Even though the US only has a 20 percent piracy rate (which is the lowest in the world), Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the BSA, says that figure is a lot worse considering we buy more software than any other country.


HUUHHH? Isn't that the point, we buy more software so we have a lower piracy rate?

I'm surprised no one has the 53,595 infected yet. I don't play THAT much and I'm at about 20,000 (on PC).

The effects will probably be different depending on the game. If I remember, you have to login to a master server to play Tribes 2, so that one will probably die.

For most of the other games, I assume you will still be able to connect if you know the IP address or use a 3rd party matchmaking service, such as Gamespy.

If they were morons and simply stored md5 hashed passwords, then this could will lead to some compromised accounts since reverse md5 databases exist.

If they were smart and added some salt to the hash, (i.e. password concatenated with "heroes", then run md5 on that) the encrypted passwords are worthless unless they can figure out what the salt was. Better yet, they would use some unique salt, such as the username so that an md5 database would not be helpful. I didn't have an account, but if I did, I would want to know this bit of information.

I think he means MK Gamecube and MK Wii. They're pretty much the same, MK wii is just two MK Gamecubes duct taped together.

I wish X-wing alliance had better online play. Anything over 30 ms of latency makes that game unplayable (It's a great LAN game though if you can find people geeky enough to play it). With modern latency compensation techniques they could make an awesome multiplayer space sim. Nothing more awesome than a star destroyer and tie fighters vs. a calamari cruiser and x-wings.

Horribly efficient? How is that a bad thing? Z-buffering is used because it gets you a pretty good looking scene at a low cost compared to other algorithms.

Do you want perfect graphics that run at 0.2 frames/second? Or do you want darn good looking graphics that run at 60 fps? Even as raytracing improves, what you get "for the money" will be better with Z-buffering for a while.

Don't take my word for it, read what Carmack has said on the issue:

The problem of computer graphics scales differently than general purpose calculations because many of the calculations can be done in parallel. CPU parallelization usually means simultaneous multi threading (hyperthreading) or SMP.

Graphics cards are good at the type of matrix multiplication and parallelization that is involved in rendering a scene with a 3d algorithm. For example the Geforce 8 has 128 stream processors that each run at 1.35 GHz/second. They also have their own memory for textures, frame buffer, Z buffer.

The Xbox 360 can run 6 threads simultaneously on it's 3 cores, and it still has a graphics chip. The PS3 originally planned to do graphics calculations in the Cell but they decided fairly late in the design to add a graphics chip.

In-ear headphones actually can help protect your hearing, when used correctly. Since they are in your ear canal, they give better bass response at lower volumes. Also they effectively create a seal from outside noise, further reducing the volume needed to hear the music.

Of course, if you are running your mp3 player at full volume, they are probably more damaging than cans or earbuds.

Yeah turns out my reading comprehension skills are not so good. But I'll take any excuse to read that brilliant piece of satire.