I know Speakeasy rules, but I would be shocked if they didn't also oversell their bandwidth.
Re:You understood the ending (spoilers, natch)?
on
The Matrix: Resolutions
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· Score: 2, Insightful
My take (and forgive me if everone realized this already) is that Neo is simply fulfilling his purpose, the same purpose that he delayed by choosing the other door in the Architect's room. The Architect was very clear that if Neo didn't choose to return to the Source, everyone in the matrix would die. Neo and Smith are linked, and Neo has to do this to get rid of Smith, to "rebalance the equation" (or whatever you want to call it). Trinity's death (yet again proving the Architect right, come to think of it) probably helped him realize the inevitability of his choice. Neo is vindicated, however, by delaying the inevitable long enough to broker a peace between man and machine, something the Architect didn't think possible (or useful, maybe).
Of course none of this answers your inquiry as to the actual mechanism by which Neo neutralizes Smith. It's likely the same way he could have restored stability by returning to the source in the first place (before Smith grew completely out of control, which as the Architect said, would lead to the destruction of the matrix). So I guess it would be some combination of options 2 and 3. Exactly how it happened I couldn't guess, but using the somewhat silly analogy to an unbalanced equation, perhaps it's analogous to cancelling terms. A philosophical interpretation that I read elsewhere suggested that by assimilating Neo and all that he represents, Smith lost his "the purpose of life is to die" belief and became enlightened himself.
As someone else pointed out, there is at least the possibility that the authors just liked the imagery and left it to the fans to come up with a plausible explanation.
I think that's exactly it. Or perhaps they had an idea or two in mind but didn't want to explicitly instantiate one in the movie. What's helped me appreciate the last two movies instead of getting frustrated is realizing that the HOW isn't what's important.
Now I normally prefer movies that stick to telling interesting stories and don't get all pretentious, but the Matrix trilogy is pretty remarkable as art, both in its visual impact and its amalgamation and clever use of myth and image (and the occasional non-clever annoying use like the cross). Yes, there are plot holes, the acting is spotty, etc., but if you come in with the mindset that ambiguity is okay and you can derive some of the meaning yourself, you'll be able to get a lot more enjoyment out of it. Of course, most people expect concrete stories with everything explained in the end, and all my friends hated Revolutions, but I have a feeling it'll be viewed quite positively in retrospect.
Damn, well this was sort of a response to everyone who didn't like it, but this is way too late and nested too deep for anyone to read. . .
My educated guess would be about two years before such a device exists. My new Treo 600 (which I'm in love with) fullfills many of those requirements, but the screen is small and low-res and the processor too wimpy to decode MPEG4 video greater than 160x120 at 128 kbps or so. That said, the keyboard rocks, it's a passable media player (with an SD memory card), battery life and the form factor rock and it's just cool to browse the web and VNC to my desktop from anywhere. Now if only the network was about twice as fast, I could stream 192 kbps audio and make an iPod unecessary. ..
On another note, I agree about the general quality of MS hardware, but I have to bitch about the d-pads on their pre-Xbox controllers. It's truly amazing how horrible they are on any of the Sidewinder series - you can't NOT go diagonally. I don't understand how such a successful company could put out such a useless pad, then repeat their mistake at least twice.
So for all of us who are in the same market. . . what's your recommendation?:) I was waiting for the Treo 600 but have some reservations about the small screen, and every day I try to do some homework I come accross another new device I hadn't heard of fore
There's no excuse for IIS, but you fail to appreciate the fundamental differences between software and traditional engineering. Don't confuse "complexity" with "difficulty". Your argument actually sounds a lot like Cox's response to Brooks, which blames the lack of market incentives to reuse modular components (in many, not all cases), but doesn't recognize other differences. Check out the Wikipedia summary starting with the "Software Engineering versus Traditional Engineering" section.
I'm of the opinion that our software engineering could be as reliable as other kinds, today, but that would involve a huge tradeoff in development time and a decrease in the rate of innovation. Windows is lame, but I'll remain pleased with the way things have turned out overall, so long as improvement continues to be made.
I completely agree with your sentiment. But without giving much thought to it, I would wager that most large-scale software systems are many, many times more complex than cars. And cars haven't changed all that much over time compared to software, not to mention the large number of diverse requirements software is created to fulfill.
