Re:Playstation 2 first editions were buggy as hell
on
Crashing Xbox Kiosks
·
· Score: 2
A home entertainment center in a cool room allows a game system to do pretty well, especially when the unit has fans. Demo kiosks usually are totally enclosed so that the unit cannot be accessed without a key, with no ventilation, under projected halogen lighting that in most stores is never turned off as they stock at night. Chances are that the temperature inside those kiosks rarely drops below 100 degress farenheit.
Not really. Every game console ever released has had buggy early softare. Early Playstation games had a horrible reputation for crashing during FMV playback, if the system didn't overheat first (Which it could do in under an hour.) or the laser sliders didn't wear out (It usually happened within the first year on the first two PSX models.). The problems got a huge amount of press, from a gaming press that already trashed Sony for getting into the market to begin with. The Playstation 2 had serious bugs in its hyped up visual and access speed features, which can crash many PSX games (My most recent discovery was that it can crash Final Fantasy VII when exiting a combat.).
All that adverisity and perception problems, and Sony STILL captured the market. With their first machine. This will not affect Microsoft's XBox launch in any signifigant way.
he iPod is definately a cool little toy. Firewire support and the incredibly small form factor is truly a plus. Honestly, for what you get, $400 isn't really that horrible of a price. I realize that there are cheaper units with more space on the market, but they are USB devices (S L O W T R A N S F E R S) and are all rather large and clunky. I could actually see myself buying an iPod just because it gives me an mp3 player to stick in my hip pocket and carry around.
That said, the iPod will still bomb. While it really might be worth the money, people won't be willing to drop $400 for an mp3 player, especially when the US economy is already in the toilet, and getting worse daily. If Apple really wanted to be revolutionary and give us something new, this thing would cost no more than $300, enough money to buy a nice game console.
Demo kiosk units for modern game consoles usually have these problems, especially prerelease systems that use early hardware revisions. The crashing usually results from overheating caused by the machines running 24/7, in small enclosures with poor, if any ventilation. I have seen plenty of the old Dreamcast display units hung up and crashing to a black screen with a little text. It might also be due to the early software revisions in the machines.
Of course, anyone who had an old NES should remember that many of the system's games were very crash prone. I cannot begin to describe how many time I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crash, to the point that I knew what areas to walk away from when parts of the screen would become distorted...
This is something that Linux can definately use. X is cool, but is really better for client/server desktop applications than as an actual desktop.
Of course, what would really make this nice is if they can make it easy to set up. The number one newbie problem that I see with Linux is getting X to work. I have been running Linux for a few years now, and configuring X is still a huge pain. Apologies to Frank Herbert, "Who controls the easy setup tool, controls the Linux desktop!"
Ummm... Ok, this is cool and all, but how the fuck do I get it for free? I can handle paying for Mandrake distros to run my desktop, that I actually do things with, but given that all I can do with this is fuck around, why the fuck would I pay for the goddamned thing?
You aren't the only one. Maybe now that/. needs money from something OTHER than advertising, they will stop posting Katz's crap because all the "fuck Katz" posts were generating a ton of clickthroughs.
I for one will pay $50 if/. will immediately stop running stories by Katz.
Re:And so it begins/Dead pool thread...
on
Slashdot Updates
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· Score: 2
I hate the whole thing, too. I plan to subscribe, and will push for my company to do so as well (We really, really benefit from FM and SF, so I can prolly get them to kick in some change...).
And so it begins/Dead pool thread...
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
Ok, anyone who paid attention during the dotcom bust knows where this is all going to lead. So I suggest that in the name of bad taste, we revel in this by starting a dead pool thread. I will go first.
Date that Pud will be posting that/. is dead and gone on FuckedCompany.com: January 1, 2002.
"I'm a US citizen, but why would I care?
The DMCA is only enforced against criminals, right?
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945"
That is a bit from Rev. Martin Niemoller, a european Reverend who suffered under the Nazi oppression. Ever see a cartoon where a snowball rolling downhill gets bigger and bigger? The same thing happens when the government starts going after freedom. It has happened time and time again throughout history. It led to the horrible conditions of feudal Europe, where government progressed from:
Everyone own land, and elects some people to protect it and them.
