I'm not a conspiracy nut, and I certainly don't have total trust, or total mistrust, of the government either.
But it isn't the idea of the FBI trying to use these tools that offends me. I expect them too, and I don't have anything to hide. But the issue of a company that I pay money for to help protect me to turn a blind eye to government intrusion is insane.
If I pay someone to give me security, I expect them to provide it against anyone who wants my information. Pure and simple. And I'm not worried about the "Oh, we won't check the FBI's version - but we would check variants."
Oh, that makes me feel *much* better. Imagine a cracker getting his fingers on the FBI software and using that on my systems. Gee, thanks for not checking that, Symantec.
Of course, you have to admit that Symantec and McAfee are in a bind. If they state they're going to detect the FBI software, then they're anti-government. If they don't, then they're aiding big brother. But considering that the United States was formed from a healthy distrust of our government (and that distrust has only proved to help us, thank you Hubert Hoover and your bra collection), I would rather have the security companies on my side and make my government work just a little harder to prove guilt. Or at least, that's what my tax dollars should be going to.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
On the one side, that's a great plug for the Dreamcast. It's a great little system - the games are fun, interesting, the controller is fairly comfortable, and yes, there's all the other cool (Linux) tricks coming out for it.
But there is a dark side to this. A lot of the good games (Grandia II, Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arcadia) are being ported to the Playstation 2, GameCube, and the Xbox.
Then we can take the other side and say it's a good thing Sega is porting those games over. Take Resident Evil: Code Veronica - it's around $40-$50 for the Playstation 2 version, while the Dreamcast version can be found (usually used, granted) for around $20. Looks the same, plays the same, and except for those added scenes in the Playstation 2 version, is pretty much the same game.
So you could get a Dreamcast for $50, and the good games for around $20-$30 each, or just wait until the good games (because most of the crappy ones won't be brought thanks to Darwin's Survival of the Funnest, except for Sakura Taisen which will probably never reach an English market).
Me? I'm buying another Dreamcast, just in case the one I have ever blows up;).
Re:Ethernet does work, for some
on
MAME On Xbox
·
· Score: 2
For now, the "broadband in the Internet" is out - maybe unless some enterprising developer puts the code directly into their game (which still raises the possibility of a Linux port that uses the Ethernet port).
Well, long winded yeah - but flamebait? Boy, somebody doesn't like me:).
(Shrugs - not really worth the effort of worrying, so I removed the +1 bonus).
My own Xbox notes
on
MAME On Xbox
·
· Score: 5, Informative
For those who don't have an Xbox, here's my own notes on this system. I want to apologize, as this is very long, but it's everything I've discovered about it after playing with it since Thursday night.
First, there's no USB ports. The Ethernet controller doesn't work yet (more on that in a second).
Now, let me get to the meat of the Xbox.
The Xbox is like a hobbled warhorse. You can see how big, how powerful it is, the sleek, black muscles with the power to crush anything else around it. You can feel its energy, its need to break out and use that power.
But the creators, fearing its power to much, fearing those that rode it might use it for what they wanted instead of what the creators wanted, have attached thick, iron chains to its back legs, so matter how fast or how powerful it is, it will never reach that ability - unless the creators finally see that its power is not something to be feared, but something to be celebrated in, and to let the rider use that power for what they see fit would be the greatest use of this powerful animal.
The Xbox is truly one big box. It's made to stand up one way - with it's bottom on the surface. You're not going to stand it on its side at all, and to do so would be folly.
It feels powerful, solid. Everything about it says its solid and strong, from the weight (almost 10 pounds), to the hard, black plastic on the outside, and even the wires. The RCA plugs are thick and meaty, and the ends are covered in thick, black plastic except for the colored ends. On top is the gigantic black X with the rounded circle stating that this is the Xbox.
It's also brutally simple. On the back there are three slots - one for power, one for media output, and the Ethernet port. Let's leave the Ethernet port alone for now - we'll come to that in a moment.
