Microsoft products are subject to forced obsolescence. There are many good examples of this so "renting" is correct. Owning microsoft products today ensures that you will have to purchase more microsoft products tomorrow. Future hardware iterations will not support older OS's - first not well, then not at all due to lack of driver support.
The rest of the post is a real experience along with a fix for the problem. I can't see why that pisses you off so much. Someone pee in your coffee this morning?
In this economy, our company considers a lot of things but then when real $$$ appear, they are inevitably pushed off.
We have an enterprise license from Microsoft so it isn't the cost of the software (about the same if we have XP on all machines or win 7).
The main issue would be new machines (I just got a new one last year before everything went to crap in the economy) which they have extended from a 3 year to a 4 year window. Then it would be confirming all our old custom software works correctly.
I'm certain we'll go to windows 7-- it just may be 3 years from now (so 2012? 2013?)
Like the PP, I found openoffice good with a small learning curve while Word 2007 has such a huge learning curve that there are still tasks I haven't figured out how to do yet (and probably a dozen in the last week regarding tables).
Add to that, failure to print word 2003 documents (Hangs on page 2)-- that didn't clear up until they completely reinstalled the O/S and all printer drives. Then it still did it on some other documents-- turned out some tables at 100.7% was the cause. First they were 100% in word 2003, and second, when I set them to 101% in word 2003 on purpose, it printed them fine. So word 2007 incorrectly converted them and then crashed on them (I'm sharing this so folks can fix the problem).
Do you want to rent Word the rest of your life, or own Openoffice?
Yes, But you are getting old and are going to die and you probably have no intention of buying a new version of Word since you are happy with the current one.
New users will see a wierdly arcane program or an easy to use (for a novice) program.
Think of these versions of word as targeted to naive users.
---
What I can't see is how they intend to compete with free (Openoffice) when we have 25% real unemployment and no growth in sales for the rest- with the corrupted financial industry pillaging and looting heavily from the 75% that are still producing.
Apparently I can hate you because your hair is red, but I can't ever say print or publish that I hate you because your hair is red. I may or may not be able to say it verbally.
Or it may be that to cross the line, I need to say something like 'People with red hair are worthy of being hated!"
Whatever the case may be, despite the fact I think these two are idiots, it's a clear case of freedom of speech.
I do know that in Europe, due to historical reasons, racial hatred is a lot less acceptable than it is elsewhere.
It does seem like political persecution too. But I guess you can't be british and get U.S. help from political persecution.
(It's not a white thing- the U.S. gives asylum to lots of whites from other countries but I imagine we do not want to embarrass the british).
I remember more civilized times when we let you say your peace, and then discretely beat you up and ran you out of town on a rail (painful) while covered with hot tar and feathers. But by gum, you were free to speak freely.
I'm a 6'5" ultimate frisbe playing, two to four times a week gym workouting, college educated, successful professional who was also a licensed massage therapist for a decade.
But... down at heart, I'm still a DnD playing, Boardgame paying, Science Fiction reading nerd.
I would find a full time relationship with a non-gaming hotty to be stifling.
That's because scorching hot females who like sex move to places like hollywood or palm beach or even go into business in some way (even if it is only as a vegas show girl). And if you happen to hook up with them, they are likely to sleep around on you ( and not just women- attractive men also sleep around a lot ). Hot women have different expectations of life-- just like people who are born and grow up rich.
They also have pretty severe defense mechanisms having been hit on and flattered since they were 13 by everyone. Meanwhile, the more normal females who didn't get as much flattery are still open to it. In a way, being pretty sucks because they have trouble accepting compliments.
Never got that lucky (or unlucky?) until I was in my late 30's. And then I hooked up with a hotty who later turned out to have been a stripper back in her 20s and tho it was incredibly fun for 10 years, it ended as horrifically as you can imagine (maybe more so). Before then, I'd have a decently average hot high school sweetheart (so I missed the whole bar scene/college party scene) and then a nicely hot dancing lady who was really sweet but had terminal religious problems with me (I'm not religious-- sometimes it would be easier if I was).
