"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times; stop spouting your bullshit and RTFM!!!"
-- Cardinal Paul Poupard, denouncing Intelligent Design
You speak the truth, of course. Therefore, it's up to the individual to decide whether they trust the company enough to use their product. I trust Blizzard enough to play World of Warcraft feeling that my information is safe. Someone else might not though, but that's their problem.
This whole Warden business is an extremely slippery slope. Some people will slide down more than others. I can't say I blame them, but then again, when you consider that any and all software we download has the potential to steal sensitive information without our knowledge (anti-virus/firewall/automatic updates), can you really trust any piece of code? Hell, for all I know, Linux could collect information on who I am, where I live, how many times I've said "lol" and transmit that information to a central server where penguins will assess the information and decide on the best method to raid my home and take my things. I'm not about to go searching thru the source code either, because it'd be like finding a needle in a long, blocky, hard-to-read haystack. Will it stop me from using Linux though? Nah, not really.
I could draw parallels to the whole War on Terrorism keeping us all safe thing here, but I think it speaks for itself.
The main problem with that analogy is that terrorist actions typically aren't going to have any more of an impact on society than they did a decade ago, or the decade before that, or the decade before that, and so on.
With MMOs, however, actions such as hacking and gold farming are going to have far-reaching effects on everybody who plays the game. A number of people will shrug it off until they have to go buy something they want/need and find that the price has skyrocketed because Players X, Y, and Z used their hacking programs to gain large amounts of gold in a short amount of time while they were out getting wasted or working at their real jobs.
All of a sudden, the efforts of legitimate players are immediately trivialized because some loser with nothing better to do made a tool that does most of the work for him. The money that I pay every month to actually sit down and play the game isn't really worth as much as it was when I started, and tomorrow it's going to get even worse. And it's not like I can pick up and leave for another game, because the exact same shit is going to happen there, and there's nothing I can really do about it.
Then you have the losers who shell out large portions of their real-life income on in-game items and characters, then turn around and say "I don't have the time that others do, this is the only way I can enjoy the game." I call bullshit, on the grounds that by buying a max-level account, you've essentially skipped the game. It's like buying a movie you really wanted to see, then fast-forwarding thru the whole thing and watching the ending because the first 10 minutes were boring. Then you watch the ending and go "WTH? I don't get it. Why did that guy marry that chick?," without clueing in that you probably should've just waited it out so you knew what the hell was going on.
Now then, if Blizzard wants to do something to prevent these assholes from trivializing my gaming experience, then they're welcome to employ whatever methods are necessary to make them sit down and actually play the game instead of resorting to 3rd-party programs or eBay to get ahead. A game's a game, but you gotta play within the rules.
You can believe what you want about who created the world and what's in it. As a Christian, I know it was Jesus, but intelligent design doesn't require belief in Jesus. Students can make up their own minds or develop their own opinions about who they believe the "Creator" is. Intelligent design is not creationism or naturalism; it simply follows the empirical evidence of design wherever it leads.
Okay. So if I come up with the absurd notion that I will travel back in time in 20 years to create the universe using a thimble of Silly Putty, a corkscrew, and my mother's melon baller, not only am I NOT to be considered crazy, but I've actually got credibility because nobody can really prove that I didn't create the universe in a feat that would put to shame anything MacGuyver could do because to do so would require the as-of-yet-uninvented time machine that I will use to go back and create the universe.
'Cuz honestly, if what you say is true, then that means that, by creating Life, the Universe, and Everything, I am this "God" fellow you confide in every night before you masturba--er, love thyself. And I must say, what you humans have been doing for the last, well...ever since you existed pretty much...I'm not all that impressed.
I may be somewhat exaggerating, but the basic idea is that the U.S. holds all the cards (for now at least), and the other countries don't really have any recourse.
I dunno. If I were another country, I could, I don't know, take everything I've invested in the United States thusfar and send those resources elsewhere? Now sure, one country hardly matters, but imagine it's the whole European Union. Then Korea. Then Japan. China. Taiwan. The list goes on.
Despite what you may believe, America is only at the top because it stands on the shoulders of everybody else. Now, it worked to get there, and worked hard, but if it wants to stay at that point, it's gotta learn to be nicer to the other countries of the world, otherwise it'll get dropped, and then stare with envy as Canada or China or some other country is now number one.
Of course, that's only a guess as to what COULD happen...
You're all invited!
on
Email Turns 34
·
· Score: 5, Funny
E-mail is throwing a birthday party! It's next week, the same day as Spam.
Unfortunately, they agreed that Spam should send the invites. Expect them in your mailbox soon along with the free drugs and Nigerian relatives.
