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Oh yeah, don't miss the days of trying to host games via modems - effectively blind firing on the hopes we'd connect. I recall once typing in gibberish into the StarCraft serial box and actually having it end up working, but for some reason the map builder wouldn't work.
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Jul 26, 2014 03:50
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I remember connecting two computers via 'null modem' which was a serial-to-serial network connection. The days before TCP/IP were dark indeed.
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Jul 26, 2014 04:08
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Phanatic posted:That said, the specific activity of natural uranium is approximately gently caress-all, about 25kBq/gram. For comparison, you have about 4500Bq of radiopotassium and about 3700Bq of radiocarbon in you right now. True, but it also acts as an estrogen-mimic.
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Jul 26, 2014 06:38
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two forty posted:Uranium in Fiesta ware! See also uranium glass. Sometimes at vintage malls or estate sales you'll see a random person with a Geiger counter trying to find real Fiesta ware or uranium glass. Here's a video of someone using a Geiger counter on red Fiesta ware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wluxzlMkoyw
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Jul 26, 2014 06:47
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I corrected my post re: ingredients in Fiesta ware. I was working off memory, sorry for the mistake. Thanks for the corrections and explanations of alpha particles. I would also like to add that uranium was/is also used in photography, as evidenced here: http://theodoregray.com/periodictable/Elements/092/index.s7.html#sample16 It has that same more-orange-than-red tone of Fiesta. Also that site in general is pretty interesting if you want to see other potentially dangerous elements that were used in consumer products, as well as commonplace applications of obscure-seeming elements. And if I'm doing a link dump I'll add http://www.orau.org/ptp/museumdirectory.htm which is a time capsule of web design in and of itself but full of neat stuff if you poke around a bit.
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Jul 26, 2014 06:50
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WebDog posted:Oh yeah, don't miss the days of trying to host games via modems - effectively blind firing on the hopes we'd connect. As a bit of a funny story along those lines, I bought a video capture card for my computer and the software that only worked with that card (to my understanding) required a serial number to be entered in order to install everything from the drivers to the applications. Then I lost the book with the serial number on it. I was so frustrated that I ended up typing in gibberish, too, and just lucked into a working install code after a few tries.
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Jul 26, 2014 07:50
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I have heard that Hauppauge is worse than that still, actually physically requiring the CD to install the base drivers, and all the updaters check to see if the disk is in the drive before they will run. I don't really understand the point, since the software generally works with one card, and it's not like you can pirate the physical device.
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Jul 26, 2014 08:22
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twistedmentat posted:Not to restart old copy protect chat, but Master of Orion had as ship on each page with a name, and you had to identify it to progress in the game. We remembered that there was a penis shaped ship called the penetrator, so we'd just play until we got that one as a question. That'll teach you to not leave your poo poo lying about 
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Jul 26, 2014 13:23
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But Mooooooom, I/you purchased a licence to use the software, not the software itself.
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Jul 26, 2014 13:30
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I kept/keep manuels in the box and the boxes on a shelf so I never had this problem. Also I only had like five computer games as a kid so this wasn't a huge problem.
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Jul 26, 2014 13:34
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Elliotw2 posted:I have heard that Hauppauge is worse than that still, actually physically requiring the CD to install the base drivers, and all the updaters check to see if the disk is in the drive before they will run. I have two older Hauppauge cards(HVR 1100 and WinTV PCI FM), only one of which(HVR 1100) works under Windows 7, and the full downloadable software package including their WinTV application require the disk to be in the drive, and will refuse to install the application if the drivers for the hardware aren't installed if you're trying to install from CD. Has to be I discovered this because I seem to have misplaced the disk for that specific card(or it's in a massive binder somewhere) so I'm unable to install or update the software. They do offer the drivers as a separate package that works with Dscaler though, so I'm just using that and it works a hell of a lot better than WinTV too. Also fun is that they still offer driver packages that work with Windows 98, and for some older cards only offer drivers up to XP(again in a bundle requiring at least 98)
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Jul 26, 2014 15:44
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Jerry Cotton posted:I kept/keep manuels in the box and the boxes on a shelf so I never had this problem. Also I only had like five computer games as a kid so this wasn't a huge problem. Hopefully someday you'll give it back to Manuel. I miss manuals, but totally understand why they've gone the way of the dodo. Metal Gear Solid 1 had an incredible manual for something that just came packaged with the regular base game.