One of the fundamental concepts of american government was that, worst case, we would be able to replace it.
Let's look at this (in a different order):
* Neighborhood Cameras (ala UK) How is this any violation? It's not really implemented en mass in the US... but I don't think there is any reason why it couldn't be.
With these in place, your ability to act against the government is severely reduced. They can record and analyze every move you make. If anyone is shown to be against the government, they can tie you to every person you know. If we get into a Chilean situation, that just means you all disappear.
* Automated Speed Cameras How is this any violation?
Not a bad idea per se--who wants speeders to get away with it-- except they can be used as part of a larger network to track your movements-- and more importantly-- this morning *every single person (several hundred) was speeding by at least 5 mph. The cameras could get ugly legally very fast.
* Red Light Cameras How is this any violation? The only issue i see is general movement tracking. People who run red lights are saying a minute of their time is more important than another person's life. Since right turn on red's are allowed, you can avoid a stuck light by making a right, then a u-turn.
* Cameras in the classrooms of elementary schools I've not heard of this and I'd need to see details before I form an opinion. I'm for this to protect everyone involved. Just like we need 24/7 cameras in police cars. They protect teachers-- and policemen-- from false accusations. And they catch teachers and policemen who are problems. However- the problem (again) is that teachers and policemen probably have a lot of little violations which become a problem with 100% enforcement. For example, it turns out... policemen run a LOT of red lights when they are not on a call. They don't blow through them- they pull up- decide they don't want to wait and then run the red- treating it like a stop sign. My city initially said "if you are not on a call, you pay the $75 fine out of your paycheck. But after a year, you no longer hear about it so I suspect the city is ignoring these infractions.
--
The reason for the second amendment is so we can resist tyranny. Thomas Jefferson expected the government to be changed more often-- it's the only way to stop the buildup of power. Right now, the u.s. is heading into both an aristocracy and an oligarchy. With a strong helping of facism throne in.
Good point except that I've never had.PHP fail and I've never had a site where Firefox was required. (tho I've had sites I considered too dangerous to visit without Firefox).
Only sites with.ASP break. It happens frequently.
I get the point you are trying to make- but my user experience is that "ASP in the link == IE Required".
In this area, I'm a user. It should *just work*. If it doesn't- Microsoft made it too hard (possibly on purpose) to be automatic for ASP programmers.
From what you are saying, I can't fix the problem anyway- some unknown programmers have to change something on the site.
The sites work in IE but do not work with other browsers. The link says ".asp".
I don't care that it isn't part of the browser-- it only works with IE so I must use IE if I want to purchase boardgames from that site. Because they are using ASP, they've lost my business when they lacked a significant price advantage. I'll load up IE if they are $5+ cheaper tho.
I think they are a classic skinner box type training.
Every time you ask for sex, you had a good chance of being rejected so you ask less over time and have less interest and desire to avoid the pain of rejection.
I say this because I was in a long relationship with a lady where six times a month we got together and it was always a "sure thing" and the sex got better over time -- just walking in the door we would both be ready and we felt "safe" that it was going to happen and we were not going to be rejected. Other times were a "sure thing" that nothing would happen and that also felt safe and relaxed in a different way. People talk about liking spontaneity but it brings with it a risk of rejection and the subsequent ego hit.
I could ask him/her, but I have a 75% chance of rejection-- never mind. besides he/she rejected me and made me feel unattractive last time I asked.
OTH, a lot of affairs are smoking hot because-- the people know they are getting together for hot sex (tm).
Plus, then there are the bonus rejections for "I don't want to have sex because you didn't take out the garbage", "I don't want to have sex because my boss chewed me out and I'm worried about getting fired", "I don't want to have sex because you embarrassed me in front of the Jones."
