In all likelihood wired local networks will continue to be useful for a long time. Among other things, the fact that the link is tangible makes it good for risk management. Want it disconnected? Unplug the cable. Under those circumstances, there's nothing software can do to re-establish the connection. Likewise, physical security of a data link is much easier to establish if the link is tangible. Home users aren't likely to care about this but corporate users probably will.
Beyond that, as long as tangible links are faster than wireless links, and as long as an increase in the physical density of wireless links decreases the overall availability of the network to each client, wired links will continue to be advantageous.
The Church did not have a problem with Galileo's Heliocentric beliefs. They had a problem with him telling people how to interperet the bible, which was their monopoly. Oh. Well, that makes it alright then.
You make it sound like struggling with cancer, or some other genetic disease transmitted by one's Mother. For an anti-Semite that's pretty much how it would feel, I suppose... Or else just some big, ongoing crisis of identity...
That was a Monty Python joke son, you just missed the reference. Hmm. Do you suppose the fact that I made another, unrelated joke implies that I didn't understand the first one? Or do you think it's also possible that I don't necessarily think Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the bible of comedy like I did when I was 13?
It's not that I don't love Monty Python, it's just that, well, I think I should see other comedies. I hope Monty Python will understand. I mean, certainly Monty Python has spent their share of time with other audiences... And that's fine, that's just how they are... I've come to accept that about them. But I really think this is for the best. Maybe we've just grown apart, Monty Python and I...
What is this "Information Wants To Be Free" bullshit anyways? The way I interpret it, it depicts the fundamental nature of data on the internet. Fundamentally speaking, disseminating information counteracts any efforts to keep its usage controlled. It's not so much personification, saying that information has some free will of its own, or that we should feel sorry for imprisoned data: It's more like saying that flash paper "wants" to burn, or that a shoddily-built building "wants" to topple over.
Of course, given enough time and sufficient resources and influence, that truism (if you consider it a truism) can be altered, at least in most practical circumstances. There are a lot of people who are content to pay for what they use, and not inclined to break the rules if it would mean inconvenience or a real risk of being caught and punished.
I went from Radio to the "new" microprocessor called the 8008. I have been hooked on micros and controllers since. Hams have done most of the development in radio, not big corps. They have the passion and love for reaching farther then "stock" That may be - but unfortunately it's not a side of the hobby I was ever introduced to...
As a teenager I learned basic electronics from my 8x yo neighbour. It was fascinating watching him build the grids, add the getter, then seal the tube. Soon it would be glowing in the receiver pulling in the LF signals.
Truly a lost art, I wish I could have learned more from him. If I'd learned that kind of thing as a kid I think there's a chance ham radio could have kept my attention. But just buying a rig and talking to people... boooring..
I am such a nerd. Yeah, I didn't take the time to memorize the code when I was watching the DVD, or pay too much attention to exactly what the digit sequence was. But for posting here, of course, I wanted to get it right.:D
But I did learn that there's a very simple way to remember it... it's a count from 1 to 6 with a mirror-imaged copy... Funny how the secrets to the universe have such a simple basis.
"But the real start will be the first week of February. Only then real decisions will be made on game concept, game design and other targets, although we do know it'll be derived from Project Peach, furry & crazy characters in a forest."
Let me see if I understand this correctly:
You assemble a full creative team for a game and only then decide what you want to do with it?
In animation, a studio like Pixar will spend years in developing a story. Only then will it begin assembling a production crew.
Well, yeah, because the goal here is different from the goal of somebody like Pixar.
In this project one of the important goals is simply that of going through the process of writing a game using these tools. It's a shake-down. That's the whole point, so that comes first. Choose the technical challenge, arrange the team, and then figure out what shape the work will take.
Who do you think you are really "proclaiming" the majority use of a system. Just a regular guy who's not too stubborn or pragmatic to accept the obvious?
I'm saying piracy is common, not that everybody, or even the majority, does it. And I'm saying that the hardware manufacturers who make piracy easy (people who make things like R4DS, etc.) mostly stand on the shoulders of the homebrew community - and everybody therefore takes it for granted that homebrew = piracy - despite the fact that the homebrew folks generally want nothing to do with it. And so (news flash!) I told people not to forget that there really is homebrew for the sake of homebrew. It's not a myth invented to legitimize the sale of flash carts.
