1  ...  4  5  6  7  8  9  ...  12  |   Order by default

Mar 3, 2006, 3:17am

OK... we all have reasons at one time or another with Microsoft to be
irritated. That's a given.

However, if you have not noticed, there is this DANDY new download from
Windows/Microsoft Update called "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool"
and LET ME TELL you that many people, maybe even YOU will regret downloading
this.

WHY? Because if you are like me, your computers will be invalidated and
unable to download future updates.

WHY? Because if you are like me, you have upgrade your computer and
reinstalled the same copy of windows multiple times(i.e. yearly) to a single
computer... but to Microsofts point of view multiple simultaneous
computers... as in... you are a pirate using the same disk to install to
multiple computers.

Unfortunately Microsoft has us over a barrel. Activeworlds only runs on a
Windows machine. We can't simply jump ship and move to Linux or Mac and
continue to run our favorite software.

We'll simply be left in the cold without updates and vulnerable to future
Windows bugs.

Take care and good luck to you!

Mar 3, 2006, 10:29pm

No, I do not have a bad copy of my cd or key. All of my copies came from the
same place and all are legal. Thank you though for pointing out the
possibility. You'll sing a different tune once it happens to you though.

Mar 3, 2006, 11:57pm

Thankyou RICHARD for replying. I will try your solution.

However, the fact that no one here seems appalled by Microsofts heavy
handedness suggests that we have some sheep here. Microsoft being the
herder. I have always updated all my copies of windows(over 5 xp versions)
using MSUpdate and have always used the windows genuine advantage tool, and
on the same cpu's. Now I do occasionally upgrade the video cards, hard
drives and memory... and on a rare occasion the motherboard. I HAVE had to
call microsoft in the past to get past the 1 month validation due to this,
however I shouldn't have to do this when it's months or even a year apart.

MS wants it piece of the pie... this is understandable, but not at the cost
of its customer relations. No doubt they have an acceptable number of
customer dissatisfactions allowed for each change like this, but I
personally find it stupid to allow even 1 if it can be avoided.

<*rant off*> :)

Mar 15, 2006, 2:38am

When I was in the community, I could never understand it either. I think its
a mental imagery thing. There was never anything in that community that I
ever found to be a .... turn on. Only some of the philosophy made sense and
that I agreed with. nuff said.

Mar 19, 2006, 1:08am

Bill Murray was awesome in that flick! Don't you agree? I mean... it's one
of those movies you can watch several times and never get bored with. :)

Mar 15, 2006, 2:51am

I do not like SL in general. However, I've intentionally immersed myself in
SL for the last 3 months. There is a lot of good stuff in SL, as well as
bad.

1. The ability to share, the ability to trade, the ability to sell.
2. Building can be done by anyone, but is overly complicated for the
uninitiated.
3. Building is Free if you limit your space, and you easily have the ability
to expand your space depending on the limit of your pocketbook.
4. The worlds is ever expanding... seems without limit, and environments can
mesh, blend together or simply change from one square to the next...

I've got a reasonable computer for a year ago... I've got an anthlon 64
3500+ with 1gb mem and a 6800 nVidia video card... and I only get lag when I
decide to change the default video settings to higher values. In AW I can
max everything out at vis 200 and still get a reasonable frame rate.... but
a I am fairly convinced that has a lot to do with particle systems.

When I first came to AW though, I hated the build interface... now it is
second nature. So, if I were first encountering SL without the knowledge of
AW, I might feel the same.

[View Quote]

Mar 15, 2006, 2:30am

I emailed AWI not long ago about buying a much larger world for public use.
I wanted to know how much I would spend doing so. The reply kicked me in the
pants.

How much does an AWTeen like world cost? The answer is probably here
somewhere in an old post, but I am not intelligent enough to delve into the
newsgroup and find out with the software that I currently have. Does anyone
know? I've been told that I'd have to take on 2 more incomes in a hope to
actually come near that size of a world and sacrifice my first born child.