---
As far as the watchmen went-- I felt the violence was beyond the book. And even where it was the same, it seemed more extreme because you could hear it and see it at the same time.
I think the watchmen was ruined by lacking a good soundtrack. It had a good score, but the soundtrack was weak and, at times, misleading. A good sound track cues your emotions appropriately for what is on the screen. The watchman soundtrack failed in that regard.
Until two years ago, we had to wear dress shirts at work (in 95 degree weather at lunch) because of some ancient guy. The second he retired, polo shirts were finally allowed.
Sexual and racial attitudes have a very sharp line generationally currently at about the top of the baby boomer age.
Violence is a different thing-- since we grew up with it- it's cool at all age levels.
But, considering it- you do have a point, there was a ton of nudity in the 70's in films (including full frontal) that no longer happens.
but notice how the courts supported the large corporations in both cases.
I'm not sure if it is because they just support corporations (and want campaign donations in some cases- or invites to cool parties at the country club in others) or if wealthy corporations have more money so they get more (as in entire legal teams- not just one lawyer) of better (more researchers, more experts, experts willing to basically perjure themselves) which also says our "justice" system is really about money-- where a lady who pirates 24 songs is fined 1.8 million and a rich man who murders someone serves 24 days in jail.
It will be interesting to see how the justice system holds that both an I.P. address uniquely identifies a person and does not uniquely identify a person.
If you ever get on a jury, remember your right to jury nullification and remember to NOT tell any of the other juries about it (or answer the innappropriate lawyer questions designed to strike you from the jury).
You could be the tech guy they need while they cut "mid management" to save money.
I quit being a tech guy because after chemo, it hurt my hands all the time because of the nerve damage.
OTH, over the years, I've seen tech people cut and replaced with cheaper idiots (often after a request to "document everything you do"). OTH, I've seen people who documented everything (including myself) promoted.
It's a gamble.
Spend less than you make, and work at something you enjoy. I love helping people and tolerate/enjoy grinding process. I came to dislike "spend all your time learning, use it 2 years, then it's obsolete so do it all over again for a new skill".
How do I duplicate noscript and flashblock in IE8?
There was one response-- for noscript, I have to approve/disapprove every single time a javascript executes (I can't whitelist and blacklist sites). No response for flash. No response for my follow question about blocking ads (outside of doing wierd things with the host file).
So... How do I whitelist and blacklist individual scripts, or by web site directory, or by web site domain, scripts, ads, and flashes while retaining the ability to execute them individually if I want to?
I still have to use IE occasionally -- but I only do so for sites I know are safe (some at work, and a company I do business with) and only because they *ONLY* support ASP. (which may be costing them more and more business if these trends hold-- all for a flashy shimmery ASP button at one site).
The perception of myself (and finally! lately!) my non-technical friends...
is that using IE a) has a ton of obnoxious ads- some are loud- some take over the screen. b) is like walking around with a huge "kick me" sign on. c) is frustrating because of the lack of many useful plugins (where would I get all these glorious HD Videos-- FINALLY "Blues Travellor" without firefox). d) is frustrating because "they" own your browser-- not you. It's behavior serves "them", not you.
But mainly the virus/kick me thing.
After my bud clicked on a link (just a frikkin link!) on the yahoo message boards, he had to reinstall his entire computer!?!?!
With Firefox, Flashblock and Noscript- you are pretty darn safe.
Chrome got a lot of press- and to be honest, I've been looking at Safari myself. (once you break yourself of IE, you ask-- okay, but is there something else EVEN better than this?)
Individual skill is low-- but one idiot can wipe the raid. So you have to either fire them, or find a way to deal with them. If they are your only "essential class X", then it's harder.
2 years of leading a 120 person EQ guild, prepared me well for my supervisor job.
Having been in guilds from #40 to #3, it is my opinion that the primary factor is time spent on the game.
If time were limited, skill would matter more because efficiency would matter.
