As I’m getting closer and closer to posting videos to an online video service like blip.tv, I’m starting to pay closer attention to how a lot of major content providers are…um, providing their content. In-browser. I’m looking more at how they handle ads, but I’ll start my small observations with a few without advertising: Amazon, Netflix, and G4. More observations on other services in a later post.

Guess what peoples? I’ve got DSL.

Finally, I’m a full-fledged member of the internet. Okay, I’ve had the internet since the late 90s, and I actually had DSL in 2001, and I had cable directly after. The important thing is I HAVE IT NOW. And okay, I have broadband-quality internet on my phone, but NOW I CAN PLAY MORE GAMES ONLINE!!! NOW I CAN DOWNLOAD GAMES FROM STEAM IN A MATTER OF HOURS, NOT DAYS!!!

Okay, I was just looking around in Steam for something to update programs, so I could let them update now when I’m working. I did see that I can disable automatic updates, but I can’t schedule it to check for updates. I also can’t seem to tell it to check for updates right now, which is too bad, because I know I won’t be playing any games for at least a few days. I’ll bet Team Fortress 2 and other similar online multiplayer games require you to be fully updated to even connect to their servers, which is best.

Lark

Steam is a program/network started by game developer Valve, wherein PC gamers can buy PC games, downloading them instead of getting a disk. It’s not just limited to Valve games. The greatest thing about Steam is that you can download any of the games you own to any of your computers, or even to a friends computer, if say you’re visiting for a few weeks. The games are tied to your login name and password, if you’re not logged in on the computer, those games can’t be played. It’s a straight forward DRM–you can only be logged in on one computer at one time, so instead of limiting the total number of computers you can install on, they let you install these games as many times as desired.

I’m a big fan of Steam, to the point where, if a game isn’t available on it, I may not buy it. In fact, I’m shying away from consoles for the most part. I’d rather spend money on games I can take with me and play on my laptop. Not like I’m playing games in restaurants or anything, but it’s nice for long trips and vacations.

There are some problems with Steam. I’ve written previously that my internet is slow, so downloading 8GB per game takes time. That’s a problem for downloading to install in the first place, and also a problem for when I want to play the game, and it automatically checks to see if the game needs to be updated, then starts updating. No, stupid! I want to play the game, not install updates! Why not download updates and install them once I’m done? Why not constantly check for updates, or set up a schedule, check for and install updates between 2am-8am? There are also issues with automatic updating in general. What if an update breaks something? Can I undo it? Probably not. Although I haven’t had that problem yet, it’s possible.

Once I switch to a much faster broadband carrier, it’ll be better, but even if it downloads lightening fast, I still have to wait for the updates to install. It is a good service, but I’m curious to see how it’ll improve or depreciate over time. And I’m also curious to see if the whole Kindle 1984 scandal will cause people to start looking at services like Steam and Zune Pass with a lot more skepticism.

Lark

In defense of connecting most computers to the internet, even MRI machines and those with sensitive information, Cory Doctorow wrote this interesting article for the Guardian, comparing teen sex and computer networking. As always, abstinence isn’t much of a solution.

Operating systems are getting more promiscuous about net connections, not less: expect operating systems to start seeking out Bluetooth-enabled 3G phones and using them to reach out to the net when nothing else is available.

Later, he wrote:

In the era of cheap and easy virtualisation and sandboxing, there’s no reason users shouldn’t be able to partition their computers into “dirty” public-facing sides and “clean” private sides. Of course, a user might subvert this separation deliberately, but the only way to comprehensively prevent that from occurring is to make it possible for a user to get the job done without needing to do so.

It’s a very interesting article, definitely worth a read. One thing he barely touches on is how IT employees (in my experience) are the most abusive of security policy. They feel like since they know the reason for the rules, they can safely break them. Like they’re above it. Above it–wait, where have I heard that before?

Looking at the previous two posts, they rely very heavily on Wikipedia, maybe even bordering on plagiarism in a few instances. I also quote it in both articles. It occurred to me as I was writing them that they could make this site a bit suspect. I’m sure we’re all aware that there are sites out there that get content by copying information from other sites, linking back and forth a lot, all to increase their own search engine rankings. This has even happened to me. Information form one of my older posts got copied and pasted into someone else’s ‘blog’ with a link back to my site.

I’m not too worried about it, but I did give me pause for a second. Really, those posts had to be Wikipedia-heavy, because if it weren’t for Wikipedia I wouldn’t know shit about alternate calendars or decimal time.

You know how much time I would have to have spent in a library to have gotten the same amount of information? That means, to me anyway, that I wouldn’t ever have learned it without Wikipedia. The information doesn’t help me live my life in any significantly better way, it’s just interesting. As such, it’s not worth digging through books for. When it’s only a few clicks away though, think of how much more I can learn in much less time.

Thank you Wikipedia, thank you Internet. That’s all I have to say.

Lark