- The PS3 has a Blu-Ray player, which is going to win the format wars for the following reasons: A:The major rental outlets all recently went with it. Buying is silly - but renting for $3-4(same price) is slick - hi-def and you can essentially toss your DVD player. B:Larger capacity. C:The only somewhat affordable burners for PCs that are available are Blu-Ray. I can buy Blu-Ray blank media at Best Buy and other outlets. Not so with HD-DVD. D:Every major studio except for two have gone with Blu-Ray.
So the PS3 is a good deal right there. Basically you're getting a 360 but with the proper hi-def media drive, so the real cost of the PS3 is: $499 minus $199 for the drive(what the 360's HD-DVD add-on costs). $300 isn't too unreasonable. Remember - you have to compare apples to apples as it were - or at least try to get close.
- The cost of not being tied to Microsoft is also worth something, IMO. Microsoft has shown itself to be half-baked about quality control at all levels and doesn't really "Grok" gaming. Sony, otoh, comes closer to getting it. Being based in Japan, where many of the games are now developed, they just have a better, more varied catalog of titles. (quicker feedback and gaming is HUGE in Japan). Wii - Yeah, Nintendo wins here, hands down. They've always made the best consoles if your goal is to just have fun and relax. (like the DS - sells *slightly* better than the PSP - okay, it's not even close) I give this $50 for god karma and less expensive titles.
- The hardware and software is apparently more reliable. Kids in Japan will lynch the CEO of Sony if their new console "toy" blows up in a couple of months. And the OS for the PS3 appears to be harder to crash as well. I give reliability another $50.(basically no extended warranty required or shipping costs)
So what we have is: $499-$199(drive)-$50(karma/better pricing on games)-$50(reliability/no extended warranty)=$199 compared to the 360. The only problem with the PS3 as I see it is that you are in effect buying the 360's HD-DVD drive at once. Sony could have made it a $200 add-on like the 360 and saved themselves a lot of angst I reckon.
Wasteland was great, but the game that broke the RPG wide open was the Ultima series. Before that it was nethack-ish games that lacked a persistent environment, real character development, or a decent plot. Now, Ultima III was good, but the best of the series and the one that made everyone at the time(and I mean *everyone*) was IV. It essentially was Final Fantasy VII in scope and play. A decade earlier.
*quote from that link* "In 1996 Computer Gaming World named Ultima IV as #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC."
It didn't even make the top ten - which is how you know this "list" is a joke. And Final Fantasy VII was what - way near the very bottom? The thing still commands $60 a copy on Ebay.
There seems to be an utter lack of PC titles from the 70s, 80, or most of the 90s.
Elite? Command and Conquer? Doom? Temple of Aphsai? Ultima IV? Zork?(anything by Infocom?)...
Or any other systems of note. Marathon? Tempest?(the original), Defender? Mortal Kombat? The list of things that they didn't even include is amazing. Almost as amazing as the just that made most of the top twenty.
1) Only print 50,000 copies of an album. 2) Distribute music dirt cheap (half price?) on Net in advance of printing. 3) Auction off 50,000 copies.
**** This is not a lot different than how many small bands currently sell CDs and DVDs at their concerts.
I suspect that something like this will become the way it's finally done. Get it free online, but the full-quality limited version with the artwork, booklet(possible coupons?) and so on costs you money.
Btw, the price most consumers feel is "cheap" is about 50 cents a song from what I've read. We're getting ever closer to that level of pricing.
How about taking the massive improvements in device design, fabrication, architecture, power management, and so forth that went into these impressive achievements and re-implementing the lowly PIII 1GHz, but at 5-10W maximum power? ****
You can do this with some motherboards by underclocking the processor. That Celeron D 360, for instance, is essentially a 3.6Ghz Northwood with much lower heat. Underclock it and presto - it runs at 20W power(we're talking stock cooler with the fan *off*!) as fast as an old 2.4Ghz P4.
