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User: SoCalEd

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Comments · 87

  1. So they say.... on Otherland MMO Announced · · Score: 1

    You know how it is with these MMO designer types: "Confident, cocky, lazy, dead." My God. Why is that quote still taking up space in my head?

  2. Funny.... on The City of the Future · · Score: 1

    None of them mentioned the imminent release of Duke Nukem Forever...

  3. Re:GP2X / VICE on Commodore 64 Still Beloved After All These Years · · Score: 1

    You are so totally right.

    I have a GP2X and love it. Played Nethack for an hour last night, it runs my Atari800 emulator (Jumpman FTW!) and plays most of the MAME .36 games too so I can get in a little arcade goodness on the road. Plays music, video, etc. Just make sure you pick up some high mAh rechargeable NiMH batteries as this sucker tears through them.

  4. Re:Whew, BSA != "Boy Scouts of America" on How the BSA Squeezes the Little Guys · · Score: 1

    I was afraid, for a moment, that it was a review of a "How To" book....

    I know, I know, climb back under my rock....

  5. Re:The better question on Wii 'Popularity Bubble' to Burst? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hope it does mean more availability. Three of my work colleagues have been hunting for one to no avail. Oh yeah: That's an attorney (male, 45 y.o.), an accountant (mid-30's, female) and an IT guy (mid-20's hardcore gamer).

    This little box has a lot of broad appeal. Mine? No dust. Had it since January and still play it 4 or 5 hours a week, but only because I don't have more time. Beat Zelda, finished Paper Mario, almost done with RE4. Metroid is next. Also, I keep coming back to Tiger Woods. But my wife and I honestly get the most replay value out of bowling, billiards and tennis. I'll admit there aren't too many other titles out there I'm itching to play at the moment, but I've got such value out of the ones I've picked (with IGN's help) that I am happy to wait for the pipeline to get going.

    Others have said it, I'll concur: graphics be damned. If the games make you smile, people will line up for them.

  6. Re:The joys of insecurity on Retailers Fighting To No Longer Store Credit Data · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its not that easy and its not just at the store itself. I work for a large national retailer and sit on the committee that is overseeing implementation of the CISP and now PCI requirements. Anti-intrusion systems and other general network security issues aside, there are, unfortunately, a lot of touchpoints that make this hard, time consuming and costly.

      - Not all point of sale systems (especially older ones) are set up to only show last four = code modification. If the vendor still supports it.
      - Hard copy of receipts to reverse chargebacks need to be reprogrammed to only show last four.
      - Hard copy of detail tape and settlement journals likewise.
      - Modify register and pole display programming to obscure card number as well
      - Got old credit card terminals? Oh, bummer. You get to replace them all at a few hundred bucks a pop if they can't be upgraded to Triple DES. Retail math primer: 100 stores * 10 terminals * $300 = $300k plus time and effort to reinject merchant numbers, test, roll-out, etc. Oh. And how long will that standard last?
      - Credit card terminals go down? Rules require taking a manual imprint of the card. Now those copies need to be stored and secured.

    And at corporate? Same issues.

      - Delete it from the marketing databases. Delete it from loss prevention programs.
      - Password protect each individual spreadsheet used for reconciling payments and thats still not secure.
      - Also have to make sure nobody can email or otherwise copy the files and take them out with them.
      - When glitches happen and duplicate charges happen, somebody at corporate needs the full number to issue the credit.
      - Years of back-up tapes contain the data too - on-site and off-site.

    The biggest problem, and its difficult (and costly) to even insure against, is the virtually unlimited amount of damages which can pile up - even on a retailer trying to do it right. The NRF, of which we are a member, has it right. There is no need for us to store card numbers at all. If the processor and banks have the full number (which they do), then a chargeback request for a signed receipt based upon location, date/time, amount and last four is all that is necessary. I'm not carping about the cost of protecting sensitive data. I'm carping about the cost of being forced by Visa/Mastercard regs to store *unnecessary* sensitive data then having to jump through ever-changing hoops to do so.

    TJ Maxx is another issue. They clearly dropped the ball by allowing their kiosks onto their store networks unfirewalled, but anyone who minimizes the cost/effort behind this issue is sorely misinformed.

    Oh yeah. Guess who ends up paying these costs?

  7. Re:Why? on 200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way · · Score: 1

    Very unlikely that the Milky Way numbers among the 200,000 as it is a barred-spiral galaxy, not an elliptical.

  8. Re:Obl. Quote on Bank Run in Second Life · · Score: 1

    My God I wish I had mod points. Freakin brilliant post. Kudos, Rixel.

  9. Re:Queen Sut on First Royal Mummy Found Since Tut is Identified · · Score: 1

    Yup. All that and a condo made a stona.

