My university is attempting to get a Ruckus setup starting spring semester of the 2006-2007 school year. When their sales rep came in for a short question and answer period to speak to our RHA (Residence Hall Association. Think student congress, but for housing/dining concerns; that, and we actually get things done) general assembly. Everyone thought that this service was great until I asked a 2 part question.
"How many of you guys (the students) use iPods?"
The answer of course was nearly 75%. I then turned to the sales rep and asked him:
"Is your music fully compatable with iPods/iTunes?"
"...Um....no..."-The response I was fully expecting.
Of course, most people didn't understand that the music service that we would be using instead would have stricter DRM imposed upon it, versus the (relatively) lax restrictions used on iTunes AAC-LC files. Take a guess what the results of the vote were.
That's right, only two other people in a voting population of nearly 50 students joined me in voting against this proposal. Why? Are people genuinely so uninformed that they would purposefully cripple their personal audio devices? Is it that people are scared of the RIAA/MPAA?
Whatever the case is, I will still get my music from a vast and large repository, one with nearly unlimited resources. I can get this music in any bitrate that I want, and best of all, I don't have any DRM attached to the files. I'm glad that I work at the library.
It should be the responsibility of the person hosting anything to ensure it is secured.
Oh, wait, this is modern times. Nobody likes being responsible anymore; just blame your irresponsibility on the 'hacker problem'.
Personally, I impose as much security as possible. I use MAC address filtering to allow only my computers on the network, use WPA2, change the password once a month; using a small program I wrote to create a 32 character password composed of numbers, characters, and letters. I'm not saying I've got Fort Knox here, but an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
Off the rant now... Shouldn't these tax dollars be spent on something usefull? Perhaps stopping real criminals?
...IANAL (yet), though I am currently in law school. The law itself is not directly pertinent to the defendant.
First, the definitions as listed in the law.
570-A:1 Definitions. - As used in this chapter:
... V. "Person" means any employee or agent of the state or political subdivision thereof, and any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust, or corporation.
As early as the definitions section, it is quite apparent that 570-A is to be applied specifically to State, County, or City employees (i.e. Peace officers), or to persons involved in any business venture. The reasoning behind the law is so that the state, county, or local government cannot just start posting surveillence on their citizenry KGB-style. Same thing goes for business owners.
Given the definitions listed within this law, and considering the fact that not once does the law prohibit the citizenry from placing their own private property (non-business) under surveillence, the defendant has nothing to be afraid of. At this point, without reviewing pertinent case law, it would be quite obvious that the defendant has nothing to fear.
Of course, this could be slightly different when I finish checking all applicable court decisions. Updates will follow soon.
Except that horse armor does have utility. A t-shirt has no utility beyond keeping your avatar 'in style.'
Also, I was using hyperbole to describe the idiocy and conspicuous consumption, (and to an extent, the conspicuous waste) of my fellow Americans who buy shirts priced that high in stores such as Abercrombie, et al.
Most people don't care about durability and features, but instead care about fashion and paying people to advertise their products. Yes, its a virtual world in Second Life, (I do occasionally play) and the rules of wear and tear on clothing don't apply (nor do the rules of physics, what with the flying and all). I'm just saying that if people will buy a t-shirt in real life that costs upwards of $25, I definitely think that these virtual clothes will sell. It is a great business model, to base it entirely off of the vanity of people. I'm not saying its wrong of them to do so, I'm just saying that I find it stupid for someone to buy into it. I'm not going to buy them. But that's why capitalism is great, I'm able to make these decisions about what I want to buy (or not buy, as the case may be).
True, true. I did leave out Nova Prospekt. Honestly, I'm not trying to say that Ravenholm was the only scary part, just that being a huge zombie fan, I found it one of the most entertaining due to its usage of the different types of zombies, and the atmosphere as a whole. Don't get me wrong, the game had a whole 'creepy' bent to it in a "whoah, this could happen in the future" type of way, but I just don't find it to be enough to keep me up at night. Worrying about the government coming to take me away while I'm sleeping keeps me up at night.