These can make for great appliances.
P.S. - Could Slashdot implement a quote function? Please?
Let's see - if I understand correctly, we've developed the capability to engineer something that can go in and ERASE very specific segments of people's DNA? ****
Trust me, you're not wrong here. Someone will develop this into a bio-weapon. Want all corn crops blighted? Kill off all the bees? Or just make all males that are affected sterile. Or induce madness or... The potential nightmares of nanotech in the wrong hands is truly appalling.
As expected, the less expensive processors work best for the dollar.
But they forgot the real budget models like the newest Celerons. It would be interesting to see how an overclocked budget AMD or Celeron(air cooled, say no more than $30 spent on the cooler) would fare versus the big boys.
They may be single core. And have less cache. And run at a slower FSB. But for $50-$70, I bet they are only slightly slower when overclocked.
I can think of a few games, though, that serve to be educational without actually trying, because math and tactics are part of how it works.
NetHack/Angband/etc - those series of games require some analytical thinking.
Stars! - Another gem from a few years back. Now, resurfacing as a SourceForge clone. You can play it normally, but to really get into it, you have to crunch some math. It's pretty painless overall, since you have an emotional interest in planet growth and so on in a game like this.
Many net games also have a good approach as well. The old Astronest was a good example of this. There was math. Loads of it. But it wasn't an aim. Just something you had to do. Planetarion and other similar games are also examples of the "hidden math" approach to gaming.
Yet, many companies have done exactly this. They have gone direct to the customer with the advent of The Net. Yes, it pisses off their suppliers, but in the end, the suppliers and distributers serve at the company(or artist's) discretion. They are a service like Fed Ex. No more, no less.
He'll do fine. They are jsut scared because they have always known that it goes both ways. If you want out or to not go through them, you can. You might be a very small fish as a result, but then again, as it has been pointed out, record stores are dead.
As for money, I spend money on CDs for bands that I like. I buy at their concerts or directly and purposely avoid the middle-men. Now, these are small groups, but those are the best.
P.S - shameless plug - go check out The Bags newest album. They don't tour. But the CD is worth every penny.(and most of it goes to them as well, as if should).
I looked at their site and I saw that they scan other sites.
quote:
Why do you list prices for other sites?
We crawl a number of retail sites to provide our visitors with an accurate view of pricing in the market; these sites neither provide their pricing data to us directly nor pay us to list them. In some cases we may collect referral fees from listed sites, but we do not restrict our listings to sites that offer such programs. At any given time one of our sellers may or may not have the best price in the market, but part of our objective is to be your first stop when shopping for virtual currency. All external price data is labeled with an indication of how recently it was retrieved from the target site.
**** So essentially, because they let in other, non-verified sources, it's exactly as unsafe and bad as the other sites. The only way to get rid of bots and farmers is this:
- Each person has an account verified through secure ID or similar - like Ebay does. This is in addition to the Paypal/etc account.
- Each person can trade X per month, max. The limit should be equivalent to no more than 2-3 months average work in the game. For instance, in EVE online, that would be 50 mil per month.
- There needs to be a strict limit on the number of trades per year as well.
- Each person can only have one account. Attempts at duplicate accounts will result in a permanent ban. Get Paypal and the like involved as well to help on the double-checking, of course - I'm sure they would be glad to help.
Currently it has none of these very rudimentary safeguards in place(there are others to be sure, but thses need to be the bare minimum at least). Yes, call them restrictions if you want, but individuals don't have years worth of money to throw around on a monthly basis - only farmers and the like do.
I really suggest that you check out Tripplite and get one of their ISOBAR bricks. These will clean up the signal. A standard surge protector does nothing at all against dirty lines/line noise/etc. For really bad conditions, though, you need a dedicated line conditioner. $200 or so and worth every penny.(you usually only need one for your AV center - your computer has its own regulated power supply)
As for what was causing it, 90% of the time, it's one of two things: Old appliances like refrigerators and the like(or an old furnace for instance), or halogen lamps. Arc lamps locally also are known to cause huge ripples in the local power supply, especially when they cycle/turn on in the evening.
