Ditto here. I'm not into the game anymore, and whenever I want to pull my deck out for a quick _fun_ game for old times sake, I get yelled at the moment I lay down my first turn Zuran Orb or Maze of Ith for not playing Type II and that I'm cheap. Mind you I said Zuran Orb and Maze of Ith... not Black Lotus or Mox.
They dont list the requirements. I have a old machine that could run nwn but it would be slow. I wonder what the requirements for a server would be. Dont imagine it to be that high but no clue. will have to try it anyways.
That is a good question, since they didn't seem to post any requirements at all for the game. The Linux server runs great for me on my Red Hat 7.2 machine.
I'm not sure if they are assuming you have a 2.4 kernel installed or not. I guess we'll see over the coming days how it runs on a variety of systems.
As far as the server hardware requirements, that is also iffy. As far as I can tell from the posts on Bioware's site, the main resource hit will be in the RAM department, because the game needs to keep areas open and scripts running. I would assume that you'd probably want at least 128 megs.
And I think it is only HALF of the CD key as well, not all of it. According to Bioware, there is a public part of the CD key, and a private part of the CD key.
Banning by CD key IS a good idea for the most part, except that there is always the problem of someone banning a stolen CD key... and blocking the legitimate owner of that key.
You make a pretty good point. I don't think these Lindows machines will do a great job of breaking the stranglehold on Microsoft because the AOL client only runs on Windows and Mac, as far as I know.
However, if AOL were to get a Linux client working and made some sort of deal with Walmart using these machines, it could become a very, very good business model for both AOL and Walmart. Then the less tech-saavy people can have a cheap computer without the MS tax and still go online with an ISP they know.
Rather than Walmart trying to push their own ISP, if the average Joe saw a PC for cheap and an AOL deal included with it, it might be an even more attractive buy.
I guess that the rumors for some time have been that AOL would like to free itself from Microsoft's desktop, and this might be a way for them to do it.
I agree that PE in highschool would be more enjoyable if you could focus on something without having to make it competetive. In my high school, unless you wanted to be in a competetive sport team, dance team, or wanted to be in the marching band, you got general crappy PE. (For those of you who laugh at marching band as PE, let me tell you that it is actually great excersize. In a competition, you march quite a long distance wearing a heavy uniform while carrying and playing an instrument.)
Though, my guess is that you've never actually played Dance Dance Revolution. It may look stupid or easy at first, but it is actually a very good game, and can produce an intense workout on the harder difficulty levels. The domestic Playstation releases of DDR have calorie counting modes (I'm not sure how accurate they are, but they seem pretty good). Many variations of the game have nonstop modes. DDR is nice in that it involves a workout and music all in one. The only problem with DDR is that it is hard to do if you don't have rythm. ^_^;;
I gained a bit of weight in college, as many people do. I've been playing DDR for several months, and people are telling me that I've lost weight. So it definately provides some type of excersize. It probably isn't really a substitute for other types of excersize (such as running two miles), but it is probably more suitable for PE than some of the sports they make you do (where people just sit around and half-pretend to play for an hour).
It is also my understanding that Billy Blanks' Tae-Bo is a very fun way to excersize. I'm very interested in knowing if any high schools have used that in PE class.
CS exams are a fair measure, but I never liked sections where I had to write more than 10 or so lines of code. Though it was rare to see, I did see it once in a while.
Some profs. are sadistic and like to do that sort of thing, but often they will still ignore small errors (such as syntax) as long as the "big picture" of what you do works as a feasable solution to the problem. Or at least that is the way it goes most of the time.
As far as everything else the written exam tests, such as theory and math, well, I really don't see a problem with it. Even if you are a great "coder" it doesn't mean you're a great "computer scientist," after all.
If Bnetd were used for any other reason than playing pirated versions of Blizzard software (and don't fool yourself -- that's the sole use, regardless of the original author's intent) then you'd have a point.
