To be perfectly honest, most games are so devoid of real choices and an actual interactive story these days that it's exactly like a poorly written B movie. Even games like Mass Effect only barely scratched the surface of what's possible. Most just simply railroad you into a linear storyline and you're just shooting your way from cut scene to cut scene.
Of course what really pisses me off is the choke-point to drive the story along. One of my favorite games of all time is Deus Ex. But there is one point in the game where you are literally forced to chose one side (the other isn't an option at all) despite quite possibly playing the game 100% counter to that up to that point. It was quite simply "your adventure in role-playing is over". From that point onward it was simply a typical FPS and nothing you did made any difference at all. If they give you the option of being good or bad, then they need to have good and bad endings. Or if it's linear, make it realistic. Mafia (the original) did a good job of this as you started the game like GTA3 (which also did a good job, IMO) just doing stuff, but by the time you realized how far you were in, it was simply too late to turn back. The ending for both was also well done and appropriate. Note Mafia 2 fails utterly in this aspect - it feels "console" in everything from the tight physical level design, linear story, and lack of real choices. I'd rather play the original than waste my time on $40 worth of hollow eye-candy.
Of course, the biggest problem that I have with games isn't the linear storyline, but the fact that they have dumbed-down the games to console levels. That is, the OP just simply was conditioned to reset to a save game a few minutes earlier. The best thing about games in the past was that you had to survive the entire level/area/etc in one go. There also were no hint books or guides. You simply had to persevere. Now you can save anywhere and there's a guide the day the game comes out. If I don't like it, I can just do it over again. Start again with full health and try again from five minutes back.
Compare this to Doom or Quake (or most of the games based off of them). Your stats, weapons, and ammo is kept between levels. You must do the entire thing in one go, and have enough supplies left over to survive the NEXT one as well(Doom itself, less so, games like Hexen moreso). I let my son play it and he just simply gave up and walked away for the first few days as it was "too hard". Shame, really, since the ending in both games was epic at the time - I'd worked for ages to get to the final battle and *barely* managed to win it.
I was thinking of something like the ASUS XG or ATI XGP, where you just attach a simple cable to your laptop and the card in the monitor takes over. No huge dock, either - just a normal Firewire sized cable would likely be enough.
(both of which as of today are vapor-ware)
I know that wireless/infrared/etc isn't at the level where it can handle a PCIe bus's connection, but that seems to be a matter of tweaking the technology more than anything else. ie - making a faster link via multiplexing or similar is vastly easier than stuffing a next gen video card in a laptop and then charging the end user $1500 for it while at the same time scorching their pants from the excessive heat.
True, you could do like you suggest, but it's a bit counter-productive (and expensive, considering the 2nd computer/server) to turn a laptop into a dumb terminal that way. What we need is a slot on your HDTV where you simply drop the PCIe card of your choice in it and are done. A $100 card these days would be enough for most games. That would drop the price of the laptop to nearly nothing/appliance levels, since any built-in solution would be good enough while on the road.
It also would make a typical media server an even smaller and less expensive solution.
I imagine a PCIe slot on the back of a HDTV, with a small 3-4 inch cable running from the card to a HDMI input. And a removable plastic shield to keep fingers away from the card. Insert card, connect and put the shield in place, and then just connect the cable or place the IR/etc device to the top of the TV set. Set down, sync up, and go. You'll never hear the card's slow speed fan over the TV speakers, so it will be essentially passive and silent.
I got this idea by playing around with the new Microsoft Surface - and how it detects and syncs with your Iphone or similar just by placing it on the thing. Connecting your laptop to your HDTV for gaming should be just as effortless and unobtrusive.
Surely some modification of this could be done to where you use wireless or a cable to the video card which is attached to the monitor? All it really needs is a 12V power supply with 150-200W output. You'd just need a large transmitter at the laptop. Considering that even most basic video cards these days vastly outclass laptop video solutions, it seems a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Wireless(or maybe firewire/etc from the laptop via a docking station) and then a nice passively cooled card at the monitor. Zero noise and no heat felt by the user. Good battery life as well.
I've always thought that the video card should be part of the monitor if possible, especially with something like a laptop.
The first thing that came to mind was potential use with a laptop. You could switch from built-in video to this for 3D gaming and use your HDTV for the picture (being that 1080p is as large as almost all laptops ever get anyways).