In the front we've got 4 input controller slots, the eject button, and the off button. That's it. No USB, FireWire, or otherwise. I can understand why there's no USB, and it's going to be a recurring theme. With USB, Microsoft might have given keyboard/mouse access to the Xbox, and above all that, they can't have that happening, because that would encourage hacking, and above all else, Microsoft cannot allow that to happen.
Why no hacking? Well, because this is as close to a computer that plugs
into your TV as most people will get without building their own - and for $300 dollars, the idea is temping. It has an Intel 733 processor. An
Nvidia graphics/chipset controller. 64 MB RAM. A 8 MB Seagate HDD (Hard Disk Drive). After finding the screws so I could get the pictures inside, I want to find the tools to dig deeper, to unplug the hard drive and find out how its partitioned, how to make it do what I want it to do.
But we'll get to that in a little bit.
When I first turn it on, I can hear the hard drive crunch for a moment,
and it's obvious as I move around the settings and listen close that the
operating system is probably stores on the HDD. (Again, if somebody
figures out how to hack this thing open and start messing around, we
might see something like LILO or Partition Magic in the works for dual-booting).
The menu system is very green, not "Daikatana annoying green" but more
cool and high tech green. Looks very nice and I could find what I
wanted in a few moments. The text was clear - perhaps the clearest text I've seen from a computer anything on screen.
First, let's hit the settings. Sound (mono, stereo, Dolby), video
(normal, wide, etc) - then the DVD and Game rating section. You can use
a parental lockout for both the movies or games, which for parents can
at least offer some help to make sure they aren't going to find their
copy of La Blue Girl in the machine while they're away for the night.
But there is one thing that absolutely kills me. I refer to Page 15 of
the Xbox Instruction Manual:
Do not connect a telephone line to the Ethernet connector on the back
of the Xbox console.
Broadband compatibility is scheduled to go live in
the summer of 2002." (Emphasis added.)
That's right, the Ethernet controller is like my gall bladder - it's
useless. It does nothing. There is no reason for its existence. I was
actually interested in plugging this into my home network (I use DSL and
have a Linux box providing NAT) and going online for...well, some reason. After all the crowing the Xbox guys did at E3, I was expecting to do something on the Internet with the damned thing.
Now I know that's not going to happen until - when? Summer 2002?
What's the problem here? Last I checked, Microsoft had a TCP/IP stack.
They couldn't put some simple FTP/Telnet/SMB protocols on the box?
DHCP can't be that hard - let me get this guy doing something. Multiplayer for Halo? Not over the Internet - which, at least in my head, was going to be one of the cool things about the game. How about Metal Gear Solid 2 X and finding out how well I did online instantly? Nope - not gonna happen.
But I know the reason why, and it comes down to hacking. Once they open
this thing on a network, it's going to become a mini-PC, and down goes
the $$$ from game selling. Folks are already working on MAME (an arcade game emulator) and SNES (Super Nintendo) emulators for the Xbox. If that becomes a reality, you've got yourself
a $300 PC that runs all the games you want, and with a Ethernet IP
connection - well, you can put the pieces together. For those who can't, that means that Microsoft could be losing money every time they sell an Xbox.
Personally, I think they can capitalize on that. I think they should say to themselves "It's going to happen, one way or the other. So we'll hope that people do buy the Xbox for reasons we don't want them to - because they're also going to want to play the games that are coming for it, and if they've already got an Xbox, no matter what the reason, they'll come around to the games - and we'll make out money once we get that Killer Application, the one game nobody can live without. And from that one game we can make more, and eventually win."
For now, I'm wondering about that Ethernet port. How is the broadband going to look come Summer 2002? Are we going to be forced to
play MSN (Microsoft Network), or are we going to be allowed to use our own local systems for
Internet capacity? We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but
for now, I'm disappointed. After all the hype about the 100 MB Ethernet port - and it turns out its as useful to me as my gall bladder. You could take it from my body, and everything would work just the same.
The music system alone is almost worth the purchase. A good MP3 player
is around $300, and the Xbox could compete with them, thanks to Mr. Hard
Drive.