I suppose I take issue with the assertion I commonly see here that software is less reliable than the product of other engineering disciplines because software people are lazier. Dealing with this level of complexity is a new challenge, and we'll have to make due with gradual improvement in the status quo of engineering practices as there's "no silver bullet". That's no excuse for not having the goal of a bug-free release, of course;)
I have to second this recommendation. I bought the first edition of this book two years ago when I started learning about graphics in-depth, and it's been the most useful resource I've had. The second edition is even better, and has a great chapter on shading languages.
(btw, if you want a REALLY math-intensive book, check out "3D Game Engine Design" by David Eberly. That was the first game/graphics programming book I purchased, and it almost scared me away entirely)
Carmack himself has said (in the context of consoles) that they can usually expect to double performance when targetting a fixed architecture. The xbox certainly has less resources (especially memory) than a modern PC, but it also has a unified memory architecture that would at least go a long ways towards compensating for that. Take into account the low resolution the 'box will be running at, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see performance equivelant to state-of-the-art PCs.
(I certainly hope the PC version is NOT delayed, however)
I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the user-submitted game ratings over at Shacknews. All games are rated according to user votes, and there are also many user-submitted reviews (which are also rated as useful or non-useful like Amazon). I find that the user ratings of most games there reflect my opinion, or at least more often than professional game reviews.
(there is usually a factor of bias depending on how old the game is, however)
The best beer is brewed by Belgian monks. I'd have to say the PNW is the second-tastiest region in the world. It's all a matter of opinion of course, but German beers have never done it for me.
I agree with you completely that they're going about it the wrong way. However, I tend to agree with Carmack that artists, writers, and designers don't have much more of a clue about what makes a good game than game programmers do (with a few notable, extremely experienced exceptions like Miyamoto, Warren Spector, etc.).
Games are not movies. I've seen a large number of energetic start-up game devs that are mostly (if not entirely) comprised of artists and designers who have some great ideas, but put their creativity before the game. Your great idea does not belong in a game if it doesn't add to the player's fun (and certainly this applies to programmers with gee-whiz special effects too). There's many commercial examples of games that have well-conceived themes, stories, and artistic design, but are simply no fun to play; then there are (admittedly fewer) examples of games with no story, subpar art, but are a blast to play.
If you want to make the next Final Fantasy, then by all means do as much conceptual design up front before anyone starts to code. Most games are more gameplay-centered than that, and the best concept in the world won't help to make a game fun as much as a smart dev team that puts the player first.
Half-Life was a great game but it says a lot about the engine if it is this flexible to still be in use for a continual mod making community.
I think it's more a matter of how popular the game was. Lots of people bought Half-Life for the single-player game and got into CS later, then their less technically-inclined friends saw them playing CS and said "that looks cool!" Their computers could actually run the game thanks to its moderate system requirements, and so it spread. It amazes me how many people I'll talk to in person who don't even know of Internet gaming beyond CS.
Now personally, I don't like CS and never have. The realism is cool but the gameplay lacks the hyper adrenaline rush one gets from deathmatch games (of course, these are also boring after seven years of online play). Furthermore, the engine is pretty unimpressive technically. The best parts were in the single-player game with its scripted events and lifelike characters. When I first played Half-Life multiplayer, I thought the engine was laughably bad. My point isn't to troll - I just think the longevity of Half-Life has less to do with the engine and more to do with market forces and the exceptional design of Mr. Lee.
Re:Down with specialized pieces
on
Lego Addictions
·
· Score: 1
I think they were called "Blacktron" in the states.
what I really need is some sort of CIR. Or maybe they should spend some money renovating their infrastructure. Here in Corvallis, OR, where most college students have ATTBI, my ping to my gateway varies between 10 and 200 ms depending on the time of day. This is very frustrating for someone who games and ssh's alot (and no, it's not my line). Unfortunately it's the only real option, as DSL here costs more for a fraction of the bandwidth AT&T offers.
Carmack and Linus were both in the top 10 of Time's Top 50 Digital (or whatever) a few years ago. Of course, Bezos was #1 for some reason unfathomable to me.
NVIDIA has signed an ARB Contributor License for the NV_vertex_program extension; copies were distributed to interested parties. For questions, contact Stephen Pettigrew, spettigrew 'at' nvidia.com
Microsoft wanted to alleviate concerns about their statement last week regarding possible claims on vertex program IP. Dave Aronson apologized for the perception that they aren't acting in good faith. They are trying to follow ARB regulations about stating IP as much as possible. When a vote was imminent, they reviewed and felt that they had patents or patents pending covering vertex programming. They do plan on coming up with licensing terms, and have set a hard deadline for themselves of 2 weeks before the June ARB meeting.