Some people own land, and they chose who protected it and them.
One person owned the land, and decided to how to protect everyone on it.
One person owned the land, and everyone who lived on it.
Another example to look at would be african slavery. At first the tribes of Africa enslaved their wartime enemies, treating them like members of the tribe, but with no freedom to leave or choose work. It progressed to slaves being possessions. Eventually slaves could even be sold. After a while the Africans were selling each other to the people colonizing America and the Carribean, where the slaves were regularly raped, tortured and murdered.
What it all boils down to is simple: Never trust your leaders. The best way to keep America free is to remind our leaders that they are public servants, and to do so by whatever non-violent and constitional means are necessary. Bitching about it in online forums is doing little good.
I'm not 100% sure what district you mean, but if you are referring to the northern-virginia/dulles corridor please email me (supabeast@supabeast.org) if you are serious.
Scary stuff.
on
GNU Emacs 21
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Of course, we all know that emacs users are crazy, satanic liars and should be killed on sight. Never trust anyone who uses emacs over vi.
If AOL stops using IE, web designers will stop caring about IE compatibility. if AOL dumps IE, that will be over 35,000,000 people using Mozilla browsers.
Actually SkyOS intercepts Linux system calls (Of the 6% ot them that it can handle, anyway.) and passes them to its own API. Assuming that stolen code is involved is simply a) Paranoid and B) Rude!
"Their Linux emulation layer lies inside the SkyOS kernel, I wonder if there are any GPL violations going on here."
That has to be one of the rudest things that I have seen on Slashdot in years. To suggest that just because some Linux binaries can run on another OS with no evidence is absolutely disgusting.
Of course, even more disgusting is that Timothy posted it, but I think everyone realizes Slashdot has a pretty fucked up editorial policy so I shall not continue.
Bill Redpath has some nice ideas, but cutting all state funding for higher education is crazy. From his website:
"For higher education, I propose a complete separation of school and state. General fund subsidization of colleges and universities, which totals $1.545 billion per year, which is about 13% of the Commonwealth's General Fund budget, amounts to a perverse redistribution of wealth from all of society to students who tend to come from more affluent families and are likely to be more affluent in the future due to their college educations. Funds to higher education from the Commonwealth's General Fund budget should be reduced to zero."
Even a libertarian's lust for lower taxes should have limits, and attacking state-funded colleges crosses the line.
Gary Reams on the other hand, is a great guy and will be getting my vote, but he is not running for Governor...
Right now it is a hard time to be a "Tough On Crime" politician.
The government has lost public support for the war on drugs. People fell for it since the 70s, but eventually realized that it was not working, and actually exacerbates problems relating to the drug trade. America's racially biased judicial system (80% of US prison inmates are black, while blacks only make up slightly less than 15% of the US population.) has been getting a lot of negative attention lately, so politicians are starting to sneak away from the whole mess, leaving it for someone else to clean up.
Terrorism was big for a while, but now that George Bush has made anti-terrorist efforts into his war on terrorism, any other politician who hops on the bandwagon will be in Dubya's shadow.
So where does a loudmouthed right winger go? Moving on to sensible issues does not work too well, because Republicans must cut funding for those in order to pay back rich friends with lower taxes. So instead it is time to chase after the hackers! Get those awful kids before they deface another web site! A scourge on mondern civilization!
I guess Gilmore proves that desperate times call for desperate measures...
-Disclaimer: This will come off as an attempt to get support for a certain democratic gubenatorial candidate to some people. Please realize that I hate politicians in general, and only want to see Gilmore lose his standing because of the way he handles himself.-
Jim Gilmore is currently the chairman of the republican national committee. Almost all of his political power stems from this, because as governor of Virginia Gilmore has burned quite a few bridges and royally pissed off many important Republican politicans (You can read about the details here.
His unpopular activites are now causing other Republicans to want him out of power in the RNC, and they are threatening to oust him if he cannot get Mark Early elected Governor in his place this fall. Unfortunately, the Early campaign has been terribly mismanaged, and Early is a rather unpopular figure with Republicans, Democrats, and Virginia voters. Many people in politics and the press have already declared Democratic candidate Mark Warner the winner of the election. By voting for Mark Warner, you can help the Republican party finally be totally sick of Jim Gilmore and cast him out. Please do.