When you stick in a music CD, you can listen like normal. Or...you can
copy it to the hard drive. I tried Phantom of the Opera out. Waited
about 23 minutes and 20 seconds before it was done. It took long enough that the screen saver kicked in (well, it just turned the screen blank), but it was about as long as converting the CD to MP3 would have been.
Any bets that its in WMA (Windows Media Audio) format instead of MP3? (Someone at Xbox tech support said it was, but since they weren't an official company rep, I'm holding out on that one.) But once again, just as I start thinking something about the Xbox is cool, something else gets in my way. Remember that useless Ethernet controller? Well, already this could have been useful. By plugging it into the Internet, I could have used a CDDB (CD Database) to pull the CD's name, the name of all of the tracks, and had the Xbox store that automatically.
As it is, I'm forced to do it with the controller. Now, I might not have minded that, except that if we're talking, say, Phantom of the Opera, we've got 4 CD's with 15-17 tracks apiece, and I'm going to t-y-p-e-i-n-e-a-c-h-l-e-t-t-e-r-o-n-e-b-y-o-n-e - well, you can already see how annoying that is.
The first CD I used was Disk 1 of "The Phantom of the Opera". The disk contains 475 MB of musical data, and by the time it was done, the Xbox reported that it used up 3209 blocks. If you figure that each block is 16.3 kilobytes (calculated by the 8 MB memory module being 503 blocks), then it's been reduced down to 53 MB.
Sound difference? I played Phantom of the Opera through the same
speakers on my computer (a pair of flat-screens with a sub-woofer), one
with the PC, one with the Xbox copied. Sounded the same.
So I decided to take the test an extra step further, and plug it into
the stereo system. speakers are 3" infinity. I still couldn't hear the difference, and I've had 7 years of band, so I'm pretty sure I know what I'm hearing.
Once on the hard drive, you can make up your own playlists, copy tracks around, and so on. It's still clunky with just the controller instead of using a mouse, but the capacity is there. Of course, you can't just copy the MP3's you've already got on your hard drive, unless you converted them back into WAV format, copied them into a CD-RW (seems the Xbox doesn't accept CDR's, but CD-RW is fair game), then had then re-encoded on the Xbox.
Still, the potential for having a great digital music player, with all of your CD's on the Xbox plugged into your stereo system is a temping one. I'm already considering it as I look over all of my Final Fantasy Music Collections on CD.
You know the whole thing about having to purchase a DVD remote
controller to watch DVD movies on the Xbox? It's true. I stuck in a DVD movie to see what happens, as
was politely told "Nope - you need that DVD remote controller". I'm
assuming that MS is making folks buy the remote to pay for the DVD
license, and to avoid Sony's initial problem (folks in Japan buying the
PS2 for a DVD player rather than a game system).
I don't get this part. Maybe they can claim that since folks can't
watch movies they don't need to pay the DVD license, and by making
people buy the remote (then using that money to pay the DVD licensing)
they can make sure they don't pay for it - but it's still annoying. I know it's another $20 Microsoft would have to pay out, but, dang, it's still annoying.
Like the box itself, the controllers feels like you could take a hammer to it, and it
would come back for more. The cord is interesting. First, it looks
like a FireWire cord, which if it is would mean you put put a lot of
bandwidth down the pipe. Then the controller can have the end plugged in - perhaps the idea is that you leave one part plugged into the Xbox, and if you want to plug in a new controller or a different one (keyboard, mouse, steering wheel) you don't have to pull the jack from the Xbox itself.
The controls are obviously inspired by the Dreamcast line. The memory
cards go in there (not that you really need them, which now that I know I could have saved myself $35 at Toys R Us, unless you want to
copy things to the memory card and from there to someone else's Xbox
system).
And yes, damn it, the controllers are too big. The controller runs like this:
Two finger triggers
Two analog sticks
1 Dpad
8 buttons - a, b, x, y, black, white, Start and Back.