BS. There are probably more people out there on Battle.net with "stolen" CD keys than playing on a Bnetd server. Additionally, people can use pirated Blizzard games on a local network without any problems (or over a direct IP game), or at least that is my understanding.
I've used Bnetd before, and I own a legal copy of my Blizzard games. Everyone I was playing with the last time I used it also had a legal copy of the game being played. It is complete nonsense to claim that everyone using Bnetd is using a pirated version of a game, even though this is what Vivendi's lawyers want you to believe.
I firmly believe the only real reason that Bnetd is being sued is because Blizzard wants to scare pirates out there into thinking that they are the next to be sued. Blizzard can't catch the real pirates, so they are using Bnetd as an easy target/scapegoat and are hoping that many people who actually pirate the titles get scared and stop doing it.
Not necessarily. Just because it goes gold doesn't mean it will show up in stores within a week.
Often it does, but sometimes companies like to build up marketing hype by setting a clear release date. It gives rabid gamers a chance to get super-hyped up and totally anticipate the game that they know is coming out really soon...
In many cases sometimes the copies arrive in the store, but the vendor isn't supposed to sell until the "release date." Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and other companies impose breach of contract fines (or something like that) on vendors who sell early.
I won't even miss very much since I'm planning on having plenty of fun this summer playing Neverwinter Nights anyway. Despite the iffy EULA on the toolset, it still beats what Blizzard is doing right now by making Bnetd (a program made for legit reasons) a scapegoat for all the piracy out there.
Oh, but, wait! BattleNet checks keys! Maybe bnetd was invented so people with pirated copies of the game could play it without being hassled by the BattleNet servers?!
No, it wasn't. Bnetd was invented because a college student was bored during finals week and wanted to see if he could reverse engineer battle.net through packet sniffing. He then got bored of Bnetd and gave it to some other people who improved upon it because battle.net sucks.
While there are things that can be done to prevent cheating, there are always "false positives." I know of some really good Quake players who have been booted for being "bots" because they have good accuracy.
I personally tolerate cheating in a non-tournament setting. If someone wants to feel l33t by cheating and CounterStrike, let him. It is just a game.
Web developers should never, never, never, never assume that those who visit their sites are using any one particular browser. IE might be the most commonly used browser for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean EVERYONE uses it. If you are being lazy because of the supposed marketshare of IE and just writing for IE, you are only helping Microsoft's plans to totally own the web. Making sure that the W3C standards are met is worth the extra effort in the end.
Soon you'll have to put an EULA on your site to protect yourself against the laws of every other state and country. Something that reads: "By entering this site you agree that any claims against this site will be litigated in my country / my state."
Of course, probably only the EULA on a website will be upheld for a big corporation. Any run of the mill webmaster will probably be screwed since they can't afford teams of lawyers.
Just a reminder to those of you who are boycotting Blizzard, but still want your fantasy gaming fix. Neverwinter Nights will be coming out this summer, and while it is an RPG (rather than RTS), it should do a good job of filling the void left.
Though, personally, I was more excited about NWN than WC3 even before the lawsuit.
Sometimes the feeling I get from these stories is that many managers won't hire people who are indeed "overqualified" for positions out of fear that they may take THEIR jobs when the upper brass finds out about this new, overqualified employee doing better work than any of the other people at the same level.
Of course, I might be wrong.
My take is that the Empire was supposed to happen.
on
The Case for the Empire
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
My understanding of the prophecy about the one to bring balance to the force (Anakin) is that the Empire was basically supposed to happen. The the prequels, we see that the republic has been weakened due to various elements. The "Light Side" has essentially been corrupted by thousands of years of going through the motions. Perhaps Yoda and Mace Windu are the only ones who seem to really have a full understanding of this, and what it would mean for the prophecy to come true.
What is necessary to return the "Light Side" to the proper state is that the republic needs to be returned to its roots and original purpose. For this to happen, it must be destroyed and rebuilt.