But denying the fact of software piracy in all its forms does not help the homebrew scene. This is why I take the time to acknowledge it - even the forms of piracy people tend to ignore, like emulators. You gotta keep your perspective grounded in reality.
Take the time for a bit of comprehension before you get all high and mighty, OK?
And the majority of these homebrew games look like retail games, except they're free. It's true that homebrew stuff invariably winds up getting used for software piracy... Even when it's not native software for the console, a popular use of a cracked console is for emulation - that is, playing games Nintendo would rather you buy through the Shop Channel instead of playing via the ROMs we've all had on our computers for the last ten years...
Still, some people really are interested in real homebrew... Either learning to write it, or just using it...
Then the fact that most software is still written in C/C++ should cause a tear or two. Tears of joy? There is no reason why applications should be written in anything else. C/C++ still remain the most powerful programming languages around. Yeah, they can be misused in the wrong hands, but can't any language? Depends on how you define "power".
The main strength of C is that it's a reasonable level of abstraction, but it's not too far from the basic capabilities of a typical processor instruction set. The main strength of C++ is that it builds on C with better code organization - but the language is still structured such that it encourages a high level of static optimization.
So what's wrong with people leaning on C and C++ for everything? The main problem is that it leads to people ignoring other alternatives that may be better suited for a given task. Sometimes you really need a high degree of optimization throughout your entire application, even if that means you need to pay attention to all the little details along the way of how your data structures, etc. work - but usually not. More dynamic languages give you a greater degree of flexibility, at the cost of efficiency. But if that gets the code working sooner, you can spend more time refining the program - optimizing routines that need optimization, adding features, fixing bugs, etc.
Higher-level languages offer the power to get things done quickly.
I am very happy that they finally released the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 as a Virtual Console download...
I think one of the neat things about it is that pretty much everybody has played Super Mario Bros., so they know how the game works - and some will even remember it well enough that playing it again would hold no surprises - but not so many have played SMB2, so it's like a brand-new experience with the old favorite.
(For the record, I've got nothing against the game that was released as "Super Mario Bros. 2" in the US - I love that game, I have lots of great memories of playing it as a kid, and feel it's very worthy of being turned into a Mario title... And I don't believe players in the US would have been thrilled by the real SMB2 back in 1988, when SMB3 was coming out, because NES games had progressed so far beyond the original SMB by then...)
But what about Generalissimo Francisco Franco? He, also, is still dead. Somehow the Dreamcast being still dead is no more surprising than the Franco still being dead. It's like, "Hey, everybody! The Atari VCS is dead!" Whoa, thanks for the news flash, Slashdot...
(It is good that the Gen. Franco angle was not lost in this discussion. I would have brought it up if you hadn't already done so. Good work!)
I was really thinking more in terms of the "barrier to entry", like you said. Any idiots can form a garage band nowadays that will actually play a few performances before someone notifies them of how badly they suck, so why do they play Guitar Hero instead? Because "real guitars are for old people"?
On the other hand, very few people ever get to seriously take up a sport. I can understand why someone would want to pretend they made it to the NFL, whereas pretending to play guitar at some random party seems much more like being too lazy to learn to really play guitar at some random party.
Then again, being a dancer with good speaking and singing voices, I guess I may have underestimated the level of inborn talent needed to form a competent musical group. Well, here's the thing: Nobody can do everything for real. There's just no time. People choose the things they're gonna do with their life: and once they've filled that schedule of stuff, they can't necessarily add more stuff, no matter how easy it is to learn. "Oh, learn some Assembler. It's not that hard." Sure, but if you're already busy doing a dozen other things...
Don't think of Rock Band as a substitute for starting a real band - think of it as what it is, a game. People play it and they have fun. What a concept, huh?
I find it amusing you believe that sports require inborn talent, but anyone could be a musician if they wanted. you're an idiot, and that's coming from someone who can't play a note on anything I had a similar reaction to that. Here's my slightly less trolly take on it:
To be a pro athlete you need natural talent and you need to be in good shape and all. But, you know, any slob could go out and play some football with friends. It's just most people don't bother. So why do sports games get a pass?
