There are several z-machine clients out there for multiple platforms that are free or open source. People still make z-machine games, too. Also, Infocom have published a collection of basically every game they made, that might still be buyable somewhere.:)
No surprises here, given that debeers et al's business model is based on one of the silliest examples of artificial scarcity. Of course they feel threatened.
I'm seeing lots of people recommending the use of SI tones ["SIT tones" is tautological].
I'm in Canada, first, so that may have some strange influence. Second, I'm on our national do not call registry - noting that one of the first things our government did was sell the list to spammers and robocallers, increasing the volume of nuisance calls for 100% of the people who supposedly "opted out".
About 10 years ago, I set my answering machine up with its default outgoing message beginning with the "Intercept" (number changed or disconnected) SIT. Having collected call statistics since before then, I can say with a high degree degree of certainty that **NO automated callers have EVER respected the SI tones**. Ever. Not a single one.
You obviously don't know any artists and aren't one yourself.
Many if not most of the artists I know, have met, or worked with [both inside and outside of academia] do what they love in such a way that what you're talking about [pay them by the hour] is not even remotely feasible.
Among other things:
* They tend to work for enormous lengths of time on only one thing. Writing a book, for instance, can take years - and often if not usually requires such a devotion of time that doing anything else - like making money by some "normal" means so they can just plain survive, let alone afford to work on their creation - is next to impossible.
* They never get paid -at all- for 80-90% of their "work" [yes, I'm making up numbers, but based on personal experience and observation and interaction with MANY artists this doesn't seem like an exaggeration]
* Most of the artists I have met and known -never- recover anything like what their time "should" be worth for their works of art, even if they do get paid for them. Many works of art -never- make money enough for the artists to even cover total materiel costs let alone how much time it took to create them.
Funny thing is that I'm usually on the side of the argument that you are - I think that copyright as currently implemented in most countries is ludicrous. I also think that the idea of perpetual royalties is outright stupid, and that copyright terms should be shorter than they are.
I can't agree at all with the idea that artists try to somehow get paid hourly for what they do, though. There are too many reasons that idea is utterly impracticable.
>I can't imagine where you could live and see only five minutes without power per year. I've never seen that level of reliability anywhere I've lived:
Where I live [Manitoba, Canada] and have lived most of my life since 1975, I could count on one hand the number of times I've seen the power go out longer than an hour. Outages lasting longer than a minute [from lightning strikes to transmission equipment, for instance] are few and far between [2-3x per year]. Outages lasting a few seconds occur now and then for similar reasons [weather], but still happen less often than 10x per year. Brownouts are rare in the extreme and almost always caused by nearby equipment failure [also usually because of weather]. Not sure if if would total more than 5 minutes on average but my guess would be - no.
Our power generation here is mostly hydroelectric, but we also have a gas-turbine plant nearby for use during the winter [and it's not always on]. There's also a backup coal generator beside it but it's rarely used nowadays.
I don't think that microtransactions are an inherently bad thing, but in this case - well, it's EA, so it can ONLY be bad.
Take a look at Need For Speed World for some indication of the future.. the worst-implemented and maintained MMO that I'm aware of [noting that I know I'm not an expert on MMOs, but NFSW is truly shite].
The game is ostensibly "free to play" and centred on multiplaying racing.. but:
* As with most EA fare, the game is run almost entirely by the marketing department [I actually feel sorry for the devs, as it's evident that they're effectively bound & gagged by the marketing department]
* the devs and marketing people actually stated, "You can't buy victory," despite the fact that the best of everything are available only for real money, and the best of everything totally affect gameplay and shift all advantages easily and quickly to any fool with a credit card
* There's effectively no matchmaking most of the time, so the chances of being able to enter a public event with even remote chances of winning a round depend mostly on how much you've put into real-money-only cars that make up nearly all of the top performers
* there's no chat system for users to communicate publicly; they had to disable it >1 year ago because the devs aren't competent enough to make anything even remotely robust or secure, script-kiddies would constantly cause the game to crash for other players with simple buffer overflows
* EA obviously don't get what the "micro" in "microtransaction" is supposed to mean: all transactions are in dollars or greater; if you were to compare NFSW to any other NFS title and try to get the same gameplay out of it, it would cost thousands of dollars of your real money to even get close [and there are players who've put in thousands, insanely]
* "Exclusives" cost up to $50-75CAD for things that are only special because of a repaint by the art department [exclusive monacle, anyone?]