The Emperor and his regime destroy the republic, and it is Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance that rebuild it. Anakin is central to this in that he is the one who enables all of this to happen. By becoming Vader, he helps Palpatine destroy the republic. Palpatine isn't a good guy who wants to bring order for the common good. He wants to bring order so he can rule the galaxy. By killing the Emperor, Vader fulfills the prophecy as the one who brings balance to the force. Presumably, the Rebel Alliance forms a new republic that has the restored ideals of the original. And perhance is a little wiser than the old as to not let anything like the Empire happen again.
It is pretty obvious this guy hates the entire Star Wars franchise from the start. With Star Wars, you pretty much either like it or hate it.
None of the reviewers seem to understand that Star Wars is MADE for the "12 year old" audience. They are all full of cutout characters, lame dialogue, cheezy cliches, etc. 20 years from now, all the kids will remember how great Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were, and will still think they are great whenever they watch them again. Just like everyone remembers how great Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were nowadays, and still think that whenever they watch them.
I'm sure I'll enjoy AOTC because I'm not expecting anything life-altering, or anything that will suddenly lead to enlightenment. I'm expecting a cheezy space fantasy with some cool lightsaber fights, and a far-fetched plot. In short, I'm expecting just about everything this reviewer hates about the movie. That is what Star Wars always has been.
My problem with this review is that I find it strange that he says that he couldn't remember a thing about the movie 10 minutes after he leaves the theater (because it was so incoherant, etc.), yet he us able to tell with great detail things about the movie in a coherant fasion.
Exactly. I personally didn't care about the ads. They are pretty easy to ignore. Truth be told, they aren't very annoying when compared to a vast majority of ads out there.
Hard to say, actually. I believe the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom was clearly the superior system. However, the Genesis / Megadrive had a lot of good games as well. IIRC, in the U.S., the Genesis did outsell the SNES in terms of total systems sold.
Maybe it is because I'm older now, but this seems to be when the truly great games were out. The SNES had great Square games as well as many other good 3rd. party titles. There were also tons of excellent first party titles like Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, etc.
The Genesis had some really good games too, like Sonic, Phantasy Star 2-4, etc. There were also a few good CD titles, like Lunar (which was re-released on Saturn and Playstation), even though the majority of the Sega CD games sucked.
Recently, I've seen a few things that I've liked in the current console market. SSB Melee at least did a good job of letting me re-live the old days by featuring tons of little things from Nintendo's past. Capcom also did a good job with Maximo, IMO. Even though it was 3D, it reminds me very much of Ghosts n' Goblins. Though it isn't quite as difficult, it is still harder than most of what comes out nowadays.
I've been a loyal Blizzard customer as well. Until now. I agree 100% with all of your points. Blizzard won't see another cent from me, and I don't intend on even playing another Blizzard game. Not on a friend's computer, not on a pirated copy. Not at all.
I'm no aerospace engineer, but I know that the space shuttle has been around for quite some time. It seems to me like it is about time to redesign the shuttle. I'd think that NASA would need to do this anyway if they wanted a vehicle capable of making the long journey to Mars.
Unfortunately, I wonder if that will happen since NASA seems to be a big target for budget cuts nowadays.
Given that, how feasable is it for a shuttle redesign to happen within the next ten years?
If code is protected speech, then the DMCA (or at least portions of it) is unconstitutional. I don't see how it can be any more complex than that. Constitutional rights have always been held at higher priority over laws passed by Congress.
How can the DMCA trump the First Ammendment in this way? It seems to me like the judge is saying, "Well, even though code is speech, and speech is guaranteed under the 1st. Ammendment, because the DMCA is so popular with all the companies that gave money to the Senators who appointed me, screw civil liberties and everything this country was founded on. Now shut up and face my wrath, you evil Russian communist/terrorist hackers!"
This case has been sickening from the moment it started. If anything, it has displayed how justice in the US is not blind. Elcomsoft is a small Russian firm, and is likely to be totally screwed over by this. A huge company from the US would get a slap on the wrist fine and be let off for the same thing, if it was even prosecuted in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
Ditto here. I'm not into the game anymore, and whenever I want to pull my deck out for a quick _fun_ game for old times sake, I get yelled at the moment I lay down my first turn Zuran Orb or Maze of Ith for not playing Type II and that I'm cheap. Mind you I said Zuran Orb and Maze of Ith... not Black Lotus or Mox.