I'm in SL as well, and though I have many misgivings about that environment,
at least I ALWAYS know what it will cost to do what I want. AWI seems a
little more vague... and what they are NOT vague about seems to be way over
priced for what you get. There is absolutely no way in carnation that I
will spend 64000 dollars to create a large enough world for me to be
satisfied that you or a tourist can build in with a reasonable ability to
find a plot of land not already occupied by someone else. But what sucks is
that I want to have that world available.

We all have our desires and dreams, that's a given. Mine is simple but hard
to aquire. It's a wonder why no one has taken a uni server and hacked it so
everyone can have their own.... huh,... I wonder why anyone would ever do
something stupid like that.

lets be reasonable here... I have my own internet connection that I pay 40
dollars a month for.... 4mbs connection. I have my own path/web space which
I pay a decent dollar for. I run the server off my own computer.... or in
the environment my web provider allows. I'm providing everything for less
than 100 dollars a month... except for a license. What should someone
reasonably pay for a large enough area to provide enough building room for a
couple of hundred friends/aquaintences?

I'm just saying.

Mar 19, 2006, 1:06am

I'm just saying. <- key phrase.

I was not asking them for a P100 sized world, I was asking them for a P4000
sized world and that webpage which you linked to which I have reviewed a
hundred times in the last few years doesn't say how much that would cost.
BTW, nor has that page you linked to ever changed in that timespan either.

With SL, you always know... period... unless it's land for auction... and in
that case you get to decide how much you are willing to pay.

Get my drift? If I want to buy a p4000, please have it out front as to how
much it will cost me... don't just ask me what my budget is.

Mar 23, 2006, 10:59pm

>. As for the tourist building issue - same issues..tourists cannot build in
>certain worlds until they register..it's like a demo..you don't want to
>give your whole product away for free!

The reason I originally registered was because I was able to build as a
tourist in Alphaworld. If I was unable to build and my experience in AW was
simply as a fancy chat room, I never would have stayed. Back in the late
80's and early 90's there were several avatar style experiments being done
which I tried, but none allowed building, they were just chat rooms with
fancy surroundings and people dressed as a few different avatars. Big woop.
IBM even tried it and ultimately shut it down. I quickly lost interest.

Now, there was ONE 2D avatar environment that I was totally hooked on a very
long time ago on a service called Q-Link... back in the days of 300 baud
modems, commodore 64's, and when CompuServe was the ruler of all online
services(before the internet as we know it for you young kids) and it was
called Club Caribe. You couldn't build there, but there were many games you
could play on the island/city paradise and you could customize your
appearance for a small fee at vending machines. Buy a new head, or a can of
paint to change the color of something you were wearing... and you could buy
all manner of odd objects... there were towers you could explore, malls
galore to buy in, underground labyrinths, the island, underwater ruins, and
loads of special places you could take your honeydo on valentines day.

Maybe it was just that era or period of time, but there has never been any
game, chat room, or 2d/3d environment that I have ever experienced since
then that was so addictive and compelling to use. Maybe it was my age. I
don't know... all I know is that my last bill was over 800 dollars and I
lost access to my very first credit card as a result. :)

Now, since I registered with AW, I've opened a couple of user accounts and
had several worlds since 1999. None of which would have happened if I had
not been able to build as a tourist.

Building for the uninitiated in AW is a little confusing at first, and
therefore I feel it is important to give Tourists the ability to try it out,
learn how, and implement their ideas. They always ran the risk of having
their builds deleted by a citizen and they were always warned up front that
it could happen at any time. If they wanted their land and their builds to
last, they'd have to register. That was their incentive, and I know it
worked for a lot of us still here today.

For me, the 70 dollars a year isn't that big a deal, but I know it is for
many. I also know that when it was 20 dollars a year I referred everyone I
knew to come take advantage of the sweet deal. Since it bumped up to 70 I
have not referred a single person. There are too many free things on the net
to keep people interested without having to spend that kind of cash on. I
mean, get yourself a copy of yahoo messenger, find a bunch of chat buddy's
and if you want, doodle on the same window with each other and see each
other on your webcam's while doing it. I know it doesn't compared to AW, but
it's 100% free to do.

