Changing the specification is practically impossible. Too much content has already been made which relies on a simulator being 256m x 256m in size.
They have stated that it's possible for them to run more than one simulator on a server; but like I said earlier, if they did this without disclosing the fact, it would be obvious.
"65536 square meters per server" is hardly a universal physical constant!
In the hypothetical set of all possible virtual world designs, you are correct. In SL however (which *was* the topic of my message), it is a universal constant.
Someone has done a very nice Black Sun build in SL.
However, SL is not the Metaverse. SL is cool, and it is probably the closest thing we have right now to the Metaverse, but it still too much like a game, especially when you look at the "dwell incentives" and "rating parties" which people are using the work the system.
If they tried to double-sell a server, it would be obvious, since the client provides tons of debug information about the server processes that are running, in real time.
If a group of new servers are added to the grid with 1/2 the normal performance of the existing ones, we'd know something is up.
Oh you want to present content to the rest of the people who browse the web? Sounds like you might need to pay for hosting.
If you join SL on the basic plan, you don't have to pay anything other than the $10 to activate the account. It's free after that; but then you own no land.
SL real estate is divided into a grid of servers. The land is sold so that the monthly subscriptions pays to keep the hardware going. The more land you own, the more server resources you're using, so the more you pay. You can even get your own dedicated servers, as islands off the mainland.
These are going to be the el-cheapo reasonably-nice displays of the future. However, the lifetimes here are a concern - we're talking 15,000 hrs for the best blue polymers which isn't good enough yet.
But if they are truely el-cheapo, we should be able to replace them like a lightbulb every few months for a dollar or two...
When upsizing images, the department uses Photoshop's bicubic interpolation and uses a "stair-step" technique, increasing resolution in 110% increments.
Maybe I'm ignorant, but isn't doing this in several steps result in less quality than if it were done in one step?
If not, then why wouldn't the algorithm take this into consideration so that it could do the multiple steps itself instead of having the user do something unnecessarily repetitive?
Sim City 3000 was originally planned to be 3D, and they even got pretty far into the concept. I've still got some screenshots of it on my drive somewhere.
It was abandoned because the hardware requirements were not up to par to handle the simulation and 3d rendering at the time.
I'm hoping they bring back the idea, now that we seem to have adequate hardware for the job. I remember getting so excited about it, only to be given the biggest letdown that 3000 was basically a pretty-ified and dumbed down 2000.
There are emerging virtual worlds where you can make money just by creating content; you don't have to grind, and you don't have to "win" anything.
Second Life is one of the most sophisticated of these virtual worlds (along with Active Worlds and There).
You build something, write some code for it, and put it up for sale (which automatically vends copies). It's not difficult to sell a good quality virtual object for what equates to about US$1-2 each if you put a few hours of experienced effort into it. There are exceptional-quality things that sell for even more than that (as high as US$20).
The SL world isn't big enough to really make enough to live off of yet in most countries that have sufficient technology to support the bandwidth requirements, but the more motivated residents can make a couple hundred extra dollars a month in their spare time, which is a nice bonus for doing something fun.
If they're using up "free" minutes, then there's still a cost the receiver is paying to take the call (other than the "time wasted" cost that all telemarketing carries).
Unfortunately, something like this isn't certian fact; it would be up to the courts to decide.
AI bots are getting pretty sophisticated. I wouldn't be surprised to know that some large companies may be implementing them as Tier-I support nowadays...
You gotta love loopholes... What's to stop someone from doing something like this, and calling it a "survey"?
Hello. I'm an "independent" survey agent for SlimFatty Weight Loss Services. We're taking a survey of lucky individuals in your area who may not know about SlimFatty Weight Loss Services's wonderful line of products and services which will help you lose up to 30 pounds in 30 days! Before we begin with the survey, let me give you some background on some of the unique and amazing products SlimFatty Weight Loss Services can provide to you at great rates....
Now that you know about some of the great SlimFatty Weight Loss Services products and services, we'd like to have you take a brief survey...
