Well, I was a Windows XP power user. I'd downloaded practically every official power toy there was. Not because I was a Microsoft fanboy, but because I was locked into using XP by school, and I was going to make sure I got everything out of XP I could. My first Linux distro, if you count ones I'd used more than once after experimenting with a dual boot, was openSUSE 10.1 (yuck). I then installed 10.2 because I heard most of the problems I'd encountered (like the package manager being just plain broken) had been fixed. I still didn't like it. I installed Ubuntu, since I'd gone and ordered a hundred free discs just because I could. Most of them were coasters at the time because nobody wanted any:P. I liked Ubuntu well enough, but it had it's flaws, and I felt imprisoned by freedom because of the very strict free software policy. I then discovered Mint. Ubuntu derived, but comes with all of the media stuff working "out of the box". Linux relies very heavily on the internet for updates and for software, traditionally, but I wouldn't hesitate to install Mint on a totally isolated machine, because it's just that complete. Except for Abiword and eMeSeNe, personal preference over OpenOffice.org and Pidgin, I haven't needed to download anything more for it. It's even so easy to use that my mother says it seems simple enough, and she has trouble working the TV remote out at times.
What about Amarok? Nothing compares to Amarok for me. As a Windows user I was completely tied to Winamp, but as a Linux user, I absolutely hate XMMS, Beep and Audacious, which are all very Winamp-like. Amarok seems to do just as much as iTunes.
I believe in evolution for lack of an alternative that doesn't involve schizophrenia. I even find the idea of intelligent design by aliens more plausible than a compilation of stories that people were commanded to write by an imaginary friend.
I can see the -1 troll points just rolling in...
My mother has MS as well, and there's only so much Betaferon can do to slow the pace. Just five years ago she was only a little night-blind, as many healthy people are. In that time she's lost her sight totally twice, and now she's losing all colour vision, and has no peripheral vision. And that's the least of the problems MS is causing her.
Don't go bitching about how Google ignores Canada until you try looking at any place in Australia with Google Earth. If any city in Canada had the grainy low resolution, outdated photos that are used for Australia, there would be public outrage.
This is the remarkably liberal British media. They can say "fuck" in prime time if they want, without every Christian in the country demanding they be sacked (an old guy's monocle might fall out though). Of course they don't like talking about games in media, there's no Mormons at the helm in the stations:P
Although any manager who demands his tech minions use Windows Server deserves to be pushed out his window. Assuming, of course, today's ivory towers have windows, and not just digital picture frames.
I'm tired of people saying things like "in a few years, Linux will be ready for desktops". I've been using Linux for the entirety of this year, and I'm by no means a pro at it. I was an XP power user, but I loathe having to use a command line for anything I could do just as easily with the GUI (Gentoo, Slackware and Arch users are a completely separate breed). Linux Mint, an Ubuntu derivative, has practically everything the desktop user could possibly want, in terms of software and media capabilities. I get decent enough performance out of Cedega for Windows games, and my hardware is far from new. (2.4GHz Celeron D, nVidia Geforce 6200, and only 512MB of RAM). And even then, if a few extra frames per second are all that important, you could always dual boot Windows XP on a smaller partition. If anyone thinks that's hard to do then it's a safe assumption their experience with Linux doesn't go beyond looking at a couple of screenshots. Really, what is it about any modern distribution of Linux that makes it not ready for day to day desktop use? Nobody can honestly say it's hard to install anymore. Since that was the primary complaint these past years, the community put a lot of work into making it as idiot-friendly as possible. Hardware support wasn't an issue for me. Even my webcam worked, fresh off installing Mint. I never got it working in openSUSE or Ubuntu. Are there truly any valid arguments against using Linux anymore?