If you don't know it by reading older posts, I am a Cable TV installer for a
large cable company. I install internet service for many people a day when I
work and I get to see the icons and programs installed on their computers
during the process of my installation. People like free stuff... and the
number of installations of Morpheus, Kazaa, and Limewire is extremely
widespread. The use of AIM and Yahoo messenger is rampant. But not once have
I ever seen a copy of Activeworlds... never. I've seen people with World of
Warcraft, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot.... nuff...
I'm praying that 4.1 is the killer app. :)

Be well!

Mar 23, 2006, 11:54pm

Fair enough Elyk, and I do know that there is a website available which
tells tourists which worlds are tourist and tourist build enabled. However,
why should a third party have to create such a list? There *should* be such
a list available from the activeworlds website. It's to their advantage to
advertise this... for free... on their website.

When I was a player of Dark Age of Camelot... or Everquest II(no longer)...
they made websites that told of every minute detail of each player, each
guild, each server... you name it... you could get the details.

When my world server goes online with the AW uni server... all the
information needed is transmitted to it.... in order for the worlds list to
be generated with the correct rating, access, etc. Thus when one of my
worlds shows up on the list, you will either see it colored or grey,
indicating you can go there or not... or it may not show up on your list at
all because you decided the rating was inappropriate. Nowhere on this world
list does it say "citizen building available" or "tourist building
available"... or even for that matter "tourist enabled". Of course is
doesn't say "citizen bots allowed" either... but these are all features that
every world owner has the right to enable or disable.

I do not work for AWI obviously, but if I did, I would strongly push for a
dynamicly updated page on the AW website that showed which worlds were
online, and what their stats were... because you gotta know the UNI server
knows these details... and I know there are some talented people there that
could punch out a script for such a page in a day or two. This would
eliminate the need for third party sites to try and guess which worlds were
or were not whatever. And thus give all of us citizens and tourists the
ability to find the world we 'wanted to/could' build in.

It would solve a problem we have complained about for a long time and
probably others we are not even aware of yet.


[View Quote]

Mar 24, 2006, 2:20pm

But but.... it's my thread :P~ hehe

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2006, 11:30pm

Besides goooooogle... what other sites are you using to add revenue to your
site? I went to your site about 20 minutes ago and these rather annoying
popup style ads were showing up as I was reading one of your pages where my
mouse pointer was.... overlaying what I was reading. Sure gets your
attention :) Just curious :P

[View Quote]

Apr 18, 2006, 11:14pm

> But ... It has the disadvantage that it logs you into the universe and
> your name (with AFK settings) will appear on your friends' the contact
> list.

It would be nice, if this takes off, if AWI would add a new flag to the user
list which would state that you were logged into the messenger program and
not the browser itself, instead of using the AFK state. I think this program
is a fantastic idea.

Apr 20, 2006, 11:22pm

ok ok.... I went to go license another world... and I had the size and name
all set up... and I went to include my credit card information.... but it
wouldn't let me put in the Year of my credit card. Glory be! I was saved
from an impulse buy! Thank you AWI! :) Please fix it so I can spend more
money I don't really have. ;)

Love,
Talisan

Apr 21, 2006, 8:28pm

Honest, I really can't buy a license right now because of this.

screenshot follows:
http://www.darkestdestiny.com/example1.jpg

Apr 21, 2006, 10:26pm

Good catch. I never would have thought to check for that. Do you get the
same results as I?