At this moment, I'm looking at the controller for the GameCube, and it's almost the same - 2 analog sticks, one D pad, 4 buttons, and three finger triggers along the back - but I can get to every single button without having to stretch.
The black and white are too far from the analog sticks (assuming you've got
both thumb on an analog stick) to be able to reach without physically
moving my hands. My hands can span 1.5 octaves on a computer, so I'm
no small dandy man - but I would have preferred either two more thumb
controllers for black/white, or they be moved to the left instead of up.
And...the big green X on the controller. Get rid of it! I know it's an
Xbox, and the useless, gigantic center spot does nothing but take up
real estate. Make it a tiny little green X if you must, but then you'll
have room on the controller for something important, like...my thumbs.
Here's a short gut level review of the 3 games I've been playing with the system. The scores are not
final, may change, but these are my "gut" feelings after spending some time with them.
First, each game takes a long time to load. Some games, like Dead or
Alive 3, mask this by having cut scenes/messages, and by the time that's done, the game is done loading up. (The initial "copy this software and we'll break your head" message is just perfect for this). Others just say
"loading" as you wait, and wait, then get up, walk to the bathroom, "take care of business", and by then it's ready. Then again, once it's done loading, you usually don't see any delays until the next time it has to load. What's going on here?
Well, that hard drive is what's going on, which is both a crutch and a blessing. DVD seek
times (the amount of time it takes the DVD to find a specific area of
memory on the disk and read from it) is around 150-200 milliseconds.
Hard Drive seeks are around 10. So if you copy the information to the
HDD (that's Hard Disk Drive), you can quickly access it during gameplay
for better performance.
But that means you're spent waiting for the game to start as the developers have decided to copy all that information to the hard drive instead of jumping right to the game. Compare this
to Metal Gear Solid 2 - looks great, and I wait 3 seconds for a scene
change, and there's no hard drive. Or Soul Reaver, which even on a simpler system (like the Dreamcast) had practically no load times at all. So I can't say the HDD is really giving any benefit, except in the fact that you don't have to shell out for memory cards all the time.
So, without any further ado, here's the games:
Dead or Alive 3:
It's Dead or Alive 2...with better graphics. Same
controls (different controller), same gameplay, same nonsensical "stories" that are really
characters saying things to each other for some reason - but it always leads to somebody's ass getting kicked. But let's face it - the
women are incredibly hot, and that reason alone makes me keep them in the ring.
Except the last boss. For some reason, they felt the need to change the
camera angle for some dumb ass reason, so it was harder to figure out
what I was trying to do. Then again, I usually don't like fighting games except for Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, so I'll have to keep playing and see if it grabs me.
Gut score: 7-8
Halo
First person action that reminds of Half-Life, looks like
Half-Life after the high resolution pack. Actually, it looks pretty damn good. Until you reach the planets surface, then I was truly impressed by how beautiful this game could be. Surrounded by the hills, the waterfalls, looking at the sky above me - granted, a rather static one with the Halo running up into the sky - but still, for the first time I've placed my hands on the Xbox, all I could say was "Damn! That's just pretty.".
I have that "new babe"
feeling in the beginning - here you are, dropped into the middle of a
situation, learning on the fly what's happening as fast as you can while
learning the controls (but it's in a good way, since it gets that fear
feeling from the start without actually putting you in risk). The
controls are interesting. Left analog stick moves you
forward/backwards/left shift/right shift. Right analog button "looks"
about. Thumb triggers fire weapons.
The game itself feels like it's going to be pretty cool and fun, with
Bungie's own sense of style working for it. But I still find myself
reaching for the keyboard/mouse to get that precision that I need. (Note to game makers for consoles: if the console allows you to use a keyboard/mouse with the system, and you don't program your game to take advantage of that, I will come over and teabag your keyboard.
Teabagging a keyboard: (verb). Describes going to an opposing geeks computer system, lowering one's pants, and (assuming the teabagger is mail) dropping their scrotum upon the keyboard. Usually used a sign of disdain, or can be used for flirting (see Romero/Killcreek).