Alias (same timeslot as X-Files, but I haven't watched that for a few years now) is one of the most entertaining TV series I've ever seen. It'd probably suck if you haven't watched from the beginning though.
Slashdot Mirror
I know Speakeasy rules, but I would be shocked if they didn't also oversell their bandwidth.
My take (and forgive me if everone realized this already) is that Neo is simply fulfilling his purpose, the same purpose that he delayed by choosing the other door in the Architect's room. The Architect was very clear that if Neo didn't choose to return to the Source, everyone in the matrix would die. Neo and Smith are linked, and Neo has to do this to get rid of Smith, to "rebalance the equation" (or whatever you want to call it). Trinity's death (yet again proving the Architect right, come to think of it) probably helped him realize the inevitability of his choice. Neo is vindicated, however, by delaying the inevitable long enough to broker a peace between man and machine, something the Architect didn't think possible (or useful, maybe).
Of course none of this answers your inquiry as to the actual mechanism by which Neo neutralizes Smith. It's likely the same way he could have restored stability by returning to the source in the first place (before Smith grew completely out of control, which as the Architect said, would lead to the destruction of the matrix). So I guess it would be some combination of options 2 and 3. Exactly how it happened I couldn't guess, but using the somewhat silly analogy to an unbalanced equation, perhaps it's analogous to cancelling terms. A philosophical interpretation that I read elsewhere suggested that by assimilating Neo and all that he represents, Smith lost his "the purpose of life is to die" belief and became enlightened himself.
As someone else pointed out, there is at least the possibility that the authors just liked the imagery and left it to the fans to come up with a plausible explanation.
I think that's exactly it. Or perhaps they had an idea or two in mind but didn't want to explicitly instantiate one in the movie. What's helped me appreciate the last two movies instead of getting frustrated is realizing that the HOW isn't what's important.
Now I normally prefer movies that stick to telling interesting stories and don't get all pretentious, but the Matrix trilogy is pretty remarkable as art, both in its visual impact and its amalgamation and clever use of myth and image (and the occasional non-clever annoying use like the cross). Yes, there are plot holes, the acting is spotty, etc., but if you come in with the mindset that ambiguity is okay and you can derive some of the meaning yourself, you'll be able to get a lot more enjoyment out of it. Of course, most people expect concrete stories with everything explained in the end, and all my friends hated Revolutions, but I have a feeling it'll be viewed quite positively in retrospect.
Damn, well this was sort of a response to everyone who didn't like it, but this is way too late and nested too deep for anyone to read. . .
My educated guess would be about two years before such a device exists. My new Treo 600 (which I'm in love with) fullfills many of those requirements, but the screen is small and low-res and the processor too wimpy to decode MPEG4 video greater than 160x120 at 128 kbps or so. That said, the keyboard rocks, it's a passable media player (with an SD memory card), battery life and the form factor rock and it's just cool to browse the web and VNC to my desktop from anywhere. Now if only the network was about twice as fast, I could stream 192 kbps audio and make an iPod unecessary. . .
On another note, I agree about the general quality of MS hardware, but I have to bitch about the d-pads on their pre-Xbox controllers. It's truly amazing how horrible they are on any of the Sidewinder series - you can't NOT go diagonally. I don't understand how such a successful company could put out such a useless pad, then repeat their mistake at least twice.
So for all of us who are in the same market. . . what's your recommendation? :) I was waiting for the Treo 600 but have some reservations about the small screen, and every day I try to do some homework I come accross another new device I hadn't heard of fore
There's no excuse for IIS, but you fail to appreciate the fundamental differences between software and traditional engineering. Don't confuse "complexity" with "difficulty". Your argument actually sounds a lot like Cox's response to Brooks, which blames the lack of market incentives to reuse modular components (in many, not all cases), but doesn't recognize other differences. Check out the Wikipedia summary starting with the "Software Engineering versus Traditional Engineering" section.
I'm of the opinion that our software engineering could be as reliable as other kinds, today, but that would involve a huge tradeoff in development time and a decrease in the rate of innovation. Windows is lame, but I'll remain pleased with the way things have turned out overall, so long as improvement continues to be made.
I completely agree with your sentiment. But without giving much thought to it, I would wager that most large-scale software systems are many, many times more complex than cars. And cars haven't changed all that much over time compared to software, not to mention the large number of diverse requirements software is created to fulfill.
