Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-orders-yo.html
After reading this, I was almost sick. Everyone wants a bite out of Google, no matter what they have to do to get it and the fantastic few at Viacom have decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Not only is Viacom attempting to sue Google for allegedly allowing the hosting of copyrighted material on their site, but Google is also being forced to screw over their users by submitting user IP adresses and viewing history, per the request of the judge over the case.
Google may come out of this thing unscaved, but one thing is for sure; the Youtube community is who is really getting the bitter end of this one.
You can also keep up with the case here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9242
.::Chase::.
3 years agoSo after the hundreds of hours poured into the virtual world known as Azeroth, I’m finally getting a little bit of it back by selling my account to a commercial site known as Toonstorm. A friend of mine recommended the site, as he had used their service before with satifactory results.
To sell your account, you simply fill out a rather lengthy form detailing your gear and what your account contains. After that you chat with a representative from Toonstorm who gives you a quote for your account. My quote happened to be $110, which I must say I was pleased to accept. Who wouldn’t want to trade something that isn’t real for a decent amount of extra money anyway? On top of that, I haven’t played the game for several months so there was truly no reason for me to keep the account.
As I’m writing this I’m currently in a “queue” for account processing, which I figured would happen, so it’s not bothering me so much at the moment. Although, when I was transferred to my second representative he responded to me with “Please wait for 90-120 mins. Your order is in queue now. You may leave this chat window open. We will message you once we are ready. Sorry for the inconvenience.” So I figured, a couple hours - no big deal. Immediately I went over to Huluu to do the only thing any Huluu user does: watch high res Family Guy for free. I knocked out a couple episodes and a warm Coke to keep me chugging, but then I began to feel kind of tired, so I ask “Kenny” “Is there any way I can get a status update on my position in the queue or what my current estimated wait time is?” He simply replies with “You may choose to come back in 2-3 hours and give us your email then to process further to spare waiting time here. You can simply mention your email and we will be able to process further. If you choose to keep this chat window open, we will give you a buzz as soon as we are ready. Thank you for your patience and understanding.” So I curtiously reply back saying “Ok, thank you for the information. I will continue to keep this window open.” And so here I am, still waiting. I filled out the application to sell the account around 10:40 pm EST and it is now 2:10 am EST…is three and a half hours really not long enough to do something as simple as navigate through a WoW account?
I suppose it’s not all that ridiculous, considering I’m getting something for literally nothing, but that’s all in perspective I guess. My account will probably be switched around and resold for about $300 to some rich kid who has nothing better to do but blow money on nonexistent items and toys, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But honestly, I would have a hard time ever spending real hard cold cash on something that is made of nothing more than bits and bytes. After all, WoW is a game of bragging rights and that’s what it thrives on whether it be team based bragging or individual boasting.
Enough about the mental mechanics of WoW though. The current matter at hand is the fact that I am struggling to stay awake because of my early morning and “adventurous” day (which was tiring but not all that adventurous). Writing this blog has entertained me for a bit and I’m sure reading it will entertain me for a bit longer, but I just don’t believe I’m going to stay concious long enough to sell this thing tonight, even though I would really like to.
Given that all goes well and I stay awake until they decide to “give me a buzz”, I’ll write another finishing blog on how the transaction went and such. But chances are I’m probably going to fall asleep at some point before then, against my own will of course.
EDIT: I fell asleep…
EDIT 2: The transaction finally went through and now my PayPal account is $110 wealthier. The service even called me to confirm my information and that I really wanted to sell my account. Slow service, but good service. I’m pleased unless they decide to shaft me at the last second.
3 years agoThe game is obviously out now and has had an amazingly successful launch, as the developers have been pretty much dead on with each patch and are working very quickly in updating the game to bring out its full potential. I’m currently playing on a PvE server as a Demonologist and I must say that the game is a lot of fun, but definitely needs some polishing before it can reach the level of other high end MMO’s. Given that I had invested more time into playing, I’d have more to say in this update, but that’s about all I have at the moment. Now that school is over I may get in a few hours soon, so hopefully I’ll have a more indepth view of the game soon.
.::Chase::.
3 years agoSo I’ve had a bit less than 72 hours with the beta and already I can clearly see that it is still a beta, and (hopefully) no where near what FunCom intends to release come the end of May. I’ll break this into small sections so you can find what you care about most easily…
Graphics: The almighty graphics section…oh yes…well, I’m here to tell you that the graphics are good, some may even say they’re great compared to World of Warcraft (which I played for over a year). But in this beta (and I know it’s still just a beta), I was kind of disappointed. Sure, the foilage looks nice, and the bloom effects and the HDR, and the flashy combat animations…but I’m still not as pleased as I had hoped to be with this beta. It’s not a huge deal at this point though, because betas are more about stress an mechanics tests. There are some framerate issues with the beta at this point, as some (including myself) are experiencing 2-3 second “lag” spikes in the frames every 30 seconds or so, but this has been announced by FunCom and is currently being looked into. I’m sure the end product is still going to look amazing. If nothing, it’s heading in the right direction.
