Read the fine print, lately? Pretty sure they only guarantee best effort for speed and that they will not limit the amount you download. I predict "budget ISP"s in the future which do limit transfer rate, transfer totals and ports.
If I buy a game on CD, and it has a singleplayer mode, I should not require an internet connection at all, for any reason. If I download a game from the web, it should not require an internet connection after the download. Multiplayer gaming requires a connection by default, and can use online connection when users log in to play. Subscription based games require no authentication beyond logging in since their money comes from the subscription.
I also appreciate online updates, as long as they can be configured to be "upon request" and not automatic.
If we buy these products with all these elaborate copy protection schemes that break the game and even our OS, then we are to blame for encouraging these schemes.
One time authentication by email would be a good method. Have a key generator on your computer that generates a key based on your computer's SID. Email that key to publisher. They create a matching key and send it back. It's good on your computer until your SID changes.
Worse still is that the link for a replacement that they're comparing to is a brand new cutting edge laptop with a 128GB SSD.
To state it simply, the best way to phrase the question is, "Is it worth it to upgrade a 5 year old laptop for $125 a level equivalent to a $350 bargain laptop?" References to current value of 5 year old laptop (basically salvage value) and to top-of-the-line current laptops are extraneous and misleading. I thought this was/. not digg.
You do NOT have to buy certificates. Many ways you can generate your own.
Generating the cert pairs can be done with free software, or software you already own. GPG (free version of PGP) comes to mind. If you want to set up a Certificate Authority (certificate issuing server), the capability was built into Win2k server, probably is on Win2k3, and I can't imagine *nix servers not having the capability.
Storing public keys can be done through any commonly acessible file storage medium. There are public repositories which can be used freely, and even have certificate revocation abilities.
python and variants are often used on the server side of multiplayer games
EVE-Online (mentioned on the list) has a linux client available. Their server is a massive, record setting, cluster, built by IBM but it runs
drumroll
Windows!!!!
Python is a scripting language, and useful in playing out the story. The main issue in making games cross-platform is the graphics. Specifically, how the operating system connects to the graphics cards.
DirectX, for all its flaws, allows game developers a standard API on which to develop their games. Until we have a cross platform API, we won't see truly portable games.
Your connection is sold to you with a "bandwidth". Say an cable connection with 6 Mbps speed. That is a cap. And not even guaranteed. With US providers you'll probably get somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 Mbps, depending how many others are on the wire with you and how many and how clean the connections between you and the ISP.
Your connection may or may not have a throughput limit. Unlimited throughput means the number of bytes you can download is not limited. In some places, there are limitations. Typically the ISP's that limit throughput also offer the possiblilty to purchase more.
If everyone that accessed UseNet just switches to a pay for use news site theres no change in bandwidth... You still download it? They just save on hardware. Subscription fees. Oh, and the tiny little (read as "more than you might think") bandwidth and hard drive storage they use to download their local copy.
Even worse than that, it costs them MORE bandwidth this way.
Keep in mind, most ISPs only pay the big bucks for their internet connectivity. The network between them and you (and all their customers) is MUCH cheaper, measured only in maintenance costs. The internet lines have the same maintenance cost, plus bandwidth costs, on top of base charges.
Before, they transfered all of the news articles Once, using internet bandwidth once, from their upstream new servers to their own. Customers could get these all from their news server, which can happen by any number of customers any number of times and there is no extra bandwidth fees to the ISP.
Now, all of their users will be transferring news articles from the internet to them, each one taking their share of bandwidth from the internet pipes. Ironically enough, it would depend how much usage their feed actually sees. If they have an average of 1000 people downloading the alt.bin.* groups, and a large portion of what they (the ISP) subscribes to goes untouched, or is only read by a couple of people, then that balance will probably be more expensive. Trust me, they've done the math. Keep in mind that if they feed it in once and out 1000 times costs them the same as a single download direct to a customer. It really depends on the balance. If the average usage per message is > 1 (feed out / feed in) then the throughput the ISP pays for will increase with this move. If however, it is 1, they will see a throughput benefit.
