The first problem is that unless you are online 24 hours a day then you are automatically vulnerable because people can simple wait until they know you are offline and wipe you out. All those hours of work and effort are destroyed. You can reduce this to 12 hours a day by paying money to be in truce for half a day at a time but that still leaves 12 hours, every day, sitting in front of a computer screen playing the game. The second biggest problem is farming. The vast majority of that screen time is gathering food and other resources to keep the troop levels you need to defend yourself fed.
The biggest problem are the rules and regulations from the Evony team and their lack of ability to control some members from breaking them. You can’t use an auto farming bot for example. You are not allowed to have multiple accounts on a single server. You are not supposed to give your details to someone else so that they can defend your cities while you sleep. Over the past few months I have seen many players do all of these things and Evony, even when notified, has done nothing about it. I have seen ac counts hacked and good players taken out with no response from the administrators.
So in the end the hypocrisy, the amount of time needed and the mindless requirement to farm has killed this game for me, certainly at the decent player level, possibly forever. Not a real problem because I still have Starcraft 2 to get through, which really requires me to get a better computer. Also, they have just released, finally, Duke Nukem’s latest. Neither of these games requires me to keep making payments to play a game that is unfairly run. If you don’t know what Duke Nukem is then ask your parents. Of course with all the hype the initial reviews are not that good probably because after 14 years of development people were expecting the best game since, well forever.
On the subject of a new computer for around $1500 or 45000 Baht you can get some amazing computers, not including a monitor. Start with 12GB of RAM, 2TB of Hard Drive, 1Gb of graphics memory and a multi-core CPU that probably has more cores than you need at any one time. After that it is what you can get for the rest. Sometimes this includes a Blu-ray drive, it should include USB 3.0 support plus the usual assortment of ports and extras. While I am not quite ready to buy I am getting close so when I do I’ll let you know what it was and how much it cost.
Industry News
So according to someone Apple’s iCloud iTunes iService will destroy iCompetition in the iMusic iIndustry, forever! Yes I am also sick of seeing a little I in front of everything relating to iApple. This is of course either a rather optimistic Apple view or a pessimistic external viewpoint. Either way it has little truth behind it. It started when a lawyer claimed that iTumes Match encourages copyright infringement because it copies your iTunes songs to the online store. Then a well known publisher, normally critical of record labels, thinks the labels have sold out the future record industry, in return for a one-off payment of a few dollars from Apple. This is a classic case of being unsure of the concept.
Using the iCloud doesn’t get you music that you don’t already have, it is just a place to keep it. If you want to listen to a new song you need to buy it, rent it, listen to it on the radio, borrow from a friend or find a pirated copy from any of the usual suspects. Or put another way, business as usual. There is no relation to iTunes Match. All this provides is a new music collection synchronization option in addition to the PC sync option we all have today.
Apple has been forced to change one of its iTunes content conditions and shock, horror, it is because the users kicked back against them. The rule in question is the one about content and subscription providers who offer their wares through the Apple App Store must charge the same or less for that content when it's offered from a provider's own website. They have also backed away from the requirement that
Thanks to Android. And the Financial Times content providers must offer the same content and subscriptions in their iOS apps as they do from their own services. This is a turnaround from what they published, and what I wrote about, in February. This does not mean that Amazon can keep their Kindle Store link, it still has to go. Apple still also keeps the 30 percent of subscriptions sold and all the demographic info your app collects.
Since February a number of groups have been voicing their concerns and also their inability to be able to distribute their products if the impositions remain. This included organizations like Rhapsody and Last.fm who will now be better off selling their stuff on their own sites, not subject to the 30 percent fee, as long as they don't link to those services from their iOS apps. Apple is of course keeping quite on the reasons why they are relaxing the guidelines. I can’t help imagine some senior executive sitting at a desk with a look of incredulity wondering why everyone doesn’t love them.
Then there is Android. There is a long line of publishers ready to move into the Android market, one without any restrictions and one that has a larger target market than Apple users. The Financial Times has also launched a browser based service that ignores the Apple store altogether using HTML5 instead. The Ft has suggested that people move to the Web and drop their iPhone and iPad apps. The Financial Times reasons that this allows for faster releases, shorter wait times and instant access to the latest versions. So Apple is facing what it would consider treasonous defections to the Web and to Android, hence the relaxing of some of their rules. The only question now is how much more they may drop before their June 30 deadlines.
There is a big patch set coming up for Microsoft Tuesday US time saw a big patch release from Microsoft. It includes 16 security bulletins and 34 vulnerabilities. Nine of them are critical and seven important with all OS version affected in some way or other. Also targeted are various server-side software packages and applications, including the .NET framework and SQL Server. Internet Explorer. Office suites are also included with an Excel security fix. Looks like a few Sys Admins will be busy for a few days.
Really Nissan? After all of the leaked data and organizations caught out capturing personal information this latest exposure is just sad. The Nissan Leaf is an electric car. It includes a GSM cellular connection that lets drivers share a variety of real-time data about the car, including its location, driving history, power consumption, and battery reserves. This is all part of the eco-driving push driven by the global warming lie (and yes I am willing to back up that statement with proof). The Carwings data contains a lot of detailed data that is sent to third party servers that a driver may have subscribed to. Whenever the driver accesses any RSS the current geo coordinates, speed and direction is sent in clear text including the dectination if it is programmed into the Nav computer. Too bad if there was a hit out on you. This is for any RSS feed and while many will not be interested in the data it is being stored at the HTTP server for anyone to pick up.
The best part? No way to turn it off and then Carwings issues no warning that third parties are receiving the data.
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