Would you be willing to pay $[amount] for [package 1]? ["survey" answer recorded]
How about $[alternate amount] for [package 2]? ["survey" answer recorded]
Are you sure you would not be interested in paying such a small amount for such a "great" deal? ["survey" answer recorded]
How could you pass up this great offer? ["survey" answer recorded]
How can a telemarketer know if you are roaming or not?
Perhaps they could be using information that they paid your mobile phone provider for real-time access to?
They could also find out how many free minutes you have left, and limit the length of their call to you to this duration (a countdown timer shows up on the telemarketing agent's computer screen).
Equally important is the google search box in the top right hand corner of the browser an ingeniously simple touch which speeds up your travel around the web without adding clutter to the browser. It integrates so well into the browser that you won't even notice its there, until that is you use another browser and find yourself having to manually travel to google to perform your search.
I get the impression that the author is unaware of Google Toolbar? I like FireFox, but my job requires me to run the browser most of our clients do -- IE.
However, I do hope Forefox can stir up some competition because the user experience with IE has gone mostly stale since version 4; not even creating a simple way to disable flash or block popus is ridiculous. Fortunately the Google Toolbar also helps with the popups.
They can't even get the 3 days forecast even close much less years out.
I predict that weather in the northern hemisphere will continue getting warmer for the next 3-4 months, and then it will cool off for a few months; this cycle will probably continue for some time.
Any time there is profit to be made by ruining an online economy, there will always be people lining up to make it.
There are some "games" which are even designed to work with this concept instead of punishing it.
Second Life is one of them. If you create something interesting, you can sell it for virtual currency, which you are then allowed to trade for US$ on places like GOM. It is a free-market economy, so anyone can sell anything they can build/script to anyone else, just by leaving the object rezzed in the world and setting a price on it for passers-by to buy a copy.
Slashdot Mirror
Changing the specification is practically impossible. Too much content has already been made which relies on a simulator being 256m x 256m in size.
They have stated that it's possible for them to run more than one simulator on a server; but like I said earlier, if they did this without disclosing the fact, it would be obvious.
"65536 square meters per server" is hardly a universal physical constant!
In the hypothetical set of all possible virtual world designs, you are correct. In SL however (which *was* the topic of my message), it is a universal constant.
Someone has done a very nice Black Sun build in SL.
However, SL is not the Metaverse. SL is cool, and it is probably the closest thing we have right now to the Metaverse, but it still too much like a game, especially when you look at the "dwell incentives" and "rating parties" which people are using the work the system.
Land can't be added without adding hardware.
65536 square meters of land equals one server.
If they tried to double-sell a server, it would be obvious, since the client provides tons of debug information about the server processes that are running, in real time.
If a group of new servers are added to the grid with 1/2 the normal performance of the existing ones, we'd know something is up.
Why waste your money on a web server?
Oh you want to present content to the rest of the people who browse the web? Sounds like you might need to pay for hosting.
If you join SL on the basic plan, you don't have to pay anything other than the $10 to activate the account. It's free after that; but then you own no land.
SL real estate is divided into a grid of servers. The land is sold so that the monthly subscriptions pays to keep the hardware going. The more land you own, the more server resources you're using, so the more you pay. You can even get your own dedicated servers, as islands off the mainland.
It's more or less like buying web hosting.
These are going to be the el-cheapo reasonably-nice displays of the future. However, the lifetimes here are a concern - we're talking 15,000 hrs for the best blue polymers which isn't good enough yet.
But if they are truely el-cheapo, we should be able to replace them like a lightbulb every few months for a dollar or two...
Maybe I'm ignorant, but isn't doing this in several steps result in less quality than if it were done in one step?
If not, then why wouldn't the algorithm take this into consideration so that it could do the multiple steps itself instead of having the user do something unnecessarily repetitive?
Guess what?
Large government contractors make lots of money off building and running prisons.