Maybe players could keep some money in their shoes! That would be safe from thieves who go for their money pouch:P. I like your idea too. I think the idea of a "secure vault" isn't perfect though... What would be better is if no vault was totally secure, but was secure enough to keep your average thief out. Therefore, a thief and friends of high enough skill, could get through some security things (locks, traps and the like), some large guardian creatures (and player characters in the employ of the banks), plus a few magical defenses (like illusion mazes that keep people trapped going around in circles), all culminating in finally getting to an individual player's vault (or maybe a clan's communal funds) to reap the rewards. The level of security in a vault would depend on just how much money the owner is willing to spend on it, so some would be like Gringott's on steroids while others would be a rickety wooden door with a dodgy lock:P
It's a little hard to describe how I'd want thieving to work in TES Online. If it worked exactly like in the offline games, you'd have high level thieves picking on low level newbies. The logical fix for this is a maximum level difference between thief and victim, but the way Elder Scrolls games work, I doubt that would be the best way. I would want characters to have a "total worth" threshold, so when their total worth, including equipment, money and items, exceeds a certain value, they are fair game for thieves, since in TES, you could possibly pick herbs to get rich and never really level up. This would stop people getting a kind of immunity from thieves by getting rich without leveling up. Also, a person's total worth would probably be a good indicator of their status in the world. If the game would have a completely functioning economy, then richer people would likely be human players who trade and smuggle and end up controlling merchant conglomerates.
Anyway, that's just my poorly-expressed two cents. It's early morning and I haven't had a coffee yet >. Slashdot first, THEN coffee:P
When is a patent suit not a patent troll case? Patents were invented to protect the livelihood of people who invent a new technology or process from cheap knockoffs, but all of the patent cases I've seen in recent years have just been cold money grabbing, or a deliberate attempt to hamstring someone else's place in the marketplace (e.g. Microsoft's patent covenants with Linux distributions).
That's one area where this kind of technology would be immeasurably useful. Prosthetics, I mean. A chip in the part of your brain responsible for motor function, wirelessly connected to a prosthetic hand or arm, would be a gigantic leap forward in that area. It could also be used to control battle mechs with the same ease as our own bodies:P. I see a Gundam-esque future before us!
Controlling things with your mind is just a bad idea... Wait until we get "thought-click" ads and purchases on the internet. Advertising is already so all-pervasive that it's a form of mind control in many cases. Imagine going about your daily business and seeing a banner ad on a page. If your first impulse is to buy, you'd sure as hell better hope your bank transactions aren't thought-controlled too.
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Well, I was a Windows XP power user. I'd downloaded practically every official power toy there was. Not because I was a Microsoft fanboy, but because I was locked into using XP by school, and I was going to make sure I got everything out of XP I could. My first Linux distro, if you count ones I'd used more than once after experimenting with a dual boot, was openSUSE 10.1 (yuck). I then installed 10.2 because I heard most of the problems I'd encountered (like the package manager being just plain broken) had been fixed. I still didn't like it. I installed Ubuntu, since I'd gone and ordered a hundred free discs just because I could. Most of them were coasters at the time because nobody wanted any :P. I liked Ubuntu well enough, but it had it's flaws, and I felt imprisoned by freedom because of the very strict free software policy. I then discovered Mint. Ubuntu derived, but comes with all of the media stuff working "out of the box". Linux relies very heavily on the internet for updates and for software, traditionally, but I wouldn't hesitate to install Mint on a totally isolated machine, because it's just that complete. Except for Abiword and eMeSeNe, personal preference over OpenOffice.org and Pidgin, I haven't needed to download anything more for it. It's even so easy to use that my mother says it seems simple enough, and she has trouble working the TV remote out at times.
What about Amarok? Nothing compares to Amarok for me. As a Windows user I was completely tied to Winamp, but as a Linux user, I absolutely hate XMMS, Beep and Audacious, which are all very Winamp-like. Amarok seems to do just as much as iTunes.
I say we should be promoted to 50th, ahead of New Jersey (which according to our American-saturated television stations, nobody likes)
I believe in evolution for lack of an alternative that doesn't involve schizophrenia. I even find the idea of intelligent design by aliens more plausible than a compilation of stories that people were commanded to write by an imaginary friend. I can see the -1 troll points just rolling in...
My mother has MS as well, and there's only so much Betaferon can do to slow the pace. Just five years ago she was only a little night-blind, as many healthy people are. In that time she's lost her sight totally twice, and now she's losing all colour vision, and has no peripheral vision. And that's the least of the problems MS is causing her.
Don't go bitching about how Google ignores Canada until you try looking at any place in Australia with Google Earth. If any city in Canada had the grainy low resolution, outdated photos that are used for Australia, there would be public outrage.