However, the ability to play 24x7 after a new expansion and rapidly max levels, the ability to generally play 12 hours a day, the ability to afford multiple accounts and multiple computers to multi-box is important.
And, based on what I've seen at the highest level- the willingness to cheat in various ways is a big factor.
Key example- a guy we all thought had incredible skills (so good it was like he had eyes in the back of his head!) turned out to be using a cheater program that gave a top down view of the world (so he could see things happening behind him, and see if certain creatures were up at all, and if they had certain types of treasure. So he was skilled in the way most recent baseball players are.
The problem is that the designers balance the game based on the leading guilds, many of whom are the worst abusers when it comes to cheat programs.
When I started my second mmorg, I dropped the naive attitude and stayed at the leading edge until I left the game.
These days, can't play any mmorg- wrists messed up by tradeskilling (because I didn't use cheater programs btw...)
Hopefully someday they will fix my wrists, or come out with a non-typing/mousing interface (direct brain like NIA only works well/easy?). And I'll be retired-- so I can play it a lot.
--- If they wanted to really fix most of these games, they'd cap a lot of things where time provides an example-- for example. make the new expansion have 5 levels- but then cap people at a max of +1 level per month. That balances the 80 hour a month person against the 480 hour a month person.
--- Oh... funny side story-- a friend of mine was saying a recent book on her kindle related how a person was an expert at MMORG's because they had played... 340 hours! (omgodz!) in the last year. My toon had over 500 days played and i was a part timer compared to many.
From the article it seemed like he teleported opponents more than once to get them to the guard area. Am I mistaken? Did he really just sit close to his spawn end? If so- why couldn't people avoid him by playing in other areas of the zone? What is the reuse/reset time on the teleport ability? Could he use it to "fish" someone in multiple hops to the guards? (In EQ, I had a "push/root" ability with a fast reset that I could push things just about anywhere given enough time).
There are lots of comments about folks "sitting around chatting"-- was there no safe area to do that in or are folks making that up/overemphasizing it? Why do you think the developers never reacted?
Correction noted-- I often fire fast and loose on slashdot which can lead to frequent errors.
On rereading the article, I still get the impression that it was not as simple as "stand at point B and teleport them to guards at point C" but that he moved them more than once and they could not easily avoid this by just staying away from the hero zone-in area. The way I read it, he teleported them more than one time with the last teleport being on top of the guards.
The level of irritation he himself relates exceeds mere whining in my opinion. The comments by players on his own side indicate extreme abuse and obvious lack of good sportsmanship by him. Perhaps young folks having grown up on basketball ("What does it mean when I just fouled the hell out of someone? It means I have more fouls left to do the same!") and baseball ("Steroids aren't cheating-- everyone does it") don't "get" or understand how fun it was play games with good sportsmanship and unwritten rules. Ultimate Frisbee is a good example of this-- and the sportsmanship is on the decline in that game in a similar fashion- the game played today is nothing like it was back in the 1980's.
I've seen this before in games, and frequently the result is the death of the game when the issue isn't addressed by the referees. No fixed set of rules can deal with humans (we are very creative).
Since the referees never stepped in given massive player annoyance, I assume they were happy with the results or were idiots or clueless (or all three).
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft products are subject to forced obsolescence. There are many good examples of this so "renting" is correct. Owning microsoft products today ensures that you will have to purchase more microsoft products tomorrow. Future hardware iterations will not support older OS's - first not well, then not at all due to lack of driver support.
The rest of the post is a real experience along with a fix for the problem. I can't see why that pisses you off so much. Someone pee in your coffee this morning?
In this economy, our company considers a lot of things but then when real $$$ appear, they are inevitably pushed off.
We have an enterprise license from Microsoft so it isn't the cost of the software (about the same if we have XP on all machines or win 7).
The main issue would be new machines (I just got a new one last year before everything went to crap in the economy) which they have extended from a 3 year to a 4 year window.