;)
I suppose I take issue with the assertion I commonly see here that software is less reliable than the product of other engineering disciplines because software people are lazier. Dealing with this level of complexity is a new challenge, and we'll have to make due with gradual improvement in the status quo of engineering practices as there's "no silver bullet". That's no excuse for not having the goal of a bug-free release, of course
Use Opera, it's faster and has been rock-solid for me for over two years.
.)
(Ever since I installed WMP 9 it's been flaky as hell though - I HAVE to believe that's a coincidence and something else happened. .
+1 Ironic
(or maybe -1 Ironic)
Thank you for reminding me how good Star Trek used to be :)
I have to second this recommendation. I bought the first edition of this book two years ago when I started learning about graphics in-depth, and it's been the most useful resource I've had. The second edition is even better, and has a great chapter on shading languages.
(btw, if you want a REALLY math-intensive book, check out "3D Game Engine Design" by David Eberly. That was the first game/graphics programming book I purchased, and it almost scared me away entirely)
Carmack himself has said (in the context of consoles) that they can usually expect to double performance when targetting a fixed architecture. The xbox certainly has less resources (especially memory) than a modern PC, but it also has a unified memory architecture that would at least go a long ways towards compensating for that. Take into account the low resolution the 'box will be running at, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see performance equivelant to state-of-the-art PCs.
(I certainly hope the PC version is NOT delayed, however)
I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the user-submitted game ratings over at Shacknews. All games are rated according to user votes, and there are also many user-submitted reviews (which are also rated as useful or non-useful like Amazon). I find that the user ratings of most games there reflect my opinion, or at least more often than professional game reviews.
(there is usually a factor of bias depending on how old the game is, however)
The best beer is brewed by Belgian monks. I'd have to say the PNW is the second-tastiest region in the world. It's all a matter of opinion of course, but German beers have never done it for me.
I agree with you completely that they're going about it the wrong way. However, I tend to agree with Carmack that artists, writers, and designers don't have much more of a clue about what makes a good game than game programmers do (with a few notable, extremely experienced exceptions like Miyamoto, Warren Spector, etc.).
Games are not movies. I've seen a large number of energetic start-up game devs that are mostly (if not entirely) comprised of artists and designers who have some great ideas, but put their creativity before the game. Your great idea does not belong in a game if it doesn't add to the player's fun (and certainly this applies to programmers with gee-whiz special effects too). There's many commercial examples of games that have well-conceived themes, stories, and artistic design, but are simply no fun to play; then there are (admittedly fewer) examples of games with no story, subpar art, but are a blast to play.
If you want to make the next Final Fantasy, then by all means do as much conceptual design up front before anyone starts to code. Most games are more gameplay-centered than that, and the best concept in the world won't help to make a game fun as much as a smart dev team that puts the player first.
Or Feingold/McCain, I'd vote for either one. It'd certainly be unprecedented (I think). Sadly, I don't think the money is there.
Redundant? My sense of humor must really be deteriorating lately...
when a brand-new /. story contains mostly links that my browser already shows as "visited"
Now personally, I don't like CS and never have. The realism is cool but the gameplay lacks the hyper adrenaline rush one gets from deathmatch games (of course, these are also boring after seven years of online play). Furthermore, the engine is pretty unimpressive technically. The best parts were in the single-player game with its scripted events and lifelike characters. When I first played Half-Life multiplayer, I thought the engine was laughably bad. My point isn't to troll - I just think the longevity of Half-Life has less to do with the engine and more to do with market forces and the exceptional design of Mr. Lee.
I think they were called "Blacktron" in the states.
This is a great idea, and there are certainly plenty of geeks who would feel strongly enough about these issues. Someone start it, I'll pay dues :)
what I really need is some sort of CIR. Or maybe they should spend some money renovating their infrastructure. Here in Corvallis, OR, where most college students have ATTBI, my ping to my gateway varies between 10 and 200 ms depending on the time of day. This is very frustrating for someone who games and ssh's alot (and no, it's not my line). Unfortunately it's the only real option, as DSL here costs more for a fraction of the bandwidth AT&T offers.
Carmack and Linus were both in the top 10 of Time's Top 50 Digital (or whatever) a few years ago. Of course, Bezos was #1 for some reason unfathomable to me.
Alias (same timeslot as X-Files, but I haven't watched that for a few years now) is one of the most entertaining TV series I've ever seen. It'd probably suck if you haven't watched from the beginning though.