<tr>
<td>Expiration:</td>
<td>
<select name="cc_mo">
<option value="01">01 (Jan)</option>
<option value="02">02 (Feb)</option>
<option value="03">03 (Mar)</option>
<option value="04">04 (Apr)</option>
<option value="05">05 (May)</option>
<option value="06">06 (Jun)</option>
<option value="07">07 (Jul)</option>
<option value="08">08 (Aug)</option>
<option value="09">09 (Sep)</option>
<option value="10">10 (Oct)</option>
<option value="11">11 (Nov)</option>
<option value="12">12 (Dec)</option>
</select>
<select name="cc_yr">
<select name="cc_yr">
<option value="06">2006</option>
<option value="07">2007</option>
<option value="08">2008</option>
<option value="09">2009</option>
<option value="10">2010</option>
<option value="11">2011</option>
<option value="12">2012</option>
<option value="13">2013</option>
<option value="14">2014</option>
<option value="15">2015</option>
<option value="16">2016</option>
<option value="17">2017</option>
<option value="18">2018</option>
<option value="19">2019</option>
<option value="20">2020</option>
</select>
</select>
</td>
</tr>

Apr 28, 2006, 11:58pm

Well, thanks for fixing the problem... unfortunately for the moment my
impulse is under control :) ... but just for the moment ;()

Apr 28, 2006, 11:56pm

OMG... reading this post drove me to near extinction.... but, after reading
it twice I did grasp the concept you were trying to convey.

Yes, there is no doubt many citizens that do visit the awards will take
screen shots... and it could be assumed that having sanctioned screenshots
could be a move to make the Cy's more like the Oscar's... but doing so does
not invalidate the citizens screen shots vs the... ahem... official screen
shots. The only thing that could invalidate them would be to prevent screen
shots altogether... like the Oscar's have banned camera's at the ceremonies.
The only way this could happen is if AWI sanctioned it with code, and even
then, there would be ways around it.

Don't have a heart attack over this... it's all cool :) I think she just
wants to cover all the angles... even the ones the cits might miss :)

Apr 29, 2006, 5:01am

Eons ago I used to experience screen burn in... on old monochrome monitors
and then new vga and ega monitors... but after a while it stopped happening
on newer monitors and so I forgot all about it. I mean, screen savers were
invented for the sole purpose of preventing it... but the it became
obsolete. Huh...

....well, I have this 17 inch Viewsonic monitor that I've had for perhaps 3
years now... its an LCD and so far so good. Now... I have this 30+ inch
Viewsonic LCD theatre proportioned monitor that I got this past December...
and darn... well, under certain conditions I can see burned in buttons. I
thought maybe it was just that game and maybe they were just ghost images
from dialogs waiting to pop up at the right moment, so I took screen
shots... even rebooted the pc... and well, when I went into photoshop, the
ghost images were still there, and they stayed in the same exact spot, no
matter which way I scrolled the screenshots. The burnins were independant
of the screenshot, but would only show up under certain color conditions.
They do not show up on a white screen, but do show up on a dark blue
screen.... but not on a black screen.

Anyhow... not suggesting you don't buy one of these monitors, just making
you aware that screen burn in is not dead, but still a reality.

Apr 30, 2006, 4:26am

Looks good!

> http://pelican.frobozz.us/website/newgz77.jpg
>

May 4, 2006, 11:12pm

http://ciena.us/awpics/ground_art_by_ciena.jpg

That's really cool Ciena! Nice!

May 5, 2006, 2:17am

> TY it got addictive. I did 10 of them :)

Well shoot, I only count 5 in that screen shot, I need to see the other 5...
or more if I counted wrong. :) *pokes you*

May 9, 2006, 11:47pm

I've read every post here regarding your issue and I have no idea why it is
even an issue. Every rating except X is allowed. So, if you really want your
world to be included, why is it rated X? Are you trying to keep certain
people out? Is there truly X rated material in your world? If so, then even
if your world were allowed in the Cy's then a lot of the people who could
vote for you would not be able to get into your world in the first place nor
be able to have any opinion on why they should vote for your world. This is
a dead horse, and I truly believe it is a smart move to keep X rated out of
the family orientated Cy awards.

<snip>

The Classification and Ratings Board was created in response to a
national cry for some kind of regulation of film content. During the 1960s,
the social pressures of an ever evolving country fostered a sense of concern
for the new topics and issues being explored by the creative industries,
namely in the movies. The motion picture industry sought to find a balance
between preserving creative freedoms and notifying people about films
content so that people could make decisions about what movies they wanted to
see and what movies were appropriate for their children.