As for the guy in the article, inadequate airflow is the likely real problem. I imagine he had a typical AV system and put the 360 on its side to fit into a slot/opening. The ting is, these need 4-6 inches of free airspace above them, minimum, just like a typical receiver or TV set. A foot is better. My PS2 - I leave it on that little stand so it has airflow around it on all sides.
Though, it may also be where he's living. I've seen a motherboard with a hole burned through it. This guy lived near the beach and left his windows open a bit at night. The moisture condensed in his case and he saltwater drilled a hole in his motherboard. The inside was covered in rust as well. After the third repair, we told him to close the windows and look into a dehumidifier.
Of course, the best two options are not even that technical.
1: Put a really big bomb in a satellite. The bigger the better, preferably nuclear. Line the case with 100-200lbs of fine graphite powder.(few inches thick) When the bomb goes off, the graphite, being pure carbon, is unaffected by the intense heat and you get a cloud of microscopic particles. If this was done at geostationary orbit, it would essentially take out every object, most notably, our communications and GPS. Without communications, we are no better off than we were in WWII. Probably worse because we have become so dependent upon technology. What doesn't blow up gets knocked around and sent in every direction by the blast. In Low orbit, this would essentially work the same, though you'd need a big target like the ISS to spread enough junk quickly enough.
2: The easier way, though, is a laser. Just shoot the offending object down. Can't dodge, and can't be detected, either, if it's made correctly. Nice little 2-3 inch hole in the satellite. Bonus points if you hit something critical and it explodes.
Eventually it will happen because of how dependent upon space based technology we have become. And we'll all be stuck on Earth for several decades. I know if I was a rogue state, I'd seriously think about it as a tactic to level the playing field somewhat.
P.S. This is why Iran is so dangerous. They have the missiles. All the need is something to put into them. They've got little to lose by attacking our satellites if we invade them.
Visible light interferometry is damned difficult because of the small wavelengths involved. Also, even though and interferometer gives you the same angular resolution as a similar sized single element telescope it doesn't give you the same sensitivity to faint objects because of the smaller overall surface area of the objective. ****
True, but the prospect of a major crater ringed with smaller 100 meter arrays to produce a several mile wide "lens" is intriguing to say the least. With the lack of any measurable atmosphere on the moon, it's essentially Hubble times a million. We can currently just detect a few Jupiter sized objects around distant stars. With this, we could see planets 20-50 light years away as well as we can see earth from orbit.
It's definitely worth going to the Moon to build this.
In the case of any application that runs on direct-X, it's nearly impossible to program any game that came or comes out on a console so that it won't run on the older versions. Sure, it may look worse or not run all the features, but they are stuck, because, for instance, the X-Box runs direct-X 9. Some games are actually Direct-X 8, even(Halo 2, originally). Also, since the game doesn't *require* a Direct-X 10 card to run, it's obviously just a software nerf Microsoft is doing here.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153097 The 360 cannot run DX-10, so basically if the title comes out on it and the PC, it can be hacked regardless of what Microsoft tries to do to annoy users.
So this is expected. A small hack and presto - the thing runs in DX9.
Both games have been doing very poorly in sales as well. Microsoft needs to stop the B.S. and give us useable games out of the box.
Of course, this will eventually lead us, interestingly enough, full circle, back to a dumb terminal on our desk. You sit down at the LCD screen and plug your computer into the USB/Firewire/etc(whatever they develop next) port. And then take it with you when you are done. They already have software that does this(Mojopac and others), but moving it all to hardware would be much better. The I/O port on it could handle the wireless adaptor to hook into the hotspot, of course.