Done correctly, you could manage to have a $400 budget laptop for normal use and when you want to play games, sit it on your coffee table, sync it up, and presto. No need to spend $1300 on an Alienware or similar rig.
I was wondering when some company was going to do this.
The problem with copyright violations is that unless you have the money to sue the thief, you effectively cannot enforce it. As far as I know, this is and has always been the critical problem with GPL and similar licenses. It looks good on paper, but there is no unified group or organization with deep enough pockets to do anything about it. And who exactly would the plaintiff be?
Ownership has its privileges. Anti-ownership has virtually none in a legal sense.
Concerning playing the Don't Pass line, there's a reason that almost all casinos require you to pay a 5% commission and/or make a 2 or 12 a push - because it raises their odds to enough to not always lose money. (it's about 3.6% in your favor otherwise to bet against the shooter) In any case, it's still a fraction of a percent better to bet this way.
It's considered the "wrong way to play the game" but statistically can have its advantages. You piss off the other players while doing it, though, and are really acting as a spoiler. But so what.;)
http://www.nextshooter.com/vegas The trick is to do this at the right casino.;) http://www.nextshooter.com/odds And make the right Free Odds bet at the proper time. Yes, that's a shockingly low.014% margin at that one casino. They allow it because they know that 99% of players won't take advantage of it, since it's a very advanced technique.
Craps is the other game where you have a better than even chance to win.
How? Wait for newbies to make sucker bets out of ignorance and bet against them. It's unique in that the game is dictated by one player's actions and if you're smart, you can rake in a lot of money before they figure out what went wrong with their "system". It would be like having a "player loses" option in blackjack - just wait for the newbie idiot to hit on 17. In Craps, there IS such an option. And like in Poker there are a LOT of idiot players to take advantage of.
The pros in Vegas only play Blackjack, Craps, and Poker. Everything else is not worth their time or rigged against them to an unfair advantage. Though, some casinos do offer better than 100% odds on some penny and nickel slots but don't advertise it - they know that if you win $5 on a penny machine, you'll likely be losing it elsewhere - or spending it on food or drinks(try to find a Coke for under $3 in Vegas, let alone a proper one with alcohol in it). Either way they win because you're occupying a seat and making the place look busy for the other tourists. At worst, they give away a few free meals to the locals or co-opt them in to be shills for the same deal - free food and drinks and/or a little cash. Case in point - I have a cousin who is smart enough to win at these games. But she works as a dealer instead and makes a lot more money. The employee perks on food and entertainment are also huge. Tips are a great incentive as well. It's a win-win for everyone. Well, except for the tourists...;)
That said, it IS a great town for a vacation. Cheap rooms, great shows, loads of conventions, and if you don't mind spending a bit extra, some extremely high-end places to eat. Just don't bother to gamble.
The only idea that I have heard of that has any sort of merit is to create a sub-net of BBS type sites like in the days before you had a commercial Internet. This would require leased lines from the phone company to do correctly(or maybe Google or whomever will still give you a bare link in 5-10 years). But I suspect most people will want speed over any and all other concerns about privacy and free access.
Would you go back to a 56K modem? I sure wouldn't.
I was referring to the original Internet, because in the vast majority of cases like this, the person who is writing the article is nostalgic for the old days before commercialism took over. But to make anything that functions like that requires an immense gift by the company/ies doing it or a similar gift by someone with a silly amount of money to waste.
While it sounds great to talk about such things as what he proposes, he unfortunately lacks even a rudimentary understanding of what's required to create an "Internet". The fact is that we have only had "free" internet in the past because of the companies that own it being generous. It takes millions of dollars and an enormous amount of work to even link up two cities. It takes guys digging trenches and/or running wires and putting up poles or putting a satellite in orbit, and that's hard, dirty, and expensive work.
It's exactly like the numerous claims that you hear about returning to a Gold Standard for our currency. It sounds great and makes good press and all, but when you ask them how to actually do it, they fall silent. Like the Internet, we've gotten ourselves in too deep now to really change or go back to the way it was, short of inventing an entirely new system that hasn't existed before. But that also doesn't magically come out of thin air.
He wants ideas? Well, sorry to say, none that exist are free, and as long as it costs someone money to make it happen in this world, they will pass on the cost and control it because they own it.
Fuji currently makes several positive and negative type films. They also make a color-neutral type for professional use that looks as dull and washed out as our eyes generally see. The differences between Kodachrome and Provia are fairly minor, to be honest. Kodachrome was actually a black and white film that had color added to it, so it requitred special chemistry and had a curiously super-saturated blue tint (it's more reactive to blue than most any other film.