Pretty much. If we really wanted to, we could have colonized the entire middle east and destroy anyone who tried to stop us (And no, we would not get vaporized back because the French and the Russians would not give a good goddamn if we colonized half the planet, as long as we left them alone.).
"Pull your head out of your ass you moron. Freedom? Highschool kids going through metal detectors in school? 3 times more lawyers than engineers? Corporate States of America? Get mugged once a week, and killed every other month? Free speech gets you in jail because of whatever DMCA related bullshit corporate-sponsored law?"
I never said things were perfect. But that is why we have a Supreme Court. Eventually screwed up stuff like that gets to them, and a level head prevails, and things straighten out. Some things take time. As far as muggings and killings go, those happen everywhere.
"A long long time ago, when you made beautiful cars and put men on the moon and the American Dream actually meant something, yes, then you inspired people. Right now, noone wants to go NEAR the US and we're just waiting for it to implode and hope it will do as little damage to the rest of the world as possible."
We inspired people then? When Joe McCarthy was ruining lives of numerous people by accusing them of communism and blacks were second-class citizens? America is now more free than ever. As for people not wanting to get near the US, ask our coast guard and border patrol about that, they spend billions of dollars a year keeping people out because we have more immigrants trying to get in than the country can handle.
"
And PS, if a German politician would go on TV *nowadays* and say "yeah we bombed the UN, the Red Cross and various civilians and 10 years after the Gulf War we STILL cant make a smart bomb smart enough to not miss by a mile sometimes but hey, them's the breaks" he'd be lynched on the streets. It's your "our civilians are worth inifitely more than yours" attitude that guarantees you will be haunted by terrorism until you get your act together."
If another group of people threatens us, our civilians ARE worth more than theirs. Our lives and freedom are no good to us if we allow ourselves to be the victims of terrorism. European and Asian nations have long tried negotiating with terrorists and their supporters, and it never stops anything. If the only way to protect ourselves is to stop worrying about our enemies lives, and the lives of those unfortunate enough to be caught inbetween, so be it. Better them than me.
That said, we often do put ourselves in harm's way for others. We went into the Persian Gulf to help our Kuwaiti Allies retake their nation from the forces of a tyrant. We went into Somalia, trying to save the lives of the poor and helpless, because we could not bear to watch them starve when renegades and warlords stole the food we sent there, and we left because they decided killing our soldiers was more important than eating. Against the wishes of many nations, and our own people, we went to Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia to save the lives of muslim civilians from a holocaust by a lunatic tyrant mafia leader, and people hate us for it. No nation on earth gives more money, food, and jobs to foreign civilians than ours.
"Terrorists dont fear freedom, and are not jealous of it. What you sow you reap. And you've sown an awful lot of hate. Now you're reaping. And you know what? You haven't even *started*."
Keep dreaming. Terrorists hate the US because we give the people they try to opress a bastion of hope. These fanatics try so hard to quash those who do not agree with them in their own countries, and yet still cannot crush their spirits. When it comes to freedom, there is no greater symbol of freedom. So they attack us, call us dogs, burn our flag, all to try and make us look weak. Instead our armed forces will show them the true meaning of weakness. Terrorists will know weakness when we cut them down in droves with our guns and bombs. Our special forces agents will exploits their weaknesses when they silently slit throats of terrorist guards, slipping into mountain caves to destroy the cowardly terrorist leaders, who hide away because they know that their lives are running short. And the rest of the world shall know strength, because they will benefit from this. At some point, people will no longer try to take hostages in European hotels. India will not release murderous terrorists to placate airline hijackers. Suicide bombers will realize that their leaders are unconscionable madmen. America's strength will be shown to the world, and used to protect the world.
The FBI has a unit that handles nothing but online auction fraud. They are notorious for handling auction fraud quickly and seriously, but due to the sheer volume of cases they probably have a hard time getting to everyone. Poke around at the FBI until someone puts you in contact with these people.