I could go on and on.. yeah, it's only a game, but compared to their off-the-shelf titles this "free to play" game is effectively several orders of magnitude more expensive.. which make little sense given that the real multiplayer aspects of the game are either disabled, broken, or simply not present. The game is basically, at this point, not really a multiplayer game.
This is the future of gaming, going by EA's ethics-free "screw the customer" business plan: make the client free, but bleed players dry hundreds if not thousands of times over if they want to "achieve" the same things they can by buying last year's single-player+muliplayer title down-to-$10 at any brick&mortar store.
I feel sorry for the smallish studios that EA keep buying up - the devs lose all freedom to determine the direction they want their games to go, and live under corporate policies that amount to "leave the customer completely in the dark while charging them as much as possible." The future of gaming, indeed.
As someone with similar issues [but with the opposite hand; my left is nerve-damaged and I can't use the fingers independently] I have to throw in here that the Dvorak-RH layout - which I've been using since 1993 - is a doGsend.
I still use QWERTY on other peoples' computers, or when forced to by software that ignores the user layout, and I can still type reasonably fast [~45wpm] with only one hand, and I have to say that the Dvorak layout doesn't really help in terms of speed - but it helps incredibly in relieving the strain that typing on QWERTY [and stretching your fingers all about] causes in abundance.
If you're favouring one hand over the other - even if the one is still somewhat useful - it may make sense to switch layouts just to relieve the strain of stretching across widely-spread keys. You can still assist with the less useful hand.
The best thing about the Dvorak one-handed layouts is their wide support: every OS I've used since the early 90s supported the layouts, more recently with relatively simple user settings.
Point of advice though: *don't buy a dedicated Dvorak keyboard* since they're usually ridiculously expensive. reflecting the fact that the only issue I've ever run into is converting an average QWERTY keyboard to the layout [which is a requisite for learning, for most people] is that a lot of current keyboard manufacturers [all of the big names, from my testing] purposefully makes their keyboards such that keys can't be simply re-arranged [assholes!]. Last time I went looking for a replacement keyboard I went through 4 [from logitech, saitek, maybe belkin, and lastly a no-name Chinese wireless] before I found one that could be re-arranged. Otherwise you may have to resort to using key-top labels which can be found relatively inexpensively.
There has been no strong push to provide alternatives for the Adobe-applications, so why would there be anything such now all of a sudden? I do not see the situation changing for years to come.
Um. What? Seriously, what?
This.. the lack of usable, powerful equivalents [that don't require an engineering degree or at least mindset in order to learn how to use, like software such as Blender] to such applications as:
* Photoshop [GIMP ain't there yet, but it's getting closer - the next major release may shift this considerably, when they add 16bpc image support among other things]
* Lightroom [Raw Therapee is getting -really- close but metadata interoperability with Adobe apps via XMP or equivalent is basically a requirement for professionals to take it seriously]
* Premiere.. or Sony Vegas.. or farther up the line, AVID et al [there are literally no even remotely-near-equivalents in the video NLE arena, basic editors - sure, but anything more advanced doesn't exist, though again - development -is- at least taking place in tools to build up to that degree of functionality - we'll probably be there in the early 2020s]
* After Effects [no even remotely-near-equivalents at all, no development that I'm aware of]
* Indesign [Scribus is inching forward but there are a few interface obstacles that make it simply bizarre to use for anyone who's ever used "pro" layout software.. even Pagemaker 4 - from the early 1990s, for Windows 3.1 - is still functionally superior]
... are basically what are holding back *all* of the people I know who would like to switch away from Windows but can't due to the requirement of usable production tools [for business -or- any other use].