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Jul 26, 2014 19:53
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As something that's completely unrelated to copy protection: here's something I was reminded of today.   There's a couple things about it. First, you see those giant rear end concrete blocks? That are still hanging after 100 years? Those were used to raise the entire section of the bridge to let large riverboats pass through. However since it's about 6 feet from the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers the water wasn't generally deep enough to attract boat traffic like that and it was only lifted for that purpose one time. Second, up until the 50's it shared both car and railroad traffic! You'd literally drive right up onto the bridge deck and down the middle of the tracks and hope to god that the no train was coming. The one in the picture stopped doing that before my time, but there was a very similar one not too far away that I have distinct memories of driving over in the 80s. quote:"In 1925 a plank roadbed was built for one-way vehicular and foot traffic, while the bridge continued to be used by the Great Northern Railroad. Although a long bridge with one-way traffic and shared with railroad trains should have been spectacularly hazardous, a 1981 study found that it was "so dangerous that it was safe, because drivers were extraordinarily cautious when crossing it." More pictures and info here: http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2011/07/03/fairview-lift-bridge-and-tunnel/ They've put in handrails and poo poo now, but I loved climbing all over that thing as a young (stupid) adult.
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Jul 26, 2014 20:50
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Collateral Damage posted:I worked at a web hosting company in the early noughties and one of our larger customers was a service that did basically that but with DVDs. It was a subscription library where you paid something like $25 per month and you could borrow a couple of DVDs at a time. You selected what movies you wanted on their web site and they were sent to you by post along with a return envelope. Once you returned the DVDs you could select new ones. What no that's not obsolete at all, I use a service identical to this in the UK for blu rays because I'm a video quality snob and don't have a connection fast enough to stream full nd.
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Jul 27, 2014 00:27
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:What no that's not obsolete at all, I use a service identical to this in the UK for blu rays because I'm a video quality snob and don't have a connection fast enough to stream full nd. Yup, quality snob here, loving streaming artifacts -__- I have a 100MB connection and it still does it 2 or 3 times during a movie. Not to mention the lack of DTS for my surround system, the difference is night and day Collateral Damage posted:I worked at a web hosting company in the early noughties and one of our larger customers was a service that did basically that but with DVDs. It was a subscription library where you paid something like $25 per month and you could borrow a couple of DVDs at a time. You selected what movies you wanted on their web site and they were sent to you by post along with a return envelope. Once you returned the DVDs you could select new ones. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/22/netflix-dvds-mail-subscription Still going strong but dwindling a bit, absolutely not obsolete Astrobastard has a new favorite as of 00:37 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 00:33
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Full Battle Rattle posted:Hopefully someday you'll give it back to Manuel. Frontier: Elite 2 came with a manual, a star chart and a book of short stories as thick as the manual. poo poo was hardcore back then. And then the game itself was 1.4 MB, on a CD. Admittedly four times that because it was translated into three non-english languages.
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Jul 27, 2014 00:36
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I had a Netflix Blu-Ray subscription up until recently because there's a colossal number of films that they have on disc but not on streaming. I only got rid of it to save money. Wish I could still afford it.
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Jul 27, 2014 00:39
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Darth Various posted:Frontier: Elite 2 came with a manual, a star chart and a book of short stories as thick as the manual. poo poo was hardcore back then. One of the best items from back then was the famous Zorkmid coin that's very very rare and goes for $100s on ebay. There were attempts to re-mint them but that's mired by legality. I suppose it has evolved into the special editions where you get everything from bonus soundtracks to being able to order limited edition replica leather jackets. As for manuals, the largest were anything that was a sim or strategy game, like Falcon 4.0 that came in a binder, or Sim City 3000 Unlimited which came spiral bound. They also were quite important for spelling out the backstory of a game, such as Mechwarrior 2 that came with tips and sketches scribbled in the margins.  There's some awesome old controls options in there as well.   It's interesting how they fitted between providing background fluff for the game story and actual tips and tricks vs today where it's mostly key bindings. I suppose they really died off when tutorials started becoming the norm and the fact it was far cheaper to save on printing as well as constant cross checking and proofing as things changed during game development. I remember the game X3 was so broken on release that features included in the manual never were in the game. I recall getting a shock with Half Life 2. Cheap cardboard tray with disks in paper slips with one little postcard for instructions. The way of the future...