Sim City 3000 was originally planned to be 3D, and they even got pretty far into the concept. I've still got some screenshots of it on my drive somewhere.
It was abandoned because the hardware requirements were not up to par to handle the simulation and 3d rendering at the time.
I'm hoping they bring back the idea, now that we seem to have adequate hardware for the job. I remember getting so excited about it, only to be given the biggest letdown that 3000 was basically a pretty-ified and dumbed down 2000.
You get geek points for choosing the station you listen to by it data format instead of it's content =)
Did they include a reference (uncompressed) entry? I didn't see it in the data. Or was it was a factor in calculating "rating".
Well, to be fair, both WMA and AAC were slightly ripped off on bitrate since they stuck excactly to the required bitrate.
Average Bitrates
128 AAC
136 MPC
135 Vorbis
134 Lame
128 WMA
132 Atrac3
It may not be by much, but also the rating differences between AAC, Vorbis, Lame, and MPC were not all that much either.
There are emerging virtual worlds where you can make money just by creating content; you don't have to grind, and you don't have to "win" anything.
Second Life is one of the most sophisticated of these virtual worlds (along with Active Worlds and There).
You build something, write some code for it, and put it up for sale (which automatically vends copies). It's not difficult to sell a good quality virtual object for what equates to about US$1-2 each if you put a few hours of experienced effort into it. There are exceptional-quality things that sell for even more than that (as high as US$20).
The SL world isn't big enough to really make enough to live off of yet in most countries that have sufficient technology to support the bandwidth requirements, but the more motivated residents can make a couple hundred extra dollars a month in their spare time, which is a nice bonus for doing something fun.
If they're using up "free" minutes, then there's still a cost the receiver is paying to take the call (other than the "time wasted" cost that all telemarketing carries).
Unfortunately, something like this isn't certian fact; it would be up to the courts to decide.
Let me guess... English goes to India?
AI bots are getting pretty sophisticated. I wouldn't be surprised to know that some large companies may be implementing them as Tier-I support nowadays...
Wow, the cable guy was an asshat. How did you resolve the problem? Seems like a fairly clear case for raising some hell =)
How can a telemarketer know if you are roaming or not?
Perhaps they could be using information that they paid your mobile phone provider for real-time access to?
They could also find out how many free minutes you have left, and limit the length of their call to you to this duration (a countdown timer shows up on the telemarketing agent's computer screen).
Equally important is the google search box in the top right hand corner of the browser an ingeniously simple touch which speeds up your travel around the web without adding clutter to the browser. It integrates so well into the browser that you won't even notice its there, until that is you use another browser and find yourself having to manually travel to google to perform your search.
I get the impression that the author is unaware of Google Toolbar? I like FireFox, but my job requires me to run the browser most of our clients do -- IE.
However, I do hope Forefox can stir up some competition because the user experience with IE has gone mostly stale since version 4; not even creating a simple way to disable flash or block popus is ridiculous. Fortunately the Google Toolbar also helps with the popups.
(stolen from IRC)
bash.org #2635. Great site =)
Attachments on GMail are limited to 10M.
They can't even get the 3 days forecast even close much less years out.
I predict that weather in the northern hemisphere will continue getting warmer for the next 3-4 months, and then it will cool off for a few months; this cycle will probably continue for some time.
Any time there is profit to be made by ruining an online economy, there will always be people lining up to make it.
There are some "games" which are even designed to work with this concept instead of punishing it.
Second Life is one of them. If you create something interesting, you can sell it for virtual currency, which you are then allowed to trade for US$ on places like GOM. It is a free-market economy, so anyone can sell anything they can build/script to anyone else, just by leaving the object rezzed in the world and setting a price on it for passers-by to buy a copy.
If they were a real currency, not necessarily the US dollar, then they would be convertible and these measurements and comparisions would make sense.
This site is still new, but it's basically a virtual currency "commodities" market which makes the comparision measurable...
http://www.gamingopenmarket.com
Not only can you copyright a number, but there are illegal numbers too.