I don't know about X-2, but if you like MMORPGs, FFXI is a great one. The gameplay is pretty standard MMORPG fare (with some nice enhancements like subjobs, a great auction house, plenty of quests and missions, and more), but the best part about it is the atmosphere. The enemies are detailed and move realistically (down to rarabs (rabbits) wiggling their noses), the areas are gorgeous and the music in them is incredible. Everything has a very FF feel to it.
This is the first MMORPG that I haven't gotten sick of after a couple weeks because there's just SO much to do. Gardening, fishing, playing the AH/Shops to make money, levelling other jobs, exploring all the gorgeous areas, and a bunch more.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester found that people who play fast-paced action video games have improved visual skills when compared to those who don't play. According to the study, people who played such video games were able to able to better track objects appearing simultaneously, and processed fast-changing visual information more efficiently.
This benefits a wide range of activities, from playing sports to driving. Also, (although I can't find any studies on it) it makes sense that children who play certain types of games (puzzle/strategy games) would develop better critical thinking skills than those who spend their time watching TV or playing hide-and-go-seek.
Obviously, children shouldn't be staying inside every hour of every day just to play games, but they're definitely not worthless, and are actually more beneficial than a lot of recreational activities.
The thing is that you have to have the building blocks to start with. In your example, for instance, a very basic C compiler was created in assembly language, then the rest of the compiler was created with that small one. Relatively easy now, but of course somebody had to create the assembler, and somebody had to create the processor, etc. etc.
Getting the building blocks becomes a lot harder when you're in new territory and don't have as much to work with.
So what happens when little Joe Inventor comes along and makes the Next Big Thing and starts selling it in his hometown until he gets the money to go bigger, and suddenly Huge Multinational Corporation comes along and steals everything from him, mass produces it, and undersells him?
Having NO patent system at all hurts innovators even more.
Exactly. At this point, technology is at the point where pretty much any game released by a major company is going to be spectacularly beautiful. Because of this (thank god), games are going to have to go back to having good gameplay (instead of just pretty graphics) in order to sell well.
Who cares if the graphics are OMG SO BEAUTIFUL if the game is boring as hell? Doom has always been FUN, and that is what kept me playing, not the pretty visuals.
Actual speed may vary depending on phase of the moon and your astrological sign. May cause headache or loss of breath. Consult your doctor before using Edge services. In the event of a water landing, Edge-enabled products can be used as a floatation device. AT&T is not responsible for floatation mechanism malfunctions including failure to inflate or unexpected intrapocket inflation. Pregnant women should not use Edge. Slippery when wet. Caution: hot. Do not taunt Edge-enabled products.
This is exactly what happens with copy protection on games - there are reports EVERYWHERE of safedisc and other kinds of protection screwing things up for legitimate gamers, but the people who warez the game only have to download a 500k crack or enable safedisc emulation in daemon tools.
I'm sure it does stop some very casual copiers (two people who don't really know what they're doing copying a game for each other), but is it worth inconveniencing all the legitimate customers to do so?
"GTA has a very simplistic game mechanic - it is Pac-Man. The people are the dots you eat (run over) and the police the ghosts who chase you", although admitting: "What was different was the level of interaction within the city."
Yeah, and Mario Sunshine is Pitfall, Gran Turismo 4 is Pole Position, and Super Monkey Ball is Marble Madness.
Of course games are going to be like each other. Platform games are platform games, racing games are racing games. The difference is the level of complexity - how can he say that GTA3 is anywhere near as simplistic as Pacman?
Just think of all the money you'll save not having to implement DRM
It's too bad the corportations don't think that way. "Just think of all the money you'll save by not having to design crippled CDs" or "Just think of all the money you'll save by not hiring people to go after music sharers" or "Just think of how many more people will buy your product instead of downloading it if you lower the price a little".
So wait, I'm not seeing how you think a lawsuit against the RIAA would have a chance in hell of winning.
These people are sharing copyrighted material. Regardless of your stance on the issue, this is ILLEGAL. There are penalties for it. The RIAA is using their legal right to sue these people for sharing the RIAA's copyrighted material.
How on earth could a legally justified lawsuit be considered harassment and extortion?
for the most part, geeks without internet are geeks who suddenly shed their reclusive behaviour and gently stretch, as they crawl out from their stagnant dens of computing supremacy.
Actually, I find that geeks without internet don't change much. They just find non-internet activities to do like single player gaming which just makes them LESS social. At least the internet gives some sort of human interaction.
