one of those random password generator sites and got a random password with 128 characters [A-Z][a-z][0-9]. I wrote it down in a postit note and put it in my wallet. What I do with it is divide it into subpasswords of 8 characters and use each of those passwords in some places. Until now I have just used the first 2 sub passwords and I have memorized them. You memorize them similarly to how you memorize your girlfriend (or the pizza man for hardcore slashdotters) telephone number [which is the same principle how you memorize the keys when you learn to touchtype].
I use the 16 characters for things like paypal and my email. Unfortunately my bank has a special system of security number (which asks for specific digits of sec number) hence I cant use my pass.
I really recommend people to get one of those passwords, when you first get it (and write it down) it wont make any sense "QA4adsfk lkHadsoP" but after using it for one month you will memorize it. Oh and once you have that password memorized you can make any kind of combination writing it backwards or choosing the 4 last and first characters of two subsequents subsets...
And moreso, being a pirate gives you several advantages:
1. Get rid of all the annoyances that cripple the software (there are REALLY GOOD WinXP distributions out there in torrent sites which come patched to fix the WGA problem).
2. Get the software FAST (torrent distribution technology is really fast)
3. Get a better value distribution (Have you seen those WinXP distros that provide common applications like nero burning rom and lots os bundled drivers for scsi and the like?, oh and the Service Packs) and eliminate software you dont need (like Windows Messenger).
4. It is free. Well, actually you are breaking the law [IN SOME COUNTRIES!!!!] if you download or upload them, but if you are of the ones that dont passing the red light and paying the ticket then I guess you wont have problem doing this (they are both law violations...).
I would of course suggest anyone pissed of with windows to try Linspire, Mandriva, Xandros or even Ubuntu distributions for a month. I removed WinXP from my laptop one month ago and I am very happy using Xubuntu (Ubuntu and Kubuntu where VERY unstable, crashing all the time and the sound was buggy).
I have realized that there is nothing I *really need* which I can do in Linux... the only issue (and I am sure it is the same issue for a lot of people) is the lazyness to learn.
But I got really pissed of Windows when it told me that my copy of XP was pirated... when it came PREINSTALLED in my HP Pavillion ZV5000 machine... which has a Microsoft Windows XP Proffessional 1-2CPU sticker under it. Oh, And it wont allow getting into my computer "windows can not verify the genuinity of this software"... FUCK YOU!!.
scientists or the media have a bias at all on this issue
Scientists can have whatever bias they want, but science will be the same.
We are in danger of becoming a society where science is the new priesthood, universities are the new temples, and PhDs are the new bishops of a timid and trusting flock.
Yeah, the danger has always been there. Normal people see scientists almost as priests who have "The Truth". The reality is that we do not have "The Truth", we *try* to look for the truth, science is about *understanding* the phenomena of the universe. In fact, there is no truth after all, there are only *accepted models* (theory).
The issue here is that, scientists have discovered information that shows the impact that humans are making to the environment, the problem is that normal people (non scientists) always look for a black and white "simple" answer (thats why "God" was invented).
It is, fundamentally, the same monstrosity that corrupted organized religion 1,000s of years ago. It must be rejected if science is to escape the fate of those organized religions.
Oh no it is not, the difference is that for any scientist to get reputation, it must have published some work which is *peer reviewed* by other scientists. And, as we saw with the chinesse scientist, it is very easy to lose the reputation if they make fraud.
And ultimately, no mattering the reputation of the scientists, science will continue to grow and our understanding will continue to grow.
The real problem is in pollitics, the governments do not care about global warming, as they do not care about lots of other things just because they do not understand it. To understand it, the problem must be stated in terms of profit or loss (of wealth or mind-share).
I watched this movie and I think it was great. I would really invite other people to watch it. But the sad thing is that, anyone who refuses to accept the issues of global warming will just waste 2 hours and then after watching the movie will just try to make excuses.
December 2nd can't come too soon.
Hah! I have to wait until December 8th to get it as the olde continent is always the last one to get all the fun.
I got really angry when I realized the Wii was going to be released first on Mexico and then on the UK!!! So much for the "first world" and "third world" countries hehe...
Anyway, I will preorder it tomorrow from Amazon.co.uk... I hope they sell unbundled wiis because I have already preordered Zelda (for my girlfriend darn I am lucky =o) [for having a gf that likes to play Zelda] and Red Steel for me)
Of course, who could forget the TMNT arcade game [wikipedia.org] and all the numerous 4-player clone games after it... like the Xmen and Simpsons version of the games (which had either 2, 4 or 6 player coin-ops).
Yep, I used to love that game to the point that I bought (ahem... also begged to my parents =op) the NES port of it TMNT II for the NES... lots of fun ahhh those days..
Oh and there was also the RCPro-AM series... I played that on my brother's rich friend house who had the golden Zelda cartdrige...
Anyone know of a tcp/ip multiplayer updated version
I think the PC Atari Emulator has the Kaillera client which allows you to play on internet any console based game (whose emulator supports it of course..).
Nah, the English concept of "muliplayer" gane is Playstation Monopoly, Football Managers and Who Wants to be a Millionary...