There are some shining examples [look for an audio NLE on linux and there are several very decent competitive options to programs like Vegas, Audition, Sound Forge, etc., or check out Inkscape for graphic design] as well of course, but there are various reasons why those may not be suitable solutions too [such as the multitude of choices on linux of who-knows-how-well-they're supported low-latency audio driver subsystems which may make required things like synchronous multitracking impossible with a given piece of equipment or even particular distro].
I occasionally teach uni [mostly arts] how to use graphic design / video / audio software; many can't afford Macs [where the Adobe applications and other stable equivalents already exist and credulous, uneducated users aren't even aware of or simply don't care about the walled-garden[s] that will affect what they can do with their own hardware] and among those who can't, the majority would like nothing more than to switch away from using Windows.
My observation of reasons for resistance to the adoption of linux by the sections of the populace that I deal with on a regular basis [musicians, videographers, video/audio editors, graphic artists, photographers, professional academics of many stripe[s], writers, etc.] are thus:
#1 the lack of serious production tools - closed- or open-source, free [as in beer] or not.. almost everyone I know would GLADLY pay Adobe or whomever fistfuls of dollars for native linux versions of their applications *just* to be able to get away from Windows.
#2 is the lack of native iTunes because so many people are inextricably tied to Apple's store [half of the reason I refuse to open an iTunes store account or for that matter purchase any iDevice - the other half being that I both can't afford to and also refuse to effectively pay more to get less overall functionality/control].
#3 is, predictably, gaming [Steam may alter this somewhat].
I have helped a number of people [including both children and seniors] switch to linux, but their usage profiles are pretty uniform: they're content consumers, not p
I read the headline and my brain jumped immediately to thoughts of someone finding some writing of Tesla's that indicate the hidden location of still-existing wireless "charging stations" in three states... ah, wishful thinking.
Yes, you're missing something. I just tried that - it tiles the windows once. It doesn't put your window manager into a tiling mode. Move a window, and now it's stacked, just like any other window. Back to cognitive burden of window micromanaging.
Point well taken - I guess I'm just so used to doing things the more-or-less "traditional" MW/MDI way that what you're describing didn't even occur to me as desirable. I can see why, now.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly this .. I was previewing my exact comment on that - it's a sign that GAO are measuring storage in compact discs, still. Welcome to the 1990s?
When Gimp finally got >8bpc colour support I no longer had a reason to continue using Photoshop for my own purposes.
There are also packages like Darktable and RawTherapee for other related (photographic processing, not digital painting) purposes.
Subject says it all.
There are several z-machine clients out there for multiple platforms that are free or open source. People still make z-machine games, too. Also, Infocom have published a collection of basically every game they made, that might still be buyable somewhere. :)
Please refer me to the reams of documentation there must therefore be that prove hundreds of thousands yearly are actually killed by harsh language. ;)
False equivalence. How exactly is "foul" language carcinogenic?
No surprises here, given that debeers et al's business model is based on one of the silliest examples of artificial scarcity. Of course they feel threatened.
and don't regret it, but .. it's not superior, it just does things [Arch-based rather than Debian or Debian/Ubuntu] differently. I kinda like KDE5.
This... a thousand times, this.. Make them not sound like crap, THEN start working on other things.
I'm seeing lots of people recommending the use of SI tones ["SIT tones" is tautological].
I'm in Canada, first, so that may have some strange influence. Second, I'm on our national do not call registry - noting that one of the first things our government did was sell the list to spammers and robocallers, increasing the volume of nuisance calls for 100% of the people who supposedly "opted out".
About 10 years ago, I set my answering machine up with its default outgoing message beginning with the "Intercept" (number changed or disconnected) SIT. Having collected call statistics since before then, I can say with a high degree degree of certainty that **NO automated callers have EVER respected the SI tones**. Ever. Not a single one.
YMMV, of course.
It's a William Gibson reference from the Bridge trilogy - a ceramic single-use firearm [using it destroys it] for committing suicide.