I use Fuji NPS 160/160S, though, as it's spot-on realistic to what your eyes see. Slightly dimmer blues and not as punchy (I find Velvia garish, like a poster, almost). But very nice, especially for portraits.
NOTE: Fujifilm USA stops importing film from Japan if the numbers get too low. In most cases, though, the film is still made in Japan - you have to sometimes order from a shop that deals directly with Japan or import it. (the same is true for Agfa as well)
Tron 2.0 was absolutely fantastic because of this - and the plot was pretty good as well.
The way I think they can incorporate it into the canon is that 2.0 happens after Legacy. Flynn's son has gone back to his old ways and left the company to be a slacker and have sex with his new girlfriend/etc.(not going to teach him to be a CEO overnight) Bradley, the VP at the time - and in control due to Flynn's son pulling yet another rebellious adventure to wherever to gamble and act like a rich jerk, takes over but gets in trouble and the events unfold.
2.0 is clearly set in or around our current time-frame. Pushing it all forward to 2012 or so is all you need to do to make it work - and I suspect a bit of careful tweaking of the messages in the game would accomplish it.
Also, the MP3 program and music bar and so on - that's lifted from 2.0 as well. In fact, if you've played 2.0, Legacy is more of an nod to it, IMO.
But it will be likely forgotten, which is a shame. I'd really like for there to be a sequel to 2.0 or a refreshed version for PS3 or 360 or similar. Because on maximum settings on the PC, it was visually stunning.
Actually, it was an homage to Tron 2.0 once you got inside the machine world. Before then, it was an homage to the original Tron.
If you played 2.0, the graphics and differences make sense. The "Escape" was also not terribly unlike 2.0 - though 2.0 would have made a better plot, overall. And led to several potential future outcomes or movie scripts, as well as a better reason why you'd stay inside like that.(not going to spoil it - it has a very well written script and a few nasty surprises)
The thing about this movie is that it does exactly what it should do, which is tell a story. There's ZERO hand-holding, explaining, or other B.S. that also infuriates me with computer games lately. Simply put, you have to watch the original to really "get" it. And you also have to play the Tron 2.0 computer or console game to really understand the fine points(fully half of the background things are lifted from 2.0 or explained in it - and nowhere else). In a way it gripes me a bit, but then again, seeing a movie that just throws you in and goes forward is rare these days. It shows that someone actually got OUT of the writer's way and didn't obliterate it in the cutting room.
Way better than Avatar. And the music was incredible. Daft Punk simply can do no wrong.;) Just the choice of them to do the soundtrack shows that this was a labor of love.
If you have watched the original and the played video game, the thing is (nearly)"flawless" throughout, in the way that the final Lord of the Rings movie was. It wasn't designed to be a stand-alone effort but to finish the storyline off. If you want to explain things, you have to read or research after-wards.
CLU was computer-generated and "flawed" - as were the computer characters in the original and the video game - obviously.
My only gripes are that they missed one point that I think needed to be in it - and maybe in the director's cut it will be. I calculated out the amount of time that he had spent in the computer waiting to get out. Relative to his time-frame, a bit over 210,000 YEARS. Just a mention of that would have given the viewer enough perspective why his attitude was like that originally - and why he didn't feel so remorseful at the ending happening like it did.(best way I can put it to be spoiler-free).
The other problem is that Tron 2.0 and this movie don't mesh well, but it's a terribly minor thing, considering that only the very ending isn't compatible, really. Just have it be a different person getting caught up in all of it - maybe another one of the programmers. Also, there could have been a second copy of the system made at some point. But it's really a minor issue, IMO. (Lord of the Rings also had minor issues as well like that, but nothing major)
Watch the original. Play Tron 2.0. See the movie to "complete" the trilogy.
And this is precisely why we need something that is actually a self-contained vehicle. The main sticking point right now seems to be functional scramjets to power it the majority of the way to low orbit, but that should be solved within 10-15 years at most.
Yeah, but we're tough. I'm sure some of us will survive. I just sort of feel sorry for the unfortunate people who live in coastal areas, because it's going to get a lot worse. IIRC ~70% of the world's urban areas are near oceans or in coastal plains. Definitely time to move inland to at least 100-200ft.
