Not necessarily. Many web designers today know very little HTML, because they're relied on tools like Dreamweaver to write it for them...and Dreamwaver outputs junk most of the time (not to mention their javascript output still attempts to be functional in 3.x browsers). When Macromedia and the other web dev vendors produce tools that churn out W3C validated content by default (I read an article recently on how to get DW to output XHTML, and I laughed), then I'll start using one. AOL should pay Macromedia to make Gecko the rendering engine in DW, instead of IE.
All user preferences are stored in prefs.js in the user profile (just like in Netscape 4). It would be very easy to write a script to set these values by directly editing this file. Of course, the user could always change the prefs later.
...with the entertainment consisting in exploration and storyline rather than in player status and achievement.
Sounds like the closest thing yet to an actual online RPG, and it's not even being called a MMORPG, which things like EverQrack certainly are not. The gameplay differences between so called "MMORPGs" and games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal are negligible at best. FPS + chargen doth not an RPG make.
Don't get me started on how Final Fanstasy devolved from a game into a non-interactive movie.
1. Open Mozilla
2. Surf to a page containing a form
3. Right click->View Page info
4. Click the Forms tab
5. Witness the action, method, name, and fields of every form on this page.
Mozilla could satisfy a lot of image/cookie blocking schemes with a single pref:
[ ] Block images and cookies that do not originate from the same domain as the current page.
I think I read somewhere in a Bugzilla comment that some suits at AOL don't want this kind of pref to exist (one reason is that it would totally destroy all netscape toolbars that sites add to themselves). Think about it: browse anywhere.com, never see the ads that originate from *.mediaclick.net. Bliss.
Well, what do you expect from something with the word "nuke" in its title?
Correction: what do you expect from an open source project with 1 developer who sells subscriptions to people who want the code 5 days before its public release?
PostNuke was very close to getting rid of all the legacy (PHPNuke) code in the.8 branch. The.7x branch is nowhere near that accomplishment.
Then the Great Flame War of August(TM) happened, and 95% of the managment team picked up our toys (the.8 branch) and went home. We've been regrouping since then.
You friend don't know much, then. ZipZaps and BitChar-G's are not identical. ZipZaps have a longer wheelbase and use a slightly different form factor motor, among other things.
People have swapped the gears and axles from a Zip onto a Bit, though.
Micro R/C cars have been out in japan for at least 2 years. Ebay has facilitated their entry into the U.S. as early as last winter (as far as I can tell). More proof that Japan gets cool toys way before we do.
If you want a wider range of customization, go for a Bit Char-G from Tomy, which have very recently been launched as R/C MicroSizers in the States (and also under different names in Australia and the U.K.). There are also numerous knockoffs of "bits" coming from China which are generally of lower quality. Hell, even Wal*Mart has a line on these things.
I admit, I first saw micro r/c cars on ThinkGeek (which are called Digi-Q from Takara). After I finally decided to get a micro r/c car, I did some research:
Bits have the widest range of accessories (bodies, gears, motors, etc)
Bits have real steering, which uses a small magnet to move the front wheels.
Digi-Q's have 2 motors, where speed differetial between them steers the car
Bits look less cartoony than Digi-Q's (but still a little bit cartoony)
Digi-Q's are controlled by IR, not RF
Therefore, I went with a bit. ZipZaps have a 16k rpm motor? So what: You can get 38k rpm motors for bits.
One of the things going against all these toys in the U.S. is the body styles they produce, which are all Japanese. How many people outside of Japan know what a Nissan Skyline is? Tomy may be prepared, as you can see a Mach 5 and Mini Cooper scheduled for release soon. I want a Chevy SSR and a '69 GTO Judge (gotta be orange) personally.
BUT, these things are temendous fun. There's a huge online community around the micro r/c hobby. Check out www.tinyrc.com, www.bitchar-g.co.uk and QFM Racing (click the right side of the page).
Wizkids would be great to own D&D, but there are more than a few people who think Wizkids has stretched themselves too thin already. Many retailers are upset about the kind of support they get from Wizkids and some of the decisions they make (my local retailer was pissed about Mechwarrior and DC Heroclix being for sale at GenCon when I talked to him there).
I have to agree the OGL and d20 licenses are a joke, and Ryan Dancey is an idiot. There are many people in the industry who have been predicting the death of d20 for over a year, some since 3E was released.
If WoTC's plans are to get all these people to come back as freelancers, they're screwed. Microsoft caused a law in Washington to be enacted where dismissed employees cannot freelance for the same department for 1 year. Art department: gutted. RPG R&D: gutted.
I also read last night that WoTC's entire RPG operation may be for sale, with one interested party being Jordan Weisman. See this thread on the RPG.net message boards.