Do you honestly expect schools to NOT have Microsoft software? Most likely, for nearly everyone in those schools, Windows is all they're going to use in their lives. Why would schools put forth all that time, money, and effort into switching over to Linux if all that will happen is the students would be less prepared for the real world?
Could you imagine if a certain grade school decided, "Hey. I have a good idea! Let's use Linux on all our computers here.". The children learn and get aquainted with Linux then get into Jr. High - Uh oh, now the students from that grade school are way behind. So the Jr. High has to make a choice - Stick with Windows and make the students learn it, switch over to Linux and spend lots of time and money, or do a hybrid of the two - have both and either make kids learn both (LOTS of time and effort) or keep the two groups of students on seperate machines which means seperate labs, seperate computers, etc. None of these choices are very favorable to the schools, hm?
I've seen this happen with grade schools using Macs and Jr. Highs and High Schools using PCs. Most of the kids had to relearn a lot of the things they were taught on the Macs, and that was time they SHOULD have been spending learning stuff for their classes.
Or go up higher - say a university only taught classes on Linux. All the spreadsheet and database classes, all the programming classes (well, this might not be a problem), everything. How likely do you think they are to get jobs when the graduates are asked if they know Excel, Access, or Powerpoint and they say no? The hiring companies aren't going to switch OSs just so they can hire new people - they're going to hire the people who already know the programs they use.
This is the problem when most of the world uses one OS - where do you start to make the change? Businesses don't want to because of the loss of productivity (while people relearn everything) involved combined with the lack of people in the workforce who know the programs they use. Schools don't want to because then their students won't be prepared for what they're going to be using in life. There's really not much that either can do about it without taking significant risks and costs.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about X-2, but if you like MMORPGs, FFXI is a great one. The gameplay is pretty standard MMORPG fare (with some nice enhancements like subjobs, a great auction house, plenty of quests and missions, and more), but the best part about it is the atmosphere. The enemies are detailed and move realistically (down to rarabs (rabbits) wiggling their noses), the areas are gorgeous and the music in them is incredible. Everything has a very FF feel to it.
This is the first MMORPG that I haven't gotten sick of after a couple weeks because there's just SO much to do. Gardening, fishing, playing the AH/Shops to make money, levelling other jobs, exploring all the gorgeous areas, and a bunch more.
A parapalegic with Tourettes.
I want to see that trial on pay-per-view.
They're GOOD for children to play! Improved hand-eye coordination, visual skills, and possibly critical thinking skills.
0 530020205.htm
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003May/bga2003
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester found that people who play fast-paced action video games have improved visual skills when compared to those who don't play. According to the study, people who played such video games were able to able to better track objects appearing simultaneously, and processed fast-changing visual information more efficiently.
This benefits a wide range of activities, from playing sports to driving. Also, (although I can't find any studies on it) it makes sense that children who play certain types of games (puzzle/strategy games) would develop better critical thinking skills than those who spend their time watching TV or playing hide-and-go-seek.
Obviously, children shouldn't be staying inside every hour of every day just to play games, but they're definitely not worthless, and are actually more beneficial than a lot of recreational activities.
The thing is that you have to have the building blocks to start with. In your example, for instance, a very basic C compiler was created in assembly language, then the rest of the compiler was created with that small one. Relatively easy now, but of course somebody had to create the assembler, and somebody had to create the processor, etc. etc.
Getting the building blocks becomes a lot harder when you're in new territory and don't have as much to work with.
... and my preciousssssssssssss....
Ba dum dum da dum.
Ba dum dum da dum.
Fun for the whole family! We can even let grandma play!
Also, from the reactions to their iDrive system that I've seen, they can use all the user-friendliness they can get - the perfect job for MS.
So what happens when little Joe Inventor comes along and makes the Next Big Thing and starts selling it in his hometown until he gets the money to go bigger, and suddenly Huge Multinational Corporation comes along and steals everything from him, mass produces it, and undersells him?
Having NO patent system at all hurts innovators even more.
It's a sad day when we need a huge article to explain to us the differences between paper and a hard drive.
Exactly. At this point, technology is at the point where pretty much any game released by a major company is going to be spectacularly beautiful. Because of this (thank god), games are going to have to go back to having good gameplay (instead of just pretty graphics) in order to sell well.
Who cares if the graphics are OMG SO BEAUTIFUL if the game is boring as hell? Doom has always been FUN, and that is what kept me playing, not the pretty visuals.
Actual speed may vary depending on phase of the moon and your astrological sign. May cause headache or loss of breath. Consult your doctor before using Edge services. In the event of a water landing, Edge-enabled products can be used as a floatation device. AT&T is not responsible for floatation mechanism malfunctions including failure to inflate or unexpected intrapocket inflation. Pregnant women should not use Edge. Slippery when wet. Caution: hot. Do not taunt Edge-enabled products.