Then it would be confirming all our old custom software works correctly.
I'm certain we'll go to windows 7-- it just may be 3 years from now (so 2012? 2013?)
I would have to disagree.
Like the PP, I found openoffice good with a small learning curve while Word 2007 has such a huge learning curve that there are still tasks I haven't figured out how to do yet (and probably a dozen in the last week regarding tables).
Add to that, failure to print word 2003 documents (Hangs on page 2)-- that didn't clear up until they completely reinstalled the O/S and all printer drives. Then it still did it on some other documents-- turned out some tables at 100.7% was the cause. First they were 100% in word 2003, and second, when I set them to 101% in word 2003 on purpose, it printed them fine. So word 2007 incorrectly converted them and then crashed on them (I'm sharing this so folks can fix the problem).
Do you want to rent Word the rest of your life, or own Openoffice?
For a lot of folks, renting is fine.
Yes,
But you are getting old and are going to die and you probably have no intention of buying a new version of Word since you are happy with the current one.
New users will see a wierdly arcane program or an easy to use (for a novice) program.
Think of these versions of word as targeted to naive users.
---
What I can't see is how they intend to compete with free (Openoffice) when we have 25% real unemployment and no growth in sales for the rest- with the corrupted financial industry pillaging and looting heavily from the 75% that are still producing.
Apparently I can hate you because your hair is red, but I can't ever say print or publish that I hate you because your hair is red. I may or may not be able to say it verbally.
Or it may be that to cross the line, I need to say something like 'People with red hair are worthy of being hated!"
Whatever the case may be, despite the fact I think these two are idiots, it's a clear case of freedom of speech.
I do know that in Europe, due to historical reasons, racial hatred is a lot less acceptable than it is elsewhere.
It does seem like political persecution too. But I guess you can't be british and get U.S. help from political persecution.
(It's not a white thing- the U.S. gives asylum to lots of whites from other countries but I imagine we do not want to embarrass the british).
I remember more civilized times when we let you say your peace, and then discretely beat you up and ran you out of town on a rail (painful) while covered with hot tar and feathers. But by gum, you were free to speak freely.
Yes, I know about NLP and neg hits.
I'm a 6'5" ultimate frisbe playing, two to four times a week gym workouting, college educated, successful professional who was also a licensed massage therapist for a decade.
But... down at heart, I'm still a DnD playing, Boardgame paying, Science Fiction reading nerd.
I would find a full time relationship with a non-gaming hotty to be stifling.
That's because scorching hot females who like sex move to places like hollywood or palm beach or even go into business in some way (even if it is only as a vegas show girl). And if you happen to hook up with them, they are likely to sleep around on you ( and not just women- attractive men also sleep around a lot ). Hot women have different expectations of life-- just like people who are born and grow up rich.
They also have pretty severe defense mechanisms having been hit on and flattered since they were 13 by everyone. Meanwhile, the more normal females who didn't get as much flattery are still open to it. In a way, being pretty sucks because they have trouble accepting compliments.
Never got that lucky (or unlucky?) until I was in my late 30's. And then I hooked up with a hotty who later turned out to have been a stripper back in her 20s and tho it was incredibly fun for 10 years, it ended as horrifically as you can imagine (maybe more so). Before then, I'd have a decently average hot high school sweetheart (so I missed the whole bar scene/college party scene) and then a nicely hot dancing lady who was really sweet but had terminal religious problems with me (I'm not religious-- sometimes it would be easier if I was).
One of the fundamental concepts of american government was that, worst case, we would be able to replace it.
Let's look at this (in a different order):
* Neighborhood Cameras (ala UK)
How is this any violation? It's not really implemented en mass in the US... but I don't think there is any reason why it couldn't be.
With these in place, your ability to act against the government is severely reduced. They can record and analyze every move you make. If anyone is shown to be against the government, they can tie you to every person you know. If we get into a Chilean situation, that just means you all disappear.
