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Jan 7, 2002, 5:48pm

What a great way to make the money they need.. sue the people who have
cracked universes!!!

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2002, 5:55pm

Well just sue the cracked ones. The rest pay for it so they're legit. :)

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2002, 8:21pm

> Well you might think a cracked universe is good, but look at it from this

Um.. when did I ever say this? Read all the posts. I very clearly state AW
should sue the cracked universe operators.

> point of view, to crack it they must have messed around with it to make it
> fuction, there is no gaurentee it will keep fuctioning in fact as time
goes
> on I suspect it will do the oposite. There are no chance of version
> upgrades, more enhancements not to mention the fact it uses the Renderware
> engine so if AW dont sue then Im sure Renderware will or perhaps Both.

The renderware engine that AW uses is and was completely written by Roland.
Renderware no longer supports RWX. I'm pretty sure it's source is available
for it as well.

> The fact AW have implimented a new price structure shows that the feel
there
> is a lot more they can do with the product but can see it will cost a
major
> investment to achive it. The people who will benifit from this situation
are
> the citizens, world and universe owners as they in turn will have access
to
> these new systems not to mention the fact that other Universes while being
> smaller can now compete with Activeworlds as they may not have as much
land
> to sell but they can have reduced citizen fees compared to AW in exchange
> for higher world prices than AW and thus in turn both the Big and the
Small
> can get bigger without harming each other.

Yes, there is a lot more that can be done. But it won't be done since
they're only interested in what they want majorly. Only recently have I
heard of implementations of citizen requests. It's not an investment in
money, but rather in time with new features. They can be done, but the big
guys upstairs won't pay the team to develop the more features on overtime
with their current bind. They may even fire them for not following the
directions given. Other universes may follow suit with Activeworlds,
although it may not be to the same extreme. They would do this so they can
bring in more income and offer better services. When you have a
technological monopoly like this very few "small" programs do well unless
there's a sudden rise in prices.

> Were as the cracked systems simply harm all and do no one any good in the
> long term as even they have to pay for there bandwidth to host there
servers
> and worlds and the more people who use them the bigger there bills will
get
> and they too will have no choice but to close down due to lack of funds to
> keep them going.

Yes they do harm all. Lots of them are trojans as well. Not everyone pays
on bandwidth. Only commercial lines in America are usually charged on it,
so if you're using a residential connection you're safe from bandwidth costs
as long as they're not too bad.

> If everything in Life was free then how would anyone survive or provide
for
> there families.

If everything in life were free then we could support anything. It's just a
different economic principle that works quite well. Things like food would
be rationed. Other things like electricity would be free. There'd still be
competition but it wouldn't be nearly as bad. If we did things for the
betterment of mankind instead of for ourselves, our society would be far
greater. Just my two cents there :)

> My last passing thought is perhaps there should be two citizenship prices
in
> AW a anual one for people who want to just chat , they cant build or have
> priv pass access etc... just chat and telegrams. then for those who want
to
> build run bots worlds etc... pay a higher monthly fee and get a more
> complete service service.

No one would pay for just chatting, AOL and IRC cover this quite well. Not
to mention MSN and Yahoo!.

--Bowen--

Jan 7, 2002, 9:25pm

> just a pointless comment about "if everything was free" ;)
>
> if everything was free, would we need to provide for our families? naw..
> we'd just get the providing stuff for free!
> food, an whatnot

Food would be rationed. It seems like it's the only thing that needs to be,
maybe gasoline. It would allow people to learn more, instead of wasting
their lives working mindlessly. But then there's the slackers that wouldn't
do anything, but there's always something out of the group that doesn't
comply. As long as you do something useful you can partake in it LoL,
repair, design, make, etc.

--Bowen--

Jan 7, 2002, 10:28pm

> renderware wasnt made by roland...it was made buy the company that makes
> renderware. and im sure they wouldnt find out abour cracked unis unless
they
> became widely public

The renderware functions that AW uses was written by Roland since the newer
versions no longer support RWX.

--Bowen--

Jan 7, 2002, 10:29pm

You mistook what I said, Roland had to rewrite the rendware function that AW
uses since the newer versions no long support RWX.