The thing to note, though, is that this is less than a half and almost a tenth as expensive for color as the HP models. 3-4 cents a page for color is very frugal.
The best machine that I know of is a Canon Pixma MP130. It does everything except faxing. But what realyl sets it apart is that it is the last Canon printer to use the older style ink tanks.
http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_323 Basically you are looking for any used or like new printer/new old stock model that uses the BCI-6 series tanks. These have no chip - they are just a plastic tank with ink in it(heads are separate unit). Yes, you're not seeing wrong. $2.99 for black and $3.99 for color. And that's not in bulk - which can drop the price another 50%! $27.99 for 6 black, 6 color.
It's less expensive to print in color on these machines than black and white on a typical laser printer.
If they dropped the Blu-Ray drive and shipped it with a normal dual-layer DVD player, they could drop the price to about $250. The drive is a $250 component right there. Now, that's a fantastic price for one, but the total price is too high.
And to add insult to injury, they charge $100 more for the better version, which ships with a hard drive the size of a postage stamp. Everyone I know who has one has swapped a 300gig drive in instead.
To date, there aren't any games that require Blu-Ray that I know of. Or none that a second dual-layer DVD that you load onto the HD wouldn't fix.
But the simple fact is that they had to make a hard choice.
Blu-Ray wins because of availability(I can find ones to burn at a local Best Buy, but HD-DVD? Nope.) and greater capacity. The PS3 plus the game rental market for it is likely what pushed them over to that side. Expect the other major chains to fall in line within the next few weeks.
And, yes, it just ended. The same thing happened when the rental market adopted VHS. Beta struggled on for a few years, but the war was long over by the time it finally died off.
First off, it was virtually impossible to actually find the page. I finally had to go over to Google and do a search for the exact page(ie - you practically have to scan/crawl their entire site to find it!)
THEN I put in my number. It jams. It seems as if it will only "check" your availability if you are a current customer. Same with Bell south. So essentially you have to call them directly and confirm with an operator that it is possible in your area. But it says online ordering only - so you have to go through that as well.
Finally, as others have pointed out, they often tell you that the local connection point is full. Call them again asking for normal service and presto - hey - they have space.
It's such a typical ploy by them to skate around the law. Sure they offer it. Good luck getting it, though.
I'm looking forward to this. It looks to be very streamlined and more of a "one book" approach.
But, I really recommend the following change to and "D20" game:
Replace all D20 rolls with 2 D10s. It always bothered me that you had the same chance to hit yourself as do an amazing hit, no matter what your level was. Making it have an average allows the GM as well to get away with really good/really bad outcomes.
Of course, if you want easy role-playing, Witchcraft is by far the best that I have run across. The mechanics of the game take up all of about twenty pages, and 80% of each "page" is usually some sort of artwork or example(figure 2-3 pages, compressed).
There is obviously a lot of typical scientific ego bashing involved. Most discoveries that refute established dogma are met with this type of reaction.
But yes, it looks like some sort of slushy mud. Water or something else plus a bunch of minerals, which could easily alter how it behaves. To say "water doesn't do that..." is meaningless until we figure out what else is mixed in with it.
I completely agree - well, with about 90% of what you said at least.
You can copy it, put it on your answering machine, or whatever. This isn't any different than, say, a unique ID code used to register software. They know who you are - and that key can't be used again. Valve is a good example of this, as are many online MMOGs.
Welcome to the reality. Our laws don't apply past our borders. So sorry. While it is morally wrong to do this, it's also perfectly legal in China. A similar example would be in the U.S. - there are laws for indecency and pandering and such(as well as certain drugs) that just don't apply in Amsterdam. You can get arrested and thrown in jail in the U.S. for what over there is considered not to really be an issue, legally.
Slashdot Mirror
Replace that statue with Stonehenge. Seriously. It has all of the prerequisites for an award, from mysticism, to insane engineering, and so on.
Okay, a few, actually.