Isn't this a great thing, though? I'd think that a significantly lower output would give our planet's defenses a bit of a breather to possibly recharge. And, to be honest, the planet will be fine. CO2 levels are extremely low compared to past levels. The planet was just fine back then when it was at 8-10X the current levels, even. Sure, the ice caps might melt a bit, and you probably should wear more sunscreen, but that's about it until the next Ice Age that we are heading into will get started. Even that will be survivable - just ask the people in Moscow if they are planning to evacuate because of the cold.
Global warming is happening. And so what? The planet will be fine and life will go on.
http://biocab.org/carbon_dioxide_geological_timescale.html Suddenly it's not so horrible. It takes insanely high levels to actually cause problems in terms of damaging the ecosystem. Even at our current levels, we are only at the "o" in Epoch at the far right of the graph. It seems high to us, but it's a blip in the overall picture.
What's worrying though is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification This damage is man-made and potentially is something that could actually destroy our ability to live a decent life. But nobody at all is doing anything about it. (lower oxygen production, 1/6th of the world's food supply vanishing, and many other ills as a result) We'll "survive" if it gets out of control, but it won't be pretty.
#10 should probably be #1. Support and documentation is everything. Because when it hits the fan, finding the original install CDs or manual is almost always a requirement. It's also why I stopped buying Nvidia cards. They got rid of almost all of their patches and drivers as well as installation CDs on their site and now force you to use their "all in one" tool. And lo and behold, you're screwed 90% of the time with an older machine if you don't have the original install CD because it simply doesn't work without the CD.
Case in point - I tried to recover an old machine's crashed system(video drivers and dirext X had eaten themselves when "upgrading" as is typical) - but the online driver was useless. The original CD was the only option, but it wasn't to be found. (as is typical, few customers keep driver CDs where they can find them). The manufacturer didn't have the original CD to download, either.(honestly, a 50mb ISO file isn't going to kill their server space) I had to buy a new card to solve what should have been a ten minute problem. Nobody was happy about it, either, as you would imagine, since the card wasn't even two years old at the time.
(note - a "roll back" option also needs to be available when "upgrading") I'd wager that 95% of the time it is simply not there.
It does make me wonder, though, what happened to actual technical computing magazines. Sure, there are a few obscure Linux and similar ones out there, but getting into the nuts and bolts of a computer was(and still is) most of the fun. I suspect that instead of seeing "setting up your own home CNC machine for $500", we'll see yet another review and ad-driven site like all of the rest.
Actually I KNOW that we'll see that as the parent company to all of this is responsible for degrading education to the point where older books from the 70s actually do a better job of giving you usable facts and knowledge. I've seen the "state approved" textbooks my son is forced to learn from and they are nearly useless - full of factoids and snippets and tons of overblown pictures. You could physically fit ten paragraphs in the same space of actual information. But I guess that would require reading... I've tried to use the math programs online that he's forced to use for homework and they're a complete joke as well. You spend twice the time just fighting the interface to put in your answer as it would take to just write it down on a piece of paper.
It's becoming ever harder to obtain real knowledge because the media, books, and computers have all been dumbed-down to the level of a twelve year old. All the media you can ever want or need at your fingertips, but none of it worth anything more than entertainment for simpletons.
I don't care what's new or what's coming or what's shiny. I want to find new ways to use what I already have. I'm tired of having to look stuff up online and then finding it just referencing a book or article somewhere. "You can do really amazing things with your own home based CNC machine" ( essentially what that article here on slashdot this last week was going on about) yet all it did was point to a commercial site. No plans or parts list, no code, no anything about telling you about doing it yourself. Just where to maybe open your wallet and pray it comes to market for a 200% markup over cost.
It reminds me of the part in Alice's Restaurant where he goes in for the draft. "...I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."
Our society glorifies killing, money, power, and our media (especially all of the cable TV news stations) seems hell-bent on polarizing everything that it find for ratings. But sex will somehow be our undoing? I think our priorities are backwards at this point.
I fear that our nation will go the way of Rome in short order. Not because of our President or Congress or "lack of morals", but because we've made being close to each other unacceptable.
Slashdot Mirror
To be perfectly honest, most games are so devoid of real choices and an actual interactive story these days that it's exactly like a poorly written B movie. Even games like Mass Effect only barely scratched the surface of what's possible. Most just simply railroad you into a linear storyline and you're just shooting your way from cut scene to cut scene.
