Biggest issue is control schemes. Every mech in the console versions has nigh 360 degree torso twisting capability, or legs that spin around on a top to compensate. This just doesn't feel right in the Mechwarrior universe, where larger mechs are lumbering weapons platforms not necessarily made for turning fights (and some can only turn the cockpit and arms a mere 15 degrees). The latter requires a full rudder and throttle flight system and skills in operating all seven axis of controls instead of two analog sticks with just four axis and the game filling in the rest. Though it gives the title appeal for the less finicky console generation, it falls out with the minority of true fans who like the technological basing. Weapons being balanced by heat dissipation is retained, but the penalties are so severely nerfed that it just results in a five-second shutdown instead of instantaneous death by ammo cookoff.
Games can't be made hard by complexity of controls anymore (part of Mechwarrior 1-4's appeal) and putting skill back to who can actually pilot instead of who can point the crosshair and pull the trigger. Rebooting this series would only serve to stray it even further from the source material and ruin it by giving it 'mass appeal'; which is dumbed down, sped up, and too forgiving.
You should definitely try (Wing Commander:)Privateer Remake, which is built on the open-source Vega Strike engine, and includes some enhancements of real 3D ships, unlocked AI ships being available, and tweaked economics. Another is Privateer Gemini Gold which is a straight 1:1 redux for modern systems, as true to the original as possible.
Definite 'reboots' of an old title, particularly because the original won't even run on a newer system nor even in the most featured DosBox available. Very specific memory requirements.
Privateer Remake's sourceforge site appears to be in maintenance though.
I think I'd like to counter that Return to Zork was the first I played of the series, and the graphical approach was far more appealing and wow-some for the day.
Same insane Zork difficulty, and some way fun voice acting.
Another is the Lucasarts title Full Throttle, which lived entirely in it's animated graphics. Saying a game should stick to dated presentation is a bit 'get off my lawn'... with the exception of platformer titles which are making a return to 2D or pseudo-2D gameplay (Little Big Planet, the new Metroid title).
Except that the PS3 was marketed from the outset as a Blu-Ray format player, is a perfectly un-neutered player with full HDMI and Optical outputs to support the full quality of the format, and is still nigh the cheapest player on the market for equal featues (optical out with selectable codec, full 1080p HDMI out, full BD menu control).
And then they baited 'n switched for the new bodystyle and build. It was cool when it was cool, now its just another lunchbox hybrid being pushed as the 'cool' thing it once was.
They didn't consider pushing it until gas was $4 a gallon, but then when they needed to push it they went too far away from the original concept and more towards the 'conservative, green car' image that utterly betrays the performance that this vehicle was supposed to attain.
The Volt was going to be cool, efficent, and most importantly to Americans: Sporty! Like almost Tesla Roadster sporty in the original concept, then they started reigning in the numbers and it looked more and more like a slick-bodied econobox. They changed the shape to match and now I have zero interest in the vehicle at all, personally, and I doubt the reaction of so many other (See: Economy is good, but we have freeways here!) Americans would be so different.
Its not just a matter of the connector bits and maybe including an extra cable in the box. Its also the engineering and extra electronics and regulation to take power from any of multiple sources, and even thats not inclusive of having the USB plugged in for data but not power while wall power is being used and other situations. I'd rather not have that faster-charging barely-regulated 6.7v be two teeny transistors in a $200 cellphone away from feeding into the +5vsb of my $200 motherboard.
Being able to plug in your phone to charge with the same plug you may use for the headset, your camera (the real one, phone cameras still suck) and any other multitude of devices just makes sense from the beginning. It should be touted as a feature that a phone carries a standard charging connector, not pushed as an industry standard onto everyone. I use a mini-hat USB for my phone (Dash), camera (Samsung L60), and PS3 controllers already, so replacing any of them should be within my want to use the same charging devices I already have.
Having to buy new cables for a new phone has been a commercial scheme since 'cellular phone' day one, and could almost (based on usage) be compared to having to buy new video output cables every time you changed monitors; square-up your combinations and you have a lucrative market.
Luckily this hasn't flown well with consumers in some time (Apple backlash noted, conversion of iPods to standard headphone jacks et.al.), but again shouldn't be pushed as a 'standard' (Apple's extra capabilities built-in also noted) and instead as a 'works with your existing xxx' feature.
I would equate the 'privacy invasion' of Google Latitude to having windows in your home. Leaving your curtains aside can let the neighborhood peep see your skivvies, but its still your prerogative to close them when you don't want to be seen.