Drill a hole in the floor? (I'd actually hire an electrician to run it professionally if you don't know how to cut a hole, mount a plate and run/punch CAT5/5E/6 cable.) That could work nicely (that's how I did the wire for the Wii) but in the area where I'd be putting this line down there's a ceiling in the basement. I have a hole in the floor already (where the radiator pipe comes up) and I put some Cat 6 down the hole, but I don't know where it wound up.
It's frustrating, 'cause I don't like relying on wireless. Not that you can't rely on it, I just see it as something that should be used mainly when you can't use wires. But it's been ten months now since I moved into the house and still all the computers rely on wireless...
This is why I hate everything that's wireless. Devices interfere with each other, they have to be recharged all the time, and it's slow! I propose a revolution, a revolution where devices don't interfere with each other, they don't need to be recharged, and is fast! I propose the use of thin threads of copper for signal transmission and power supply. What a great idea!
Now, can you please tell me how to run a wire from my living room to the basement? I've been trying to string up the house with Ethernet so I don't have to use wireless and so far the only thing I've gotten wired is the Wii.
Different devices can get different amounts of bandwidth on a Firewire tree. Each device on a USB bus have to get equal bandwidth slices. That's not precisely true...
The bandwidth a USB device gets depends on two things: The speed of the device itself (naturally) and how frequently it's polled by the host computer. So one device can be polled more frequently than others (and HID devices can suggest how frequently they should be polled) - so the devices don't get "equal bandwidth slices" (at least, not equal slices of the total bandwidth when you average over time), one device can take more than 1/N of the total bandwidth of the bus if it needs it and if nothing else does...
('Course this doesn't compare to Firewire's actual [i]allocation[/i] of bus bandwidth...)
Slashdot Mirror
I never said it made it alright. Please learn some logic.
You do have a point there. But, please, no need to be a prick about it.In all likelihood wired local networks will continue to be useful for a long time. Among other things, the fact that the link is tangible makes it good for risk management. Want it disconnected? Unplug the cable. Under those circumstances, there's nothing software can do to re-establish the connection. Likewise, physical security of a data link is much easier to establish if the link is tangible. Home users aren't likely to care about this but corporate users probably will.
Beyond that, as long as tangible links are faster than wireless links, and as long as an increase in the physical density of wireless links decreases the overall availability of the network to each client, wired links will continue to be advantageous.
It's not that I don't love Monty Python, it's just that, well, I think I should see other comedies. I hope Monty Python will understand. I mean, certainly Monty Python has spent their share of time with other audiences... And that's fine, that's just how they are... I've come to accept that about them. But I really think this is for the best. Maybe we've just grown apart, Monty Python and I...
Of course, given enough time and sufficient resources and influence, that truism (if you consider it a truism) can be altered, at least in most practical circumstances. There are a lot of people who are content to pay for what they use, and not inclined to break the rules if it would mean inconvenience or a real risk of being caught and punished.
Hams have done most of the development in radio, not big corps. They have the passion and love for reaching farther then "stock" That may be - but unfortunately it's not a side of the hobby I was ever introduced to...
Truly a lost art, I wish I could have learned more from him. If I'd learned that kind of thing as a kid I think there's a chance ham radio could have kept my attention. But just buying a rig and talking to people... boooring..
I am such a nerd. Yeah, I didn't take the time to memorize the code when I was watching the DVD, or pay too much attention to exactly what the digit sequence was. But for posting here, of course, I wanted to get it right.
But I did learn that there's a very simple way to remember it... it's a count from 1 to 6 with a mirror-imaged copy... Funny how the secrets to the universe have such a simple basis.
010010
011110
100001
101101
110011
Let me see if I understand this correctly:
You assemble a full creative team for a game and only then decide what you want to do with it?
Well, yeah, because the goal here is different from the goal of somebody like Pixar.In animation, a studio like Pixar will spend years in developing a story. Only then will it begin assembling a production crew.
In this project one of the important goals is simply that of going through the process of writing a game using these tools. It's a shake-down. That's the whole point, so that comes first. Choose the technical challenge, arrange the team, and then figure out what shape the work will take.
I'm saying piracy is common, not that everybody, or even the majority, does it. And I'm saying that the hardware manufacturers who make piracy easy (people who make things like R4DS, etc.) mostly stand on the shoulders of the homebrew community - and everybody therefore takes it for granted that homebrew = piracy - despite the fact that the homebrew folks generally want nothing to do with it. And so (news flash!) I told people not to forget that there really is homebrew for the sake of homebrew. It's not a myth invented to legitimize the sale of flash carts.