Former President of the MPAA Jack Valenti worked with the National
Association of Theatre Owners to create a new and, at the time,
revolutionary approach to fulfilling the movie industry's self prescribed
obligation to the parents of America. On November 1, 1968, NATO, MPAA and
IFIDA announced the birth of the new voluntary film rating system of the
motion picture industry.

The initial design called for four rating categories:

a.. G for General Audiences, all ages admitted
b.. M for mature audiences, parental guidance suggested but all ages
admitted
c.. R for Restricted, children under 16 not be admitted without an
accompanying parent or adult guardian (this was later raised to 17 years of
age, and varies in some jurisdictions)
d.. X for no one under 17 admitted
The rating system trademarked all the category symbols, except the X.
Under the plan, anyone who did not submit his or her film for rating could
self-apply the X or any other symbol or description, except those
trademarked by the rating program.

The original plan had been to use only three rating categories.
Valenti felt that parents ought to be able to accompany their children to
any movie the parents choose, without the movie industry, government or
self-appointed groups interfering with their rights. But NATO urged the
creation of an adult-only category, fearful of possible legal redress under
state or local law. Hence, the four-category system, including the X rating,
was installed.

Hence, the emergence of the voluntary rating system filled the vacuum
provided by the dismantling of the Hays Production Code. The movie industry
would no longer disapprove the content of a film, but would now see its
primary task as giving advance cautionary warnings to parents so they could
make the decision about what movies their children see.

CHANGES IN THE RATING SYSTEM
After the creation of the rating system, the board found that the M
category (mature) was regarded by most parents as a sterner rating than the
R (restricted) category. To remedy this misconception, the rating was
changed from M to GP (general audiences, parental guidance suggested). A
year later the name was revised the name to its current label, PG: (parental
guidance suggested).

In July of 1984 the PG category was split into two groups- PG and
PG-13. PG-13 meant a higher level of intensity than was to be found in a
film rated PG. Over the past years, parents have approved of this amplifying
revision in the rating system. In September of 1990 two more revisions were
announced. First, the board began giving brief explanations of why a
particular film received R ratings. Since, in the opinion of the Ratings
Board, R rated films contain adult material, they believed it would be
useful for parents to know a little more about that film's content before
they allowed their children to accompany them. Sometime later the board
began applying the same explanations in the PG, PG-13 and NC-17 categories
as well. These explanations are available to parents at the theater (by
telephone or at the box office), in certain media reviews and listings, and
are made available at www.mpaa.org and filmratings.com.

The second change was in the X category which then became NC-17 (no
one 17 and under admitted). The X rating over the years appeared to have
taken on a surly meaning in the minds of many people, something that was
never intended when the system was created. Therefore, the board chose to
reaffirm the original intent of the design that was installed on November 1,
1968, in which the adults only category explicitly describes a movie that
most parents would want to have barred to viewing by their children. These
ratings were all trademarked and can only be used to for film ratings.
<snip>


begin 666 ratings_histor_hdr.gif
M1TE&.#EA; `8`,0``-43&.#1S=_$P-MR<]^VL]<\/]M_?]R-C-8 at )=8N,ME7
M6=IE9MV;F=A)3-ZHIO%36-0%"^'?V at ``````````````````````````````
M`````````````````````````"'Y! ``````+ ````!L`! at ```7_X",^46F>
M:*JN;.N^,#R2<6W?>'[.>N__.!YP2"Q&A,:DLH9<.I^H)G2ZE%*O1"MJP!T(
M8HT&4#!PE!Q>1H%QU9H($$0!`C&K!H!O! ``&B &)0T0`G^!*7AZ0VXE!Q #
M$0R/)00.= at 1\# at ("# at 01`6:6)J .#)Z<GB at *=24)$!&6`9^B$9 at `FF>XLYR6
MJ:"*.R,M`ZRK!P%S='T`=("#8L3,$ D1CLT+Q'0**',F$ 5P$ 0,T at A[S08$
M".C5S0 at `YA&K=E'"+',)Z]MS at 0#4CH<<3%H`84& =0&F"1 at D$$" `ZF\-:.S
M($*W.9;8`"SQ3A.?",02!"#0+6&\%(PB_[P;!$G2- at $0MA&T0XS-'%F9" at 9P
M1<!5`7HE8":P1##0M at $$1PH,;-=18NOYJ0BA at ;"4A6,$A80"I+51E<FYJE\
MI54`LW5BJC&+&&E25TW?SK at *!/;MIZ-UVQF QX*1P(J#"!!+Q\P,A#XEND6(
M*Q 2' 2!"!QC>*)F8 at B at ' at 4P4&C2X1)_#!I;3.U,'+=8[:DPU':!6656([B:
MQ%? at MC]+7Q=<I0U%X!(?<5N;)FOV at (/7:L4\P<QA7]4I.,F"Y8G4KUD.9'7:
M%4&Z`%DP"\#2=:*2B>W2:VTO83V7GNLF'&U[+ at *+2 at 0#YD"R7WY.GA8I)7%
D`04TP 9__2G 5A=J]2'HH X!/B at A2M!-:"%]-%RHH0HA```[
`
end