^-- enough said.
You obviously don't know any artists and aren't one yourself.
Many if not most of the artists I know, have met, or worked with [both inside and outside of academia] do what they love in such a way that what you're talking about [pay them by the hour] is not even remotely feasible.
Among other things:
* They tend to work for enormous lengths of time on only one thing. Writing a book, for instance, can take years - and often if not usually requires such a devotion of time that doing anything else - like making money by some "normal" means so they can just plain survive, let alone afford to work on their creation - is next to impossible.
* They never get paid -at all- for 80-90% of their "work" [yes, I'm making up numbers, but based on personal experience and observation and interaction with MANY artists this doesn't seem like an exaggeration]
* Most of the artists I have met and known -never- recover anything like what their time "should" be worth for their works of art, even if they do get paid for them. Many works of art -never- make money enough for the artists to even cover total materiel costs let alone how much time it took to create them.
Funny thing is that I'm usually on the side of the argument that you are - I think that copyright as currently implemented in most countries is ludicrous. I also think that the idea of perpetual royalties is outright stupid, and that copyright terms should be shorter than they are.
I can't agree at all with the idea that artists try to somehow get paid hourly for what they do, though. There are too many reasons that idea is utterly impracticable.
Every warning about not having the specific non-obvious [and in its time, patented + proprietary] tech to read the media comes into play here.
I logged in to post exactly this. Indeed.
Gotcha. Cheers.
>I can't imagine where you could live and see only five minutes without power per year. I've never seen that level of reliability anywhere I've lived:
Where I live [Manitoba, Canada] and have lived most of my life since 1975, I could count on one hand the number of times I've seen the power go out longer than an hour. Outages lasting longer than a minute [from lightning strikes to transmission equipment, for instance] are few and far between [2-3x per year]. Outages lasting a few seconds occur now and then for similar reasons [weather], but still happen less often than 10x per year. Brownouts are rare in the extreme and almost always caused by nearby equipment failure [also usually because of weather]. Not sure if if would total more than 5 minutes on average but my guess would be - no.
Our power generation here is mostly hydroelectric, but we also have a gas-turbine plant nearby for use during the winter [and it's not always on]. There's also a backup coal generator beside it but it's rarely used nowadays.
I don't think that microtransactions are an inherently bad thing, but in this case - well, it's EA, so it can ONLY be bad.
Take a look at Need For Speed World for some indication of the future.. the worst-implemented and maintained MMO that I'm aware of [noting that I know I'm not an expert on MMOs, but NFSW is truly shite].
The game is ostensibly "free to play" and centred on multiplaying racing.. but:
* As with most EA fare, the game is run almost entirely by the marketing department [I actually feel sorry for the devs, as it's evident that they're effectively bound & gagged by the marketing department]
* the devs and marketing people actually stated, "You can't buy victory," despite the fact that the best of everything are available only for real money, and the best of everything totally affect gameplay and shift all advantages easily and quickly to any fool with a credit card
* There's effectively no matchmaking most of the time, so the chances of being able to enter a public event with even remote chances of winning a round depend mostly on how much you've put into real-money-only cars that make up nearly all of the top performers
* there's no chat system for users to communicate publicly; they had to disable it >1 year ago because the devs aren't competent enough to make anything even remotely robust or secure, script-kiddies would constantly cause the game to crash for other players with simple buffer overflows
* EA obviously don't get what the "micro" in "microtransaction" is supposed to mean: all transactions are in dollars or greater; if you were to compare NFSW to any other NFS title and try to get the same gameplay out of it, it would cost thousands of dollars of your real money to even get close [and there are players who've put in thousands, insanely]
* "Exclusives" cost up to $50-75CAD for things that are only special because of a repaint by the art department [exclusive monacle, anyone?]
I could go on and on.. yeah, it's only a game, but compared to their off-the-shelf titles this "free to play" game is effectively several orders of magnitude more expensive.. which make little sense given that the real multiplayer aspects of the game are either disabled, broken, or simply not present. The game is basically, at this point, not really a multiplayer game.