* Automated Speed Cameras
How is this any violation?
Not a bad idea per se--who wants speeders to get away with it-- except they can be used as part of a larger network to track your movements-- and more importantly-- this morning *every single person (several hundred) was speeding by at least 5 mph. The cameras could get ugly legally very fast.
* Red Light Cameras
How is this any violation?
The only issue i see is general movement tracking. People who run red lights are saying a minute of their time is more important than another person's life. Since right turn on red's are allowed, you can avoid a stuck light by making a right, then a u-turn.
* Cameras in the classrooms of elementary schools
I've not heard of this and I'd need to see details before I form an opinion.
I'm for this to protect everyone involved. Just like we need 24/7 cameras in police cars.
They protect teachers-- and policemen-- from false accusations. And they catch teachers and policemen who are problems.
However- the problem (again) is that teachers and policemen probably have a lot of little violations which become a problem with 100% enforcement. For example, it turns out... policemen run a LOT of red lights when they are not on a call. They don't blow through them- they pull up- decide they don't want to wait and then run the red- treating it like a stop sign.
My city initially said "if you are not on a call, you pay the $75 fine out of your paycheck. But after a year, you no longer hear about it so I suspect the city is ignoring these infractions.
--
The reason for the second amendment is so we can resist tyranny. Thomas Jefferson expected the government to be changed more often-- it's the only way to stop the buildup of power.
Right now, the u.s. is heading into both an aristocracy and an oligarchy. With a strong helping of facism throne in.
Good point except that I've never had .PHP fail and I've never had a site where Firefox was required. (tho I've had sites I considered too dangerous to visit without Firefox).
Only sites with .ASP break. It happens frequently.
I get the point you are trying to make- but my user experience is that "ASP in the link == IE Required".
In this area, I'm a user. It should *just work*. If it doesn't- Microsoft made it too hard (possibly on purpose) to be automatic for ASP programmers.
From what you are saying, I can't fix the problem anyway- some unknown programmers have to change something on the site.
The sites work in IE but do not work with other browsers.
The link says ".asp".
I don't care that it isn't part of the browser-- it only works with IE so I must use IE if I want to purchase boardgames from that site.
Because they are using ASP, they've lost my business when they lacked a significant price advantage. I'll load up IE if they are $5+ cheaper tho.
I have a different theory on old married couples.
I think they are a classic skinner box type training.
Every time you ask for sex, you had a good chance of being rejected so you ask less over time and have less interest and desire to avoid the pain of rejection.
I say this because I was in a long relationship with a lady where six times a month we got together and it was always a "sure thing" and the sex got better over time -- just walking in the door we would both be ready and we felt "safe" that it was going to happen and we were not going to be rejected. Other times were a "sure thing" that nothing would happen and that also felt safe and relaxed in a different way. People talk about liking spontaneity but it brings with it a risk of rejection and the subsequent ego hit.
I could ask him/her, but I have a 75% chance of rejection-- never mind. besides he/she rejected me and made me feel unattractive last time I asked.
OTH, a lot of affairs are smoking hot because-- the people know they are getting together for hot sex (tm).
Plus, then there are the bonus rejections for "I don't want to have sex because you didn't take out the garbage", "I don't want to have sex because my boss chewed me out and I'm worried about getting fired", "I don't want to have sex because you embarrassed me in front of the Jones."
---
As far as the watchmen went-- I felt the violence was beyond the book. And even where it was the same, it seemed more extreme because you could hear it and see it at the same time.
I think the watchmen was ruined by lacking a good soundtrack. It had a good score, but the soundtrack was weak and, at times, misleading. A good sound track cues your emotions appropriately for what is on the screen. The watchman soundtrack failed in that regard.
Actually, the problem generation is 65+.
Until two years ago, we had to wear dress shirts at work (in 95 degree weather at lunch) because of some ancient guy. The second he retired, polo shirts were finally allowed.