Of course what really pisses me off is the choke-point to drive the story along. One of my favorite games of all time is Deus Ex. But there is one point in the game where you are literally forced to chose one side (the other isn't an option at all) despite quite possibly playing the game 100% counter to that up to that point. It was quite simply "your adventure in role-playing is over". From that point onward it was simply a typical FPS and nothing you did made any difference at all. If they give you the option of being good or bad, then they need to have good and bad endings. Or if it's linear, make it realistic. Mafia (the original) did a good job of this as you started the game like GTA3 (which also did a good job, IMO) just doing stuff, but by the time you realized how far you were in, it was simply too late to turn back. The ending for both was also well done and appropriate. Note Mafia 2 fails utterly in this aspect - it feels "console" in everything from the tight physical level design, linear story, and lack of real choices. I'd rather play the original than waste my time on $40 worth of hollow eye-candy.
Of course, the biggest problem that I have with games isn't the linear storyline, but the fact that they have dumbed-down the games to console levels. That is, the OP just simply was conditioned to reset to a save game a few minutes earlier. The best thing about games in the past was that you had to survive the entire level/area/etc in one go. There also were no hint books or guides. You simply had to persevere. Now you can save anywhere and there's a guide the day the game comes out. If I don't like it, I can just do it over again. Start again with full health and try again from five minutes back.
Compare this to Doom or Quake (or most of the games based off of them). Your stats, weapons, and ammo is kept between levels. You must do the entire thing in one go, and have enough supplies left over to survive the NEXT one as well(Doom itself, less so, games like Hexen moreso). I let my son play it and he just simply gave up and walked away for the first few days as it was "too hard". Shame, really, since the ending in both games was epic at the time - I'd worked for ages to get to the final battle and *barely* managed to win it.
I was thinking of something like the ASUS XG or ATI XGP, where you just attach a simple cable to your laptop and the card in the monitor takes over. No huge dock, either - just a normal Firewire sized cable would likely be enough.
(both of which as of today are vapor-ware)
I know that wireless/infrared/etc isn't at the level where it can handle a PCIe bus's connection, but that seems to be a matter of tweaking the technology more than anything else. ie - making a faster link via multiplexing or similar is vastly easier than stuffing a next gen video card in a laptop and then charging the end user $1500 for it while at the same time scorching their pants from the excessive heat.
True, you could do like you suggest, but it's a bit counter-productive (and expensive, considering the 2nd computer/server) to turn a laptop into a dumb terminal that way. What we need is a slot on your HDTV where you simply drop the PCIe card of your choice in it and are done. A $100 card these days would be enough for most games. That would drop the price of the laptop to nearly nothing/appliance levels, since any built-in solution would be good enough while on the road.
It also would make a typical media server an even smaller and less expensive solution.
I imagine a PCIe slot on the back of a HDTV, with a small 3-4 inch cable running from the card to a HDMI input. And a removable plastic shield to keep fingers away from the card. Insert card, connect and put the shield in place, and then just connect the cable or place the IR/etc device to the top of the TV set. Set down, sync up, and go. You'll never hear the card's slow speed fan over the TV speakers, so it will be essentially passive and silent.
I got this idea by playing around with the new Microsoft Surface - and how it detects and syncs with your Iphone or similar just by placing it on the thing. Connecting your laptop to your HDTV for gaming should be just as effortless and unobtrusive.
Surely some modification of this could be done to where you use wireless or a cable to the video card which is attached to the monitor? All it really needs is a 12V power supply with 150-200W output. You'd just need a large transmitter at the laptop. Considering that even most basic video cards these days vastly outclass laptop video solutions, it seems a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Wireless(or maybe firewire/etc from the laptop via a docking station) and then a nice passively cooled card at the monitor. Zero noise and no heat felt by the user. Good battery life as well.
I've always thought that the video card should be part of the monitor if possible, especially with something like a laptop.
The first thing that came to mind was potential use with a laptop. You could switch from built-in video to this for 3D gaming and use your HDTV for the picture (being that 1080p is as large as almost all laptops ever get anyways).
Done correctly, you could manage to have a $400 budget laptop for normal use and when you want to play games, sit it on your coffee table, sync it up, and presto. No need to spend $1300 on an Alienware or similar rig.
The beer may be free, but the paternity test nine months later isn't.
I was wondering when some company was going to do this.
The problem with copyright violations is that unless you have the money to sue the thief, you effectively cannot enforce it. As far as I know, this is and has always been the critical problem with GPL and similar licenses. It looks good on paper, but there is no unified group or organization with deep enough pockets to do anything about it. And who exactly would the plaintiff be?