This is the future of gaming, going by EA's ethics-free "screw the customer" business plan: make the client free, but bleed players dry hundreds if not thousands of times over if they want to "achieve" the same things they can by buying last year's single-player+muliplayer title down-to-$10 at any brick&mortar store.
I feel sorry for the smallish studios that EA keep buying up - the devs lose all freedom to determine the direction they want their games to go, and live under corporate policies that amount to "leave the customer completely in the dark while charging them as much as possible." The future of gaming, indeed.
As someone with similar issues [but with the opposite hand; my left is nerve-damaged and I can't use the fingers independently] I have to throw in here that the Dvorak-RH layout - which I've been using since 1993 - is a doGsend.
I still use QWERTY on other peoples' computers, or when forced to by software that ignores the user layout, and I can still type reasonably fast [~45wpm] with only one hand, and I have to say that the Dvorak layout doesn't really help in terms of speed - but it helps incredibly in relieving the strain that typing on QWERTY [and stretching your fingers all about] causes in abundance.
If you're favouring one hand over the other - even if the one is still somewhat useful - it may make sense to switch layouts just to relieve the strain of stretching across widely-spread keys. You can still assist with the less useful hand.
The best thing about the Dvorak one-handed layouts is their wide support: every OS I've used since the early 90s supported the layouts, more recently with relatively simple user settings.
Point of advice though: *don't buy a dedicated Dvorak keyboard* since they're usually ridiculously expensive. reflecting the fact that the only issue I've ever run into is converting an average QWERTY keyboard to the layout [which is a requisite for learning, for most people] is that a lot of current keyboard manufacturers [all of the big names, from my testing] purposefully makes their keyboards such that keys can't be simply re-arranged [assholes!]. Last time I went looking for a replacement keyboard I went through 4 [from logitech, saitek, maybe belkin, and lastly a no-name Chinese wireless] before I found one that could be re-arranged. Otherwise you may have to resort to using key-top labels which can be found relatively inexpensively.
What strategies are based on bacon?
Dunno.. the only ones that immediately spring to mind involve things like suicide or murder via, say, bear attack.
..but somehow we lack a strategic bacon reserve. I think bacon really should have the priority there.
Um. What? Seriously, what?
.. the lack of usable, powerful equivalents [that don't require an engineering degree or at least mindset in order to learn how to use, like software such as Blender] to such applications as:
This
There are some shining examples [look for an audio NLE on linux and there are several very decent competitive options to programs like Vegas, Audition, Sound Forge, etc., or check out Inkscape for graphic design] as well of course, but there are various reasons why those may not be suitable solutions too [such as the multitude of choices on linux of who-knows-how-well-they're supported low-latency audio driver subsystems which may make required things like synchronous multitracking impossible with a given piece of equipment or even particular distro].
I occasionally teach uni [mostly arts] how to use graphic design / video / audio software; many can't afford Macs [where the Adobe applications and other stable equivalents already exist and credulous, uneducated users aren't even aware of or simply don't care about the walled-garden[s] that will affect what they can do with their own hardware] and among those who can't, the majority would like nothing more than to switch away from using Windows.
My observation of reasons for resistance to the adoption of linux by the sections of the populace that I deal with on a regular basis [musicians, videographers, video/audio editors, graphic artists, photographers, professional academics of many stripe[s], writers, etc.] are thus:
I have helped a number of people [including both children and seniors] switch to linux, but their usage profiles are pretty uniform: they're content consumers, not p
I love you guys and gals. Seriously. /. comments are among my favourite entertainment. Thank you.
I read the headline and my brain jumped immediately to thoughts of someone finding some writing of Tesla's that indicate the hidden location of still-existing wireless "charging stations" in three states... ah, wishful thinking.
Point well taken - I guess I'm just so used to doing things the more-or-less "traditional" MW/MDI way that what you're describing didn't even occur to me as desirable. I can see why, now.