On a related note, can anyone think of a good zombie game that actually follows proper Romero zombie form? Last I checked, in any FPS, or most videogames for that matter, the zombies are either headcrabs, posessed people (Doom 3), or are a result of a disease (Resident Evil). There are no FPS's (to the best of my knowledge) who's entire premise is the survival of a zombie outbreak. Sure, there's Urban Dead, but it's not an acceptable substitute. There's Stubbs, but thats more of a humorous game. I want a good FPS (or a third person; Max Payne would be good) that has a zombie survival aspect to it. Make it as realistic as possible, but also as close to the good zombie movies as possible (Original Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, etc). Any ideas?
...are increasingly hard to find. Honestly, Ravenholm in HL2 was good, had some good zombie action, but was really the only 'scary' part of the game. HL1 actually had more parts to it that I would consider 'scary,' if only for the general feel of the game being different (survival vs. liberation from oppressors).
Doom 3 got its 'scary' value out of the monster/zombie closets, though a few areas had some good 'n 'scary parts. Remember the imps crawling across the walls, or the shadows that made you think something was around the corner? Unfortunately, the game relied mostly upon the fact that it was a pitch black game, and the gameplay was somewhat lacking. (Don't mod down, its just my opinion.)
The last game that I actually played that had a true 'scare factor' to it throughout the whole game, probably in part due to the survival aspect, would be System Shock 2. Unfortunately, the odds of a sequel, let alone a good sequel, are slim to none.
Honestly, some games do need to have a 'fear' element to them in order to be good. The almost over-used FPS sci-fi genre must have the fear of fighting for your life against whatever badguys are thrown your way.
Different things scare different people. My sister is terrified of zombies, yet I look forward to the day that the dead will walk the earth. I prefer a more psychological type of game (eg. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of the Earth, though I'm a Cthulhu fan anyways). At any rate, I love FPS's, but fear is a good part, if not necessary, at least in order to get the good ole adrenaline flowing (if the four bottles of Bawls didn't do it already).
...competition in areas such as consumer goods, services, and other non-utility items results in a net benefit for both the consumer and the market.
Don't believe me? Look at cell phone manufacturers (not service providers). How many producers are on the market; how many different types of cell phones there are, and the fact that customers have the choice of going to one phone over another simply by buying a new phone and replacing the SIM card.
How about other services such as credit cards or financial institutions such as a bank? People have the choice as to where they want their money to go, and therefore, competition between these companies works to the advantage of the consumer.
To take a page from the 'Lending Tree' folks, "When banks* compete, you win"
*or any other producing company. Gas, electricity, and phone services excluded.
...things could be worse. All in all, isn't it true that bad publicity (though I hardly think of this to be highly negative in any way, save for being grouped with Balmer...) is better than no publicity?
Another note: for some of the names on the list, its hard to understand how they can be considered to have their 'glory days behind them.' Personally, they have little individual input, but the movement or company is still always 'theirs.' Microsoft will always be attributed to Gates, Linux to Torvalds, Apple to the Steves, etc.
With more people, the leader of a company or movement cannot feasibly do the ground level work on a project and conduct all of the administrative and upper management work. Its how any movement will grow. Sooner or later, the guy who started the whole thing has to take somewhat of a back seat in order to manage the organization. There are some exceptions to this of course.
I'll probably be modded down for saying this, but the 4th Generation 40 GB iPod was a very faulty model. It just seems to me that Apple is losing their focus on caring for customers. Instead of actually focusing on delivering a good quality product, they're falling into the all too common business model of "We're a monopoly on our hardware and software working together, let's charge an arm and a leg for inferior products and refuse to acknowledge that we don't focus on quality control." Apparently, 'AppleCare' is nothing more than a misnomer now.
And people still call me crazy when I tell them I'm on my ninth (soon to be last) iPod.
...but wouldn't it just be best for Microsoft to have Balmer leave? While I'm no Microsoft insider, I still think that most, if not all, of Microsoft's problems could just be solved if Steve Balmer left.
On a slightly related note, imagine if Balmer was re-programmed to work for Apple.
Megalomaniacal Steve vs. Crazy Steve with a quiet joker Steve off to the side.
I realize this is going to be off topic, but this information needed to be stated.
A CVBG (carrier battle group) is mobile. The fact that the carrier itself carries multiple platforms which each excell at different types of missions helps.
Also, in a CVBG you also have (usually) two guided missile cruisers, two to three guided missile destroyers, a frigate or two, two attack submarines, and a supply ship (refueling/resupply of ammo). With this combined platform, you have the following:
-Air superiority, covered by the carrier.
