Man... are they really trying to solve the addiction problem by forbidding
the youngers from playing the games?
Hell, it may sound a little pessimistic, but this "solution" may even aggravate the problem if these kids/teenagers start developing even worst habits like drugs or alcohol because they have nothing else to fill their lives with.
But didn't you hear? They made it against the rules for kids to use drugs or alcohol, and that's why it never ever happens anymore.
Look at how popular screensavers, ringtones, and application skins are -- users clearly enjoy the ability to personalize their interfaces. We can take advantage of this fact to build spoof resistant interfaces.'"
I find it interesting that those examples grew from technological necessity. We used to need screen savers because our ancient monitors would burn in the image otherwise. We needed changeable ringtones because everyone in a crowd would have to check their phone if one was heard ringing. Some of us needed skinnable apps to fit in other features, or adapt the UI to impaired eyesight or something. In those instances, the content producers took advantage of the actual need to fill it with fun stuff like flying toasters, five-second mp3 ringtones, and Winamp plugins based on movies they could sell and/or advertise with. Now this seems to be going the other way around, taking advantage of people's acquired taste for UI skins, and exploiting that to fill the technological need for protecting the easily-phished.
It would be possible to use the cafe's computers to download in less than 15 minutes a file the equivalent size of the DVD version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with its 19,000 illustrations, 629 audio and video clips and 100,000 articles.
People can go on about how useless SETI@Home is due to the physical and mathematical laws involved, but I know what's really running the world, the laws of irony and drama.
You know, those same laws that dictate that in a house fire a fireman must, on the urging of a crying child, run back into a collapsing building one last time to rescue a kitten.. or that an exploding car must send one flaming wheel bouncing amusingly away.. or that a torrential rainstorm will immediately break out upon someone exclaiming "Well, at least it's not raining!"
This same unalienable truth will ensure that as soon as most people are sick of running SETI, almost everyone has moved on to more "worthwhile" prospects, and the whole thing has become a laughing stock, then one of those last few remaining nerds with nothing better to do than keep the faith ends up getting a friendly visit from Spock, E.T., Doctor Who, and Princess Leia, and becomes the one who will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for all humanity.
Didn't the original Napster or Kazaa have a feature like this? As I recall, all it got me was the occasional request from a stranger to "pls share more (random artist, possibly one I wasn't even sharing) pls kthx."
You might find it easier to shoot something that isn't your gun, with your gun. Otherwise it's like trying to touch your left elbow with your left hand.
Ignoring for the moment the endless possibilities of deliberate outside interference with something like this...
Considering the hideous buzzng my PC speakers do just before my mobile phone rings, the jarring interruption of terrestrial radio by the odd trucker with a CB, and the amount of retail anti-shoplifting gates my job's keycard sets off.. thanks but no thanks.
I don't know much about SL, but I have heard that people have an unprecedented amount of freedom to create their own items. Does this extend to player-created clothing? If so, how long until someone bootlegs the $1 t-shirt for 50 cents, or even better, for free?
Slashdotted off the Games section, no less. That's like being a super-villain with the Superfriends after you, and being busted by Marvin and Wendy instead of Superman and Batman.
An account with Fon either includes information about the wire going into your house to the router you are earning your pass with, or your billing information, both of which are pretty good at telling who you are.
Not all that good, even nowadays. A friend of mine had his home phone listed under the name "Mike Ockhurts" for years, my late grandfather is still officially paying my water bill 20 years after his death because the local water authority wants a large pile of money to close the account and reopen it in my own name, and my mailbox is peppered daily with pre-approved credit card offers for joke names I've managed to get onto junk mail lists with. Unless Fon has some heavy-duty approval and verification process that would seem out of reach for a startup company like this, I can't see it being all that hard to get an account that isn't all that traceable back to you in real life.
When this is inevitably used by someone to do something illegal over someone else's connection and it gets traced back, I wonder how they'll work out who is responsible. It could be sort of hard to identify and sue/arrest the real culprit when the general public has tacit permission to wardrive at you.
It warms my heart to see a secretive billionaire genius using his nigh-limitless funds in the way that God and/or Bob Kane intended.
Re:So What Does It Mean?
on
PGP & GPG
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
No one knows, no one cares and very few have been affected by their ignorance.
I'm sure many, many people have been affected.. it's just that when they get their email read or their private files exploited, they're ignorant that it could possibly have been prevented. Someone who doesn't know how to lock their front door might still be affected by a burglary.