Sound: The audio in this game is nice. Nearly all NPC’s in the game read you their quest and chat text, which eliminates you wanting to skip everything that may be story based. The voice acting isn’t bad, but again, these are test missions and quests that are included in the beta so I can’t be too picky about it. Overall, the sound production in the beta isn’t bad and the ambient crickets and bug sounds are always there to keep you company.
Gameplay: This is where everyone is anticipating Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to shine, and I have to say that the gameplay is definitely different, but not drastically different from those MMO’s I’ve played before. Instead of having an auto attack, everything has the be commanded at the moment you want it. Melee wise, you can swing left, right, or do a centered swing on a mob or opponent. Spells are cast the same as they are in every other MMO known to man: click the button, wait and hope you don’t get hit, and watch your mana dwindle. I’ve only played as a mage-necromancer so far though, mainly because the frame skips were hindering my play, so I am currently stepping away from the beta until a patch for the problem is released. Your health and mana regenerates very very fast, and I have yet to run out of mana during a fight. As far as PVP goes, I haven’t messed with it and probably won’t until the patch for the frame skips is fixed. Overall, the gameplay in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures isn’t exactly anything brand new yet. It’s good and seems to work well when the frames aren’t freaking out, but there still seems to be a lack of innovation I had expected from the game. Again, this is still the beta, so I will not be biased toward buying the final release by it, but if I were the FunCom dev team, I would definitely be looking for a way to improve the beta a bit more, or else they may lose some of the more casual and impatient gamers.
Synopsis: In a nutshell, the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures open beta is decent. It has bugs, as to be expected, but what angers me the most is the frame skip bugs which eliminates my opportunity to fully experience the beta. As soon as this key problem is fixed, I’ll churn out another update, and hopefully be able to explain the classes a bit more and include some video. I may post a few screen shots later as well, just to showcase the beta graphics.
—>Chase
3 years agoSo I got into the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures “Open” Beta (even though you had to be a FilePlanet member and had to catch the sign-ups at the right time which were not publicly announced). Anyway, this is where I will post all of my updates on the game and my experiences over the next month with it. Because this beta is considered “open” there is no NDA restricting me from sharing video, audio, or any expeiences in the game so I will periodically post new content about it. Will this be the World of Warcraft killer it’s supposed to be? Let’s hope so, but I won’t even have a clue for another hour or so while the new updates are downloaded. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
—> Chase
3 years agoIs it just me or is the quality of the technology (that is the technology readily available to modern consumers) declining, and fast? Western Digital for example—since the age of about 8 I’ve been tweaking, modding, and exploring technological gadgets, but mostly those that involved a PC. Since I can remember I have been using Western Digital for all of my hard disk media storage and as far as I can remember, at that point, Western Digital hardly ever gave me problems. Within the past 6 months I have had 4 new Western Digital Caviar hard drives die on me. What is happening? I’ve heard of bad batches, but this is ridiculous, and to boot I have a friend who has went through a couple rather quickly as well. This frustrates me, as it leads me more and more to believe the WD is turning into another cheap knock off brand. On top of this, ATI’s x1900xt graphics card (which I purchased roughly 2 years ago) is now overheating on me and will not function properly (without artifacts and black screens) without an industrial sized box fan attached to it. A third example, and probably one quite close to home is the Xbox 360. What in the world was Microsoft thinking when they allowed these defective gaming boxes hit the shelves? Is there truly such thing as quality testing or is it more of a game of luck and chance where companies now move new technology straight from the press to the shelves? And a fourth example: a Thermaltake power supply that I had only owned for 2 months suddenly decides to take a nose dive. Why? I have no clue, and it could have been a fluke, but that is still an illustration of poor quality that is infecting our technology market. Yet another illustration of this would be not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 sets of Crucial Ballistix RAM going bad in less than 8 months! What is in the world is happening to the companies I once trusted to carry me through?
Now to mend the ties I’ve severed, I am willing to forgive these companies, because they’ve all had very nice customer service, and have even shipped me brand new products before I’ve sent back the old (except the Xbox 360, which has yet to red ring, but inevitably will). But unless these quality issues are corrected soon, I may be looking for other companies to back my technology supplies because I currently don’t have the time to waste waiting for replacement parts (who does?)
The point I’m trying to get across is that the quality of the technology market is declining, and fast. Components are rarely built as sturdy and reliably as they once were and I fear this will only continue to heighten as inflation in the U.S. continues to rise (not to mention oil prices). Forget new, forget innovative, forget speedy — I want quality technology products that work the way they did brand new, 3 years down the road.
And that’s my rant of the day. Be sure to take it with a grain of salt (I know I have to).
.::programmaChase::.
3 years ago