-Long range missile strike capability, from the guided missile cruisers.
-Multi mission surface combat, mostly the destroyers
-ASW (Anti Submarine Warfare) provided by the Destroyers, multiple platforms from the carrier, the frigate, and the attack submarine
-AAW (Anti-Air Warfare) provided by the carrier and the destroyers.
The reason the US Navy places emphasis on the role of the carrier is due to its versatility. One carrier alone (though this would never happen) has the capability to take care of AAW, ASW, and Surface Warfare, along with the ability to strike inland targets.
The reason for the emphasis on the training of Navy pilots is the fact that landing a plane is much (on the range of ten times harder) than landing on an airstrip.
If you were wondering about the source of my knowledge, it comes from my NROTC experience and my family. (Navy family, though my uncle's a Marine...close enough...)
"When you start busting people for thought crimes you start busting them for what you think they think and statutory rape is a crime of fact, i.e. it doesn't matter what they think, it matters what they did."
Kinda sounds like the movie "Minority Report," only with less Scientologists.
Yeah, the ads are supposed to be placed in a magazine, so that a kid who sees them would have to turn the page around to see all the words. At least thats what the guys from PA said in their corresponding post. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/06/07
Personally, I do think these ads should be placed in magazines that parents would read, not just the ones that kids would be reading.
Unfortunately, the ads won't be like the back page in MAD Magazine, so you can't fold Line A to Line B and get a 'hidden' picture and message.
Slashdot Mirror
My university is attempting to get a Ruckus setup starting spring semester of the 2006-2007 school year. When their sales rep came in for a short question and answer period to speak to our RHA (Residence Hall Association. Think student congress, but for housing/dining concerns; that, and we actually get things done) general assembly. Everyone thought that this service was great until I asked a 2 part question.
"How many of you guys (the students) use iPods?"
The answer of course was nearly 75%. I then turned to the sales rep and asked him:
"Is your music fully compatable with iPods/iTunes?"
"...Um....no..."-The response I was fully expecting.
Of course, most people didn't understand that the music service that we would be using instead would have stricter DRM imposed upon it, versus the (relatively) lax restrictions used on iTunes AAC-LC files. Take a guess what the results of the vote were.
That's right, only two other people in a voting population of nearly 50 students joined me in voting against this proposal. Why? Are people genuinely so uninformed that they would purposefully cripple their personal audio devices? Is it that people are scared of the RIAA/MPAA?
Whatever the case is, I will still get my music from a vast and large repository, one with nearly unlimited resources. I can get this music in any bitrate that I want, and best of all, I don't have any DRM attached to the files. I'm glad that I work at the library.
What about drunk dialing someone from your cell phone?
It should be the responsibility of the person hosting anything to ensure it is secured.
Oh, wait, this is modern times. Nobody likes being responsible anymore; just blame your irresponsibility on the 'hacker problem'.
Personally, I impose as much security as possible. I use MAC address filtering to allow only my computers on the network, use WPA2, change the password once a month; using a small program I wrote to create a 32 character password composed of numbers, characters, and letters. I'm not saying I've got Fort Knox here, but an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
Off the rant now... Shouldn't these tax dollars be spent on something usefull? Perhaps stopping real criminals?
First, the definitions as listed in the law.
As early as the definitions section, it is quite apparent that 570-A is to be applied specifically to State, County, or City employees (i.e. Peace officers), or to persons involved in any business venture. The reasoning behind the law is so that the state, county, or local government cannot just start posting surveillence on their citizenry KGB-style. Same thing goes for business owners.
Given the definitions listed within this law, and considering the fact that not once does the law prohibit the citizenry from placing their own private property (non-business) under surveillence, the defendant has nothing to be afraid of. At this point, without reviewing pertinent case law, it would be quite obvious that the defendant has nothing to fear.
Of course, this could be slightly different when I finish checking all applicable court decisions. Updates will follow soon.
Except that horse armor does have utility. A t-shirt has no utility beyond keeping your avatar 'in style.'
Also, I was using hyperbole to describe the idiocy and conspicuous consumption, (and to an extent, the conspicuous waste) of my fellow Americans who buy shirts priced that high in stores such as Abercrombie, et al.
