"If it were made blatantly clear when you purchased a song from the iTMS that YOUR NAME and ACCOUNT NUMBER were embedded into the file (just like a license plate on a car), I would certainly think twice about sharing that file on a P2P network."
Yeah, then your computer gets a worm, all your files are shared on the net (many viruses do this), other people download them and share them until the RIAA gets a copy and sues you. I'm sticking to buying CDs. Though I don't buy the ones with DRM software on (quite common outside the US, sadly).
One of the primary uses of computers is to save us mental effort, and allow us to redirect it where we think it will be useful (or fun). A monoculture helps accomplish that task. Which is why I install the linux distro I use at work on my home computer.
I also mess around with other OSes etc. for fun, but that's because I'm a computer geek, and not everyone is or should be.
"But couldn't they have existed without us knowing about them?"
Are you seriously suggesting that Pterodactyls co-existed with modern man! I'd have thought someone back then would have mentioned that they were hanging around with fucking DINOSAURS instead of writing long, tedious sagas about the Trojan War. Maybe the Egyptians would have used a Tyrannosaurus as one of their hieroglyphs. It would probably have meant "what the fuck is that huge scaly monster? And why are we worshiping dudes with cat heads when sacrificing virgins to that mofo would be sooo much more impressive?".
Re:Call me a purist . . .
on
Halo 2 Expansion?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I'd say the slowness WAS the novelty of Halo. It made it accessible to console players and non-FPS gamers (while putting off experienced players). The vehicles were also nice - you can't play VCTF in Doom...
But, you can use a crack to change Windows 2000 Proffesional into the Advanced Server version. It must be possible to the the same thing with Windows XP Starter Edition. And since cracking software you own is probably legal in Asia (who AFAIK don't have DMCA/EUCD type legislation) then businesses at least might as well buy the Starter Edition and crack it instead of spending all that money on a full XP. Home users will, I'm sure, save the $30.
Thanks for the info! A quick google indicates a Nintendo engineer made this claim back in mid-2004. I hope they stick to it, and that the other consoles do the same.
I don't quite agree. Black holes do "suck", by which I mean attract things into themselves rather than having them orbit around them like a Newtonian black hole would. They only do this within a few gravitational radii of the hole - inside the "last stable orbit". A little way inside that, you have an actual event horizon which is the point at which gravity becomes the "unstoppable force" you claim doesn't exist.
I agree with your other comments, though if you're talking about people near solar-mass holes you should mention the tidal forces...
$700 for a television? I'd call that a barrier. Consoles are supposed to be cheap.
I really hope that MS/Sony/Nintendo put DVI or VGA outputs on their next consoles that allow me to connect a standard PC monitor. I live in the UK and HDTVs here just aren't happening, and I think it's likely they won't for some time. Letting people connect up a £120 19-inch monitor and actually see the game ought to sell more consoles than using a regular TV and getting sniped by distant enemies rendered invisible by the pixel size.
Still, I think my solution has merit if the SMS contining one of the factors included transaction details - then it would at least be the user's fault when their £10.00 bank transfer to their nephew is replaced by a £1000.00 transfer to Dubious Communications Incorporated. People can do this already by simply watching their online statement, but my way you'd a) get the notification before the transaction instead of after and b) you'd _have_ to read it (or at least scroll past it) to get the password to authenticate the transaction.
"Personally, I'm amazed a service like this isn't already available"
Your general idea is valid, but implementing it now is obviously impossible. Compare how much bandwidth you would need, and how much the average person has....
Needed: 800x600x16 - number of pixels times bits per pixel = 7.68x10^6 = 7.5 megabits = 938 kilobytes per image
30 frames a second: 2.7 megabytes a second
i.e. you need a 22 megabit download pipe to even handle console-resolution graphics. 1600x1200x32 isn't unusual among PC gamers, and that resolution requires 8 times the bandwidth. You can compress this, naturally, but even a 10:1 compression ratio means that a typical DSL/cable user with a 1-megabit download speed can't play. This will introduce compression artefacts.
I'm not even going to talk about latency.
Your idea may well be the future of gaming - but that future is 25 years away when we have gigabit fibre to every home.
Slashdot Mirror
No it isn't.
OK. I have to know. Was the (sic) a joke, or do you really not know hoe to spell amazed? Or what sic means?
"If it were made blatantly clear when you purchased a song from the iTMS that YOUR NAME and ACCOUNT NUMBER were embedded into the file (just like a license plate on a car), I would certainly think twice about sharing that file on a P2P network."
Yeah, then your computer gets a worm, all your files are shared on the net (many viruses do this), other people download them and share them until the RIAA gets a copy and sues you.
I'm sticking to buying CDs. Though I don't buy the ones with DRM software on (quite common outside the US, sadly).
nt
You forgot keyboard and mouse support!
Though, when you add that this hypothetical PS3 console we're talking about starts to sound like a PC...
One of the primary uses of computers is to save us mental effort, and allow us to redirect it where we think it will be useful (or fun). A monoculture helps accomplish that task. Which is why I install the linux distro I use at work on my home computer.