Gut Score: 8-9
Munch's Oddysee:
Munch's Oddysee: I've spent the least time with this one, and that's something I plan to fix. First, the humor is already there (the Almighty Raisin got lots of kicks from my co-workers). Abe and his world are rendered smoothly, and it looks good.
Then again, I'm wondering if this is just the previous Abe games in 3D. Oddworld has time to prove otherwise, and I'm willing to give them that chance.
Gut Score: 8-9.
So far? I have to say that based on the games, the system, and
everything else, I'm underwhelmed. The graphics are good, but the only
thing that impresses me is the lack of jaggies and the clearness of the
text. Maybe its because I don't think visually (ask me about that sometime and I'll explain it to you), but I'm not impressed by the graphics.
It's like looking at a good Dreamcast game, or worse, like a game I'd
play on the PC. The music thing is cool, but the games themselves are -
well, like anything else I'd see, and even worse, like anything else I'd
play once on the PC and move on to something else. I'm not feeling the
"Must-Keep-Playing" I get with Metal Gear Solid (1 or 2), or the "My
god!" of Devil May Cry, or even the "Damn!" from playing Rogue Squadron.
I played Halo - and could put it down. I played Metal Gear Solid 2 - and I couldn't put it down. I got finished playing Super Monkey Ball, and I'm already wanting to go back.
Microsoft needs to get those killer apps - and fast. Right now they're
playing catch up, and while history has proven that MS can play catch up
as well as anyone by throwing money at it, they have to remember that
they're up against opponents with brand names, exclusive deals (Pokemon,
Final Fantasy, etc), and, in the case of Sony, a company with more than
enough cash to take the long haul - and enough at stake that they'll
fight tooth, claw and nail to keep it.
So here's the ultimate deal. If someone were to ask me, right now, if I'd recommend they buy an Xbox for Christmas, I'd say no. Between the 3 systems, it's in last place, and unless we see something impossibly cool (like Panzer Dragon Saga II, Sakura Taisen, or something we'd all have to buy), it'll stay there.
Of course, this is all my opinion - I could be wrong.
I'm the kind of person who didn't believe Episode I was coming out until I purchased a ticket, so I'm not holding my breath.
After calling some local places and a Nintendo rep, I'm not so sure of this rumor either. As near as anyone I can talk to, it appears as though this is a rumor *only*. Most stores I've talked to *do* have Luigi's Mansion in, but they aren't allowed to sell them until the 18th.
If this does turn out to be true, I'd like someone to post a copy of the receipt/image of the box somewhere for proof. As near as I can determine...not yet.
The deal would require Microsoft to give independent monitors full access to its books and plans for five years to ensure compliance and to provide information to help rivals make products compatible with its dominant Windows operating software.
Like the title says. I'm sure the second the independant inspectors look at things, Microsoft will be as unwelcome to them as Bagdad was to the UN Inspectors.
Inspector: "Look, we have this document that proves your violating the agreement!"
MS: "No, I'm sorry, that document is copyrighted and protected by patent law. You can't show that to anybody."
1. Didn't Morpheus mention something about "a certain form of fusion"? I'm assuming something biological is required for that to work. (Hey, it's called science fiction for a reason.
2. Without sunlight, we can assume that most of the life on Earth got zapped (humans always watching out for themselves). From there it would have been pretty logical to go from "destroy humans" to "capture/harness for fusion system/keep trapped in system". (Maybe the Matrix requires some sort of neural net to run - aka, the machines *need human brains to keep their own programs running*, which makes them even more dependant on us as we are on machines (which lets Morpheus's comment on the irony of humans using tools make sense).
You'd have to assume that by the future, other sources of power (nuclear, oil, etc) are also depleted (which may have launched the whole humans vs AI war to begin with - maybe they didn't *want* to have the energy star label on their monitors...)