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 7, 2002, 10:41pm

> Which "function"? All he rewrote was the stuff that *loaded* the RWX
files.
> Renderware is a 3D engine, not a file loader.
>
> -Agent1

I used function for a lack of a better word. Renderware no longer supports
RWX or it's structure, I'd assume. So thus you have to write a function to
convert it to the new version of Renderware. Anything can load an RWX file,
but it needs to be converted and translated by the rendering engine. So
thus he needed to rewrite a "renderware function" so RWX was still
supported. And that's what I was originally talking about.

--Bowen--

Jan 9, 2002, 6:10pm

LoL it's true. First he disagreed with what I said, saying the same thing.
Then I disagreed with his disagreeing and reworded what I said so I hope
he'd understand it. Then it just went from there.

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 11, 2002, 6:15pm

> whew! thank goodness it wasn't me. Thought my poor non techie brain was
> having an aneurysm or something. heheheh. ;-"D

Lmao yeah that happens to me when I think to hard about something.

--Bowen--

Jan 10, 2002, 11:59pm

> http://www.21stcentury.co.uk/humour/index.asp - Funny as hell, especially
> the paradies of Microsoft and the Men/Women relationship jokes.
>
> and http://www.21stcentury.co.uk (the other stuff on that site) is also
> very intresting.

lmao good stuff. :)

--Bowen--

Jan 12, 2002, 4:48pm

Oh the joys of truespace objects :). I see it as well, so it's not just
sme, anyone else?

--Bowen--

Jan 15, 2002, 6:04pm

> Go here and read up on why they need help and see if you can't contribute.
> It's a short read, so please click on it. Thanks!
>
> http://www.lindows.com/lindows_michaelsminutes.php

Does anyone believe me that Microsoft is the essence of evil yet? The legal
department needs a smack in the face.. maybe two for fun.

--Bowen--

Jan 15, 2002, 7:25pm

> LOL! MS have gone crazy, they can't go around sueing people for using the
> word "windows", especially not a word that does not even contain "window"
in
> it, who do they think they are? I think the US government should boycott
> them and their products, and tell them to stuff their stupid law suits!

MS is peeing their pants from what I see. They can't compete with a product
the runs both windows and linux software! Especially when it's half the
price. I like their screenshots, nice KDE feel to it while still keeping
that usability approach. Maybe they should change their company name to
"Window" and sue Microsoft for using Window in their product Windows :). I
can't believe a court system is letting this ride. Windows is an English
word, let me copyright Wind and sue them for using it. You just can't do
that.

--Bowen--

Jan 17, 2002, 8:26pm

> Well KAH, they aren't suing because it looks like Windows. They're sueing
> because Microsoft "says" that consumers will confuse Windows and Lindows
> products. It's a stretch, considering most people aren't that stupid,
most
> people buy systems that have Windows preinstalled on them, most people
won't
> ever hear of Lindows in the first place, and no people will see it on
store
> shelves. You can only buy it online.

That's a stretch. I can find most linuxes at my local computer stores.
Just none of those abstract 3rd party versions. Most likely Lindows will be
a great success and will soon be available at your local computer stores.
The guy who's making it was the founder of mp3.com, he's great at marketing
:). I'll support him, hell he's got a multi-million dollar product here,
and Microsoft knows it :).

--Bowen--

Jan 17, 2002, 9:58pm

> From what I've heard, it's just a Linux ditribution with a pretty version
of
> something like WINE... Nothing special. I know I won't pay their $100 fee
> just to be an "insider".

Well it's precompiled in the OS. Which means it has better support and it's
more usable then WINE itself is. Might even be better DX compatible then
WINE is right now. Who knows.

--Bowen--

Jan 19, 2002, 11:01pm

Agreed :) Upgrade to windows98SE or Linux. If you're not into games and AW
all the time you can duel boot. Good luck to you :)

--Bowen--
[View Quote]

Jan 20, 2002, 9:16pm

LoL.. there's already a linux available on PS2. I wish I had the link. It
was KDE on a redhat I think. You had to buy the external hard disk to run
it though.. that cost about $100.

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 20, 2002, 10:19pm

> i now XboX comes with a hard drive and all that but theres no way they are
> going to have it COME with an OS, and internet connection, and so on. The
> basic will always be round$30 (or the currect market price at the time)
with
> the add-ons at a pretty high price.