Slashdot Mirror
A home entertainment center in a cool room allows a game system to do pretty well, especially when the unit has fans. Demo kiosks usually are totally enclosed so that the unit cannot be accessed without a key, with no ventilation, under projected halogen lighting that in most stores is never turned off as they stock at night. Chances are that the temperature inside those kiosks rarely drops below 100 degress farenheit.
Not really. Every game console ever released has had buggy early softare. Early Playstation games had a horrible reputation for crashing during FMV playback, if the system didn't overheat first (Which it could do in under an hour.) or the laser sliders didn't wear out (It usually happened within the first year on the first two PSX models.). The problems got a huge amount of press, from a gaming press that already trashed Sony for getting into the market to begin with. The Playstation 2 had serious bugs in its hyped up visual and access speed features, which can crash many PSX games (My most recent discovery was that it can crash Final Fantasy VII when exiting a combat.).
All that adverisity and perception problems, and Sony STILL captured the market. With their first machine. This will not affect Microsoft's XBox launch in any signifigant way.
he iPod is definately a cool little toy. Firewire support and the incredibly small form factor is truly a plus. Honestly, for what you get, $400 isn't really that horrible of a price. I realize that there are cheaper units with more space on the market, but they are USB devices (S L O W T R A N S F E R S) and are all rather large and clunky. I could actually see myself buying an iPod just because it gives me an mp3 player to stick in my hip pocket and carry around.
That said, the iPod will still bomb. While it really might be worth the money, people won't be willing to drop $400 for an mp3 player, especially when the US economy is already in the toilet, and getting worse daily. If Apple really wanted to be revolutionary and give us something new, this thing would cost no more than $300, enough money to buy a nice game console.
Demo kiosk units for modern game consoles usually have these problems, especially prerelease systems that use early hardware revisions. The crashing usually results from overheating caused by the machines running 24/7, in small enclosures with poor, if any ventilation. I have seen plenty of the old Dreamcast display units hung up and crashing to a black screen with a little text. It might also be due to the early software revisions in the machines.
Of course, anyone who had an old NES should remember that many of the system's games were very crash prone. I cannot begin to describe how many time I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crash, to the point that I knew what areas to walk away from when parts of the screen would become distorted...
This is something that Linux can definately use. X is cool, but is really better for client/server desktop applications than as an actual desktop.
Of course, what would really make this nice is if they can make it easy to set up. The number one newbie problem that I see with Linux is getting X to work. I have been running Linux for a few years now, and configuring X is still a huge pain. Apologies to Frank Herbert, "Who controls the easy setup tool, controls the Linux desktop!"
Ohhhh... ok, that is cool. If I could get all that I might actually use it for something instead of letting it collect dust while I wait for FFX.
Ummm... Ok, this is cool and all, but how the fuck do I get it for free? I can handle paying for Mandrake distros to run my desktop, that I actually do things with, but given that all I can do with this is fuck around, why the fuck would I pay for the goddamned thing?
You aren't the only one. Maybe now that /. needs money from something OTHER than advertising, they will stop posting Katz's crap because all the "fuck Katz" posts were generating a ton of clickthroughs.
/. will immediately stop running stories by Katz.
I for one will pay $50 if
I hate the whole thing, too. I plan to subscribe, and will push for my company to do so as well (We really, really benefit from FM and SF, so I can prolly get them to kick in some change...).
Ok, anyone who paid attention during the dotcom bust knows where this is all going to lead. So I suggest that in the name of bad taste, we revel in this by starting a dead pool thread. I will go first.
/. is dead and gone on FuckedCompany.com: January 1, 2002.
Date that Pud will be posting that
The joys of having karma to spare...
From www.thefreeworld.net:
"I'm a US citizen, but why would I care?
The DMCA is only enforced against criminals, right?
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945"
That is a bit from Rev. Martin Niemoller, a european Reverend who suffered under the Nazi oppression. Ever see a cartoon where a snowball rolling downhill gets bigger and bigger? The same thing happens when the government starts going after freedom. It has happened time and time again throughout history. It led to the horrible conditions of feudal Europe, where government progressed from:
Everyone own land, and elects some people to protect it and them.
