I can copy my ENTIRE steam directory over to another computer, and as long as I log in with the account that purchased the games, I can play them. That's pretty much perfect. No need to redownload the game, no need to re-authenticate, NADA.
If you buy digital distributions of games, there is NO GUARANTEE you're going to get all the latest and greatest updates. Take STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl. I got it from Direct 2 Drive. The digital distribution only has patches up to 1.0005, while all physical-disc installs can be patched up to 1.0006. This leaves me with absolutely NO WAY to join in on multiplayer games. I paid for the game, have a legit multiplayer key, and can't play online.
Off topic, just how the hell would I go about suing a game company based overseas?
"Is there any reason that shouldn't be software-controlled?"
I can think of one. Software can be infected with malicious code. I'd prefer pure hardware-logic control. A simple potentiometer that controls how much power a fan receives. I can control it myself, don't need to learn any special commands/controls/programming, and it just works.
Even if Nintendo had to stop, Mad Cats sure as hell hasn't. I just bought the wireless Gamecube controller and it works just fine for every GC game I play on the Wii
Come on, most hardware is pretty well-off against stuff as long as it's not in direct contact with water or as long as condensation doesn't form inside the case and shorts stuff out.
otherwise, heat's not a problem. I run an open case with a dual core X2 and a 9800 GTX+, 3+ TB of hard drives and a hotter than hell Rocketfish 700w PSU.
I don't encounter problems. The system never gets shut down, and it doesn't get ANYWHERE near as hot as my LCDTV.
1 GB miniSD card? I could care less about a CD if I get that, because once I make a few backup copies, I'll use the SD card for something else. I doubt the company's gonna give you the music on a re-writable optical disc.
I'd suggest that the powers-that-be at Slashdot confer with others at Digg, Fark, Reddit, etc. and convince them to post this story up as a front-page thing. The more attention it gets, the more pressure the RIAA is under, especially should such an outcry manage to start something as large-scale as Anon getting Palin's personal emails.
"Yeah, except there are also patents on glass pyramids that keep razors sharp"
Those would be design patents. I could patent a glass pyramid that kept razors sharp if I fundamentally changed the design so as to create a new function or capability - say put in some slots so you could just insert the knife into it like a knife block, draw it out and it auto-sharpens.
7Zip is the choice for emulation - many ROMS are exactly the same minus some minor code changes for region/language - 7Zip can see that and thus you have one standard ROM file and then a bunch of under a kilobyte copies that are nothing more than the actual ROM represented with a single character and then the extra code changes are untouched. It's quite neat, some emulators have 7Zip capability built-in so there's no need to extract multiple versions, you just open the 7-zip in the emulator itself and you get a menu allowing you to choose which version of the game to play.
Excessive? In a case like this the maximum is $500,000 per charge. Asking for half of that is not excessive, especially when it comes to the government stepping on a citizen's 1st Amendment rights.
HP won't reference it because it's not even in the technical manuals - when I ran across the MXM card for the first time it was in an NX9420/9440 and I was working as an HP laptop repair tech. I had just been moved over to the commercial line of laptops because I was too good to be used on a consumer end (I worked too fast.) After looking the card up in the parts database and realizing it was a swappable GPU I started looking up everything that I could - nobody actually advertises it, and you won't know if the laptop has an MXM slot unless you actually disassemble it or find someone that repairs laptops for a company, and ask them yourself.
As it is, any high-end commercial-line HP will come with an MXM slot - they're using Type III MXM slots now for the new 9800 mobile chipsets.
Business-class HP Laptops use an MXM slot for graphics. I think the NX9420 or newer model might be up your alley, although if you don't need the uber-shiny shit, you can do an NC6400 or some such with an earlier-gen MXM Type I slot.
As it is, most companies don't advertise that their laptops can be upgraded GPU-wise, because in order to do so you have to disassemble the laptop. Until they redesign it to where the common user can just pop the back open, remove the GPU heatpipe, switch cards, apply thermal paste in proper amounts, and properly re-mount the heatpipe, it's just not an advertising point.