The master cut of Fellowship of the Ring was shipped from Weta to the U.S. on November 6, 2001, if I remember correctly. Does anyone really believe Peter Jackson would pass up 2 months of production time?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I enter a theater maybe twice a month. However, I drive next to inattentive morons at least twice a day.
I hate people who think they can drive and perform their inane yakking at the same time. If I run up your ass in the fast lane because you can only hear the person on the other end of the line if you go 40mph or less, you should get the f*ck out of my way and follow me to my destination to grovel at my feet. This means don't flip me the bird because you are an imbecile. Behind every bird is a pile of shit. I've been hit by someone while they were on the phone, and almost hit several more times.
Anyway, these things need to be installed in the median of every federal highway, with a range that just exceeds the distance to the outside edge of the shoulder. If this happens, I might not be so pissed about the exhorbitant taxes I pay.
A study concluded last year that cell phone owners are four times more likely to be in an auto accident than normal people. The solution? Quadruple their insurance premiums. That'll get people to STFU and drive.
So soon we forget that AOL bought Netscape, and has been bankrolling Mozilla for a couple years now.
Web pages will become compliant. The reason? When you start getting your AOL 8.0 coasters in the mail this winter, load one up: you will find an AOL branded version of Mozilla on it. 35 million Joe Users will keep Mozilla installed because AOL tells them it's new, cool, and easy.
I hate IE. I'm waiting for win32FileManager.xpi so I can totally blow explorer off my winblows machine and replace it with LiteStep.
...and not the work of Gygax. This fetid thing is the brainfart of one Ryan S. Dancey, a (former) executive at WOTC. He has since left to run his own company focused on the Open Gaming License. Several articles a couple years ago on various sites claimed D&D was going open source. It's not, and never will. It's more like M$'s "shared source" malarky.
I read the OGL. It's junk. Do not think it has the same purpose/principle/goals behind it that the GPL does. The OGL exists so that WOTC can steer the entire game industry. All these little game companies were spawned because of the OGL, and the OGL will be their downfall. If any other game company had money (Decipher is the closest), they would sue WOTC for anti-trust violations. Hard core/. gamers should think about all the similarities between M$ and WOTC.
D&D is the reason why there are so many other RPG's out there. I know, because stupid D&D rules are one of the reasons why I made my own game.
And some more insight into the history lesson going on here...Hasbro only bought WOTC because Pokemon was a cash cow at the time. Now that it's dying (yah!), Hasbro is worried. They never understood what they were getting.
PNG is stealthily gaining acceptance. I think there are three reasons why PNG hasn't gone as far as it should have by now:
Content managers (or whoever ranks above the actual content authors) may not know or care about PNG. Until all the graphic artists start selling it up the ladder as a solution, PNG will continue to flounder.
PNG's are generally a bit bigger (file wise) than an identical GIF or JPG. Not much bigger in most cases (and smaller sometimes), but some sites prefer to bloat their pages with badly formatted css and invalid HTML instead of a next generation gfx format.
MSIE's PNG support blows goats. I haven't seen a final of IE6 in action, but a late beta I saw still used a plugin to display PNG's instead of native code. Pull up an RBGA PNG in IE and witness the dark rectangle clearly defining the size of the image. (But if it works on Mac IE, then someone at MS has a clue).
Like many here, I too used to use altaVista religiously. Then came the portal debacle. Then the pop up ads. Then the meta-refresh. Then, all of a sudden I couldn't find the seach input. You are a search engine, therefore the only thing I care about on your page is the input and the results.. The usage numbers verify this statement.
The beauty of Google is that it has none of these.
A weird side effect is that if you search Altavista for "google", good luck trying to find out how big a number it is...unless you follow the link that Altavista figures out for you.
Here we have what was potentially an interesting review of a book covering a topic that many of us love. How sad is it that the introduction to the story contains several errors. I'm not the biggest fan of the Professor's work, but can we have some elementary research?
The Silmarillion was begun (I believe) while Tolkien was a teen. It really began taking shape during his service in WWI and during his college years.
The Hobbit literally began as a bedtime story Tolkien created for his children. The decision to publish it, after much debate, ultimately came from the son of one of the publishers.
Upon the moderate success of The Hobbit, Allen & Unwin asked Tolkien for another work describing Hobbits. Tolkien resisted for a while, but finally agreed sometine during WWII. During the late 40's, Tolkien wrote to his publishers saying that the project was bigger than he originally anticipated. The Lord of the Rings was in progress.
Contrary to what many believe, LOTR was not his Life's work (it is also not a trilogy, a point he argued many times). It and The Hobbit are merely sidebars to the project he worked on for most of his life, revising and editing, and ultimately never finished: The Silmarillion. Tolkien did prefess the purpose for this work was to be an alternate mythology for Earth, because he feared that so much mythology from many cultures had been lost.
