{"id":371,"date":"2006-05-13T17:21:27","date_gmt":"2006-05-13T22:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=371"},"modified":"2008-08-16T15:29:57","modified_gmt":"2008-08-16T20:29:57","slug":"half-life-2-cryptic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"Half-Life 2: Cryptic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just got a “new” video card, and I thought I’d check out the Half-Life 2 HDR demo. I couldn’t see it in action before, since my old GeForce 5200 couldn’t make with the fancy pixels. So, with grim determination I began installing HL2, which means installing Steam<\/a>. I had totally forgotten about this part of the installation process:<\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Oh yeah. Thank goodness Valve encrypted my software. Otherwise I might, you know, use it<\/em>. I have a fancy new system, and it still sat there for fifteen minutes chewing on data so that I could run my own software. I’m still amazed at the audacity of these punks to LOCK a game from the ostensible owner. <\/p>\n

ME: I’d like to run my game now.<\/p>\n

VALVE: Oh but it’s locked.<\/p>\n

ME: Why?<\/p>\n

VALVE: Don’t be stupid. If it wasn’t locked you would be able to run it.<\/p>\n

ME: Yeah, that’s the point.<\/p>\n

VAVLE: Yes, well, if YOU can run it, then ANYONE can run it. Maybe even your pirate friends, who run those warez sites?<\/p>\n

ME: I never… what? Look, how am I supposed to play my game?<\/p>\n

VALVE: Just ask. Just sign on to Steam, and let us know you’d like to play.<\/p>\n

ME: …<\/p>\n

VALVE: It’s quite fast and painless.<\/p>\n

ME: That’s not the point.<\/p>\n

VALVE: Only takes a second!<\/p>\n

ME: Look, do I own this software or not?<\/p>\n

VALVE: If you owned the software, would you be locked out of it?<\/p>\n

ME: Er. No?<\/p>\n

VALVE: There you go. Enjoy the game. But not too much. And only when we say you can. And only by yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just got a “new” video card, and I thought I’d check out the Half-Life 2 HDR demo. I couldn’t see it in action before, since my old GeForce 5200 couldn’t make with the fancy pixels. So, with grim determination I began installing HL2, which means installing Steam. I had totally forgotten about this part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23,24],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","tag-half-life","tag-steam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}