Comment Re:Math cannot exist before wind. (Score 1) 221
That's the way the cookie crumbles...
Comment Re:missing option (Score 4, Funny) 628
My kingdom for a spoon - I miss my fingernails...
Comment Re:Slashdotting (Score 2, Funny) 65
some gil, a blue all materia, one esper of your choice and a new overdrive ability!!
Comment Re:almost like a technical MBA? (Score 1) 491
MBA's - So says Scott Adams - so say we all
Comment Re:Oh good god... (Score 1) 1582
I never understood achievements in games
Achievements = busy work to keep bored players playing longer - just like daily quests did - and just like the next thing they dream up...
Submission + - IGN Leaks Bioshock, Sends threatening letters (kotaku.com)
An anonymous reader writes: IGN Entertainment(a subsidiary of News Corp) accidentally allowed pre-order customers of their service direct2drive preload, activate and thus play copies of the hotly anticipate PC-game Bioshock(due out today) this past Sunday. Because D2D isn't encrypted, anyone who had preloaded it basically had the game sitting on their harddrive, waiting for their activation keys and for the activation servers to go live. When they did, word spread, and people started buying D2D copies of bioshock to get activation keys(viewable from your purchase window or sent to you via e-mail).
Upon realizing their mistake, they cut off the preload downloads. The file was set to restrict to their download client only and could not be downloaded because it reported itself as 15EB. Anyone who went to this site(google cache, 2nd result on google for "direct2drive bioshock preload") Sunday evening and began downloading the preload, was awoken this morning by a rather pleasant e-mail. Searching for that download was disabled around the same time(you can no longer find that particular one via fileplanet search).
That letter was sent to people who *paid* for their copy of the game, mind you, and whose only crime was attempting to preload it. I can personally assure you that an activation attempt was not required to recieve one, as I recieved one, and all I did was attempt to preload the thing.
Some kotaku users paint this as a bit of an exploit in "l33t" hackerdom, in one case characterizing it as breaking into a store to grab your preordered and already paid-for copy. In actuality all you had to do was go to fileplanet, click search, and type in bioshock(or go to google and type bioshock direct2drive preload). The "security" was not linking to it off your order page, and the "exploit" was using their own site's search or google. The result was the preload(which had been reported on, to keep D2D even with steam). Alternatively you could get there by someone sending you a fileplanet link.
Is my understanding of this flawed, or is IGN asserting copyrights they don't possess, and attempting to enforce a TOS/contract that would be violated by using their service via a rather unpleasant e-mail?
Upon realizing their mistake, they cut off the preload downloads. The file was set to restrict to their download client only and could not be downloaded because it reported itself as 15EB. Anyone who went to this site(google cache, 2nd result on google for "direct2drive bioshock preload") Sunday evening and began downloading the preload, was awoken this morning by a rather pleasant e-mail. Searching for that download was disabled around the same time(you can no longer find that particular one via fileplanet search).
That letter was sent to people who *paid* for their copy of the game, mind you, and whose only crime was attempting to preload it. I can personally assure you that an activation attempt was not required to recieve one, as I recieved one, and all I did was attempt to preload the thing.
Some kotaku users paint this as a bit of an exploit in "l33t" hackerdom, in one case characterizing it as breaking into a store to grab your preordered and already paid-for copy. In actuality all you had to do was go to fileplanet, click search, and type in bioshock(or go to google and type bioshock direct2drive preload). The "security" was not linking to it off your order page, and the "exploit" was using their own site's search or google. The result was the preload(which had been reported on, to keep D2D even with steam). Alternatively you could get there by someone sending you a fileplanet link.
Is my understanding of this flawed, or is IGN asserting copyrights they don't possess, and attempting to enforce a TOS/contract that would be violated by using their service via a rather unpleasant e-mail?
Submission + - Monster attack steals user data
dsinc writes: US job website Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen, says a security firm.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6956349.stm
Submission + - Which Linux disto and Why? 2
illeism writes: Ok everyone,
There have been a few "Ubuntu Wins the Linux Desktop" stories floating lately around and in the discussions I see lots of different distros mentioned but no one every really says why they use the particular version they do. I'm an extremely novice Linux user and I've only used Fedora and Ubuntu. I like Fedora better only because it's bleeding edge and I don't know any better.
So, here is the question: Which version of Linux do you use and why?
There have been a few "Ubuntu Wins the Linux Desktop" stories floating lately around and in the discussions I see lots of different distros mentioned but no one every really says why they use the particular version they do. I'm an extremely novice Linux user and I've only used Fedora and Ubuntu. I like Fedora better only because it's bleeding edge and I don't know any better.
So, here is the question: Which version of Linux do you use and why?
Submission + - Putting Piracy in Perspective
An anonymous reader writes: Over the past year, Slashdot has pointed to many industry claims and
governmental pressure (here,
here,
and here)
arguing that Canada
as a piracy haven. Canadian law prof Michael Geist has produced Putting Canadian
"Piracy" in Perspective, a video that
demonstrates how the claims are hugely exaggerated. For example, it
shows how despite the MPAA's claim of movie piracy, Canada was the
industry's fastest growing market last year. Similarly, while the
recording industry says Canada is the world's top P2P country, the data
shows that the Canadian music industry is experiencing record gains and
that most of the decline from the major labels is due to retail pricing
pressures.
Submission + - Aussie Nightclubs 1500% increase in copyright fees
psy writes: "Nightclub promoters are outraged at a 1500 percent increase in the cost [to APRA] of playing copyrighted music to large crowds, saying customers will suffer along with proprietors and staff. Clubs used to pay a copyrighted music licence fee of 7c a person per night, but from today the figure will soar to $1.05 a person. The figure is based on capacity, so a club that holds 500 will pay $510 — even if only 100 people turn up. Organisers of dance parties have also been hit with the new fees, with the original charge of 20c per person jumping to $3.07. When DJs are meant to be the people helping to sell music and increase CD sales through free advertising, this seems like a backwards move.
Submission + - Hubble sees Night Shining Clouds (nasa.gov)
illeism writes: NASA is reporting an interesting pheonmenon in the upper atmosphere — Night-Shining Clouds.
Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time.
"It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed
"It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed
Submission + - H20+NaCl + Radio = Green Fuel
Lookin4Trouble writes: Cleveland, Ohio -based WKYC-TV is running a piece on inventor John Kansas' latest innovation. While searching for a cure for cancer, John found that certain bombardment of salt water with radio waves resulted in a clean-burning, 1500 Centigrade flame. See the video at this link, probably slashdotted. John is willing to sell his invention to help fund further research for a cure for cancer.
Submission + - LG Drink the patent Kool-Aid
Skrynesaver writes: It would appear that LG are the latest Linux company to sign an agreement with Microsoft
;)
No details are disclosed as to who is paying how much to whom so feel free to speculateA fifth cross-licensing agreement between Microsoft and a Linux-using company was announced late Wednesday. LG Electronics is the latest company to make a deal related to Microsoft's unproven claims to Linux-related patents
Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software
Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"
Submission + - Slow Drug Tests Cause False Positives
MissDemeanor writes: Wired science reports that chemists at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia have proven that the illicit drug Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate is slowly produced in refrigerated urine samples, which could cause innocent people to accidentally test positive. Drug testing labs often have a massive backlog of samples. This means that a urine sample could be left in a refrigerator for months before it is tested. During that time, the drug known as liquid ecstasy, forms naturally and can lead to a false positive result that fools even the most rigorous laboratory testing by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. To make matters worse, the field test for GHB gives a false positive when exposed to natural soaps.