Obviously windows are a dangerous privacy risk that leads to a totalitarian state, and we should all be housed inside metal cubicles to protect our personal lives.
Excuse my bias towards gaming, but outside of business and server space theres only one reason for 'performance benchmarks'. Do it all again with Crysis, or Oblivion, or any 'mainstream' gaming title, or non-FOSS anything for that matter.
Oh, wait... you said Linux right?
Not to pick and choose, but in my book compatibility with developed salable software comes first, absolute performance comes second. Sure Ubuntu could run Doom faster, does it look like anyone would excrete a certain building material over it? Can someone explain to me how doing less is overridden by doing it faster?
Agreed with the echo-chamber and word-of-mouth treatment that Vista is getting. I build custom desktops for myself, friends, and family, and have installed Vista without a hitch on all of them.
You can partly blame Vista for being a pig, but you must also hold some nonfavor to the fact that people attempt to install it on aged or totally underpowered systems, laptops especially. When someone's laptop comes out of the factory with an Intel graphics chip, 1.5gb of memory, and a 1.9ghz dual core, of course they're going to have a horrible time running Vista. Moreso when people are 'upgrading' from XP to Vista on an older machine, thinking themselves tech-savvy, and come to find it doesn't like their Ti-4200 AGP graphics and P4 2.9ghz; as I mentioned they believe themselves to be technically capable and henceforth bedrudge Vista when in fact they've installed a very large, capable OS on a very old, limited system.
I find the majority of problems associated with Vista and its performance and compatibility actually stem from the hardware it is installed on. Microsoft made the mistake of putting it out with minimum specs far below what it could operate decently on, or worse the minimum spec just gets ignored entirely. If the minimum spec was more inline with the recommended specification or perhaps higher, whereas the performance of the OS can be appreciated (Runs in RAM instead of dumping to pagefile ASAP like XP, hence the gripes of 'memory usage', for example), and again presuming people don't ignore the spec, Vista wouldn't be hurting so much in the eyes of the 'midline tech-savvy' crowd.
In short: Vista suffers from being installed on aged and underpowered hardware by people more than ready to misassign blame to it and gleefully tell all their friends about it.
I so much more enjoy Antivir's almost purely-background scanning. Every detection I get on a machine I install it on is upon is upon access, and it's even capable of detecting within compressed file formats as soon as you open them. Theres no need for a piece-by-piece thorough scan of every piece of code and every file on the harddrive, and thats even becoming prohibitive anymore.
Its no longer a matter of looking at what a file is or contains, but at what it -does-. A process that reads memory from other processes, opens a high port number, and attempts to send out packets should raise immediate red-flags, yet could contain enough junk between the functional bits to disguise itself as a 3D-rendering program.
My favorite notion about Norton's product is that its very, VERY secure - particularly because it eliminates the user being able to perform almost any task on the machine. Its almost the predecessor of UAC, and falls into a category I dub 'Security through Dysfunction'. Stopping to check every process running on a machine is about as effective as stopping every vehicle at the border and asking if they have bombs or weapons or... okay bad analogy.
This is some dodgy work to make the worst for Vista and then claim victory for Linux.
What next? Claim Vista is broken because you can't use the Mac drivers for your Wacom tablet yet with the right reverse engineering and tweaking you can get some mild workability in Gentoo?
It seems as though each group at different scales don't even know the others exist. If you want an explanation of why the universe has expanded in a non-uniform way, you need only look to the chaos at the quantum level. Imagine the interactions of a pre- big bang sized universe and what a wrench a little quantum foam throws into the uniformity.
When we start up computers powerful enough to measure and predict quantum events, funny that it would likely take quantum mechanics to develop, we could very well retro-simulate the expansion of the universe to, or at, a quantum level and make the link.
We'll only need to worry when it becomes sentient and starts rendering virtual realities for bald people and taking over the nuclear stockpiles.
I need to go catch a cold.
Slashdot Mirror
Biggest issue is control schemes. Every mech in the console versions has nigh 360 degree torso twisting capability, or legs that spin around on a top to compensate. This just doesn't feel right in the Mechwarrior universe, where larger mechs are lumbering weapons platforms not necessarily made for turning fights (and some can only turn the cockpit and arms a mere 15 degrees). The latter requires a full rudder and throttle flight system and skills in operating all seven axis of controls instead of two analog sticks with just four axis and the game filling in the rest. Though it gives the title appeal for the less finicky console generation, it falls out with the minority of true fans who like the technological basing. Weapons being balanced by heat dissipation is retained, but the penalties are so severely nerfed that it just results in a five-second shutdown instead of instantaneous death by ammo cookoff.