Considering that their feeds in are probably set up to take advantage of lulls in usage, and that they probably mapped out their customers' usage of the newsgroups vs overall usage, lets just say that I bet they've done their math. If they have 10 million customers and they lose 10,000, then I'm sure that a 1% loss in revenue to save 3% in costs is a net gain.
Rivets are used extensively to fasten two pieces of metal when the strength, time, and expense of welding are not needed. Rivets are faster than welds and require no cooling time, whether done manually or robotically.
Look inside your computer case. If the cage is welded vice riveted I'll buy you lunch.
The digital designs, found in heavily encrypted computer files in Switzerland, are believed to be in the possession of the US authorities and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, but investigators fear they could have been extensively copied and sold to 'rogue' states via the nuclear black market. US Authorities and heavily encrypted in the same sentence.
Honestly, I think complete designs are probably available out there from U.S., Soviet, and Chinese sources. The main problem with building nuclear devices is getting weapons grade materials.
But you gotta know that the guys in black are sitting around saying, "THAT is why we wanted to control encryption."
Convertibles have had problems with people cutting the top since they started having ragtops.
Modern convertible tops are very difficult to cut. I'd imagine that a production version would be at least as resilient. However, when you RTFA you'll find that you won't be driving this car. It's a one-off concept bound directly for the museum.
The US should adopt the European model. You purchase the hardware and then use the SIM chip from your provider. Don't get me wrong, if the service providers want to provide a phone free with a contract, they should do so. But it would be nice if they would all recognize our right to OWN our hardware and choose the provider we wish. Just like you do with land line, cable and internet.
Solar. Wind. Hydroelectric. Geothermal. Four other choices. These are available but do not produce the sheer quantity of energy as a nuclear reactor. Fusion will, theoretically, but it is stil in the theory stages.
Though you are right, the economical, low carbon emission choice in practice now is nuclear.
If someone knows they are genetically disposed to malady "x", there is now a law which guarantees that they can get insurance coverage at the same price as someone who is at less risk. Umm, not quite right. The government cannot and should not tell companies how to price their products. I'm not even sure that they should be allowed to set up a law that "prevents" discrimination. Personally, I believe that insurance companies should not be allowed to use genetic profiling to determine premium costs and/or insurance eligibility, UNTIL there are gene therapies that will allow us to cure maladies.
Bottom line is that by the time the insurance companies go through the process of complying with new legislation, all it will mean is increased cost for everyone. And if you think your genetic disposition to malady x will not result in higher premiums, I got this 'ere bridge. Barely used...
Use whichever OS you like. Use whatever OS does what you need.
Does slashdot have a way to filter out any article that mentions MS, MAC and Linux? Seems that any article that mentions all three probably isn't worth wading through the comments.
This should be a POLICY issue not a LEGISLATIVE one. They should make it policy only to use open formats. And worry about the format becoming outdated is hogwash. If you want to open a Microsoft Word document written 20 years ago, simply crank up Word 2007 and open it. Open Office will open current versions (at least up to 2003) of MS's formats as well. I do not know how far they go back, but I'm sure future editions will at least open stuff from today.
I look forward to an open, non-proprietary standard for all data types. In the same vein as Text files and.csv files but extended to include text, spreadsheet, database, web graphics, desktop publishing, and even non-editable files (.pdf).
I regularly use Microsoft's.pdf competitors, but there's simply too many different versions right now..pdf,.xps,.mdi, etc.
In the end, this will all be determined by the 'office' wars. Which may depend on the 'OS' Wars. I.e. if Linux or Mac leapfrogs and becomes the majority desktop platform, whatever office suite works best on that platform will probably be the one whose format becomes most-used.
Bottom line: Who cares? There's always conversion utilities.
Use strong encryption. Burn to physical media. Send via bonded courier. Send password via encrypted email, or via registered mail.
If you need frequent access from both ends, set up extranet with encrypted vpn with reasonable security on both ends. The data at rest should be encrypted with strong encryption and the password should change frequently ( 90 days). Access to the password and to the storage folder should be restricted.
Yeah, all you alarmists worried about 'one compromised computer' are right, but that threat exists no matter how you connect to transfer the data. The VPN doesn't answer this threat, it answers the threat of capture of data in transit.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is exactly the point. Ultimately parents are responsible for their children, and they should be held accountable.