- The PS3 has a Blu-Ray player, which is going to win the format wars for the following reasons:
A:The major rental outlets all recently went with it. Buying is silly - but renting for $3-4(same price) is slick - hi-def and you can essentially toss your DVD player.
B:Larger capacity.
C:The only somewhat affordable burners for PCs that are available are Blu-Ray. I can buy Blu-Ray blank media at Best Buy and other outlets. Not so with HD-DVD.
D:Every major studio except for two have gone with Blu-Ray.
So the PS3 is a good deal right there. Basically you're getting a 360 but with the proper hi-def media drive, so the real cost of the PS3 is: $499 minus $199 for the drive(what the 360's HD-DVD add-on costs). $300 isn't too unreasonable. Remember - you have to compare apples to apples as it were - or at least try to get close.
- The cost of not being tied to Microsoft is also worth something, IMO. Microsoft has shown itself to be half-baked about quality control at all levels and doesn't really "Grok" gaming. Sony, otoh, comes closer to getting it. Being based in Japan, where many of the games are now developed, they just have a better, more varied catalog of titles. (quicker feedback and gaming is HUGE in Japan). Wii - Yeah, Nintendo wins here, hands down. They've always made the best consoles if your goal is to just have fun and relax.
(like the DS - sells *slightly* better than the PSP - okay, it's not even close)
I give this $50 for god karma and less expensive titles.
- The hardware and software is apparently more reliable. Kids in Japan will lynch the CEO of Sony if their new console "toy" blows up in a couple of months. And the OS for the PS3 appears to be harder to crash as well. I give reliability another $50.(basically no extended warranty required or shipping costs)
So what we have is:
$499-$199(drive)-$50(karma/better pricing on games)-$50(reliability/no extended warranty)=$199 compared to the 360. The only problem with the PS3 as I see it is that you are in effect buying the 360's HD-DVD drive at once. Sony could have made it a $200 add-on like the 360 and saved themselves a lot of angst I reckon.
Wasteland was great, but the game that broke the RPG wide open was the Ultima series. Before that it was nethack-ish games that lacked a persistent environment, real character development, or a decent plot. Now, Ultima III was good, but the best of the series and the one that made everyone at the time(and I mean *everyone*) was IV. It essentially was Final Fantasy VII in scope and play. A decade earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_IV
1985. Nothing for almost a decade surpassed it in quality and scale.
*quote from that link*
"In 1996 Computer Gaming World named Ultima IV as #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC."
It didn't even make the top ten - which is how you know this "list" is a joke. And Final Fantasy VII was what - way near the very bottom? The thing still commands $60 a copy on Ebay.
There seems to be an utter lack of PC titles from the 70s, 80, or most of the 90s.
Elite? Command and Conquer? Doom? Temple of Aphsai? Ultima IV? Zork?(anything by Infocom?)...
Or any other systems of note. Marathon? Tempest?(the original), Defender? Mortal Kombat? The list of things that they didn't even include is amazing. Almost as amazing as the just that made most of the top twenty.
1) Only print 50,000 copies of an album.
2) Distribute music dirt cheap (half price?) on Net in advance of printing.
3) Auction off 50,000 copies.
****
This is not a lot different than how many small bands currently sell CDs and DVDs at their concerts.
I suspect that something like this will become the way it's finally done. Get it free online, but the full-quality limited version with the artwork, booklet(possible coupons?) and so on costs you money.
Btw, the price most consumers feel is "cheap" is about 50 cents a song from what I've read. We're getting ever closer to that level of pricing.
How about taking the massive improvements in device design, fabrication, architecture, power management, and so forth that went into these impressive achievements and re-implementing the lowly PIII 1GHz, but at 5-10W maximum power?
****
You can do this with some motherboards by underclocking the processor. That Celeron D 360, for instance, is essentially a 3.6Ghz Northwood with much lower heat. Underclock it and presto - it runs at 20W power(we're talking stock cooler with the fan *off*!) as fast as an old 2.4Ghz P4.