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Jul 27, 2014 06:15
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Elliotw2 posted:I have heard that Hauppauge is worse than that still, actually physically requiring the CD to install the base drivers, and all the updaters check to see if the disk is in the drive before they will run. About the only thing I can maybe half come up with is that it's maybe tied into licensing rights for various codecs or something and they maybe had to assure the owners it'd have some sort of install restrictions. I seem to think several years ago when I went to reinstall a video editing program of mine the MPEG codecs built into it no longer worked right off the bat as before. I think it was because in the years between installs they were no longer affiliated with the company that provided the codecs so that part of the activation/install procedure required taking some extra steps.
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Jul 27, 2014 06:25
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I have an old Hauppauge card as well somewhere, maybe I should try it out. Recently I discovered that Canon pulls the same poo poo with their DSLR software - you can only download an updater, the original must be installed from a CD (that I didn't even get with my kit). Eventually I found where you can download the full installation, but it asks you for the camera serial number!
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Jul 27, 2014 09:37
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Jerry Cotton posted:That'll teach you to not leave your poo poo lying about To be fair, I had them all in a box in my closet and she thought they were junk. I always wondering how CDkeys worked. I figured they each had an algorithm that was unique to that software, and all you needed to do was enter something that had the same algorithm to unlock it.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:28
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twistedmentat posted:To be fair, I had them all in a box in my closet and she thought they were junk. See qcrack,exe. When Quake 1 came out id included every game they'd worked on up to that point, with some phone in activation where you paid and they'd give you the key. Within hours of the discs showing up at retail locations someone came up with a crack that not only unlocked quake, but the back catalog of id.
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Jul 28, 2014 01:06
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WebDog posted:I recall getting a shock with Half Life 2. Cheap cardboard tray with disks in paper slips with one little postcard for instructions. The way of the future... That game was ahead of its time in every way.
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Jul 28, 2014 02:39
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twistedmentat posted:To be fair, I had them all in a box in my closet and she thought they were junk. The only thing that would be really stupid would be to not use a whitelist and then use the exact same check offline and online, because this would allow people to generate keys offline that would work for online play (unless they used public key cryptography with ridiculously long codes).
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Jul 28, 2014 02:45
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mints posted:See qcrack,exe. When Quake 1 came out id included every game they'd worked on up to that point, with some phone in activation where you paid and they'd give you the key. Within hours of the discs showing up at retail locations someone came up with a crack that not only unlocked quake, but the back catalog of id. Aaah, memories. Floppies with a copy of qcrack.exe were all that was necessary for Nerd Stardom back in 1996 
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Jul 28, 2014 02:57
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Radioactive materials are still commonly used for colour in artist paints. The use of cadmium as pigments give you really bold, intense and permanent reds, oranges and yellows, colours that used to wash out pretty quickly with older pigments. This also means that the cadmium paints are twice the price of all the other tubes in the store. 
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Jul 28, 2014 15:43
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mystes posted:The only thing that would be really stupid would be to not use a whitelist and then use the exact same check offline and online, because this would allow people to generate keys offline that would work for online play (unless they used public key cryptography with ridiculously long codes). The way a number of online games did it was to have a client-side check that was pretty lenient (like a simple checksum or whatever), and then a much more involved server-side algorithm that accepted relatively few keys. Scene dudes would quickly reverse-engineer the client-side check and release a key generator for it, which would work fine if all you wanted to play was single player, but would get you banned pretty much immediately if you tried to play online with it.
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Jul 28, 2014 15:49
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MondayHotDog posted:That game was ahead of its time in every way. I remember the rage threads on this forum when Steam was unavailable/sluggish during launch. Thankfully Valve ponied up the cash and turned it in to what it is today.