Sexual and racial attitudes have a very sharp line generationally currently at about the top of the baby boomer age.
Violence is a different thing-- since we grew up with it- it's cool at all age levels.
But, considering it- you do have a point, there was a ton of nudity in the 70's in films (including full frontal) that no longer happens.
but notice how the courts supported the large corporations in both cases.
I'm not sure if it is because they just support corporations (and want campaign donations in some cases- or invites to cool parties at the country club in others) or if wealthy corporations have more money so they get more (as in entire legal teams- not just one lawyer) of better (more researchers, more experts, experts willing to basically perjure themselves) which also says our "justice" system is really about money-- where a lady who pirates 24 songs is fined 1.8 million and a rich man who murders someone serves 24 days in jail.
It will be interesting to see how the justice system holds that both an I.P. address uniquely identifies a person and does not uniquely identify a person.
If you ever get on a jury, remember your right to jury nullification and remember to NOT tell any of the other juries about it (or answer the innappropriate lawyer questions designed to strike you from the jury).
You could be the tech guy they need while they cut "mid management" to save money.
I quit being a tech guy because after chemo, it hurt my hands all the time because of the nerve damage.
OTH, over the years, I've seen tech people cut and replaced with cheaper idiots (often after a request to "document everything you do").
OTH, I've seen people who documented everything (including myself) promoted.
It's a gamble.
Spend less than you make, and work at something you enjoy. I love helping people and tolerate/enjoy grinding process. I came to dislike "spend all your time learning, use it 2 years, then it's obsolete so do it all over again for a new skill".
I'll bite.
I asked in another thread (no snarkiness)
How do I duplicate noscript and flashblock in IE8?
There was one response-- for noscript, I have to approve/disapprove every single time a javascript executes (I can't whitelist and blacklist sites).
No response for flash.
No response for my follow question about blocking ads (outside of doing wierd things with the host file).
So...
How do I whitelist and blacklist individual scripts, or by web site directory, or by web site domain, scripts, ads, and flashes while retaining the ability to execute them individually if I want to?
I still have to use IE occasionally -- but I only do so for sites I know are safe (some at work, and a company I do business with) and only because they *ONLY* support ASP. (which may be costing them more and more business if these trends hold-- all for a flashy shimmery ASP button at one site).
The perception of myself (and finally! lately!) my non-technical friends...
is that using IE
a) has a ton of obnoxious ads- some are loud- some take over the screen.
b) is like walking around with a huge "kick me" sign on.
c) is frustrating because of the lack of many useful plugins (where would I get all these glorious HD Videos-- FINALLY "Blues Travellor" without firefox).
d) is frustrating because "they" own your browser-- not you. It's behavior serves "them", not you.
But mainly the virus/kick me thing.
After my bud clicked on a link (just a frikkin link!) on the yahoo message boards, he had to reinstall his entire computer!?!?!
With Firefox, Flashblock and Noscript- you are pretty darn safe.
Chrome got a lot of press- and to be honest, I've been looking at Safari myself. (once you break yourself of IE, you ask-- okay, but is there something else EVEN better than this?)
Raiding takes political and logistical skill.
Individual skill is low-- but one idiot can wipe the raid. So you have to either fire them, or find a way to deal with them. If they are your only "essential class X", then it's harder.
2 years of leading a 120 person EQ guild, prepared me well for my supervisor job.
Though this policy reflects a somewhat "hands-off" approach, the GM staff will intervene in cases of extreme or excessive harassment.
I'd say "sneaking a high level character to the opposing newbie area and then killing newbies as they spawned... for hours" would qualify personally.
A friend of mine's son was banned for doing something like that in WoW.
No so much "get it right" as "another less commonly version of the quote goes this way:".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades,_master_of_none
Having been in guilds from #40 to #3, it is my opinion that the primary factor is time spent on the game.
If time were limited, skill would matter more because efficiency would matter.