So, not only was Tolkien inpsired enough to create these stunning works, he also regarded it as a gift to all, past present and future.
Hopefully JonKatz will respect what has been given him by presenting factual information about Toklien and his Works in his future articles on the subject.
Slashdot Mirror
Not necessarily. Many web designers today know very little HTML, because they're relied on tools like Dreamweaver to write it for them...and Dreamwaver outputs junk most of the time (not to mention their javascript output still attempts to be functional in 3.x browsers). When Macromedia and the other web dev vendors produce tools that churn out W3C validated content by default (I read an article recently on how to get DW to output XHTML, and I laughed), then I'll start using one. AOL should pay Macromedia to make Gecko the rendering engine in DW, instead of IE.
....got shafted.
I made an icon for LOTR a while ago, but couldn't figure out where to post it. You can see it here.
Taco, are you listening?
All user preferences are stored in prefs.js in the user profile (just like in Netscape 4). It would be very easy to write a script to set these values by directly editing this file. Of course, the user could always change the prefs later.
Sounds like the closest thing yet to an actual online RPG, and it's not even being called a MMORPG, which things like EverQrack certainly are not. The gameplay differences between so called "MMORPGs" and games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal are negligible at best. FPS + chargen doth not an RPG make.
Don't get me started on how Final Fanstasy devolved from a game into a non-interactive movie.
1. Open Mozilla
2. Surf to a page containing a form
3. Right click->View Page info
4. Click the Forms tab
5. Witness the action, method, name, and fields of every form on this page.
Mozilla could satisfy a lot of image/cookie blocking schemes with a single pref:
[ ] Block images and cookies that do not originate from the same domain as the current page.
I think I read somewhere in a Bugzilla comment that some suits at AOL don't want this kind of pref to exist (one reason is that it would totally destroy all netscape toolbars that sites add to themselves). Think about it: browse anywhere.com, never see the ads that originate from *.mediaclick.net. Bliss.
Correction: what do you expect from an open source project with 1 developer who sells subscriptions to people who want the code 5 days before its public release?
PostNuke was very close to getting rid of all the legacy (PHPNuke) code in the .8 branch. The .7x branch is nowhere near that accomplishment.
Then the Great Flame War of August(TM) happened, and 95% of the managment team picked up our toys (the .8 branch) and went home. We've been regrouping since then.
BTW, Xaraya is not a preservative, applehead.
...and yet it's not hideously ugly like the Cayenne.
You friend don't know much, then. ZipZaps and BitChar-G's are not identical. ZipZaps have a longer wheelbase and use a slightly different form factor motor, among other things.
People have swapped the gears and axles from a Zip onto a Bit, though.
Micro R/C cars have been out in japan for at least 2 years. Ebay has facilitated their entry into the U.S. as early as last winter (as far as I can tell). More proof that Japan gets cool toys way before we do.
If you want a wider range of customization, go for a Bit Char-G from Tomy, which have very recently been launched as R/C MicroSizers in the States (and also under different names in Australia and the U.K.). There are also numerous knockoffs of "bits" coming from China which are generally of lower quality. Hell, even Wal*Mart has a line on these things.
I admit, I first saw micro r/c cars on ThinkGeek (which are called Digi-Q from Takara). After I finally decided to get a micro r/c car, I did some research:
Therefore, I went with a bit. ZipZaps have a 16k rpm motor? So what: You can get 38k rpm motors for bits.
One of the things going against all these toys in the U.S. is the body styles they produce, which are all Japanese. How many people outside of Japan know what a Nissan Skyline is? Tomy may be prepared, as you can see a Mach 5 and Mini Cooper scheduled for release soon. I want a Chevy SSR and a '69 GTO Judge (gotta be orange) personally.
BUT, these things are temendous fun. There's a huge online community around the micro r/c hobby. Check out www.tinyrc.com, www.bitchar-g.co.uk and QFM Racing (click the right side of the page).
Wizkids would be great to own D&D, but there are more than a few people who think Wizkids has stretched themselves too thin already. Many retailers are upset about the kind of support they get from Wizkids and some of the decisions they make (my local retailer was pissed about Mechwarrior and DC Heroclix being for sale at GenCon when I talked to him there).
I have to agree the OGL and d20 licenses are a joke, and Ryan Dancey is an idiot. There are many people in the industry who have been predicting the death of d20 for over a year, some since 3E was released.
If WoTC's plans are to get all these people to come back as freelancers, they're screwed. Microsoft caused a law in Washington to be enacted where dismissed employees cannot freelance for the same department for 1 year. Art department: gutted. RPG R&D: gutted.
I also read last night that WoTC's entire RPG operation may be for sale, with one interested party being Jordan Weisman. See this thread on the RPG.net message boards.