Sure they'll make one for the Xbox of PS2 and GC make one for their systems.
But it'll be WindowsXP.. yeah just what we need. LoL GC already has one
planed in about a year or two. It has a lot of free ports on the system for
external things such as a mouse and keyboard combo, modem (dialup or
broadband.. whichever you have free), high speed serial port for a hard
drive. It'd be really neato to have Linux on GC and be able to do things
:). I could see booting up into linux, check my mail, then head off to play
Super smash brothers. :) BTW the linux on PS2 is only available in Japan
as of now.

--Bowen--

--Bowen--

Jan 21, 2002, 2:11pm

Exactly, My Television has great resolution, it's an HDTV, so I'd like to
mess around with a console OS just to see what it's capable of. But the
keyboard and mouse together should only cost about $40, of you could buy an
adapter for your keyboard and mouse already if you wanted too. And the
internet on consoles is just what you pay for already if you have broadband,
just hook your console up to your network if you have the required stuff
allready. :)

<rant>
Who would want to downgrade to windowsXP when your windows98/95/ME/2k can
already do what it can plus more? Just so you can have a nice looking OS
with lots of flashy colors and a ram hog? (required minimum of 128,
recommended 256). The most a "normal" user uses a computer for is games,
and Windows98 is especially good for that. WindowsXP has so many bugs in it
for old games like warcraft2 and others like that that there really is no
point. If you're using it for development, ok I can live with that, but
games, e-mail, AW, and printing? Stick with 98SE for that. You'll be
better off in the long run. :)
</rant>

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 21, 2002, 5:04pm

to
an
broadband,
can
OS
games,
in it
no
>
> I can't. Developers like clear, fast and uncluttered interfaces, with as
little visual noise as possible. The best being a unix
> console :P. But a good IDE is useful too.
> I feel that the best OS for development are Windows 2000 and Linux, the
best OS for gaming is Windows 98SE. Other tasks like e-mail,
> writing, chatting... can be performed very efficiently in any of the 3...
> Which is why I use the 3 of them :)
> XP is a bad joke.
//
Yep, but truthfully, almost no one realizes this. They're so blind by what
the media tells them that any truth to the matter would drastically destroy
their vision of reality. Just checking your e-mail or surfing the web?
Linux is perfect for this, far better then windows. Rare chance of getting
a worm in linux compared to the great chance of getting worm/virus/trojan in
windows. I guess someone's going to come here and say otherwise but that's
their problem.
//

--Bowen--

Jan 21, 2002, 7:30pm

> Nobody would want to go out and replace a relatively new PC with
> anything (at the moment). The market is relatively saturated at this
> point. Current generation machines are as fast as any home or general
> office user needs. But things wear out, and if the alternative to
> taking a machine that won't boot to the repair shop is to plop down $300
> for the latest game machine that also does email, web and word
> processing etc... then the existing machine which is full of dust by now
> is likely to sit in the corner for a while.
>
> I used the figure $300 in my earlier post because $300 is the magic
> price point for game consoles just like $600-$1000 is the range for
> consumer PCs. That's the price that consumers will go out and get one
> without having to make lifestyle adjustments to compensate. There is a
> lot that goes into that price other than just the cost of manufacturing.
> Sony is said to lose $100 a box on the PS II and MS the same amount on
> the Xbox, but that doesn't mean it costs them $400 to make the things.
> There are advertising and distribution costs, R&D, etc.

<rant>

Not all systems fit into those categories, you can get a relatively good PC
for $400-500 nowadays. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't usually make
their games directly, they give software to companies for less then marketed
prices as long as the company pays them a percent of income on the games.
Nintendo is one of the only ones I think that actually makes their games..
have yet to see the complete Microsoft line up yet. I may be wrong.

> Corrections to earlier posts: The Playstation available in Japan now
> hooks to a regular computer monitor as well as the TV. No loss in
> resolution when it is used that way. You can pay $40 for a mouse and
> keyboard in CompUSA if you want to, but there are also perfectly useable
> optical mice for under $10 and keyboards as well.
>
> I think we have all heard that the game box makers lose money on each
> game box sold, and then make it up with profit on the games. Microsoft
> has been in the catbird seat, making money when you buy your new PC, and
> then making more money on add-on software, leaving it to the Dells,
> Compaqs, Intels and AMDs to slug it out in the manufacturing sector with
> razor thin margins.