"Part of this is the fact that the movies may not have lived up to the expectations of the audience, not just in this year, but in years prior," said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
It would seem that Mr. Lynton is the first of many people in Hollywood to emerge from his cave after years of intense hibernation. Let's see what other obvious talking points he and others can come up with.
Who knows...maybe they'll start producing better movies now.........BWA HA HA HA HA!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA!! Oh man, I crack myself up...
Considering that it would probably have to be lethal in order to pierce the missile's chasis, I'd imagine that if a human were to be shot by it, being blinded would be the least of your concerns.
For example, you may not be able to see because you were blinded by the laser's light, but you may be more concerned as to the fate of your lower torso when that laser cut you in half.
That's coming when the next round of next-gen consoles makes their debut. I hear the Google console will demand that every launch title be integrated with the search engine for easy lookup of game walkthroughs and cheat codes, so it should make for some neat games in 2006.
Yet so driven has Google been in its pursuit of new markets that at least a few in Silicon Valley are using an epithet to taunt Google that people here once reserved for Microsoft: "The Borg," a reference to an army of creatures in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that took over civilization after civilization with machinelike precision.
I disagree. I think Microsoft earned their title, and I doubt it's gonna go away. I'd like to think that the Google invasion is going over more like the story in Doom3:
You are too late...Google no longer needs Internet Explorer! The innovation you saw was only the FIRST WAVE! The Google Browser is capable of sending MILLIONS of our ads into your world!
Soon, the folks from Slashdot will be here, and with their computers, we will BRING THIS HELL TO EARTH!
While your idea is sound in theory, how have you solved the problem of data loss from being eaten by marine life?
Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=51
Request eaten by trout.
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=51
Request eaten by salmon.
Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 0, Eaten = 2 (50% loss)
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
arising from the use of this software.
In other words, no documentation. Sucks, 'cuz they could probably use GPL Q3A as an excuse to create a new section to idDevNet.
I agree on OoT--for some reason, I didn't have nearly as much fun as I did compared to it's predecessors, or it's children. WindWaker was actually really fun to play, the best of the 3D Zeldas IMO, which is weird because it was probably the most tedious out of all of them; that ocean is HUGE, and getting all the Triforce shards is a chore I would not like to relive anytime soon.
I think that the best Zelda games by far have to be the Oracle series though. It's one of the few times I just kept playing and playing a Zelda game. They're the best.
Hopefully Twilight Princess will be decent, and won't have the tedium of WindWaker. I'll have to rent it when it comes out.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't believe you forgot about the dolphins so quickly! FOR SHAME!!!
By the way, they wanted to thank us for all the fish. ;)
Really? I'm Canadian, and Ajax is the next town over to me. ;)
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times; stop spouting your bullshit and RTFM!!!"
-- Cardinal Paul Poupard, denouncing Intelligent Design
John Romero jokes stopped being funny more than 5 years ago. Get with the times, man!
You speak the truth, of course. Therefore, it's up to the individual to decide whether they trust the company enough to use their product. I trust Blizzard enough to play World of Warcraft feeling that my information is safe. Someone else might not though, but that's their problem.
This whole Warden business is an extremely slippery slope. Some people will slide down more than others. I can't say I blame them, but then again, when you consider that any and all software we download has the potential to steal sensitive information without our knowledge (anti-virus/firewall/automatic updates), can you really trust any piece of code? Hell, for all I know, Linux could collect information on who I am, where I live, how many times I've said "lol" and transmit that information to a central server where penguins will assess the information and decide on the best method to raid my home and take my things. I'm not about to go searching thru the source code either, because it'd be like finding a needle in a long, blocky, hard-to-read haystack. Will it stop me from using Linux though? Nah, not really.
The main problem with that analogy is that terrorist actions typically aren't going to have any more of an impact on society than they did a decade ago, or the decade before that, or the decade before that, and so on.
With MMOs, however, actions such as hacking and gold farming are going to have far-reaching effects on everybody who plays the game. A number of people will shrug it off until they have to go buy something they want/need and find that the price has skyrocketed because Players X, Y, and Z used their hacking programs to gain large amounts of gold in a short amount of time while they were out getting wasted or working at their real jobs.
All of a sudden, the efforts of legitimate players are immediately trivialized because some loser with nothing better to do made a tool that does most of the work for him. The money that I pay every month to actually sit down and play the game isn't really worth as much as it was when I started, and tomorrow it's going to get even worse. And it's not like I can pick up and leave for another game, because the exact same shit is going to happen there, and there's nothing I can really do about it.