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Jul 28, 2014 17:12
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mints posted:See qcrack,exe. When Quake 1 came out id included every game they'd worked on up to that point, with some phone in activation where you paid and they'd give you the key. Within hours of the discs showing up at retail locations someone came up with a crack that not only unlocked quake, but the back catalog of id. Rev. Bleech_ posted:Aaah, memories. Floppies with a copy of qcrack.exe were all that was necessary for Nerd Stardom back in 1996 The day Quake 1 came out and qcrack made it's way to me, that was a very very good day for young me. I can't recall if I skipped school to go get it or faked sick and had my mom/dad take me to the store to buy it on the way home or something, but I made drat sure I had that disc on launch. I still remember that feeling of "haha holy poo poo this actually works" with that.
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Jul 28, 2014 17:21
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Digiwizzard posted:Radioactive materials are still commonly used for colour in artist paints. The use of cadmium as pigments give you really bold, intense and permanent reds, oranges and yellows, colours that used to wash out pretty quickly with older pigments. This also means that the cadmium paints are twice the price of all the other tubes in the store. Who the hell told you this?
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Jul 28, 2014 17:33
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I found a computer I never heard of before. My neighbor was moving and let me go through her garage. Morrow Systems 
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Jul 28, 2014 18:21
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Code Jockey posted:I still remember that feeling of "haha holy poo poo this actually works" with that. I've had that feeling a couple times, playing a burned copy of Dracula X was really neat. And kind of a letdown, as I think by the time I could do it it was already the PS2 era. But putting a burnt CD in my drive and playing a video game I'd only read about for years was really cool.
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Jul 28, 2014 18:31
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b0nes posted:I found a computer I never heard of before. My neighbor was moving and let me go through her garage. Is it this one? http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=613
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Jul 28, 2014 18:54
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I remember when the only way to get Logitech drivers was to give them $15 and they would mail you a CD.
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Jul 28, 2014 21:38
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Digiwizzard posted:Radioactive materials are still commonly used for colour in artist paints. The use of cadmium as pigments give you really bold, intense and permanent reds, oranges and yellows, colours that used to wash out pretty quickly with older pigments. This also means that the cadmium paints are twice the price of all the other tubes in the store. Cadmium is not radioactive.
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Jul 28, 2014 21:58
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I was hoping it was a self contained unit. Looks like i'm missing the CPU.
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Jul 28, 2014 23:02
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Aleph Null posted:I remember when the only way to get Logitech drivers was to give them $15 and they would mail you a CD.
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Jul 29, 2014 07:56
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WebDog posted:I had an evil SCSI scanner that also declared this on their site, with the added bonus it wouldn't ship overseas. Then I stumbled across the fact the Russian version of their site had all the drivers up for free on an FTP. I had a scanner some years ago that at least came with its drivers. Which only worked on Windows 95. As in, the driver installation would check to see what version of Windows you were running, and if it didn't come back as 95, you couldn't install the drivers. This led to a lot of bullshit because we bought it in 1997. Guess what operating system was pre-installed on the new computer I bought the following year? Yup, Windows 98, which - despite not having any reason not to be capable of using the drivers - was barred from installing them, and for some reason it wouldn't operate using the generic TWAIN drivers I could get. The manufacturer had a very clear statement on their website that the scanner would not be receiving new drivers, they would not accept support requests asking how to make it work, and that anyone who bought the scanner and could not get it to work on their machine should have read the system requirements on the box. They were still selling the scanner in 1999, packaged with drivers that wouldn't work on any new computer.
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Jul 29, 2014 08:49
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Irradiation posted:Cadmium is not radioactive. It is, however, carcinogenic and quite toxic - but pretty safe so long as you aren't eating tons of it or inhaling it as a vapour.
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Jul 29, 2014 09:27
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Irradiation posted:Cadmium is not radioactive.  http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/cadmium.html quote:Cadmium consists of eight naturally occurring isotopes, including cadmium-113. Although 113Cd constitutes 12.22% of the cadmium atoms in nature, it is radioactive. Cadmium, therefore, is a radioactive element.
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Jul 30, 2014 07:44
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