Now, isn't this how the Matrix started? All these watches and Palm Pilots trying to take over the human bodies for more warmth, covering people at night like kittens on your bed? I can see it now:
The Future: People walk down the streets, scurrying between allyways, keeping out of the light. One man stands in the middle of the street, trying to grasp a piece of cheese left in the alley.
Before suddenly, he is swarmed by little Palm Pilots, hurtling down the street like killer bees.
Trinity: Run, Neo! Those are the ones with the ARM processors! They need even more body heat than the old Dragonball ones! And - *gasp in horror* they have wireless antennaes!
The last thing we hear is one quick "Woah", then the sounds of millions of AvantGo processes launching.
To a certain extent, you're right. Star Trek is about the heroes doing things that are impossible in our reality.
But what's happened in the last 20 years is that heroes have turned from "people who can do anything and never get hurt", to "people who are like you and me but pull it through just barely".
Who's more exciting - Indiana Jones, who gets the crap kicked out of him for 75% of the movie, then starts kicking ass, or to watch Superman shrug off bullets or never get hurt? I'll take Dr. Jones any day of the week (and twice on Sundays).
So I'm actually applauding Paramounts change of direction to more "ordinary" people who will become more than human through their trials and experiences.
I'm trying to define "no violence" as anything that might insite the kids to riot. So here's my short list:
1. Myst/Riven/Myst III (well, if you get around Myst III's copy protection). Games with lot's o' puzzles, interesting plots, and should keep them engrossed for awhile and make them think.
2. The Longest Journey - another adventure game, but really, really good. Yes, the main character does have an underwear scene, but it's tame.
3. Gadget Tycoon - teach folks how to run a business. A little on the hard side, but interesting.
4. Tritrys - I've known many a person to be addicted to this one.
5. Lode Runner. 'Nuff said.
That should get you started. Most of your "non-violent" games are going to be of the adventure/puzzle variety. I'd also see what the limits of "non-violent" are - would 4X games (like Starships Unlimited) count? Racing games (Mario Kart - sounds stupid, but loads of fun) might also be up the alley.
I was thinking about this recently when checking out a news story on ZDNet, and reading someone's comment that "Open Source was communism".
The statement irritated me, but I didn't know why. Which is usually when I start doing some research, because not knowing why I'm irritated means there's something important to figure out.
I use open source in my own work - from development, web pages, graphical images, and the like. I could say "because it's cheap", and that would be true. I don't have a lot of cash, so most free (as in beer) programs appeal to me.
But there's two big reasons why I use Open Source software:
1: Free (as in speech) idea. Take Sun, who's setting up StarOffice to use XML as their default documents. XML - an open standard. What happens if 10 years from now I want to open a file, a story, an article I wrote in XML? I'd be able to read it, because I wouldn't be worried that MS went out of business/Caldera dropped Wordperfect/Lotus died out, or that the document editor I originally wrote didn't work on my new OS.
OS is democracy in its truest form (not like the US, which is a *republic*, thank you very much). Everyone has a voice, good, bad, or indifferent. It can't be bought out by business (which tries to force customers down a path to make it more money, sometimes when the customer doesn't want to go that way). It can't be subverted by government. The users, and the users alone, have the power to decide if a program lives or dies.
OS is also true innovation. The idea that "necessity is the mother of invention" applies here. If someone has that "itch they need to scratch" (like a program to edit tons of graphics from the command line (thank you ImageMagick!), it gets done. And just like the Internet is a place where you can find people that have the same interest as yourself, you can always find someone who has that same itch they need scratched, and sometimes people who are better than you at scratching it. (Which usually means you've got to have some humility to work with OS software.)
2: Most people comment on how OS software is so stable, and I've proven that time and time again. Why so stable? Because everybody can see the mistakes. Granted, your "ordinary users" (aka, non-developers) won't care. But to folks who's jobs deal with security, or reliability, the capacity to see why your program broke down and, even if you can't fix it yourself, at least tell other people why it happened so the developer can fix it makes the system that much stronger.