Mary probably just said it was God's kid so she didn't get stoned in the streets for infidelity.
This is the remarkably liberal British media. They can say "fuck" in prime time if they want, without every Christian in the country demanding they be sacked (an old guy's monocle might fall out though). Of course they don't like talking about games in media, there's no Mormons at the helm in the stations :P
Although any manager who demands his tech minions use Windows Server deserves to be pushed out his window. Assuming, of course, today's ivory towers have windows, and not just digital picture frames.
I'm tired of people saying things like "in a few years, Linux will be ready for desktops". I've been using Linux for the entirety of this year, and I'm by no means a pro at it. I was an XP power user, but I loathe having to use a command line for anything I could do just as easily with the GUI (Gentoo, Slackware and Arch users are a completely separate breed). Linux Mint, an Ubuntu derivative, has practically everything the desktop user could possibly want, in terms of software and media capabilities. I get decent enough performance out of Cedega for Windows games, and my hardware is far from new. (2.4GHz Celeron D, nVidia Geforce 6200, and only 512MB of RAM). And even then, if a few extra frames per second are all that important, you could always dual boot Windows XP on a smaller partition. If anyone thinks that's hard to do then it's a safe assumption their experience with Linux doesn't go beyond looking at a couple of screenshots. Really, what is it about any modern distribution of Linux that makes it not ready for day to day desktop use? Nobody can honestly say it's hard to install anymore. Since that was the primary complaint these past years, the community put a lot of work into making it as idiot-friendly as possible. Hardware support wasn't an issue for me. Even my webcam worked, fresh off installing Mint. I never got it working in openSUSE or Ubuntu. Are there truly any valid arguments against using Linux anymore?
Maybe players could keep some money in their shoes! That would be safe from thieves who go for their money pouch :P. I like your idea too. I think the idea of a "secure vault" isn't perfect though... What would be better is if no vault was totally secure, but was secure enough to keep your average thief out. Therefore, a thief and friends of high enough skill, could get through some security things (locks, traps and the like), some large guardian creatures (and player characters in the employ of the banks), plus a few magical defenses (like illusion mazes that keep people trapped going around in circles), all culminating in finally getting to an individual player's vault (or maybe a clan's communal funds) to reap the rewards. The level of security in a vault would depend on just how much money the owner is willing to spend on it, so some would be like Gringott's on steroids while others would be a rickety wooden door with a dodgy lock :P
It's a little hard to describe how I'd want thieving to work in TES Online. If it worked exactly like in the offline games, you'd have high level thieves picking on low level newbies. The logical fix for this is a maximum level difference between thief and victim, but the way Elder Scrolls games work, I doubt that would be the best way. I would want characters to have a "total worth" threshold, so when their total worth, including equipment, money and items, exceeds a certain value, they are fair game for thieves, since in TES, you could possibly pick herbs to get rich and never really level up. This would stop people getting a kind of immunity from thieves by getting rich without leveling up. Also, a person's total worth would probably be a good indicator of their status in the world. If the game would have a completely functioning economy, then richer people would likely be human players who trade and smuggle and end up controlling merchant conglomerates. Anyway, that's just my poorly-expressed two cents. It's early morning and I haven't had a coffee yet >. Slashdot first, THEN coffee :P
When is a patent suit not a patent troll case? Patents were invented to protect the livelihood of people who invent a new technology or process from cheap knockoffs, but all of the patent cases I've seen in recent years have just been cold money grabbing, or a deliberate attempt to hamstring someone else's place in the marketplace (e.g. Microsoft's patent covenants with Linux distributions).
That's one area where this kind of technology would be immeasurably useful. Prosthetics, I mean. A chip in the part of your brain responsible for motor function, wirelessly connected to a prosthetic hand or arm, would be a gigantic leap forward in that area. It could also be used to control battle mechs with the same ease as our own bodies :P. I see a Gundam-esque future before us!
Controlling things with your mind is just a bad idea... Wait until we get "thought-click" ads and purchases on the internet. Advertising is already so all-pervasive that it's a form of mind control in many cases. Imagine going about your daily business and seeing a banner ad on a page. If your first impulse is to buy, you'd sure as hell better hope your bank transactions aren't thought-controlled too.