May 9, 2006, 11:54pm

<snip>
These ratings were all trademarked and can only be used to for film
ratings.
<snip>


OOPS!!! Does that mean that activeworlds is in violation of trademark laws?
HOLY ****!

May 10, 2006, 10:47pm

That's a cool site. Where was that when I was hawing and nawing for
Truespace info a few months ago? Better late than never. :) I'll be pouring
over those pages for a while.

Thanks

May 10, 2006, 4:02am

I am VERY sorry to reply,this will be flat... but I have attemped to be
reflective.

May 10, 2006, 10:27am

Excellent idea! What was I replying to? :P

[View Quote]

May 13, 2006, 1:19am

*bump*

May 12, 2006, 9:41pm

Land in SL, is at first quite cheap, you can get a starter lot of 512
meters... and that's tiny compared to the size of the smallest AW world. If
you have a yearly membership, that first land is included. If you want more
land the price starts jumping higher, and you get monthly instead of just an
annual bill. There are communities, but they are different than AW's. You
create group land in SL, and within certain limits, anyone in the group can
use and build on the land that is group owned. However I do believe their is
a heirachy within the group. I have never been in a group, so I don't know
the exact structure.

I've been a member of SL since Oct 05... not long, but I aquired some land
and made my attempts at a homestead. Now, I have sold off all my land and
canceled my membership which will expire this coming October. I have no
desire to spend another linden dollar on anything, and I hope that by next
October that the currency exchange for linden dollars has not tanked, since
they are taking away all of the incentives for making money in the community
except pure buy and sell. e.g. you used to be able to make a dwell bonus'
when people visited your land and your builds, this is going away. The
popular places made good linden dollars from mass traffic. I already know
that the linden dollar has gone from 250 lindens to 1 dollar to now being
over 300 lindens to 1 dollar... so I am glad I already cashed out. If it
gets worse, it will be like the peso!

May 13, 2006, 2:04am

Eep, I have a love hate relationship with you. :) I have tried SL, and I
have jumped in full force and with the full power of my CC... luckily I
didn't get too far in. I built my houses both free and puchased, I have
purchased hair, skins, and you name it for my AV and been disappointed right
and left. I have been to PG and mature areas. The PG areas being stupid and
the mature areas being full of T&A all over the place, not to mention porn
pics between AV's all over the place. I am glad I don't have kids and have
to contend with that crap. YES, SL is constantly growing, but they better
grow a conscience over there really quick. Not only that, SL is offline so
often now because of hacker attacks I am getting sick of it. In order to
prevent the hacker attacks, certain illusions of SL's superiority in
scripting are going to have to be given up or restricted in order to prevent
them in the future. I am tired of being told I can not enter SL because of
these attacks and only Lindens can enter. It was happening monthly, but now
weekly. Although AW may not be growing, it does not have the problems that
SL has... and that may also be why AW 4.1 is so delayed BTW... they may
actually be "testing" the software to make sure it's not like SL :P

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