The master cut of Fellowship of the Ring was shipped from Weta to the U.S. on November 6, 2001, if I remember correctly. Does anyone really believe Peter Jackson would pass up 2 months of production time?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I enter a theater maybe twice a month. However, I drive next to inattentive morons at least twice a day.
I hate people who think they can drive and perform their inane yakking at the same time. If I run up your ass in the fast lane because you can only hear the person on the other end of the line if you go 40mph or less, you should get the f*ck out of my way and follow me to my destination to grovel at my feet. This means don't flip me the bird because you are an imbecile. Behind every bird is a pile of shit. I've been hit by someone while they were on the phone, and almost hit several more times.
Anyway, these things need to be installed in the median of every federal highway, with a range that just exceeds the distance to the outside edge of the shoulder. If this happens, I might not be so pissed about the exhorbitant taxes I pay.
A study concluded last year that cell phone owners are four times more likely to be in an auto accident than normal people. The solution? Quadruple their insurance premiums. That'll get people to STFU and drive.
So soon we forget that AOL bought Netscape, and has been bankrolling Mozilla for a couple years now.
Web pages will become compliant. The reason? When you start getting your AOL 8.0 coasters in the mail this winter, load one up: you will find an AOL branded version of Mozilla on it. 35 million Joe Users will keep Mozilla installed because AOL tells them it's new, cool, and easy.
I hate IE. I'm waiting for win32FileManager.xpi so I can totally blow explorer off my winblows machine and replace it with LiteStep.
...and not the work of Gygax. This fetid thing is the brainfart of one Ryan S. Dancey, a (former) executive at WOTC. He has since left to run his own company focused on the Open Gaming License. Several articles a couple years ago on various sites claimed D&D was going open source. It's not, and never will. It's more like M$'s "shared source" malarky.
I read the OGL. It's junk. Do not think it has the same purpose/principle/goals behind it that the GPL does. The OGL exists so that WOTC can steer the entire game industry. All these little game companies were spawned because of the OGL, and the OGL will be their downfall. If any other game company had money (Decipher is the closest), they would sue WOTC for anti-trust violations. Hard core /. gamers should think about all the similarities between M$ and WOTC.
D&D is the reason why there are so many other RPG's out there. I know, because stupid D&D rules are one of the reasons why I made my own game.
And some more insight into the history lesson going on here...Hasbro only bought WOTC because Pokemon was a cash cow at the time. Now that it's dying (yah!), Hasbro is worried. They never understood what they were getting.
PNG is stealthily gaining acceptance. I think there are three reasons why PNG hasn't gone as far as it should have by now:
PHP-Nuke has been closed again by its author. This has caused quite an uproar in the *Nuke community.
PostNuke, a fork from PHP-Nuke, is rapidly gaining popularity. I've been hacking at it for a while, and it's a very nice system.
How telling is it that this happens on Halloween, under a full moon?
Like many here, I too used to use altaVista religiously. Then came the portal debacle. Then the pop up ads. Then the meta-refresh. Then, all of a sudden I couldn't find the seach input. You are a search engine, therefore the only thing I care about on your page is the input and the results.. The usage numbers verify this statement.
The beauty of Google is that it has none of these.
A weird side effect is that if you search Altavista for "google", good luck trying to find out how big a number it is...unless you follow the link that Altavista figures out for you.
Go to mozdev.org and install MultiZilla. It puts tabs in Mozilla.
Here we have what was potentially an interesting review of a book covering a topic that many of us love. How sad is it that the introduction to the story contains several errors. I'm not the biggest fan of the Professor's work, but can we have some elementary research?
The Silmarillion was begun (I believe) while Tolkien was a teen. It really began taking shape during his service in WWI and during his college years.
The Hobbit literally began as a bedtime story Tolkien created for his children. The decision to publish it, after much debate, ultimately came from the son of one of the publishers.
Upon the moderate success of The Hobbit, Allen & Unwin asked Tolkien for another work describing Hobbits. Tolkien resisted for a while, but finally agreed sometine during WWII. During the late 40's, Tolkien wrote to his publishers saying that the project was bigger than he originally anticipated. The Lord of the Rings was in progress.
Contrary to what many believe, LOTR was not his Life's work (it is also not a trilogy, a point he argued many times). It and The Hobbit are merely sidebars to the project he worked on for most of his life, revising and editing, and ultimately never finished: The Silmarillion. Tolkien did prefess the purpose for this work was to be an alternate mythology for Earth, because he feared that so much mythology from many cultures had been lost.
So, not only was Tolkien inpsired enough to create these stunning works, he also regarded it as a gift to all, past present and future.
Hopefully JonKatz will respect what has been given him by presenting factual information about Toklien and his Works in his future articles on the subject.
Just wait until 64 bit Windows come out... We'll have to deal with hundreds of ******64.dll files too.
Lest we forget that South Carolina dropped out of the case way back in '99.
Dracos