Games can't be made hard by complexity of controls anymore (part of Mechwarrior 1-4's appeal) and putting skill back to who can actually pilot instead of who can point the crosshair and pull the trigger. Rebooting this series would only serve to stray it even further from the source material and ruin it by giving it 'mass appeal'; which is dumbed down, sped up, and too forgiving.
You should definitely try (Wing Commander:)Privateer Remake, which is built on the open-source Vega Strike engine, and includes some enhancements of real 3D ships, unlocked AI ships being available, and tweaked economics. Another is Privateer Gemini Gold which is a straight 1:1 redux for modern systems, as true to the original as possible.
Definite 'reboots' of an old title, particularly because the original won't even run on a newer system nor even in the most featured DosBox available. Very specific memory requirements.
Privateer Remake's sourceforge site appears to be in maintenance though.
I think I'd like to counter that Return to Zork was the first I played of the series, and the graphical approach was far more appealing and wow-some for the day.
Same insane Zork difficulty, and some way fun voice acting.
Another is the Lucasarts title Full Throttle, which lived entirely in it's animated graphics. Saying a game should stick to dated presentation is a bit 'get off my lawn'... with the exception of platformer titles which are making a return to 2D or pseudo-2D gameplay (Little Big Planet, the new Metroid title).
Except that the PS3 was marketed from the outset as a Blu-Ray format player, is a perfectly un-neutered player with full HDMI and Optical outputs to support the full quality of the format, and is still nigh the cheapest player on the market for equal featues (optical out with selectable codec, full 1080p HDMI out, full BD menu control).
Oh trust me, I have the highest contempt for the courts right now.
Soo.. What could you get out of a beowulf cluster of these?
Security vs. Useability:
Windows is a house with the front door left unlocked.
Linux/Unix is a house with no front door.
And then they baited 'n switched for the new bodystyle and build. It was cool when it was cool, now its just another lunchbox hybrid being pushed as the 'cool' thing it once was.
They didn't consider pushing it until gas was $4 a gallon, but then when they needed to push it they went too far away from the original concept and more towards the 'conservative, green car' image that utterly betrays the performance that this vehicle was supposed to attain.
The Volt was going to be cool, efficent, and most importantly to Americans: Sporty! Like almost Tesla Roadster sporty in the original concept, then they started reigning in the numbers and it looked more and more like a slick-bodied econobox. They changed the shape to match and now I have zero interest in the vehicle at all, personally, and I doubt the reaction of so many other (See: Economy is good, but we have freeways here!) Americans would be so different.
Its not just a matter of the connector bits and maybe including an extra cable in the box. Its also the engineering and extra electronics and regulation to take power from any of multiple sources, and even thats not inclusive of having the USB plugged in for data but not power while wall power is being used and other situations. I'd rather not have that faster-charging barely-regulated 6.7v be two teeny transistors in a $200 cellphone away from feeding into the +5vsb of my $200 motherboard.
Being able to plug in your phone to charge with the same plug you may use for the headset, your camera (the real one, phone cameras still suck) and any other multitude of devices just makes sense from the beginning. It should be touted as a feature that a phone carries a standard charging connector, not pushed as an industry standard onto everyone. I use a mini-hat USB for my phone (Dash), camera (Samsung L60), and PS3 controllers already, so replacing any of them should be within my want to use the same charging devices I already have.
Having to buy new cables for a new phone has been a commercial scheme since 'cellular phone' day one, and could almost (based on usage) be compared to having to buy new video output cables every time you changed monitors; square-up your combinations and you have a lucrative market.
Luckily this hasn't flown well with consumers in some time (Apple backlash noted, conversion of iPods to standard headphone jacks et.al.), but again shouldn't be pushed as a 'standard' (Apple's extra capabilities built-in also noted) and instead as a 'works with your existing xxx' feature.
I would equate the 'privacy invasion' of Google Latitude to having windows in your home. Leaving your curtains aside can let the neighborhood peep see your skivvies, but its still your prerogative to close them when you don't want to be seen.
Obviously windows are a dangerous privacy risk that leads to a totalitarian state, and we should all be housed inside metal cubicles to protect our personal lives.