    Love it!

  10. Re:Hawking's solution on Black Hole Information Loss Paradox Solution Proposed · · Score: 1

    Can a parallel universe which is missing a black hole here and there, and therefore missing all of the information which ever dumped into them, really be said to be parallel? Maybe I can find a way to sing that to the tune of Eric The Half A Bee...

  11. MAME on Soviet Video Games from the 70s · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wonder if there are any MAME Dev's around here....

  12. I am Locutus on AACS Revision Cracked A Week Before Release · · Score: 1

    Did the article actually use the word "assimilate" and mention the "futility of resistance" in the same paragraph?

  13. Re:I had a Magnavox Odyssey growing up on Videogames Turn 40 · · Score: 1

    Yup. Static-attached screen overlays (in two different TV sizes for each game, IIRC) and a big box of dice, chips, play-money and other accessories to "enhance" the games. I remember a haunted house themed game where the "ghost" would light up one of the windows in the house or some such. People snicker now, but at the time it was revolutionary.

  14. Re:Almost Surreal.... on AACS Vows to Fight Bloggers · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of the cold war Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart. What? You've never heard of it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

  15. Re:MIght not be enforcable... on Google's Evil NDA · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I understand. Your basically saying that a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given?

  16. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising on The Myth of the Superhacker · · Score: 1

    Thx! Read the sample chapter from identity and it seems like quite a ride. Cheers.

  17. Re:interesting, amd maybe not surprising on The Myth of the Superhacker · · Score: 1

    Must. Read. That. Book.
    Linky?

  18. Re:pong on The Ten Most Important Games · · Score: 1

    ...probably [sic] the peope who put together the list were aware of them...

    This is correct for at least two reasons:

    1) The people who put the list together *did* include it on the list, and
    2) Steve Meretzky was one of the Infocom implementors. In fact the one responsible for some of the other great releases such as Hitchiker's Guide and Planetfall. He also penned a Zork sequel, IIRC.

  19. Magic isn't gone, just the hype... on The Wii - Is the Magic Gone? · · Score: 1

    Owned my Wii for a month and still enjoying the hell out of it. Turned a couple more friends onto it this past weekend. True, the media seems to have lost interest (don't they eventually lose interest in everything?) but the simple fact that they are still flying off the shelves speaks volumes. I am a bit disappointed that there are few must-have titles available now, but I am more than happy to content myself with with sports, play, Zelda, Wario and Elebits until the new titles start flowing. This system still rocks.

  20. Sports too. on Adult Film Industry Moving To HD DVD · · Score: 1

    Another big factor which pushed VHS adoption over Beta was the capacity limitation on Beta. The two hour recording limit, which Sony was not keen to increase, was too short for recording American football games. Sports and pr0n tipped the balance. Of course with Tivo now, it'll just be pr0n.

  21. Nothing to see here.... on Geekspeak Baffles Web Users · · Score: 1

    Ah the good old days before acronyms. When technological marvels were given simple, straightforward names like sonar, laser and scuba....oh wait....

  22. Nice GUI... on UCSD Biometric Vending Machine · · Score: 1

    I wonder if:

    A) Michael Okuda gets free sodas, and

    B) Have the Paramount lawyers seen this yet?

    Count down to sending of C&D notices in 3, 2, 1....

  23. Re:Pull out of Europe? WTF? on EU Prepared to Fine Microsoft $2.5 Million Per Day · · Score: 1

    I hope you are being facetious and that my ironic-humor gene is acting up.

    According to MSFT's most recent 10-K filing with the SEC, they derive just over 32% of their $40 Billion (with a B) in revenue from outside the U.S. Split that between Europe and Asia (yes, I know that Australia, Africa and South America are populated continents as well, and that Canada isn't part of the U.S. -> blah blah blah) and you are talking about a $6 billion haircut to revenue.

    Yeah. I'm sure they are discussing that option right now....

  24. Self-fulfilling prophesy.... on Laptop Explodes at Japanese Conference · · Score: 2, Insightful

    let's see how this hypothetically plays out:

    1)laptop gets warm because there is not enough air circulation
    2)laptop is placed on pillow to absorb heat
    3)pillow completely blocks air vents
    4)laptop gets hot and explodes
    5)sue manufacturer/post about faulty power supplies.

    I know, I know, the parent said no such thing, but I wonder how many people either a)abuse the machine or b)block the vents, causing the overheating problem to begin with.

  25. Re:When will those idiots at Dell learn? on Laptop Explodes at Japanese Conference · · Score: 1

    I'll bet, way back when, you worked on the Ford Pinto project as well...