These can make for great appliances.
P.S. - Could Slashdot implement a quote function? Please?
Let's see - if I understand correctly, we've developed the capability to engineer something that can go in and ERASE very specific segments of people's DNA?
****
Trust me, you're not wrong here. Someone will develop this into a bio-weapon. Want all corn crops blighted? Kill off all the bees? Or just make all males that are affected sterile. Or induce madness or... The potential nightmares of nanotech in the wrong hands is truly appalling.
As expected, the less expensive processors work best for the dollar.
But they forgot the real budget models like the newest Celerons. It would be interesting to see how an overclocked budget AMD or Celeron(air cooled, say no more than $30 spent on the cooler) would fare versus the big boys.
They may be single core. And have less cache. And run at a slower FSB. But for $50-$70, I bet they are only slightly slower when overclocked.
I can think of a few games, though, that serve to be educational without actually trying, because math and tactics are part of how it works.
NetHack/Angband/etc - those series of games require some analytical thinking.
Stars! - Another gem from a few years back. Now, resurfacing as a SourceForge clone. You can play it normally, but to really get into it, you have to crunch some math. It's pretty painless overall, since you have an emotional interest in planet growth and so on in a game like this.
Many net games also have a good approach as well. The old Astronest was a good example of this. There was math. Loads of it. But it wasn't an aim. Just something you had to do. Planetarion and other similar games are also examples of the "hidden math" approach to gaming.
Yet, many companies have done exactly this. They have gone direct to the customer with the advent of The Net. Yes, it pisses off their suppliers, but in the end, the suppliers and distributers serve at the company(or artist's) discretion. They are a service like Fed Ex. No more, no less.
He'll do fine. They are jsut scared because they have always known that it goes both ways. If you want out or to not go through them, you can. You might be a very small fish as a result, but then again, as it has been pointed out, record stores are dead.
As for money, I spend money on CDs for bands that I like. I buy at their concerts or directly and purposely avoid the middle-men. Now, these are small groups, but those are the best.
P.S - shameless plug - go check out The Bags newest album. They don't tour. But the CD is worth every penny.(and most of it goes to them as well, as if should).
I looked at their site and I saw that they scan other sites.
quote:
Why do you list prices for other sites?
We crawl a number of retail sites to provide our visitors with an accurate view of pricing in the market; these sites neither provide their pricing data to us directly nor pay us to list them. In some cases we may collect referral fees from listed sites, but we do not restrict our listings to sites that offer such programs. At any given time one of our sellers may or may not have the best price in the market, but part of our objective is to be your first stop when shopping for virtual currency. All external price data is labeled with an indication of how recently it was retrieved from the target site.
****
So essentially, because they let in other, non-verified sources, it's exactly as unsafe and bad as the other sites. The only way to get rid of bots and farmers is this:
- Each person has an account verified through secure ID or similar - like Ebay does. This is in addition to the Paypal/etc account.
- Each person can trade X per month, max. The limit should be equivalent to no more than 2-3 months average work in the game. For instance, in EVE online, that would be 50 mil per month.
- There needs to be a strict limit on the number of trades per year as well.
- Each person can only have one account. Attempts at duplicate accounts will result in a permanent ban. Get Paypal and the like involved as well to help on the double-checking, of course - I'm sure they would be glad to help.
Currently it has none of these very rudimentary safeguards in place(there are others to be sure, but thses need to be the bare minimum at least). Yes, call them restrictions if you want, but individuals don't have years worth of money to throw around on a monthly basis - only farmers and the like do.
As it is, it's more of the same B.S.