No, they don't lose money, they make quite a bit of profits. If they lost
the money, they'd all be broke now. Not all companies make their own
games.. such as Sony.

> That time is over. From here on out, if you don't MAKE something
> (hardware) you won't make anything (profit). Software (particularly
> operating system and general use utilities) will be free, or almost
> free. Specialty software will sell... games, development tools 3D
> modeling programs (hehe), and MS will be a player in those areas just as
> they have been, but it will take a lot more than that to keep the MS
> money machine afloat. MS is in the game box business because they think
> they need to be to survive (and they do). They need to become more like
> AOL/TW... diversified, and making money in several sectors. Where did
> the competing operating systems come from other than MS? IBM, Sun,
> Apple, DEC, all primarily HARDWARE companies. These companies can all
> afford to give up their OS business though, because their core business
> is hardware (and services). MS's business model is unique however.
> They have built their huge war chest on two products, Office, and the
> OS. The open source movement, has gradually made their position
untenable.

Not from what I've seen, Microsoft fills their users full of crap and tells
them what they want to hear and gives them what they want to have. An "easy
to use" OS that doesn't make or break the system generally, that's first
off. If you don't take good care of your system it'll head towards the
crapper. That's why so many people reformat Windows computers often.

> So far, MS is in the process of diversifying, but they are only making
> money in the areas where they have established monopolies (although I
> think they claim that MSN and their mouse business are making some money
> for them too).

Monopolies are illegal, that should be fixed.

> Anyway... unless you have all your money in MS stock, these are things
> to celebrate. prices will keep coming down, replacing your PC (or
> equivalent) will be more like replacing your portable CD player than
> replacing your car.

Well, PC prices may be coming down, but Microsoft's OS prices are on the
rise. So that means if you're paying $300 less then what you payed 2 years
ago for a PC, but you're paying $300 more for that operating system, what's
the point? It's the same prices.

> Life is good :)

For now, unless you want to use XP and get the first batch of viruses that
get sent out. ;) Wait until you can't use that computer again because it
attacks flash-bios.. completely destroying your system from the inside out.
No reformatting in the world can save you from those.

</rant>

LoL

--Bowen--

Jan 21, 2002, 8:35pm

crapper.
>
> Uhh... if you don't maintain any computer regardless of the OS,
reformatting
> is often one of the only choices you have to get everything "back to
> normal". Just because someone uses Windows doesn't mean they're going to
> have to format their hard drive. If you stuck someone in front of a Linux
> machine with a good GUI and taught them how to use the apps they need, but
> didn't show them how to maintain anything, they'd probably have to
reformat
> eventually, too.

Unix machines rarely need to be maintained on the level windows machines do.
Even if you're great at maintianing a computer system, you still need to
reformat it once in a great while. Windows is the exception, the registry
(let alone anything else) seems to get cluttered with useless garbage even
after apps are removed. "Eventually" is the key word. Once a year is more
often then once every 5 years. I reformat my windows partition almost
anually compared to the last time I reformatted my Linux partitions (besides
my recent upgrade). That's why I said "if you don't take good care of your
system." Because even if you do, it's still going to happen "eventually."
But as I said, even if you're the best at it with windows, removing apps
leaves a lot of useless garbage on your system. Now you're going to defend
your point by saying that the best users in the world are good at removing
the left over stuff and stuff in the registries. Again I'll go back to my
key point. It's -----not nearly on the same level----- as mainting a
Windows machine. Is it just me or do you like to disagree with me, then say
almost the exact same thing I did, just in different words.

--Bowen--

Jan 21, 2002, 10:44pm

> Is it just me, or do you take every possible opportunity to bash anything
> Microsoft? All the Linux distributions I've heard of seem to be pretty
good
> operating systems. You have to set up and maintain a Linux system. Same
goes
> for Windows. If the average Windows user knew as much about how the OS
> worked as the average Linux user did their OS, then maybe more Windows
> systems would be properly maintained.

Again you just basically restated what I did in different words. I didn't
bash Microsoft, I bashed their product. I do have a right to my opinion.
But just disagreeing with me then saying almost what I say is pretty stupid,
no offense. You do have to set up and maintian a Linux system yes, but it's
not on the same level as the maintainance as a windows system is. Think of
it like this; Cleaning up your "trash" in linux is as difficult as taking
the garbage to the end of the driveway for the garbage man to take up. But
in windows, cleaning up your "trash" is actually being the garbage man and
taking your garbage plus all the garbage of the places you've been too with
you to the dump.