Most people don't care about durability and features, but instead care about fashion and paying people to advertise their products. Yes, its a virtual world in Second Life, (I do occasionally play) and the rules of wear and tear on clothing don't apply (nor do the rules of physics, what with the flying and all). I'm just saying that if people will buy a t-shirt in real life that costs upwards of $25, I definitely think that these virtual clothes will sell. It is a great business model, to base it entirely off of the vanity of people. I'm not saying its wrong of them to do so, I'm just saying that I find it stupid for someone to buy into it. I'm not going to buy them. But that's why capitalism is great, I'm able to make these decisions about what I want to buy (or not buy, as the case may be).
True, true. I did leave out Nova Prospekt. Honestly, I'm not trying to say that Ravenholm was the only scary part, just that being a huge zombie fan, I found it one of the most entertaining due to its usage of the different types of zombies, and the atmosphere as a whole. Don't get me wrong, the game had a whole 'creepy' bent to it in a "whoah, this could happen in the future" type of way, but I just don't find it to be enough to keep me up at night. Worrying about the government coming to take me away while I'm sleeping keeps me up at night.
On a related note, can anyone think of a good zombie game that actually follows proper Romero zombie form? Last I checked, in any FPS, or most videogames for that matter, the zombies are either headcrabs, posessed people (Doom 3), or are a result of a disease (Resident Evil). There are no FPS's (to the best of my knowledge) who's entire premise is the survival of a zombie outbreak. Sure, there's Urban Dead, but it's not an acceptable substitute. There's Stubbs, but thats more of a humorous game. I want a good FPS (or a third person; Max Payne would be good) that has a zombie survival aspect to it. Make it as realistic as possible, but also as close to the good zombie movies as possible (Original Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, etc). Any ideas?
...are increasingly hard to find. Honestly, Ravenholm in HL2 was good, had some good zombie action, but was really the only 'scary' part of the game. HL1 actually had more parts to it that I would consider 'scary,' if only for the general feel of the game being different (survival vs. liberation from oppressors).
Doom 3 got its 'scary' value out of the monster/zombie closets, though a few areas had some good 'n 'scary parts. Remember the imps crawling across the walls, or the shadows that made you think something was around the corner? Unfortunately, the game relied mostly upon the fact that it was a pitch black game, and the gameplay was somewhat lacking. (Don't mod down, its just my opinion.)
The last game that I actually played that had a true 'scare factor' to it throughout the whole game, probably in part due to the survival aspect, would be System Shock 2. Unfortunately, the odds of a sequel, let alone a good sequel, are slim to none.
Honestly, some games do need to have a 'fear' element to them in order to be good. The almost over-used FPS sci-fi genre must have the fear of fighting for your life against whatever badguys are thrown your way.
Different things scare different people. My sister is terrified of zombies, yet I look forward to the day that the dead will walk the earth. I prefer a more psychological type of game (eg. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of the Earth, though I'm a Cthulhu fan anyways). At any rate, I love FPS's, but fear is a good part, if not necessary, at least in order to get the good ole adrenaline flowing (if the four bottles of Bawls didn't do it already).
...competition in areas such as consumer goods, services, and other non-utility items results in a net benefit for both the consumer and the market.
Don't believe me? Look at cell phone manufacturers (not service providers). How many producers are on the market; how many different types of cell phones there are, and the fact that customers have the choice of going to one phone over another simply by buying a new phone and replacing the SIM card.
How about other services such as credit cards or financial institutions such as a bank? People have the choice as to where they want their money to go, and therefore, competition between these companies works to the advantage of the consumer.
To take a page from the 'Lending Tree' folks, "When banks* compete, you win"
*or any other producing company. Gas, electricity, and phone services excluded.
...we're going to see Abercrombie. Now your 'hard earned' Linden Dollars can be used to buy a $25 not real t-shirt, instead of a $50 real t-shirt!
I for one welcome our new virtual overpriced fashion masters.
No, you do matter, just not enough to make a list, but enough not to make a list.
...things could be worse. All in all, isn't it true that bad publicity (though I hardly think of this to be highly negative in any way, save for being grouped with Balmer...) is better than no publicity?
Another note: for some of the names on the list, its hard to understand how they can be considered to have their 'glory days behind them.' Personally, they have little individual input, but the movement or company is still always 'theirs.' Microsoft will always be attributed to Gates, Linux to Torvalds, Apple to the Steves, etc.