Then you have the losers who shell out large portions of their real-life income on in-game items and characters, then turn around and say "I don't have the time that others do, this is the only way I can enjoy the game." I call bullshit, on the grounds that by buying a max-level account, you've essentially skipped the game. It's like buying a movie you really wanted to see, then fast-forwarding thru the whole thing and watching the ending because the first 10 minutes were boring. Then you watch the ending and go "WTH? I don't get it. Why did that guy marry that chick?," without clueing in that you probably should've just waited it out so you knew what the hell was going on.
Now then, if Blizzard wants to do something to prevent these assholes from trivializing my gaming experience, then they're welcome to employ whatever methods are necessary to make them sit down and actually play the game instead of resorting to 3rd-party programs or eBay to get ahead. A game's a game, but you gotta play within the rules.
Okay. So if I come up with the absurd notion that I will travel back in time in 20 years to create the universe using a thimble of Silly Putty, a corkscrew, and my mother's melon baller, not only am I NOT to be considered crazy, but I've actually got credibility because nobody can really prove that I didn't create the universe in a feat that would put to shame anything MacGuyver could do because to do so would require the as-of-yet-uninvented time machine that I will use to go back and create the universe.
'Cuz honestly, if what you say is true, then that means that, by creating Life, the Universe, and Everything, I am this "God" fellow you confide in every night before you masturba--er, love thyself. And I must say, what you humans have been doing for the last, well...ever since you existed pretty much...I'm not all that impressed.
Now that doesn't sound crazy at all, does it?
It's now comprised of 8 McDonalds and 11 Starbucks.
I dunno. If I were another country, I could, I don't know, take everything I've invested in the United States thusfar and send those resources elsewhere? Now sure, one country hardly matters, but imagine it's the whole European Union. Then Korea. Then Japan. China. Taiwan. The list goes on.
Despite what you may believe, America is only at the top because it stands on the shoulders of everybody else. Now, it worked to get there, and worked hard, but if it wants to stay at that point, it's gotta learn to be nicer to the other countries of the world, otherwise it'll get dropped, and then stare with envy as Canada or China or some other country is now number one.
Of course, that's only a guess as to what COULD happen...
E-mail is throwing a birthday party! It's next week, the same day as Spam.
Unfortunately, they agreed that Spam should send the invites. Expect them in your mailbox soon along with the free drugs and Nigerian relatives.
You mean GoldenPalace.com?
Yeah, but ask yourself this: Do Fark cliches REALLY deserve a '5 - Funny?'
That's why, if I were Google, I'd do what they asked...then I would block their site as a penance for wasting my time.
Seriously, this is a waste of everybody's time.
It would seem that Mr. Lynton is the first of many people in Hollywood to emerge from his cave after years of intense hibernation. Let's see what other obvious talking points he and others can come up with.
Who knows...maybe they'll start producing better movies now.........BWA HA HA HA HA!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA!! Oh man, I crack myself up...
Considering that it would probably have to be lethal in order to pierce the missile's chasis, I'd imagine that if a human were to be shot by it, being blinded would be the least of your concerns.
For example, you may not be able to see because you were blinded by the laser's light, but you may be more concerned as to the fate of your lower torso when that laser cut you in half.
That's coming when the next round of next-gen consoles makes their debut. I hear the Google console will demand that every launch title be integrated with the search engine for easy lookup of game walkthroughs and cheat codes, so it should make for some neat games in 2006.
Yes! Because as everybody knows, being paid peanuts is the right and moral thing to do!
Leave that "feeding your family" garbage at home and work for nothing, and know that you're doing the right thing!
I disagree. I think Microsoft earned their title, and I doubt it's gonna go away. I'd like to think that the Google invasion is going over more like the story in Doom3:
Or something to that effect, anyways.
While your idea is sound in theory, how have you solved the problem of data loss from being eaten by marine life?
Of course not. Only those working on the Red Light project were promised head, and that's strictly under the table if you catch my drift. ;)
Making things easy for the consumer doesn't buy as many ivory backscratchers.
From the README:
In other words, no documentation. Sucks, 'cuz they could probably use GPL Q3A as an excuse to create a new section to idDevNet.
Try here.
Unless, of course, the /. effect is upon id's servers.
Well you gotta taste the keyboard! Who knows what tender vittles have been collecting within over the years! :)
I agree on OoT--for some reason, I didn't have nearly as much fun as I did compared to it's predecessors, or it's children. WindWaker was actually really fun to play, the best of the 3D Zeldas IMO, which is weird because it was probably the most tedious out of all of them; that ocean is HUGE, and getting all the Triforce shards is a chore I would not like to relive anytime soon.
I think that the best Zelda games by far have to be the Oracle series though. It's one of the few times I just kept playing and playing a Zelda game. They're the best.
Hopefully Twilight Princess will be decent, and won't have the tedium of WindWaker. I'll have to rent it when it comes out.