--Bowen--

Jan 22, 2002, 12:17am

>
> Did I ever say you didn't?

You asked me why I "always" bash Microsoft, I said I didn't, I bashed their
products. That's my opinion and even if I were bashing Microsoft, that's
still my opinion. What difference does it make to you? Even most of the
time I don't bash them all. MSVC++, XP, and Xbox are the ones I bash 99.9%
of the time.

the
> same level as the maintainance
"trash"
> in linux is as difficult as taking the
in
> windows, cleaning up your
all
> the garbage of the places you've
>
> I've been using computers for a while -- I don't need metaphors. Please
> explain in detail.

Ok, let me tell it again. In windows, to remove a application, you must run
the uninstaller. Most of the time it'll say "Uninstall could not complete"
or something to that effect. Then you must go into where that application
was and manually delete those left over files. Then if you're smart, you
remove registry entries by that application. Even then you might not get it
all.

*nix: Most of the times all you need to do is delete the folder in which
the application is located. Some of them, which have been integrated by
RPM, can be removed by going into your package and going to that programs
entry and clicking on uninstall.

Again these are just the usuals of the two OS. I'm surpised you couldn't
understand my analogy, it was pretty straight forward.

--Bowen--

Jan 22, 2002, 4:22am

LoL :) it's in general discussion, you don't need to read it.

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 22, 2002, 4:40am

Nah, just basically whatever goes, as long as it's not crap like "F you you
F'ing b*tch"

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 22, 2002, 1:25pm

> That's more because of a crappy uninstall than Windows. If it was done
> properly, you wouldn't have to manually delete files after using that
Remove
> Program thing. Another reason uninstalls sometimes "fail" is because files
> get created after install, so the uninstall script doesn't know about
them.

It can easily be fixed, just remove the directory if there's new files
there. The point is, is that that crappy uninstal is part of windows. You
can't do it any other way, if you try to manually delete some of the stuff
first you may cause a bunch of errors other places.

--Bowen--

Feb 5, 2002, 2:00am

> At the moment both sides are denying that there is a buy-out in
> progress, and maybe there isn't.
>
> The reason why AOL might want to buy Red Hat is that Red Hat is actually
> a profit making company, which, for those of you who have never heard of
> such a thing, means that they ACTUALLY make more money than they spend.
>
> They have existing deals with IBM and a few other big companies to
> support specialized version of Linux. I read today where Linux is now
> at 4.5 million lines of code. I suspect that the number of people who
> are even generally familiar with how that code operates is fairly small.
>
> So, buying Red Hat would give them an instant development team. (With
> the exception of a couple who have said they would quit if such a deal
> took place).
>
> I think my point is still valid though... since the breakdown in
> negotiations with Microsoft last year AOL has done a number of things to
> prepare for head to head combat with Microsoft if necessary.
>
> I'm no big hater of Microsoft (I just don't like their attitude), and
> I'm no big fan of AOL, but anything that keeps Microsoft from exploiting
> their monopoly position at this point is good for technology, and good
> for end users.

Nicely said :)

--Bowen--

Jan 17, 2002, 9:20pm

Robbie, passing trojans? No way. XW all over again, hm I wonder if he's
going to get brought to the US and charged under the new US hacking laws.

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 17, 2002, 9:57pm

> Uhh... no :)
>
> While I agree what he seems to have done is stupid and (likely) illegal,
the
> US can't prosecute someone in another country.
> I think the UK has some sort of "Anti-'Hacking' " law or something... But
a
> trojan horse hardly takes any skill to use.

Well if AW decides to prosecute him, then they probably could have him
removed from UK and brought to the US for trial. Especially since he had
the hacked XW universe :). Hacking on that scale is almost as bad as credit
fraud, which is a capital offense, and you can be pulled out. BTW you
agreed to follow "Massachusetts Law" while using this product when you hit
accept in the EULA I believe. Since the hack for the browser and the hacked
universe deal with AW's product, I bet they have every right to prosecute
him under Mass' law.

--Bowen--

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