Read the fine print, lately? Pretty sure they only guarantee best effort for speed and that they will not limit the amount you download. I predict "budget ISP"s in the future which do limit transfer rate, transfer totals and ports.
It's sensing movement. But instead of the movement of keys or the mouse, it senses movement of your head/face/ears, nose etc.
If I buy a game on CD, and it has a singleplayer mode, I should not require an internet connection at all, for any reason. If I download a game from the web, it should not require an internet connection after the download. Multiplayer gaming requires a connection by default, and can use online connection when users log in to play. Subscription based games require no authentication beyond logging in since their money comes from the subscription.
I also appreciate online updates, as long as they can be configured to be "upon request" and not automatic.
If we buy these products with all these elaborate copy protection schemes that break the game and even our OS, then we are to blame for encouraging these schemes.
One time authentication by email would be a good method. Have a key generator on your computer that generates a key based on your computer's SID. Email that key to publisher. They create a matching key and send it back. It's good on your computer until your SID changes.
Worse still is that the link for a replacement that they're comparing to is a brand new cutting edge laptop with a 128GB SSD.
To state it simply, the best way to phrase the question is, "Is it worth it to upgrade a 5 year old laptop for $125 a level equivalent to a $350 bargain laptop?" References to current value of 5 year old laptop (basically salvage value) and to top-of-the-line current laptops are extraneous and misleading. I thought this was /. not digg.
Search for PKI, GPG and PGP.
You do NOT have to buy certificates. Many ways you can generate your own.
Generating the cert pairs can be done with free software, or software you already own. GPG (free version of PGP) comes to mind. If you want to set up a Certificate Authority (certificate issuing server), the capability was built into Win2k server, probably is on Win2k3, and I can't imagine *nix servers not having the capability.
Storing public keys can be done through any commonly acessible file storage medium. There are public repositories which can be used freely, and even have certificate revocation abilities.
PKI
public key infrastructure
python and variants are often used on the server side of multiplayer games
EVE-Online (mentioned on the list) has a linux client available. Their server is a massive, record setting, cluster, built by IBM but it runs
drumroll
Windows!!!!
Python is a scripting language, and useful in playing out the story. The main issue in making games cross-platform is the graphics. Specifically, how the operating system connects to the graphics cards.
DirectX, for all its flaws, allows game developers a standard API on which to develop their games. Until we have a cross platform API, we won't see truly portable games.
The game has several phases, each one expanding on the previous phases. Creature, family, colony, planet, etc.
Stop confusing bandwidth with throughput.
Your connection is sold to you with a "bandwidth". Say an cable connection with 6 Mbps speed. That is a cap. And not even guaranteed. With US providers you'll probably get somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 Mbps, depending how many others are on the wire with you and how many and how clean the connections between you and the ISP.
Your connection may or may not have a throughput limit. Unlimited throughput means the number of bytes you can download is not limited. In some places, there are limitations. Typically the ISP's that limit throughput also offer the possiblilty to purchase more.
They just save on hardware. Subscription fees. Oh, and the tiny little (read as "more than you might think") bandwidth and hard drive storage they use to download their local copy. Even worse than that, it costs them MORE bandwidth this way.
Keep in mind, most ISPs only pay the big bucks for their internet connectivity. The network between them and you (and all their customers) is MUCH cheaper, measured only in maintenance costs. The internet lines have the same maintenance cost, plus bandwidth costs, on top of base charges.
Before, they transfered all of the news articles Once, using internet bandwidth once, from their upstream new servers to their own.
Customers could get these all from their news server, which can happen by any number of customers any number of times and there is no extra bandwidth fees to the ISP.
Now, all of their users will be transferring news articles from the internet to them, each one taking their share of bandwidth from the internet pipes. Ironically enough, it would depend how much usage their feed actually sees. If they have an average of 1000 people downloading the alt.bin.* groups, and a large portion of what they (the ISP) subscribes to goes untouched, or is only read by a couple of people, then that balance will probably be more expensive. Trust me, they've done the math. Keep in mind that if they feed it in once and out 1000 times costs them the same as a single download direct to a customer. It really depends on the balance. If the average usage per message is > 1 (feed out / feed in) then the throughput the ISP pays for will increase with this move. If however, it is 1, they will see a throughput benefit.