However, the ability to play 24x7 after a new expansion and rapidly max levels, the ability to generally play 12 hours a day, the ability to afford multiple accounts and multiple computers to multi-box is important.
And, based on what I've seen at the highest level- the willingness to cheat in various ways is a big factor.
Key example- a guy we all thought had incredible skills (so good it was like he had eyes in the back of his head!) turned out to be using a cheater program that gave a top down view of the world (so he could see things happening behind him, and see if certain creatures were up at all, and if they had certain types of treasure. So he was skilled in the way most recent baseball players are.
The problem is that the designers balance the game based on the leading guilds, many of whom are the worst abusers when it comes to cheat programs.
When I started my second mmorg, I dropped the naive attitude and stayed at the leading edge until I left the game.
These days, can't play any mmorg- wrists messed up by tradeskilling (because I didn't use cheater programs btw...)
Hopefully someday they will fix my wrists, or come out with a non-typing/mousing interface (direct brain like NIA only works well/easy?). And I'll be retired-- so I can play it a lot.
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If they wanted to really fix most of these games, they'd cap a lot of things where time provides an example-- for example. make the new expansion have 5 levels- but then cap people at a max of +1 level per month. That balances the 80 hour a month person against the 480 hour a month person.
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Oh... funny side story-- a friend of mine was saying a recent book on her kindle related how a person was an expert at MMORG's because they had played... 340 hours! (omgodz!) in the last year. My toon had over 500 days played and i was a part timer compared to many.
I was wondering about that myself.
I thought researchers couldn't do experiments on people (especially with negative consequences) without their written consent.
From the article it seemed like he teleported opponents more than once to get them to the guard area.
Am I mistaken? Did he really just sit close to his spawn end? If so- why couldn't people avoid him by playing in other areas of the zone?
What is the reuse/reset time on the teleport ability? Could he use it to "fish" someone in multiple hops to the guards? (In EQ, I had a "push/root" ability with a fast reset that I could push things just about anywhere given enough time).
There are lots of comments about folks "sitting around chatting"-- was there no safe area to do that in or are folks making that up/overemphasizing it?
Why do you think the developers never reacted?
Correction noted-- I often fire fast and loose on slashdot which can lead to frequent errors.
On rereading the article, I still get the impression that it was not as simple as "stand at point B and teleport them to guards at point C" but that he moved them more than once and they could not easily avoid this by just staying away from the hero zone-in area. The way I read it, he teleported them more than one time with the last teleport being on top of the guards.
The level of irritation he himself relates exceeds mere whining in my opinion. The comments by players on his own side indicate extreme abuse and obvious lack of good sportsmanship by him.
Perhaps young folks having grown up on basketball ("What does it mean when I just fouled the hell out of someone? It means I have more fouls left to do the same!") and baseball ("Steroids aren't cheating-- everyone does it") don't "get" or understand how fun it was play games with good sportsmanship and unwritten rules. Ultimate Frisbee is a good example of this-- and the sportsmanship is on the decline in that game in a similar fashion- the game played today is nothing like it was back in the 1980's.
I've seen this before in games, and frequently the result is the death of the game when the issue isn't addressed by the referees. No fixed set of rules can deal with humans (we are very creative).
Since the referees never stepped in given massive player annoyance, I assume they were happy with the results or were idiots or clueless (or all three).
Now now -- porn would be easy-- that one clear perfect frame in an regular movie or sometimes even TV is the hard part.
A friend's boss actually said that to her after she worked so much over time for 2 months to get a major project in that she got sick.
"So... what have you done for me lately?"
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With regard to your comment tho-- I don't suppose you never heard of the phrase, "Jack of All Trades, Master of None".
I use VLC-- because it's awesome and focused.
I used to use WinAMP but it became very difuse (and confusing).
I sincerely hope when they "finish" VLC that they will *STOP* instead of continuing onward and making a bloated mess of it.