Here's the so what - everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. SWG players, or ex-players, complain about what Sony has done to their game.. well, here's a chance for the gamers to do something about it. They'll get to run their own version, that works the way that they want, without being teleported into space for daring to want things to run in a better way than they are now. It's easy for someont to bitch the way something is done, but it can be damned complicated to go out and fix it yourself.
I think of all the talent and passionate hacking involved in an effort like this, and it breaks my heart to think that it'll probably get shut down by lawyers.
For the full college course experience, one could watch these while suffering a hangover, playing Solitaire, holding three or four different conversations via text message or IM, and doodling on the desk.
It's enhanced user ID and password protections--if employees forget their passwords, they must take a five-question quiz (example: "What year was your Social Security number issued?") to reset it; if they fail that, they must pass a 15-question quiz with a systems administrator.
I'm sure that makes everyone feel better and inspires lots of Holy Grail "What... is your favorite color?" gags, but as long as the info exists in records for someone to verify, it's open to being copied and used by the wrong people.
This is also when America's country/western musicians mourn the death of music focused entirely on horses, women, and beer, and celebrate the birth of an art form focused entirely on highways, women, and beer.
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I know how the gold farmers among those affected must feel.. I once had a full-time job cut me down to part-time hours.
Thanks for trying, you're a truly brave hunman being. Erm.
That's no Beowulf cluster of Linux-running, not quite Vista-capable supercomputers.. it's a space station!
...and then we all had ice cream! Now that's what I call a sticky situation.
People can go on about how useless SETI@Home is due to the physical and mathematical laws involved, but I know what's really running the world, the laws of irony and drama.
You know, those same laws that dictate that in a house fire a fireman must, on the urging of a crying child, run back into a collapsing building one last time to rescue a kitten.. or that an exploding car must send one flaming wheel bouncing amusingly away.. or that a torrential rainstorm will immediately break out upon someone exclaiming "Well, at least it's not raining!"
This same unalienable truth will ensure that as soon as most people are sick of running SETI, almost everyone has moved on to more "worthwhile" prospects, and the whole thing has become a laughing stock, then one of those last few remaining nerds with nothing better to do than keep the faith ends up getting a friendly visit from Spock, E.T., Doctor Who, and Princess Leia, and becomes the one who will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for all humanity.
Didn't the original Napster or Kazaa have a feature like this? As I recall, all it got me was the occasional request from a stranger to "pls share more (random artist, possibly one I wasn't even sharing) pls kthx."
Ignoring for the moment the endless possibilities of deliberate outside interference with something like this...
Considering the hideous buzzng my PC speakers do just before my mobile phone rings, the jarring interruption of terrestrial radio by the odd trucker with a CB, and the amount of retail anti-shoplifting gates my job's keycard sets off.. thanks but no thanks.
I don't know much about SL, but I have heard that people have an unprecedented amount of freedom to create their own items. Does this extend to player-created clothing? If so, how long until someone bootlegs the $1 t-shirt for 50 cents, or even better, for free?
Slashdotted off the Games section, no less. That's like being a super-villain with the Superfriends after you, and being busted by Marvin and Wendy instead of Superman and Batman.
When this is inevitably used by someone to do something illegal over someone else's connection and it gets traced back, I wonder how they'll work out who is responsible. It could be sort of hard to identify and sue/arrest the real culprit when the general public has tacit permission to wardrive at you.
I already get Sun days off.
It warms my heart to see a secretive billionaire genius using his nigh-limitless funds in the way that God and/or Bob Kane intended.
Here's the so what - everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. SWG players, or ex-players, complain about what Sony has done to their game.. well, here's a chance for the gamers to do something about it. They'll get to run their own version, that works the way that they want, without being teleported into space for daring to want things to run in a better way than they are now. It's easy for someont to bitch the way something is done, but it can be damned complicated to go out and fix it yourself.
I think of all the talent and passionate hacking involved in an effort like this, and it breaks my heart to think that it'll probably get shut down by lawyers.
For the full college course experience, one could watch these while suffering a hangover, playing Solitaire, holding three or four different conversations via text message or IM, and doodling on the desk.
This is also when America's country/western musicians mourn the death of music focused entirely on horses, women, and beer, and celebrate the birth of an art form focused entirely on highways, women, and beer.
Slashdot.mil has demoted Malda down to LtTaco.
There's... someone on the LAN! Some... thing!