Ownership has its privileges. Anti-ownership has virtually none in a legal sense.
Concerning playing the Don't Pass line, there's a reason that almost all casinos require you to pay a 5% commission and/or make a 2 or 12 a push - because it raises their odds to enough to not always lose money. (it's about 3.6% in your favor otherwise to bet against the shooter) In any case, it's still a fraction of a percent better to bet this way.
It's considered the "wrong way to play the game" but statistically can have its advantages. You piss off the other players while doing it, though, and are really acting as a spoiler. But so what. ;)
http://www.nextshooter.com/vegas ;) .014% margin at that one casino. They allow it because they know that 99% of players won't take advantage of it, since it's a very advanced technique.
The trick is to do this at the right casino.
http://www.nextshooter.com/odds
And make the right Free Odds bet at the proper time. Yes, that's a shockingly low
Craps is the other game where you have a better than even chance to win.
How? Wait for newbies to make sucker bets out of ignorance and bet against them. It's unique in that the game is dictated by one player's actions and if you're smart, you can rake in a lot of money before they figure out what went wrong with their "system". It would be like having a "player loses" option in blackjack - just wait for the newbie idiot to hit on 17. In Craps, there IS such an option. And like in Poker there are a LOT of idiot players to take advantage of.
The pros in Vegas only play Blackjack, Craps, and Poker. Everything else is not worth their time or rigged against them to an unfair advantage. Though, some casinos do offer better than 100% odds on some penny and nickel slots but don't advertise it - they know that if you win $5 on a penny machine, you'll likely be losing it elsewhere - or spending it on food or drinks(try to find a Coke for under $3 in Vegas, let alone a proper one with alcohol in it). Either way they win because you're occupying a seat and making the place look busy for the other tourists. At worst, they give away a few free meals to the locals or co-opt them in to be shills for the same deal - free food and drinks and/or a little cash. Case in point - I have a cousin who is smart enough to win at these games. But she works as a dealer instead and makes a lot more money. The employee perks on food and entertainment are also huge. Tips are a great incentive as well. It's a win-win for everyone. Well, except for the tourists... ;)
That said, it IS a great town for a vacation. Cheap rooms, great shows, loads of conventions, and if you don't mind spending a bit extra, some extremely high-end places to eat. Just don't bother to gamble.
And exactly how long will providers put up with large amounts of encrypted traffic? Not very long, I'd wager.
The only idea that I have heard of that has any sort of merit is to create a sub-net of BBS type sites like in the days before you had a commercial Internet. This would require leased lines from the phone company to do correctly(or maybe Google or whomever will still give you a bare link in 5-10 years). But I suspect most people will want speed over any and all other concerns about privacy and free access.
Would you go back to a 56K modem? I sure wouldn't.
I was referring to the original Internet, because in the vast majority of cases like this, the person who is writing the article is nostalgic for the old days before commercialism took over. But to make anything that functions like that requires an immense gift by the company/ies doing it or a similar gift by someone with a silly amount of money to waste.
While it sounds great to talk about such things as what he proposes, he unfortunately lacks even a rudimentary understanding of what's required to create an "Internet". The fact is that we have only had "free" internet in the past because of the companies that own it being generous. It takes millions of dollars and an enormous amount of work to even link up two cities. It takes guys digging trenches and/or running wires and putting up poles or putting a satellite in orbit, and that's hard, dirty, and expensive work.
It's exactly like the numerous claims that you hear about returning to a Gold Standard for our currency. It sounds great and makes good press and all, but when you ask them how to actually do it, they fall silent. Like the Internet, we've gotten ourselves in too deep now to really change or go back to the way it was, short of inventing an entirely new system that hasn't existed before. But that also doesn't magically come out of thin air.
He wants ideas? Well, sorry to say, none that exist are free, and as long as it costs someone money to make it happen in this world, they will pass on the cost and control it because they own it.
Fuji currently makes several positive and negative type films. They also make a color-neutral type for professional use that looks as dull and washed out as our eyes generally see. The differences between Kodachrome and Provia are fairly minor, to be honest. Kodachrome was actually a black and white film that had color added to it, so it requitred special chemistry and had a curiously super-saturated blue tint (it's more reactive to blue than most any other film.
http://www.soerink.nl/film/film.html
You'll note the 3.7 value for blue on Kodachrome. But realistic it's not.
http://www.maremmaphoto.it/filmtest.eng.html
Close, but not quite.