Sheesh.
They dont list the requirements. I have a old machine that could run nwn but it would be slow. I wonder what the requirements for a server would be. Dont imagine it to be that high but no clue. will have to try it anyways.
That is a good question, since they didn't seem to post any requirements at all for the game. The Linux server runs great for me on my Red Hat 7.2 machine.
I'm not sure if they are assuming you have a 2.4 kernel installed or not. I guess we'll see over the coming days how it runs on a variety of systems.
As far as the server hardware requirements, that is also iffy. As far as I can tell from the posts on Bioware's site, the main resource hit will be in the RAM department, because the game needs to keep areas open and scripts running. I would assume that you'd probably want at least 128 megs.
And I think it is only HALF of the CD key as well, not all of it. According to Bioware, there is a public part of the CD key, and a private part of the CD key.
Banning by CD key IS a good idea for the most part, except that there is always the problem of someone banning a stolen CD key... and blocking the legitimate owner of that key.
Hmn. Modules seem to load just fine for me. I'm running Red Hat 7.2, so I don't know if it is a particular problem in 7.3.
I guess I'd check to see if anything was missed.
You make a pretty good point. I don't think these Lindows machines will do a great job of breaking the stranglehold on Microsoft because the AOL client only runs on Windows and Mac, as far as I know.
However, if AOL were to get a Linux client working and made some sort of deal with Walmart using these machines, it could become a very, very good business model for both AOL and Walmart.
Then the less tech-saavy people can have a cheap computer without the MS tax and still go online with an ISP they know.
Rather than Walmart trying to push their own ISP, if the average Joe saw a PC for cheap and an AOL deal included with it, it might be an even more attractive buy.
I guess that the rumors for some time have been that AOL would like to free itself from Microsoft's desktop, and this might be a way for them to do it.
I agree that PE in highschool would be more enjoyable if you could focus on something without having to make it competetive. In my high school, unless you wanted to be in a competetive sport team, dance team, or wanted to be in the marching band, you got general crappy PE. (For those of you who laugh at marching band as PE, let me tell you that it is actually great excersize. In a competition, you march quite a long distance wearing a heavy uniform while carrying and playing an instrument.)
Though, my guess is that you've never actually played Dance Dance Revolution. It may look stupid or easy at first, but it is actually a very good game, and can produce an intense workout on the harder difficulty levels. The domestic Playstation releases of DDR have calorie counting modes (I'm not sure how accurate they are, but they seem pretty good). Many variations of the game have nonstop modes. DDR is nice in that it involves a workout and music all in one. The only problem with DDR is that it is hard to do if you don't have rythm. ^_^;;
I gained a bit of weight in college, as many people do. I've been playing DDR for several months,
and people are telling me that I've lost weight.
So it definately provides some type of excersize. It probably isn't really a substitute for other types of excersize (such as running two miles), but it is probably more suitable for PE than some of the sports they make you do (where people just sit around and half-pretend to play for an hour).
It is also my understanding that Billy Blanks' Tae-Bo is a very fun way to excersize. I'm very interested in knowing if any high schools have used that in PE class.
CS exams are a fair measure, but I never liked sections where I had to write more than 10 or so lines of code. Though it was rare to see, I did see it once in a while.
Some profs. are sadistic and like to do that sort of thing, but often they will still ignore small errors (such as syntax) as long as the "big picture" of what you do works as a feasable solution to the problem. Or at least that is the way it goes most of the time.
As far as everything else the written exam tests, such as theory and math, well, I really don't see a problem with it. Even if you are a great "coder" it doesn't mean you're a great "computer scientist," after all.
If Bnetd were used for any other reason than playing pirated versions of Blizzard software (and don't fool yourself -- that's the sole use, regardless of the original author's intent) then you'd have a point.