Have you ever gotten 2Mbps from a DSL provider?
I get 1.5Mbps from my cable provider all the time depending on how fast the server I'm downloading from is. It's not a rare occurrance, either.
Next thing you know we'll have stories about penis enlargement technology cut-and-pasted directly from a spam e-mail.
I doubt if Ms. Gifts Baskets knows what a Bayesian filter is.
Yeah, but the company she pays $100 to in order for them to "optimize" her page sure does.
This is exactly what happens with copy protection on games - there are reports EVERYWHERE of safedisc and other kinds of protection screwing things up for legitimate gamers, but the people who warez the game only have to download a 500k crack or enable safedisc emulation in daemon tools.
I'm sure it does stop some very casual copiers (two people who don't really know what they're doing copying a game for each other), but is it worth inconveniencing all the legitimate customers to do so?
"GTA has a very simplistic game mechanic - it is Pac-Man. The people are the dots you eat (run over) and the police the ghosts who chase you", although admitting: "What was different was the level of interaction within the city."
Yeah, and Mario Sunshine is Pitfall, Gran Turismo 4 is Pole Position, and Super Monkey Ball is Marble Madness.
Of course games are going to be like each other. Platform games are platform games, racing games are racing games. The difference is the level of complexity - how can he say that GTA3 is anywhere near as simplistic as Pacman?
Just think of all the money you'll save not having to implement DRM
It's too bad the corportations don't think that way. "Just think of all the money you'll save by not having to design crippled CDs" or "Just think of all the money you'll save by not hiring people to go after music sharers" or "Just think of how many more people will buy your product instead of downloading it if you lower the price a little".
I think logic is a foreign concept to them.
Calling Newegg "fairly reputable" is like calling Hitler "fairly intolerant".
So wait, I'm not seeing how you think a lawsuit against the RIAA would have a chance in hell of winning.
These people are sharing copyrighted material. Regardless of your stance on the issue, this is ILLEGAL. There are penalties for it. The RIAA is using their legal right to sue these people for sharing the RIAA's copyrighted material.
How on earth could a legally justified lawsuit be considered harassment and extortion?
for the most part, geeks without internet are geeks who suddenly shed their reclusive behaviour and gently stretch, as they crawl out from their stagnant dens of computing supremacy.
Actually, I find that geeks without internet don't change much. They just find non-internet activities to do like single player gaming which just makes them LESS social. At least the internet gives some sort of human interaction.
Do you honestly expect schools to NOT have Microsoft software? Most likely, for nearly everyone in those schools, Windows is all they're going to use in their lives. Why would schools put forth all that time, money, and effort into switching over to Linux if all that will happen is the students would be less prepared for the real world?
Could you imagine if a certain grade school decided, "Hey. I have a good idea! Let's use Linux on all our computers here.". The children learn and get aquainted with Linux then get into Jr. High - Uh oh, now the students from that grade school are way behind. So the Jr. High has to make a choice - Stick with Windows and make the students learn it, switch over to Linux and spend lots of time and money, or do a hybrid of the two - have both and either make kids learn both (LOTS of time and effort) or keep the two groups of students on seperate machines which means seperate labs, seperate computers, etc. None of these choices are very favorable to the schools, hm?
I've seen this happen with grade schools using Macs and Jr. Highs and High Schools using PCs. Most of the kids had to relearn a lot of the things they were taught on the Macs, and that was time they SHOULD have been spending learning stuff for their classes.
Or go up higher - say a university only taught classes on Linux. All the spreadsheet and database classes, all the programming classes (well, this might not be a problem), everything. How likely do you think they are to get jobs when the graduates are asked if they know Excel, Access, or Powerpoint and they say no? The hiring companies aren't going to switch OSs just so they can hire new people - they're going to hire the people who already know the programs they use.
This is the problem when most of the world uses one OS - where do you start to make the change? Businesses don't want to because of the loss of productivity (while people relearn everything) involved combined with the lack of people in the workforce who know the programs they use. Schools don't want to because then their students won't be prepared for what they're going to be using in life. There's really not much that either can do about it without taking significant risks and costs.
Unforunately, it's been sitting out since the beginning of time so there's all sorts of stuff growing on it.
Hey... Blue Cheese for everyone!
People who work for Microsoft get free Coke! Advantage: paid MS programmer drinking free Coke.
Van...he's...
He? HE? Oh...
...
(zip)
=(