But denying the fact of software piracy in all its forms does not help the homebrew scene. This is why I take the time to acknowledge it - even the forms of piracy people tend to ignore, like emulators. You gotta keep your perspective grounded in reality.
Take the time for a bit of comprehension before you get all high and mighty, OK?
And the majority of these homebrew games look like retail games, except they're free. It's true that homebrew stuff invariably winds up getting used for software piracy... Even when it's not native software for the console, a popular use of a cracked console is for emulation - that is, playing games Nintendo would rather you buy through the Shop Channel instead of playing via the ROMs we've all had on our computers for the last ten years...
Still, some people really are interested in real homebrew... Either learning to write it, or just using it...
The main strength of C is that it's a reasonable level of abstraction, but it's not too far from the basic capabilities of a typical processor instruction set. The main strength of C++ is that it builds on C with better code organization - but the language is still structured such that it encourages a high level of static optimization.
So what's wrong with people leaning on C and C++ for everything? The main problem is that it leads to people ignoring other alternatives that may be better suited for a given task. Sometimes you really need a high degree of optimization throughout your entire application, even if that means you need to pay attention to all the little details along the way of how your data structures, etc. work - but usually not. More dynamic languages give you a greater degree of flexibility, at the cost of efficiency. But if that gets the code working sooner, you can spend more time refining the program - optimizing routines that need optimization, adding features, fixing bugs, etc.
Higher-level languages offer the power to get things done quickly.
I am very happy that they finally released the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 as a Virtual Console download...
I think one of the neat things about it is that pretty much everybody has played Super Mario Bros., so they know how the game works - and some will even remember it well enough that playing it again would hold no surprises - but not so many have played SMB2, so it's like a brand-new experience with the old favorite.
(For the record, I've got nothing against the game that was released as "Super Mario Bros. 2" in the US - I love that game, I have lots of great memories of playing it as a kid, and feel it's very worthy of being turned into a Mario title... And I don't believe players in the US would have been thrilled by the real SMB2 back in 1988, when SMB3 was coming out, because NES games had progressed so far beyond the original SMB by then...)
What if... that thing I just said?
(It is good that the Gen. Franco angle was not lost in this discussion. I would have brought it up if you hadn't already done so. Good work!)
On the other hand, very few people ever get to seriously take up a sport. I can understand why someone would want to pretend they made it to the NFL, whereas pretending to play guitar at some random party seems much more like being too lazy to learn to really play guitar at some random party.
Then again, being a dancer with good speaking and singing voices, I guess I may have underestimated the level of inborn talent needed to form a competent musical group. Well, here's the thing: Nobody can do everything for real. There's just no time. People choose the things they're gonna do with their life: and once they've filled that schedule of stuff, they can't necessarily add more stuff, no matter how easy it is to learn. "Oh, learn some Assembler. It's not that hard." Sure, but if you're already busy doing a dozen other things...
Don't think of Rock Band as a substitute for starting a real band - think of it as what it is, a game. People play it and they have fun. What a concept, huh?
To be a pro athlete you need natural talent and you need to be in good shape and all. But, you know, any slob could go out and play some football with friends. It's just most people don't bother. So why do sports games get a pass?
It's frustrating, 'cause I don't like relying on wireless. Not that you can't rely on it, I just see it as something that should be used mainly when you can't use wires. But it's been ten months now since I moved into the house and still all the computers rely on wireless...
Now, can you please tell me how to run a wire from my living room to the basement? I've been trying to string up the house with Ethernet so I don't have to use wireless and so far the only thing I've gotten wired is the Wii.
Each device on a USB bus have to get equal bandwidth slices. That's not precisely true...
The bandwidth a USB device gets depends on two things: The speed of the device itself (naturally) and how frequently it's polled by the host computer. So one device can be polled more frequently than others (and HID devices can suggest how frequently they should be polled) - so the devices don't get "equal bandwidth slices" (at least, not equal slices of the total bandwidth when you average over time), one device can take more than 1/N of the total bandwidth of the bus if it needs it and if nothing else does...
('Course this doesn't compare to Firewire's actual [i]allocation[/i] of bus bandwidth...)