I also mess around with other OSes etc. for fun, but that's because I'm a computer geek, and not everyone is or should be.
"But couldn't they have existed without us knowing about them?"
:)
Are you seriously suggesting that Pterodactyls co-existed with modern man! I'd have thought someone back then would have mentioned that they were hanging around with fucking DINOSAURS instead of writing long, tedious sagas about the Trojan War. Maybe the Egyptians would have used a Tyrannosaurus as one of their hieroglyphs. It would probably have meant "what the fuck is that huge scaly monster? And why are we worshiping dudes with cat heads when sacrificing virgins to that mofo would be sooo much more impressive?".
Now foe me
Rubbish! We all know that the night sky is a hologrammatic sphere 1 lightyear in diameter generated from the dreams of the unborn hyper-dolphins.
a ping goes there and back, as does, say, requesting a webpage and having it delivered to your computer:
computer arrival time
on plane 0 sec
satellite 0.12
slashdot 0.25
satellite 0.38
on plane 0.5
Geostationary orbit is at ~36000 km above sea level. ~72000 km round trip. 0.24 seconds. Therefore a there-and-back again ping is ~half a second.
If you don't trust Wikipedia, you can check it yourself. F=G*M*m*r^-2 and all that.
It goes via geostationary satellite(s)...
Or you could just start a fire!
I'd say the slowness WAS the novelty of Halo. It made it accessible to console players and non-FPS gamers (while putting off experienced players). The vehicles were also nice - you can't play VCTF in Doom...
But, you can use a crack to change Windows 2000 Proffesional into the Advanced Server version. It must be possible to the the same thing with Windows XP Starter Edition. And since cracking software you own is probably legal in Asia (who AFAIK don't have DMCA/EUCD type legislation) then businesses at least might as well buy the Starter Edition and crack it instead of spending all that money on a full XP. Home users will, I'm sure, save the $30.
Thanks for the info! A quick google indicates a Nintendo engineer made this claim back in mid-2004. I hope they stick to it, and that the other consoles do the same.
I don't quite agree. Black holes do "suck", by which I mean attract things into themselves rather than having them orbit around them like a Newtonian black hole would. They only do this within a few gravitational radii of the hole - inside the "last stable orbit". A little way inside that, you have an actual event horizon which is the point at which gravity becomes the "unstoppable force" you claim doesn't exist.
I agree with your other comments, though if you're talking about people near solar-mass holes you should mention the tidal forces...
$700 for a television? I'd call that a barrier. Consoles are supposed to be cheap.
I really hope that MS/Sony/Nintendo put DVI or VGA outputs on their next consoles that allow me to connect a standard PC monitor.
I live in the UK and HDTVs here just aren't happening, and I think it's likely they won't for some time. Letting people connect up a £120 19-inch monitor and actually see the game ought to sell more consoles than using a regular TV and getting sniped by distant enemies rendered invisible by the pixel size.
True... shot down, when I was feeling so lucky.
Still, I think my solution has merit if the SMS contining one of the factors included transaction details - then it would at least be the user's fault when their £10.00 bank transfer to their nephew is replaced by a £1000.00 transfer to Dubious Communications Incorporated. People can do this already by simply watching their online statement, but my way you'd a) get the notification before the transaction instead of after and b) you'd _have_ to read it (or at least scroll past it) to get the password to authenticate the transaction.
People with busy financial lives would hate it.
Both of Schneier's examples would be countered by using the two-factor authentication on each transaction, instead of/as well as for an initial login.
Somewhat slower, and with a larger SMS overhead, but very, very secure.
Any comments, Bruce?
"Personally, I'm amazed a service like this isn't already available"
Your general idea is valid, but implementing it now is obviously impossible. Compare how much bandwidth you would need, and how much the average person has....
Needed: 800x600x16 - number of pixels times bits per pixel
= 7.68x10^6 = 7.5 megabits = 938 kilobytes per image
30 frames a second: 2.7 megabytes a second
i.e. you need a 22 megabit download pipe to even handle console-resolution graphics. 1600x1200x32 isn't unusual among PC gamers, and that resolution requires 8 times the bandwidth.
You can compress this, naturally, but even a 10:1 compression ratio means that a typical DSL/cable user with a 1-megabit download speed can't play. This will introduce compression artefacts.
I'm not even going to talk about latency.
Your idea may well be the future of gaming - but that future is 25 years away when we have gigabit fibre to every home.
PAL is 50Hz (thought some equiment like games consoles can output 60Hz to compatible TVs).
NTSC is 60Hz.
After not watching TV for a few years, I starting noticing the flicker on a PAL-50 TV. It didn't give me a headache though, unlike a 60Hz CRT.
It's fine. Not even any ads that I saw (firefox+adblock), though possibly it's some kind of brand-awareness ploy...
I'm not so sure about the quality of the list. "W" as a potential name for your baby girl? Possibly to go with middle and final names "T" and "F"?
Are you defending Windows or Stalin?
That makes it a hell of a lot easier to take screenshots when you're booting.
He could play UT if he wanted, though the mac mini probably can't handle anything more demanding than 1-on-1 with a decent framerate.
I'd insert bits of electrified metal into them for free!