Crash to desktop, choppy framerate on extreme hardware, game freezes, sound issues... the list goes on.
I played it for a hour or two last night - got to the 1st town. Seemed very Fallout 3ish... only you have to hit R instead of A to Take All - what is up with That?
Had no graphic issues but it crashed to desktop when I opened a chest. Figured it was time to go to bed anyway...
The ZBX is designed to replace Racks of X86 servers. The shops that want this either already have a big backend Mainframe - for DB2/ADABAS/IMS with midrange Window/Unix servers or they process everything on the mainframe and FTP down to Windows/Unix boxes (last place I worked FTPed Terrabytes every night down from the mainframe to servers).
The ZBX has a high speed bus connection between the Mainframe (Z196/Z114). This speeds up the network lag for large MQSeries systems, FTPs, etc. Also the ZBX is managed/upgraded by IBM Customer Engineers so the firmware will be IBM supported. They also integrate the ZBX into the Hardware Management Console to have a single point of control. I believe the ZBX can also take advantage of Server Time Protocol so the mainframe can be used as a time source for all the ZBX blade servers.
Shops that currently do not have a mainframe probably won't be interested in the ZBX and the ability to run Windows on it. The ZBX has been out for a year or so but was Linux only until this announcement.
I have experience with this. The "BIG FINE" is a $250 dollar fine and you have to SUE THEM in small claims court to collect. This means hiring an off duty police officer (around $50 bucks) to serve the summons - assuming you can get their address to begin with then paying the court costs to file.
You want a BIG FINE, have them change it to a $25000 dollar fine but $250 bucks isn't worth the hassle.
When I moved I got a new phone number and a got a ton of calls for Mr X who had the number prior to me. As usual, I didn't list my number in the phone book. I explained that Mr X is not here and most of the calls died down. YEARS PASS and I am still getting calls for Mr X - although it is maybe 4-6 a month (some months I'd get a lot more - I think this was when a new collection debt list was published). I become very familiar with the FTC rules regarding collection agencies.
My experience was:
1. Most collection agency people calling you have NO CLUE what the FTC laws and regulations are.
2. Most will not really identify themselves and not give out their address - REQUIRED BY FTC but ignored.
3. Most will tell you their "supervisor" is not available - in some cases they refused to identify the supervisor (FTC violation - they MUST identify themselves, the business, their supervisor and address of business)
4. Many are working off lists they bought and are calling you from their house. These lists are what caused me to get
a lot of calls. Mr X was on them with my number and every time they published and sold a new list to people, I would get
calls. Debt collection is a growing home business...
5. You tell them you aren't this person and NEVER CALL AGAIN and they ignore this (FTC VIOLATION). I got called so
often by some collection agencies, I recognized their voices.
I filed a lot of complaints with the FTC but never heard anything back from them.
Your recourse is to Sue them but as above it isn't worth the time and effort. I was only able to end 95% of the calls by listing my number - this caused the lists to be updated. I still get calls for Mr X but only about 1-2 every few months now not every week or day.
It's not that hard.
These days, we use computers to aid in our transactions.
The data's not "a ridiculous amount" - it's a few KB of data sent from each state each year.
iggest market. I can understand why they don't want to pay taxes.
Yeah, the data is available but not from the states. There are companies whose business is to collect all the sales tax data (from state, city, county and local levels) and they will sell you the info. A number of years ago, when I worked for a major car manufacturer, they had to start buying this data. The data was reloaded/changed monthly. These days, it might be a "cloud" service somewhere.
But they're not going to just throw away the entire market to avoid paying it.
They can sell to CA residents all they want and aren't affected. They are dropping the Affiliate program. My brother runs an internet used bookstore. He is/was an affiliate of Amazon - they would list his books so if you were looking for a used book - it would show up on the Amazon store. Since he is based in CA, I think he is now dropped.
There are a lot of small CA business that were Amazon affiliates.
It wasn't what was cut so much as what was changed:
Exactly.
Before he did it, I would have said that the Fellowship of the Ring was un-Filmable.
I have a few nitpicks with it but it captures the flavor of the book without too many major character changes. Yes, Merry and Pippen were made comic relief along with the dwarf.
But instead of changing things whole cloth and adding stuff to make the scene "dramatically interesting", in the FOTR, he had to just cut cut cut. There was too much material there to try to film everything and condensing things like Arwen and Glorfindel made sense.
In the other movies, he started adding nonsense that wasn't in the books. This is where he went wrong. All he had to do was stick with the story and characters and CUT where needed...
So would they have the same kind of Hobbit One Ring-resistance?
No. Even the lesser rings they had did corrupt them and brought Evil to the Dwarves. Sauron could not control them, the way he could Men so his plot "failed'. But research what happened to each of the 7 Ring Bearers of the Dwarves...
In Letters, JRRT says there are only a few beings in Arda that can control and use the 1 ring - pretty much Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel.
You had to have Great Power yourself to master the One Ring. No mortal could do it and dwarves are technically mortals.
Every one else attempting to use the Ring would eventually fail and Sauron would eventually prevail. The Ring is part of Sauron after all...
That is interesting. I always just thought Tom was JRR Tolkien.
No. Tom is just a doll that his children played with when they were kids. He put Tom in to amuse them. Later he denied that Tom was Eru (God) and that not everything in the LOTR should be explainable.
t2) The difficulty is ramped way, way up. The standing intention now is mana/resource conservation along with the return crowd control. Also, there will be a progression of 'Normals > Heroics > Raids' that cannot be skipped.
Interesting. It might be worth my checking out then. I dropped the game after Patch 3.0 or so when they ramped the damage up so high that Crowd Control became meaningless and every encounter was so easy - the hard part was looting the bodies.
Wow became just a tedious grind with no strategy or danger or excitement. Leveling became a real chore.
So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money? -- Ayn Rand