I use Fuji NPS 160/160S, though, as it's spot-on realistic to what your eyes see. Slightly dimmer blues and not as punchy (I find Velvia garish, like a poster, almost). But very nice, especially for portraits.
NOTE: Fujifilm USA stops importing film from Japan if the numbers get too low. In most cases, though, the film is still made in Japan - you have to sometimes order from a shop that deals directly with Japan or import it. (the same is true for Agfa as well)
There are other people than him you know ;)
Man, that's one nasty nasty thought... lol.
Tron 2.0 was absolutely fantastic because of this - and the plot was pretty good as well.
The way I think they can incorporate it into the canon is that 2.0 happens after Legacy. Flynn's son has gone back to his old ways and left the company to be a slacker and have sex with his new girlfriend/etc.(not going to teach him to be a CEO overnight) Bradley, the VP at the time - and in control due to Flynn's son pulling yet another rebellious adventure to wherever to gamble and act like a rich jerk, takes over but gets in trouble and the events unfold.
2.0 is clearly set in or around our current time-frame. Pushing it all forward to 2012 or so is all you need to do to make it work - and I suspect a bit of careful tweaking of the messages in the game would accomplish it.
Also, the MP3 program and music bar and so on - that's lifted from 2.0 as well. In fact, if you've played 2.0, Legacy is more of an nod to it, IMO.
But it will be likely forgotten, which is a shame. I'd really like for there to be a sequel to 2.0 or a refreshed version for PS3 or 360 or similar. Because on maximum settings on the PC, it was visually stunning.
Actually, it was an homage to Tron 2.0 once you got inside the machine world. Before then, it was an homage to the original Tron.
If you played 2.0, the graphics and differences make sense. The "Escape" was also not terribly unlike 2.0 - though 2.0 would have made a better plot, overall. And led to several potential future outcomes or movie scripts, as well as a better reason why you'd stay inside like that.(not going to spoil it - it has a very well written script and a few nasty surprises)
The thing about this movie is that it does exactly what it should do, which is tell a story. There's ZERO hand-holding, explaining, or other B.S. that also infuriates me with computer games lately. Simply put, you have to watch the original to really "get" it. And you also have to play the Tron 2.0 computer or console game to really understand the fine points(fully half of the background things are lifted from 2.0 or explained in it - and nowhere else). In a way it gripes me a bit, but then again, seeing a movie that just throws you in and goes forward is rare these days. It shows that someone actually got OUT of the writer's way and didn't obliterate it in the cutting room.
Way better than Avatar. And the music was incredible. Daft Punk simply can do no wrong. ;) Just the choice of them to do the soundtrack shows that this was a labor of love.
If you have watched the original and the played video game, the thing is (nearly)"flawless" throughout, in the way that the final Lord of the Rings movie was. It wasn't designed to be a stand-alone effort but to finish the storyline off. If you want to explain things, you have to read or research after-wards.
CLU was computer-generated and "flawed" - as were the computer characters in the original and the video game - obviously.
My only gripes are that they missed one point that I think needed to be in it - and maybe in the director's cut it will be. I calculated out the amount of time that he had spent in the computer waiting to get out. Relative to his time-frame, a bit over 210,000 YEARS. Just a mention of that would have given the viewer enough perspective why his attitude was like that originally - and why he didn't feel so remorseful at the ending happening like it did.(best way I can put it to be spoiler-free).
The other problem is that Tron 2.0 and this movie don't mesh well, but it's a terribly minor thing, considering that only the very ending isn't compatible, really. Just have it be a different person getting caught up in all of it - maybe another one of the programmers. Also, there could have been a second copy of the system made at some point. But it's really a minor issue, IMO. (Lord of the Rings also had minor issues as well like that, but nothing major)
Watch the original. Play Tron 2.0. See the movie to "complete" the trilogy.
And this is precisely why we need something that is actually a self-contained vehicle. The main sticking point right now seems to be functional scramjets to power it the majority of the way to low orbit, but that should be solved within 10-15 years at most.
Yeah, but we're tough. I'm sure some of us will survive. I just sort of feel sorry for the unfortunate people who live in coastal areas, because it's going to get a lot worse. IIRC ~70% of the world's urban areas are near oceans or in coastal plains. Definitely time to move inland to at least 100-200ft.