That being said, Dell only did (upon research) an AGP-slot laptop. I had to call my friend to bring it over, and it was a custom job done for FullSail video school, a modified Inspiron 9800 with a full-sized 6800 AGP card inside, with VGA and DVI ports.
Looks like HP is the only laptop maker offering MXM slots, although Toshiba has something about upgradable graphics but it looks like mostly nonsense.
Windows is *NOT* a platform. A platform is the hardware architecture, OS, programming languages, runtime libraries, and on occasion a graphical user interface. Windows is only a PART of the platform.
LAPTOPS HAVE UPGRADABLE GRAPHICS - SEE THE MXM SLOT. Dell had a laptop YEARS AGO with a full-sized AGP slot in it for THIS VERY PURPOSE (Inspiron 9800 IIRC)
For crying out loud, drop this false and nonsensical notion that YOU CANNOT UPGRADE LAPTOP GRAPHICS. It's been false for YEARS.
Slashdot Mirror
What about those of us that paid for it online? We're not given an EULA stating that UNTIL we've paid for and started to install the game.
Steam is bloated DRM ware?
I can copy my ENTIRE steam directory over to another computer, and as long as I log in with the account that purchased the games, I can play them. That's pretty much perfect. No need to redownload the game, no need to re-authenticate, NADA.
According to the contract:
"In the case of a one-time purchase of a product license (e.g., purchase of a single game)"
They make it quite clear a sale is being made. The word "Purchase" makes that VERY CLEAR in legal terms.
If you buy digital distributions of games, there is NO GUARANTEE you're going to get all the latest and greatest updates. Take STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl. I got it from Direct 2 Drive. The digital distribution only has patches up to 1.0005, while all physical-disc installs can be patched up to 1.0006. This leaves me with absolutely NO WAY to join in on multiplayer games. I paid for the game, have a legit multiplayer key, and can't play online.
Off topic, just how the hell would I go about suing a game company based overseas?
What? A Mad Cats controller? All the ones I have still work, from my SNES turbo pad on up. I expect this one will do just as well.
Umm, I bet the hackers are using US-based proxies to hide the fact they're in another country - that's what SMART hackers do.
Which makes me wonder what kind of an assuming idiot you are.
"Is there any reason that shouldn't be software-controlled?"
I can think of one. Software can be infected with malicious code. I'd prefer pure hardware-logic control. A simple potentiometer that controls how much power a fan receives. I can control it myself, don't need to learn any special commands/controls/programming, and it just works.
I bet this does not take into account the use of proxy servers.
Even if Nintendo had to stop, Mad Cats sure as hell hasn't. I just bought the wireless Gamecube controller and it works just fine for every GC game I play on the Wii
Come on, most hardware is pretty well-off against stuff as long as it's not in direct contact with water or as long as condensation doesn't form inside the case and shorts stuff out.
otherwise, heat's not a problem. I run an open case with a dual core X2 and a 9800 GTX+, 3+ TB of hard drives and a hotter than hell Rocketfish 700w PSU.
I don't encounter problems. The system never gets shut down, and it doesn't get ANYWHERE near as hot as my LCDTV.
1 GB miniSD card? I could care less about a CD if I get that, because once I make a few backup copies, I'll use the SD card for something else. I doubt the company's gonna give you the music on a re-writable optical disc.
Let me give you one of the subject headlines form her email account - CONFIDENTIAL: Ethics issues.
Sounds a whole lot like government-attached work to me.
Methinks you're starting to see my point.
I'd suggest that the powers-that-be at Slashdot confer with others at Digg, Fark, Reddit, etc. and convince them to post this story up as a front-page thing. The more attention it gets, the more pressure the RIAA is under, especially should such an outcry manage to start something as large-scale as Anon getting Palin's personal emails.