I really suggest that you check out Tripplite and get one of their ISOBAR bricks. These will clean up the signal. A standard surge protector does nothing at all against dirty lines/line noise/etc. For really bad conditions, though, you need a dedicated line conditioner. $200 or so and worth every penny.(you usually only need one for your AV center - your computer has its own regulated power supply)
As for what was causing it, 90% of the time, it's one of two things: Old appliances like refrigerators and the like(or an old furnace for instance), or halogen lamps. Arc lamps locally also are known to cause huge ripples in the local power supply, especially when they cycle/turn on in the evening.
As for the guy in the article, inadequate airflow is the likely real problem. I imagine he had a typical AV system and put the 360 on its side to fit into a slot/opening. The ting is, these need 4-6 inches of free airspace above them, minimum, just like a typical receiver or TV set. A foot is better. My PS2 - I leave it on that little stand so it has airflow around it on all sides.
Though, it may also be where he's living. I've seen a motherboard with a hole burned through it. This guy lived near the beach and left his windows open a bit at night. The moisture condensed in his case and he saltwater drilled a hole in his motherboard. The inside was covered in rust as well. After the third repair, we told him to close the windows and look into a dehumidifier.
Of course, the best two options are not even that technical.
1: Put a really big bomb in a satellite. The bigger the better, preferably nuclear. Line the case with 100-200lbs of fine graphite powder.(few inches thick) When the bomb goes off, the graphite, being pure carbon, is unaffected by the intense heat and you get a cloud of microscopic particles. If this was done at geostationary orbit, it would essentially take out every object, most notably, our communications and GPS. Without communications, we are no better off than we were in WWII. Probably worse because we have become so dependent upon technology. What doesn't blow up gets knocked around and sent in every direction by the blast. In Low orbit, this would essentially work the same, though you'd need a big target like the ISS to spread enough junk quickly enough.
2: The easier way, though, is a laser. Just shoot the offending object down. Can't dodge, and can't be detected, either, if it's made correctly. Nice little 2-3 inch hole in the satellite. Bonus points if you hit something critical and it explodes.
Eventually it will happen because of how dependent upon space based technology we have become. And we'll all be stuck on Earth for several decades. I know if I was a rogue state, I'd seriously think about it as a tactic to level the playing field somewhat.
P.S. This is why Iran is so dangerous. They have the missiles. All the need is something to put into them. They've got little to lose by attacking our satellites if we invade them.
Visible light interferometry is damned difficult because of the small wavelengths involved. Also, even though and interferometer gives you the same angular resolution as a similar sized single element telescope it doesn't give you the same sensitivity to faint objects because of the smaller overall surface area of the objective.
****
True, but the prospect of a major crater ringed with smaller 100 meter arrays to produce a several mile wide "lens" is intriguing to say the least. With the lack of any measurable atmosphere on the moon, it's essentially Hubble times a million. We can currently just detect a few Jupiter sized objects around distant stars. With this, we could see planets 20-50 light years away as well as we can see earth from orbit.
It's definitely worth going to the Moon to build this.
In the case of any application that runs on direct-X, it's nearly impossible to program any game that came or comes out on a console so that it won't run on the older versions. Sure, it may look worse or not run all the features, but they are stuck, because, for instance, the X-Box runs direct-X 9. Some games are actually Direct-X 8, even(Halo 2, originally). Also, since the game doesn't *require* a Direct-X 10 card to run, it's obviously just a software nerf Microsoft is doing here.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153097
The 360 cannot run DX-10, so basically if the title comes out on it and the PC, it can be hacked regardless of what Microsoft tries to do to annoy users.
So this is expected. A small hack and presto - the thing runs in DX9.
Both games have been doing very poorly in sales as well. Microsoft needs to stop the B.S. and give us useable games out of the box.
Of course, this will eventually lead us, interestingly enough, full circle, back to a dumb terminal on our desk. You sit down at the LCD screen and plug your computer into the USB/Firewire/etc(whatever they develop next) port. And then take it with you when you are done. They already have software that does this(Mojopac and others), but moving it all to hardware would be much better. The I/O port on it could handle the wireless adaptor to hook into the hotspot, of course.