Isn't this a great thing, though? I'd think that a significantly lower output would give our planet's defenses a bit of a breather to possibly recharge. And, to be honest, the planet will be fine. CO2 levels are extremely low compared to past levels. The planet was just fine back then when it was at 8-10X the current levels, even. Sure, the ice caps might melt a bit, and you probably should wear more sunscreen, but that's about it until the next Ice Age that we are heading into will get started. Even that will be survivable - just ask the people in Moscow if they are planning to evacuate because of the cold.
Global warming is happening. And so what? The planet will be fine and life will go on.
A link about historic CO2 levels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carbon_Dioxide_400kyr.png
Looks horrible, correct? All it will likely do is trigger the next ice age to start in 30-50 years instead of the normal 200 or 300.
http://biocab.org/carbon_dioxide_geological_timescale.html
Suddenly it's not so horrible. It takes insanely high levels to actually cause problems in terms of damaging the ecosystem. Even at our current levels, we are only at the "o" in Epoch at the far right of the graph. It seems high to us, but it's a blip in the overall picture.
What's worrying though is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification
This damage is man-made and potentially is something that could actually destroy our ability to live a decent life. But nobody at all is doing anything about it. (lower oxygen production, 1/6th of the world's food supply vanishing, and many other ills as a result) We'll "survive" if it gets out of control, but it won't be pretty.
Thanks for the link. :) That site's more interesting than the last month of Slashdot and Toms Hardware combined.
#10 should probably be #1. Support and documentation is everything. Because when it hits the fan, finding the original install CDs or manual is almost always a requirement. It's also why I stopped buying Nvidia cards. They got rid of almost all of their patches and drivers as well as installation CDs on their site and now force you to use their "all in one" tool. And lo and behold, you're screwed 90% of the time with an older machine if you don't have the original install CD because it simply doesn't work without the CD.
Case in point - I tried to recover an old machine's crashed system(video drivers and dirext X had eaten themselves when "upgrading" as is typical) - but the online driver was useless. The original CD was the only option, but it wasn't to be found. (as is typical, few customers keep driver CDs where they can find them). The manufacturer didn't have the original CD to download, either.(honestly, a 50mb ISO file isn't going to kill their server space) I had to buy a new card to solve what should have been a ten minute problem. Nobody was happy about it, either, as you would imagine, since the card wasn't even two years old at the time.
(note - a "roll back" option also needs to be available when "upgrading") I'd wager that 95% of the time it is simply not there.
It does make me wonder, though, what happened to actual technical computing magazines. Sure, there are a few obscure Linux and similar ones out there, but getting into the nuts and bolts of a computer was(and still is) most of the fun. I suspect that instead of seeing "setting up your own home CNC machine for $500", we'll see yet another review and ad-driven site like all of the rest.
Actually I KNOW that we'll see that as the parent company to all of this is responsible for degrading education to the point where older books from the 70s actually do a better job of giving you usable facts and knowledge. I've seen the "state approved" textbooks my son is forced to learn from and they are nearly useless - full of factoids and snippets and tons of overblown pictures. You could physically fit ten paragraphs in the same space of actual information. But I guess that would require reading... I've tried to use the math programs online that he's forced to use for homework and they're a complete joke as well. You spend twice the time just fighting the interface to put in your answer as it would take to just write it down on a piece of paper.
It's becoming ever harder to obtain real knowledge because the media, books, and computers have all been dumbed-down to the level of a twelve year old. All the media you can ever want or need at your fingertips, but none of it worth anything more than entertainment for simpletons.
I don't care what's new or what's coming or what's shiny. I want to find new ways to use what I already have. I'm tired of having to look stuff up online and then finding it just referencing a book or article somewhere. "You can do really amazing things with your own home based CNC machine" ( essentially what that article here on slashdot this last week was going on about) yet all it did was point to a commercial site. No plans or parts list, no code, no anything about telling you about doing it yourself. Just where to maybe open your wallet and pray it comes to market for a 200% markup over cost.
One step closer to the technological singularity.
Heh. Exactly.
It reminds me of the part in Alice's Restaurant where he goes in for the draft. "...I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."
Our society glorifies killing, money, power, and our media (especially all of the cable TV news stations) seems hell-bent on polarizing everything that it find for ratings. But sex will somehow be our undoing? I think our priorities are backwards at this point.
I fear that our nation will go the way of Rome in short order. Not because of our President or Congress or "lack of morals", but because we've made being close to each other unacceptable.