Shees really, where the heck are the *real* Arcades in this country...
[p.s. I am a frustrated Mexican gamer who has not been able to find a typical arcade (King of Fighters, or any other like machine which is not "gambling" centered)] in the UK...
This people love to play with money
RISK
I can't get tired of playing this darn game with my friends. It is really cool =o)
Interesting list, I agree about Rock&Roll racing, it is one of the games I played with my brother long time after SNES emulators (with networking) appeared, over telephone lines.
...
This ask slashdot question is quite convenient, I have been wandering which games to play. My girlfriend likes playing video games but we have had hard time finding good multiplayer games.
The ones we usually play are N64 ones (yep, in emulator, yep pir8ed, yep so what?):
- Worms Armaggedon (we even managed to get one absoluteley non-player friend to try it and he LIKED it).
- Armorines (its nice but I *hate* to play FPS with joystick...
- Army Men Air Combat (very fun to play).
- Mario Tennis (nice to play in pairs, although I HATE that it is not possible to play some kind of tournament in multiplayer...)
- Mario Golf (okey, although we dont play it as much as the others)
- Mario Kart (we played it a lot but now we have finished all the tournaments and it got boring [but it is a good option]).
Overall, what I want are cooperative multiplayer games. I do not like P v P games, thats why I dont like one of everybody's favorite game (Smash Bros) I played it a bit (my girlfriend loves it...) but I never liked it... I felt it was like a half assed fighting game (sorry, I am of the Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat/Mk2 fighting games generation).
So, if anyone has any other recommendation I would also love to read it... I agree that SNES has several of the best games made, multiplayer or not, darn, we played Chip&Dale rescue rangers (NES) and Goofy's adventure (the SNES one about the island, quite nice coop).
Doesany of you remember Cybernator? I remember shitting my pants when it got out for the SNES (it was just SOO COOL)... unfortunately it is not multiplayer (sorry, just remembered those times =oP )
Ohh! and dont forget the SNES racing game which you could play with up to 4 friends, what is its name? you participated in races in the sand (top view) with trucks. That was quite fun...
and RPM Racing was also good
now get out of my lawn =oP (except you the one playing Warlords)
Well yeah but the difference is that that BSD code has been explicitley licensed to use in whichever way you want meanwhile Microsoft's (code?, how did Open source developers got it?) is not licensed at all...
Scientific jouranls corporations are a mafia, I could not found (in google) a very nice article I read written by Prof. Donald Knuth criticising the current state of the scientific journals. In summary, they are all owned by Elsevier. At least the valuable ones (for example AI Journal).
And, to be able to read any of those journals you would have to pay a high fee. Also, given the "publish or perish" culture in the academia now, everyone and their mother are figthing to be accepted in those "high profile" journals which of course welcome the demand very much. This of course is also creating the problem that *anyone* and their mother want to publish whatever they want. Just take a look at the current papers (for exampe www.scopus.com) you will see that 80% of the articles published nowadays are just "whatif" and just a really tiny fractions are articles with *real* useful scientific achievements.
I myself am being pressured by my supervisor (PhD) who is pressured by the department to publish, whatever you have but publish. And just because they want to be qualified 5* at the next RAE and they want more money.
Yeah, the current academia state sucks, I can not wait to finish my PhD and go away from academia. Research is not what it used to be. I remember reading a *really good* account of what has happened by a ver respected Chemist in Mexico, a man with more than 40 years of trayectory in research and he talked about all I have written which he lived by himself.
Capitalism is a bitch, it gets its claws in every place, and it is breaking science development .
"Money does not makes happiness, it buys it made".
.NET job. Not because it is .NET or whatever, but because I would be working on this "nationwide IT company" which will provide if anything else a very nice line in my C.V.
.NET company you might start being "a very small cog in a very large machine" but consider that you could (if after some time working there you like it) climb up that large machine and be better.
What I would do is go for the
The other reason is that if you go to the small Perl shop the most you can get from that is developing and developing all the way until the shop is closed (or assimilated by the other big company) while if you go to the big
Uh, what are mods smoking? I had never heard about "expression", the AC might be offtopic but Troll?? God, this isn't even a pro-microsoft comment!
Isn't it one of the tenets of Open Source, that with enough eyes on the code, bugs are shallow? Why would that work for Linux and other Open Source projects, and not for Microsoft?
Ah but the truth is that it does not make a real difference; just look at any open source software (say Mozilla Firefox) and then its "closed source" counterpart (say Opera). I have seen bugs in the Firefox database that have been there for more than 5 years. As an example, there is this bug that I have had since Fx 0.9 where you sometimes cant use the search bar because nothing happens when you press ENTER. I just experienced this bug wih Fx 2.0.
The fact is that, if you tell me, I believe the same number of people that will notice bugs in Open Source will do it for any given closed source program, and those are THE USERS who really do not care about the source code.
It is then the programmers who will going to fix these bugs and of course here, "closed source" (specifically commercial software) have an advantage which is that the programmers are PAID to fix those bugs full time, whereas in open source Linus Stallman has to be in the mood and have some spare time to even get into his software bug database.