BS. There are probably more people out there on Battle.net with "stolen" CD keys than playing on a Bnetd server. Additionally, people can use pirated Blizzard games on a local network without any problems (or over a direct IP game), or at least that is my understanding.
I've used Bnetd before, and I own a legal copy of my Blizzard games. Everyone I was playing with the last time I used it also had a legal copy of the game being played. It is complete nonsense to claim that everyone using Bnetd is using a pirated version of a game, even though this is what Vivendi's lawyers want you to believe.
I firmly believe the only real reason that Bnetd is being sued is because Blizzard wants to scare pirates out there into thinking that they are the next to be sued. Blizzard can't catch the real pirates, so they are using Bnetd as an easy target/scapegoat and are hoping that many people who actually pirate the titles get scared and stop doing it.
Not necessarily. Just because it goes gold doesn't mean it will show up in stores within a week.
Often it does, but sometimes companies like to build up marketing hype by setting a clear release date.
It gives rabid gamers a chance to get super-hyped up and totally anticipate the game that they know is coming out really soon...
In many cases sometimes the copies arrive in the store, but the vendor isn't supposed to sell until the "release date." Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and other companies impose breach of contract fines (or something like that) on vendors who sell early.
So do CD burners, so maybe Blizzard should sue the manufacturers of those too, eh?
Geez...
I won't even miss very much since I'm planning on having plenty of fun this summer playing Neverwinter Nights anyway. Despite the iffy EULA on the toolset, it still beats what Blizzard is doing right now by making Bnetd (a program made for legit reasons) a scapegoat for all the piracy out there.
No, it wasn't. Bnetd was invented because a college student was bored during finals week and wanted to see if he could reverse engineer battle.net through packet sniffing. He then got bored of Bnetd and gave it to some other people who improved upon it because battle.net sucks.
IIRC, but...
There is a Linux and Mac game executable in the box.
While there are things that can be done to prevent cheating, there are always "false positives." I know of some really good Quake players who have been booted for being "bots" because they have good accuracy.
I personally tolerate cheating in a non-tournament setting. If someone wants to feel l33t by cheating and CounterStrike, let him. It is just a game.
Web developers should never, never, never, never assume that those who visit their sites are using any one particular browser. IE might be the most commonly used browser for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean EVERYONE uses it. If you are being lazy because of the supposed marketshare of IE and just writing for IE, you are only helping Microsoft's plans to totally own the web. Making sure that the W3C standards are met is worth the extra effort in the end.
Soon you'll have to put an EULA on your site to protect yourself against the laws of every other state and country. Something that reads: "By entering this site you agree that any claims against this site will be litigated in my country / my state."
Of course, probably only the EULA on a website will be upheld for a big corporation. Any run of the mill webmaster will probably be screwed since they can't afford teams of lawyers.
Just a reminder to those of you who are boycotting Blizzard, but still want your fantasy gaming fix.
Neverwinter Nights will be coming out this summer, and while it is an RPG (rather than RTS), it should do a good job of filling the void left.
Though, personally, I was more excited about NWN than WC3 even before the lawsuit.
Sometimes the feeling I get from these stories is that many managers won't hire people who are indeed "overqualified" for positions out of fear that they may take THEIR jobs when the upper brass finds out about this new, overqualified employee doing better work than any of the other people at the same level.
Of course, I might be wrong.
My understanding of the prophecy about the one to bring balance to the force (Anakin) is that the Empire was basically supposed to happen. The the prequels, we see that the republic has been weakened due to various elements. The "Light Side" has essentially been corrupted by thousands of years of going through the motions. Perhaps Yoda and Mace Windu are the only ones who seem to really have a full understanding of this, and what it would mean for the prophecy to come true.
What is necessary to return the "Light Side" to the proper state is that the republic needs to be returned to its roots and original purpose. For this to happen, it must be destroyed and rebuilt.
The Emperor and his regime destroy the republic, and it is Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance that rebuild it. Anakin is central to this in that he is the one who enables all of this to happen.