Some people own land, and they chose who protected it and them.
One person owned the land, and decided to how to protect everyone on it.
One person owned the land, and everyone who lived on it.
Another example to look at would be african slavery. At first the tribes of Africa enslaved their wartime enemies, treating them like members of the tribe, but with no freedom to leave or choose work. It progressed to slaves being possessions. Eventually slaves could even be sold. After a while the Africans were selling each other to the people colonizing America and the Carribean, where the slaves were regularly raped, tortured and murdered.
What it all boils down to is simple: Never trust your leaders. The best way to keep America free is to remind our leaders that they are public servants, and to do so by whatever non-violent and constitional means are necessary. Bitching about it in online forums is doing little good.
Off by 17 years, no big deal...
I'm not 100% sure what district you mean, but if you are referring to the northern-virginia/dulles corridor please email me (supabeast@supabeast.org) if you are serious.
Of course, we all know that emacs users are crazy, satanic liars and should be killed on sight. Never trust anyone who uses emacs over vi.
If AOL stops using IE, web designers will stop caring about IE compatibility. if AOL dumps IE, that will be over 35,000,000 people using Mozilla browsers.
Right on AOL!
Actually SkyOS intercepts Linux system calls (Of the 6% ot them that it can handle, anyway.) and passes them to its own API. Assuming that stolen code is involved is simply a) Paranoid and B) Rude!
"Their Linux emulation layer lies inside the SkyOS kernel, I wonder if there are any GPL violations going on here."
That has to be one of the rudest things that I have seen on Slashdot in years. To suggest that just because some Linux binaries can run on another OS with no evidence is absolutely disgusting.
Of course, even more disgusting is that Timothy posted it, but I think everyone realizes Slashdot has a pretty fucked up editorial policy so I shall not continue.
The funny is in the name, not the concept. Chill.
Bill Redpath has some nice ideas, but cutting all state funding for higher education is crazy. From his website:
"For higher education, I propose a complete separation of school and state. General fund subsidization of colleges and universities, which totals $1.545 billion per year, which is about 13% of the Commonwealth's General Fund budget, amounts to a perverse redistribution of wealth from all of society to students who tend to come from more affluent families and are likely to be more affluent in the future due to their college educations. Funds to higher education from the Commonwealth's General Fund budget should be reduced to zero."
Even a libertarian's lust for lower taxes should have limits, and attacking state-funded colleges crosses the line.
Gary Reams on the other hand, is a great guy and will be getting my vote, but he is not running for Governor...
Coming in 2005... The Playstation ThreeVo!
Right now it is a hard time to be a "Tough On Crime" politician.
The government has lost public support for the war on drugs. People fell for it since the 70s, but eventually realized that it was not working, and actually exacerbates problems relating to the drug trade. America's racially biased judicial system (80% of US prison inmates are black, while blacks only make up slightly less than 15% of the US population.) has been getting a lot of negative attention lately, so politicians are starting to sneak away from the whole mess, leaving it for someone else to clean up.
Terrorism was big for a while, but now that George Bush has made anti-terrorist efforts into his war on terrorism, any other politician who hops on the bandwagon will be in Dubya's shadow.
So where does a loudmouthed right winger go? Moving on to sensible issues does not work too well, because Republicans must cut funding for those in order to pay back rich friends with lower taxes. So instead it is time to chase after the hackers! Get those awful kids before they deface another web site! A scourge on mondern civilization!
I guess Gilmore proves that desperate times call for desperate measures...
-Disclaimer: This will come off as an attempt to get support for a certain democratic gubenatorial candidate to some people. Please realize that I hate politicians in general, and only want to see Gilmore lose his standing because of the way he handles himself.-
Jim Gilmore is currently the chairman of the republican national committee. Almost all of his political power stems from this, because as governor of Virginia Gilmore has burned quite a few bridges and royally pissed off many important Republican politicans (You can read about the details here.
His unpopular activites are now causing other Republicans to want him out of power in the RNC, and they are threatening to oust him if he cannot get Mark Early elected Governor in his place this fall. Unfortunately, the Early campaign has been terribly mismanaged, and Early is a rather unpopular figure with Republicans, Democrats, and Virginia voters. Many people in politics and the press have already declared Democratic candidate Mark Warner the winner of the election. By voting for Mark Warner, you can help the Republican party finally be totally sick of Jim Gilmore and cast him out. Please do.