Considering that their feeds in are probably set up to take advantage of lulls in usage, and that they probably mapped out their customers' usage of the newsgroups vs overall usage, lets just say that I bet they've done their math. If they have 10 million customers and they lose 10,000, then I'm sure that a 1% loss in revenue to save 3% in costs is a net gain.
Trust me, Verizon's done the math.
Rivets are used extensively to fasten two pieces of metal when the strength, time, and expense of welding are not needed. Rivets are faster than welds and require no cooling time, whether done manually or robotically.
Look inside your computer case. If the cage is welded vice riveted I'll buy you lunch.
Honestly, I think complete designs are probably available out there from U.S., Soviet, and Chinese sources. The main problem with building nuclear devices is getting weapons grade materials.
But you gotta know that the guys in black are sitting around saying, "THAT is why we wanted to control encryption."
I think you mean convertible.
Convertibles have had problems with people cutting the top since they started having ragtops.
Modern convertible tops are very difficult to cut. I'd imagine that a production version would be at least as resilient. However, when you RTFA you'll find that you won't be driving this car. It's a one-off concept bound directly for the museum.
The car was built as an exercise in creativity.
Last week's measurements should be arriving any moment now.
Leave that cat out of this? Oh, that's right. The Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment is related to the same hypothesis.
Kind of like the chicken and the egg.
The US should adopt the European model. You purchase the hardware and then use the SIM chip from your provider. Don't get me wrong, if the service providers want to provide a phone free with a contract, they should do so. But it would be nice if they would all recognize our right to OWN our hardware and choose the provider we wish. Just like you do with land line, cable and internet.
Your statement needs qualifying.
Solar. Wind. Hydroelectric. Geothermal. Four other choices. These are available but do not produce the sheer quantity of energy as a nuclear reactor. Fusion will, theoretically, but it is stil in the theory stages.
Though you are right, the economical, low carbon emission choice in practice now is nuclear.
Bottom line is that by the time the insurance companies go through the process of complying with new legislation, all it will mean is increased cost for everyone. And if you think your genetic disposition to malady x will not result in higher premiums, I got this 'ere bridge. Barely used...
Use whichever OS you like. Use whatever OS does what you need.
Does slashdot have a way to filter out any article that mentions MS, MAC and Linux? Seems that any article that mentions all three probably isn't worth wading through the comments.
It's a saying from the South.
This should be a POLICY issue not a LEGISLATIVE one. They should make it policy only to use open formats. And worry about the format becoming outdated is hogwash. If you want to open a Microsoft Word document written 20 years ago, simply crank up Word 2007 and open it. Open Office will open current versions (at least up to 2003) of MS's formats as well. I do not know how far they go back, but I'm sure future editions will at least open stuff from today.
.csv files but extended to include text, spreadsheet, database, web graphics, desktop publishing, and even non-editable files (.pdf).
.pdf competitors, but there's simply too many different versions right now. .pdf, .xps, .mdi, etc.
I look forward to an open, non-proprietary standard for all data types. In the same vein as Text files and
I regularly use Microsoft's
In the end, this will all be determined by the 'office' wars. Which may depend on the 'OS' Wars. I.e. if Linux or Mac leapfrogs and becomes the majority desktop platform, whatever office suite works best on that platform will probably be the one whose format becomes most-used.
Bottom line: Who cares? There's always conversion utilities.
Use strong encryption.
Burn to physical media.
Send via bonded courier.
Send password via encrypted email, or via registered mail.
If you need frequent access from both ends, set up extranet with encrypted vpn with reasonable security on both ends. The data at rest should be encrypted with strong encryption and the password should change frequently ( 90 days). Access to the password and to the storage folder should be restricted.
Yeah, all you alarmists worried about 'one compromised computer' are right, but that threat exists no matter how you connect to transfer the data. The VPN doesn't answer this threat, it answers the threat of capture of data in transit.
So it would take 2000 computers to do this in about 2 weeks?