The thing to note, though, is that this is less than a half and almost a tenth as expensive for color as the HP models. 3-4 cents a page for color is very frugal.
The best machine that I know of is a Canon Pixma MP130. It does everything except faxing. But what realyl sets it apart is that it is the last Canon printer to use the older style ink tanks.
http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_323
Basically you are looking for any used or like new printer/new old stock model that uses the BCI-6 series tanks. These have no chip - they are just a plastic tank with ink in it(heads are separate unit). Yes, you're not seeing wrong. $2.99 for black and $3.99 for color. And that's not in bulk - which can drop the price another 50%! $27.99 for 6 black, 6 color.
It's less expensive to print in color on these machines than black and white on a typical laser printer.
http://www.inkdaddy.com/index.php?cPath=2_186_325
These are a bit more money but also work well.
If they dropped the Blu-Ray drive and shipped it with a normal dual-layer DVD player, they could drop the price to about $250. The drive is a $250 component right there. Now, that's a fantastic price for one, but the total price is too high.
And to add insult to injury, they charge $100 more for the better version, which ships with a hard drive the size of a postage stamp. Everyone I know who has one has swapped a 300gig drive in instead.
To date, there aren't any games that require Blu-Ray that I know of. Or none that a second dual-layer DVD that you load onto the HD wouldn't fix.
But the simple fact is that they had to make a hard choice.
Blu-Ray wins because of availability(I can find ones to burn at a local Best Buy, but HD-DVD? Nope.) and greater capacity. The PS3 plus the game rental market for it is likely what pushed them over to that side. Expect the other major chains to fall in line within the next few weeks.
And, yes, it just ended. The same thing happened when the rental market adopted VHS. Beta struggled on for a few years, but the war was long over by the time it finally died off.
First off, it was virtually impossible to actually find the page. I finally had to go over to Google and do a search for the exact page(ie - you practically have to scan/crawl their entire site to find it!)
THEN I put in my number. It jams. It seems as if it will only "check" your availability if you are a current customer. Same with Bell south. So essentially you have to call them directly and confirm with an operator that it is possible in your area. But it says online ordering only - so you have to go through that as well.
Finally, as others have pointed out, they often tell you that the local connection point is full. Call them again asking for normal service and presto - hey - they have space.
It's such a typical ploy by them to skate around the law. Sure they offer it. Good luck getting it, though.
I'm looking forward to this. It looks to be very streamlined and more of a "one book" approach.
But, I really recommend the following change to and "D20" game:
Replace all D20 rolls with 2 D10s. It always bothered me that you had the same chance to hit yourself as do an amazing hit, no matter what your level was. Making it have an average allows the GM as well to get away with really good/really bad outcomes.
Of course, if you want easy role-playing, Witchcraft is by far the best that I have run across. The mechanics of the game take up all of about twenty pages, and 80% of each "page" is usually some sort of artwork or example(figure 2-3 pages, compressed).
There is obviously a lot of typical scientific ego bashing involved. Most discoveries that refute
established dogma are met with this type of reaction.
But yes, it looks like some sort of slushy mud. Water or something else plus a bunch of minerals, which could easily alter how it behaves. To say "water doesn't do that..." is meaningless until we figure out what else is mixed in with it.
I completely agree - well, with about 90% of what you said at least.
You can copy it, put it on your answering machine, or whatever. This isn't any different than, say, a unique ID code used to register software. They know who you are - and that key can't be used again. Valve is a good example of this, as are many online MMOGs.
Welcome to the reality. Our laws don't apply past our borders. So sorry. While it is morally wrong to do this, it's also perfectly legal in China. A similar example would be in the U.S. - there are laws for indecency and pandering and such(as well as certain drugs) that just don't apply in Amsterdam. You can get arrested and thrown in jail in the U.S. for what over there is considered not to really be an issue, legally.