Pretty much. If we really wanted to, we could have colonized the entire middle east and destroy anyone who tried to stop us (And no, we would not get vaporized back because the French and the Russians would not give a good goddamn if we colonized half the planet, as long as we left them alone.).
"Pull your head out of your ass you moron. Freedom? Highschool kids going through metal detectors in school? 3 times more lawyers than engineers? Corporate States of America? Get mugged once a week, and killed every other month? Free speech gets you in jail because of whatever DMCA related bullshit corporate-sponsored law?"
I never said things were perfect. But that is why we have a Supreme Court. Eventually screwed up stuff like that gets to them, and a level head prevails, and things straighten out. Some things take time. As far as muggings and killings go, those happen everywhere.
"A long long time ago, when you made beautiful cars and put men on the moon and the American Dream actually meant something, yes, then you inspired people. Right now, noone wants to go NEAR the US and we're just waiting for it to implode and hope it will do as little damage to the rest of the world as possible."
We inspired people then? When Joe McCarthy was ruining lives of numerous people by accusing them of communism and blacks were second-class citizens? America is now more free than ever. As for people not wanting to get near the US, ask our coast guard and border patrol about that, they spend billions of dollars a year keeping people out because we have more immigrants trying to get in than the country can handle.
"
And PS, if a German politician would go on TV *nowadays* and say "yeah we bombed the UN, the Red Cross and various civilians and 10 years after the Gulf War we STILL cant make a smart bomb smart enough to not miss by a mile sometimes but hey, them's the breaks" he'd be lynched on the streets. It's your "our civilians are worth inifitely more than yours" attitude that guarantees you will be haunted by terrorism until you get your act together."
If another group of people threatens us, our civilians ARE worth more than theirs. Our lives and freedom are no good to us if we allow ourselves to be the victims of terrorism. European and Asian nations have long tried negotiating with terrorists and their supporters, and it never stops anything. If the only way to protect ourselves is to stop worrying about our enemies lives, and the lives of those unfortunate enough to be caught inbetween, so be it. Better them than me.
That said, we often do put ourselves in harm's way for others. We went into the Persian Gulf to help our Kuwaiti Allies retake their nation from the forces of a tyrant. We went into Somalia, trying to save the lives of the poor and helpless, because we could not bear to watch them starve when renegades and warlords stole the food we sent there, and we left because they decided killing our soldiers was more important than eating. Against the wishes of many nations, and our own people, we went to Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia to save the lives of muslim civilians from a holocaust by a lunatic tyrant mafia leader, and people hate us for it. No nation on earth gives more money, food, and jobs to foreign civilians than ours.
"Terrorists dont fear freedom, and are not jealous of it. What you sow you reap. And you've sown an awful lot of hate. Now you're reaping. And you know what? You haven't even *started*."
Keep dreaming. Terrorists hate the US because we give the people they try to opress a bastion of hope. These fanatics try so hard to quash those who do not agree with them in their own countries, and yet still cannot crush their spirits. When it comes to freedom, there is no greater symbol of freedom. So they attack us, call us dogs, burn our flag, all to try and make us look weak. Instead our armed forces will show them the true meaning of weakness. Terrorists will know weakness when we cut them down in droves with our guns and bombs. Our special forces agents will exploits their weaknesses when they silently slit throats of terrorist guards, slipping into mountain caves to destroy the cowardly terrorist leaders, who hide away because they know that their lives are running short. And the rest of the world shall know strength, because they will benefit from this. At some point, people will no longer try to take hostages in European hotels. India will not release murderous terrorists to placate airline hijackers. Suicide bombers will realize that their leaders are unconscionable madmen. America's strength will be shown to the world, and used to protect the world.
The FBI has a unit that handles nothing but online auction fraud. They are notorious for handling auction fraud quickly and seriously, but due to the sheer volume of cases they probably have a hard time getting to everyone. Poke around at the FBI until someone puts you in contact with these people.