By becoming Vader, he helps Palpatine destroy the republic. Palpatine isn't a good guy who wants to bring order for the common good. He wants to bring order so he can rule the galaxy. By killing the Emperor, Vader fulfills the prophecy as the one who brings balance to the force. Presumably, the Rebel Alliance forms a new republic that has the restored ideals of the original. And perhance is a little wiser than the old as to not let anything like the Empire happen again.
It is pretty obvious this guy hates the entire Star Wars franchise from the start. With Star Wars, you pretty much either like it or hate it.
None of the reviewers seem to understand that Star Wars is MADE for the "12 year old" audience.
They are all full of cutout characters, lame dialogue, cheezy cliches, etc. 20 years from now, all the kids will remember how great Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were, and will still think they are great whenever they watch them again. Just like everyone
remembers how great Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were nowadays, and still think that whenever they watch them.
I'm sure I'll enjoy AOTC because I'm not expecting anything life-altering, or anything that will suddenly lead to enlightenment. I'm expecting a cheezy space fantasy with some cool lightsaber fights, and a far-fetched plot. In short, I'm expecting just about everything this reviewer hates about the movie. That is what Star Wars always has been.
My problem with this review is that I find it strange that he says that he couldn't remember a thing about the movie 10 minutes after he leaves the theater (because it was so incoherant, etc.), yet he us able to tell with great detail things about the movie in a coherant fasion.
Exactly. I personally didn't care about the ads. They are pretty easy to ignore. Truth be told, they aren't very annoying when compared to a vast majority of ads out there.
Hard to say, actually. I believe the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom was clearly the superior system. However, the Genesis / Megadrive had a lot of good games as well. IIRC, in the U.S., the Genesis did outsell the SNES in terms of total systems sold.
Maybe it is because I'm older now, but this seems to be when the truly great games were out. The SNES had great Square games as well as many other good 3rd. party titles. There were also tons of excellent first party titles like Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, etc.
The Genesis had some really good games too, like Sonic, Phantasy Star 2-4, etc. There were also a few good CD titles, like Lunar (which was re-released on Saturn and Playstation), even though the majority of the Sega CD games sucked.
Recently, I've seen a few things that I've liked in the current console market. SSB Melee at least did a good job of letting me re-live the old days by featuring tons of little things from Nintendo's past. Capcom also did a good job with Maximo, IMO.
Even though it was 3D, it reminds me very much of Ghosts n' Goblins. Though it isn't quite as difficult, it is still harder than most of what comes out nowadays.
I've been a loyal Blizzard customer as well. Until now. I agree 100% with all of your points. Blizzard won't see another cent from me, and I don't intend on even playing another Blizzard game. Not on a friend's computer, not on a pirated copy. Not at all.
I'm no aerospace engineer, but I know that the space shuttle has been around for quite some time. It seems to me like it is about time to redesign the shuttle. I'd think that NASA would need to do this anyway if they wanted a vehicle capable of making the long journey to Mars.
Unfortunately, I wonder if that will happen since NASA seems to be a big target for budget cuts nowadays.
Given that, how feasable is it for a shuttle redesign to happen within the next ten years?
If code is protected speech, then the DMCA (or at least portions of it) is unconstitutional. I don't see how it can be any more complex than that. Constitutional rights have always been held at higher priority over laws passed by Congress.
How can the DMCA trump the First Ammendment in this way? It seems to me like the judge is saying, "Well, even though code is speech, and speech is guaranteed under the 1st. Ammendment, because the DMCA is so popular with all the companies that gave money to the Senators who appointed me, screw civil liberties and everything this country was founded on. Now shut up and face my wrath, you evil Russian communist/terrorist hackers!"
This case has been sickening from the moment it started. If anything, it has displayed how justice in the US is not blind. Elcomsoft is a small Russian firm, and is likely to be totally screwed over by this. A huge company from the US would get a slap on the wrist fine and be let off for the same thing, if it was even prosecuted in the first place.