Excuse my bias towards gaming, but outside of business and server space theres only one reason for 'performance benchmarks'. Do it all again with Crysis, or Oblivion, or any 'mainstream' gaming title, or non-FOSS anything for that matter.
Oh, wait... you said Linux right?
Not to pick and choose, but in my book compatibility with developed salable software comes first, absolute performance comes second. Sure Ubuntu could run Doom faster, does it look like anyone would excrete a certain building material over it? Can someone explain to me how doing less is overridden by doing it faster?
Candlejack does it to keep up the lege
Agreed with the echo-chamber and word-of-mouth treatment that Vista is getting. I build custom desktops for myself, friends, and family, and have installed Vista without a hitch on all of them.
You can partly blame Vista for being a pig, but you must also hold some nonfavor to the fact that people attempt to install it on aged or totally underpowered systems, laptops especially. When someone's laptop comes out of the factory with an Intel graphics chip, 1.5gb of memory, and a 1.9ghz dual core, of course they're going to have a horrible time running Vista. Moreso when people are 'upgrading' from XP to Vista on an older machine, thinking themselves tech-savvy, and come to find it doesn't like their Ti-4200 AGP graphics and P4 2.9ghz; as I mentioned they believe themselves to be technically capable and henceforth bedrudge Vista when in fact they've installed a very large, capable OS on a very old, limited system.
I find the majority of problems associated with Vista and its performance and compatibility actually stem from the hardware it is installed on. Microsoft made the mistake of putting it out with minimum specs far below what it could operate decently on, or worse the minimum spec just gets ignored entirely. If the minimum spec was more inline with the recommended specification or perhaps higher, whereas the performance of the OS can be appreciated (Runs in RAM instead of dumping to pagefile ASAP like XP, hence the gripes of 'memory usage', for example), and again presuming people don't ignore the spec, Vista wouldn't be hurting so much in the eyes of the 'midline tech-savvy' crowd.
In short: Vista suffers from being installed on aged and underpowered hardware by people more than ready to misassign blame to it and gleefully tell all their friends about it.
Gee, who would figure a massive surface object on Mars would be hidden under and obscured from study by... dust?
Now let's find that giant face, maybe the Raelians were right after all...
I so much more enjoy Antivir's almost purely-background scanning. Every detection I get on a machine I install it on is upon is upon access, and it's even capable of detecting within compressed file formats as soon as you open them. Theres no need for a piece-by-piece thorough scan of every piece of code and every file on the harddrive, and thats even becoming prohibitive anymore. Its no longer a matter of looking at what a file is or contains, but at what it -does-. A process that reads memory from other processes, opens a high port number, and attempts to send out packets should raise immediate red-flags, yet could contain enough junk between the functional bits to disguise itself as a 3D-rendering program. My favorite notion about Norton's product is that its very, VERY secure - particularly because it eliminates the user being able to perform almost any task on the machine. Its almost the predecessor of UAC, and falls into a category I dub 'Security through Dysfunction'. Stopping to check every process running on a machine is about as effective as stopping every vehicle at the border and asking if they have bombs or weapons or... okay bad analogy.
I think space is much less habitable for delicate solar array than this cushy, climate-controlled rock with plenty of surface to spare.
Why not put solar arrays on the poles? Maintenance in the offseason.
Welcome to our 'Democratic Republic'. Look it up.
This is some dodgy work to make the worst for Vista and then claim victory for Linux. What next? Claim Vista is broken because you can't use the Mac drivers for your Wacom tablet yet with the right reverse engineering and tweaking you can get some mild workability in Gentoo?
Wouldn't that be the best case scenario in terms of energy dissipation towards eventual clearing of the debris cloud?
It seems as though each group at different scales don't even know the others exist. If you want an explanation of why the universe has expanded in a non-uniform way, you need only look to the chaos at the quantum level. Imagine the interactions of a pre- big bang sized universe and what a wrench a little quantum foam throws into the uniformity. When we start up computers powerful enough to measure and predict quantum events, funny that it would likely take quantum mechanics to develop, we could very well retro-simulate the expansion of the universe to, or at, a quantum level and make the link.
Nevermind, I thought it said 'Resonance Cascade'.
So how long until everyone just carries a photo of their grandfather? Or just puts on the classic Nixon mask?
We'll only need to worry when it becomes sentient and starts rendering virtual realities for bald people and taking over the nuclear stockpiles. I need to go catch a cold.
Does this mean they finally got the Led out?