AZTEC RACE? Dude, repeat after me - HUMAN RACE.
Mexican is an ETHNICITY. I don't see Homo mexicanus or Homo nigris in a taxonomy book, all I see is Homo sapiens.
That's why the word racist is used incorrectly.
Secret Service
"Yeah, except there are also patents on glass pyramids that keep razors sharp"
Those would be design patents. I could patent a glass pyramid that kept razors sharp if I fundamentally changed the design so as to create a new function or capability - say put in some slots so you could just insert the knife into it like a knife block, draw it out and it auto-sharpens.
7Zip is the choice for emulation - many ROMS are exactly the same minus some minor code changes for region/language - 7Zip can see that and thus you have one standard ROM file and then a bunch of under a kilobyte copies that are nothing more than the actual ROM represented with a single character and then the extra code changes are untouched. It's quite neat, some emulators have 7Zip capability built-in so there's no need to extract multiple versions, you just open the 7-zip in the emulator itself and you get a menu allowing you to choose which version of the game to play.
Excessive? In a case like this the maximum is $500,000 per charge. Asking for half of that is not excessive, especially when it comes to the government stepping on a citizen's 1st Amendment rights.
http://www.mxm-sig.org/
Companies that have adopted MXM are:
Dell
Acer
MSI
HP
And many more - just because MXM isn't stated doesn't mean it's not in use. I'll be willing to bet the high-end laptops all have MXM type-III slots
HP won't reference it because it's not even in the technical manuals - when I ran across the MXM card for the first time it was in an NX9420/9440 and I was working as an HP laptop repair tech. I had just been moved over to the commercial line of laptops because I was too good to be used on a consumer end (I worked too fast.) After looking the card up in the parts database and realizing it was a swappable GPU I started looking up everything that I could - nobody actually advertises it, and you won't know if the laptop has an MXM slot unless you actually disassemble it or find someone that repairs laptops for a company, and ask them yourself.
As it is, any high-end commercial-line HP will come with an MXM slot - they're using Type III MXM slots now for the new 9800 mobile chipsets.
Business-class HP Laptops use an MXM slot for graphics. I think the NX9420 or newer model might be up your alley, although if you don't need the uber-shiny shit, you can do an NC6400 or some such with an earlier-gen MXM Type I slot.
As it is, most companies don't advertise that their laptops can be upgraded GPU-wise, because in order to do so you have to disassemble the laptop. Until they redesign it to where the common user can just pop the back open, remove the GPU heatpipe, switch cards, apply thermal paste in proper amounts, and properly re-mount the heatpipe, it's just not an advertising point.
That being said, Dell only did (upon research) an AGP-slot laptop. I had to call my friend to bring it over, and it was a custom job done for FullSail video school, a modified Inspiron 9800 with a full-sized 6800 AGP card inside, with VGA and DVI ports.
Looks like HP is the only laptop maker offering MXM slots, although Toshiba has something about upgradable graphics but it looks like mostly nonsense.
Apparently you failed to read the post of MobyDisk to understand why I said what I said - here let me quote for your ignorant cowardly self:
"Really, what is silly is that laptops don't have upgradable graphics"
He is 100% wrong about that. And he doesn't say "*THESE* laptops don't have upgradable graphics" he says "ALL LAPTOPS don't have upgradable graphics."
Now STFU and get off my lawn.
Windows is *NOT* a platform. A platform is the hardware architecture, OS, programming languages, runtime libraries, and on occasion a graphical user interface. Windows is only a PART of the platform.
Who's the one brainlessly spouting stuff, again?
LAPTOPS HAVE UPGRADABLE GRAPHICS - SEE THE MXM SLOT. Dell had a laptop YEARS AGO with a full-sized AGP slot in it for THIS VERY PURPOSE (Inspiron 9800 IIRC)
For crying out loud, drop this false and nonsensical notion that YOU CANNOT UPGRADE LAPTOP GRAPHICS. It's been false for YEARS.