With more people, the leader of a company or movement cannot feasibly do the ground level work on a project and conduct all of the administrative and upper management work. Its how any movement will grow. Sooner or later, the guy who started the whole thing has to take somewhat of a back seat in order to manage the organization. There are some exceptions to this of course.
The opening comment was referring to the links from the parent post concerning my iPod woes. The rest of the text is pertaining to the story itself.
I'll probably be modded down for saying this, but the 4th Generation 40 GB iPod was a very faulty model. It just seems to me that Apple is losing their focus on caring for customers. Instead of actually focusing on delivering a good quality product, they're falling into the all too common business model of "We're a monopoly on our hardware and software working together, let's charge an arm and a leg for inferior products and refuse to acknowledge that we don't focus on quality control." Apparently, 'AppleCare' is nothing more than a misnomer now.
And people still call me crazy when I tell them I'm on my ninth (soon to be last) iPod.
Please do not feed the trolls.
Thank-you.
-The Management
...be careful what you wish for. It may come true.
:)
On Slashdot, this happens when you least want it to. Of course, I fully expected this to happen.
(Obligatory GiTS:SAC reference follows)
Can anyone say 'offensive firewall?'
...the Dell, being the subject of a long standing flame war, finally succumbed to the last battle of its painfully long life.
(It'd be ironic if somehow I got modded down with a "Flamebait")
...but wouldn't it just be best for Microsoft to have Balmer leave? While I'm no Microsoft insider, I still think that most, if not all, of Microsoft's problems could just be solved if Steve Balmer left.
On a slightly related note, imagine if Balmer was re-programmed to work for Apple.
Megalomaniacal Steve vs. Crazy Steve with a quiet joker Steve off to the side.
I realize this is going to be off topic, but this information needed to be stated.
A CVBG (carrier battle group) is mobile. The fact that the carrier itself carries multiple platforms which each excell at different types of missions helps.
Also, in a CVBG you also have (usually) two guided missile cruisers, two to three guided missile destroyers, a frigate or two, two attack submarines, and a supply ship (refueling/resupply of ammo). With this combined platform, you have the following:
-Air superiority, covered by the carrier.
-Long range missile strike capability, from the guided missile cruisers.
-Multi mission surface combat, mostly the destroyers
-ASW (Anti Submarine Warfare) provided by the Destroyers, multiple platforms from the carrier, the frigate, and the attack submarine
-AAW (Anti-Air Warfare) provided by the carrier and the destroyers.
The reason the US Navy places emphasis on the role of the carrier is due to its versatility. One carrier alone (though this would never happen) has the capability to take care of AAW, ASW, and Surface Warfare, along with the ability to strike inland targets.
The reason for the emphasis on the training of Navy pilots is the fact that landing a plane is much (on the range of ten times harder) than landing on an airstrip.
If you were wondering about the source of my knowledge, it comes from my NROTC experience and my family. (Navy family, though my uncle's a Marine...close enough...)
"When you start busting people for thought crimes you start busting them for what you think they think and statutory rape is a crime of fact, i.e. it doesn't matter what they think, it matters what they did."
Kinda sounds like the movie "Minority Report," only with less Scientologists.
...the seed vault would probably end up being destroyed in the nuclear war.
I can just see it now...
"SoyLent Food Company - Good people making good food. Now in Green flavor!"
That sounds suspiciously like a post I saw on this 'Slashdot' site about Blu-Ray movies.
I think there's a conspiracy here; I just wish I could photograph it.
Yeah, the ads are supposed to be placed in a magazine, so that a kid who sees them would have to turn the page around to see all the words. At least thats what the guys from PA said in their corresponding post. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/06/07
Personally, I do think these ads should be placed in magazines that parents would read, not just the ones that kids would be reading.
Unfortunately, the ads won't be like the back page in MAD Magazine, so you can't fold Line A to Line B and get a 'hidden' picture and message.
Your comment alone in my mind would be worth a +3 for funny; having just realised it myself...
They are. The ESRB contacted the great guys from Penny-Arcade to come up with a new ratings awareness campaign. Here are two links below. http://www.penny-arcade.com/esrb_andersons.jpg http://www.penny-arcade.com/esrb_sarah.jpg