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Malware jokes aside, there are a few neat things that are IE exclusive, namely proprietary CSS filters (that allow things like embossing, color inversion, rotation, etc...) These, of course, are accomplished through DirectX. CSS filters can also be animated... it's sort of cool to have an entire page pixelate/warp/dissolve/rotate/... in.

"1. Apple will announce plans for a set-top box, integrating gaming, cable, and internet browsing"

Your its vs. it's confusion aside, they already announced this in 2006.

While there is no current way to emulate all capabilities of a 32-bit PNG in IE, it does support a non-standard CSS property "filter" which allows for some cool and slightly useful graphical effects done client-side. This page demonstrates them... compare it in IE vs Firefox. It might seem useless but it could be used for interesting mouse-overs, and all of the effects (AFAIK) apply to text as well as images.

It used to rely on a very old gd lib for gif support.

What about the world's only ass-kicking machine?

Definitely check out the Appalachian Trail. It runs
for a few hundred miles, can be done on the cheap, and does offer some breathaking beauty.

One can pick it up in Virginia, so it is in close
proximity to the Smithsonian.

Jeez, I was the one who submitted this story to Boing Boing. I never thought Slashdot would go for it. I keep missing so many Karma opportunities....

What I said in the Boing Boing submission that Wil didn't repeat here is, the 1974 review is by a gamer named Arnold Hendrick. Hendrick went on to run Heritage Miniatures and to design some cool boardgames for Heritage's short-lived Dwarfstar game line. Later Hendrick went into computer games, working for Microprose and others; he helped design or develop many of Sid Meier's best-known titles. Hendrick's best-known work as sole designer is probably the 1992 Microprose fantasy game Darklands. Here's his MobyGames rap sheet and a Darklands FAQ.

What I learn from this: Be bold! Despite all qualms, submit to Slashdot!

None of these high-voltage devices can even hold a candle to The World's Only Ass-Kicking Machine.

Well, can't let you correct someone who is right. Try here, or even better here

Is your design a traditional handcranked or is it water powered?
Is it internet enabled?

He would offer to kick anybody's (teacher, principle, kid, parent) ass. That was the best thing about my dad's problem resolution skills.

This motivated me to solve my problems by using the school systems large bureaucratic rule book to roll over any little shit that tauted me too much. (Teasing is teasing. If the situation grows to regular stealing and poking, it is time for someone to go down.) Since I was normally a good kid, I would just get both the punk and myself in trouble. The twit usually had more offenses than me. He got more punishment and learned not to do anything that could get him into trouble.

It makes me want to say BOOYA! just thinking about this.

dude...
that asskicking link is HILARIOUS!

you rock, even though i could easily kick your ass any day of the week. i love you
xoxo
-freq

Many older games display inventiveness and risk-taking that are simply absent in today's gaming market, where 'innovation' means 'new graphics over the old gameplay' or 'bigger tits on our Lara Croft lookalike'. There is the occasional breakout game, the rare Something New. And it's not like cloning and flavour-of-the-month games weren't unknown ten and twenty years ago. But preserving older classics -- the original Ultima trilogy, Starflight, Darklands -- is a valuable thing to do, and we should not expect or force companies to do things that have nothing to do with their bottom line -- that's not the business they're in. It falls on the gaming public as a whole, then, to preserve the history of gaming, to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past.

Gaming is more than seeing how many more polygons or neato-keeno eyecandy you can push to the screen. The basics of design, plotting, and immersion haven't changed very much. Only the technology is different.

gomi

Turtle Home of the Ass-Kicker Page (and other stuff)