Right now, OS has overcome the first few hurdles of any system. First we had programs that work, now we have programs that work well. People have seen the need to make these programs more user friendly, and I see this being the next stage of OS software (companies like Mandrake are really setting good examples here). Interfaces will evolve - but they will evolve well, because thousands of voices will decide what works and what doesn't.
In the end, I truly believe that Open Source programs are the way to go. It makes business sense to do so (now I've harnessed the collective brain power of a *planet* to help with my projects - I just have to let go of the idea that I *own* the software, and I'll get software that will make my business better). It makes personal sense to do so (I know that my improvements to OS programs will help other people).
Probably the most important thing I've realized with the "advances" - instant messaging, phone mail, email, relay - is the ability to just say no.
Yes, it sounds trite. But next time the phone rings (cell or otherwise) during your personal time - don't answer it. I make it a point not to answer my cell phone while I'm at lunch, or in the restroom. If it's really important, they'll leave a message or call back.
It's something that actually takes some effort, because all of these devices were formed to say "Notice me! Pay attention to me!" But there is a time and a place for all things (Moderation in Everything is almost becoming my mantra).
If people can not handle this - then perhaps they need to learn to let go too.
A version of Windows XP (because the only reason I still use Windows is for my ATI-TV card, and to review computer games) that only has these features:
1. Basic OS/Gui.
2. Directx 8
That's it. I don't want a media player, a browser, or all of the other stuff. If they had this out, I'd pay $30 for it, and be perfectly happy. If I wanted the other pieces (browser, chat module, blah, blah, blah), I could choose whether to buy them from MS, or go and use something else (so an extra $15 for MS Explorer, or I could put Mozilla on the box).
Now everybody wins. MS is happy because it gets $30 from me (and the potential of more money if I choose to pay $99/$199 if I want all the bells an whistles), the DOJ is happy (because it makes a truly level playing frield, since other companies can compete with the other add-ons (at least in theory)), and I'm happy because I can review my games.
Realizing that doing something like this would increase the cost by, well, a lot, couldn't the astronauts accelerate at around.5 to 1 G for half the trip (creating gravity), then reverse the spaceship and decelerate (yes, I can't spell, but neither can the Slashdot staff some days).
You'd need more fuel for this, of course. But it could reduce the problems of microgravity.
I really don't know why.
Maybe because it's a campy idea.
Or perhaps because I actually learn something about food.
Because I can't stand either the fortune teller woman or the food critic.
Because I'm secretly in love with the Chairman with the way he bites that big, yellow pepper.
Because out of them all, I think that Iron Chef French has the most fun attitude.
Because I'm glad Bobby Flay lost. Die, Flay.
Because it has nothing to do with computers, giant robots, cute anime girls, computer games, or otherwise.
Because if they ever make "The Iron Chef for the PS2" it will probably suck.
But the real reason - because its different from anything else. Ross doesn't love Rachel some other week, I'm not watching people act like asses for an hour in an attempt at humor, I'm not hearing scientific psychobabble, and I don't watch tabloid information presented as real news.
Long live the Iron Chef. And the Chairman. John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
As much as this sounds like a shameless plug, this is why I tend to buy games rather then bug developers for them. (That, and the fact I'm such a wuss and I'm afraid they'll yell at me....) I don't mind getting a Beta, but 99% of the time I'll just buy the game myself rather than wait for a "review copy" to arrive in the mail.
Then again, we don't have that many reviews up compared to other folks. John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
I had a job with Philips/Magnavox (a small branch operation, mind you, but part of the system). Because we had marketers in every part of the world, it was decided that their machines always had to be running, therefore, the IT Dept always had to be working.
I wasn't opposed to the basic idea of this - except that they didn't want to hire more people to cover the time. So 2 people who usually covered an 8 hour shift were suppose to trade off a cell phone between the two of us, and always be available during that time. If one of us took a vacation, tough - the other guy was then on for a 24 hour shift. But since we were salary, we didn't get 24 hour pay. If you were having sex with your wife and that damned phone rang, you had to answer it.
I left. If a company wants to provide a warm body for support, then make them pay for it. There's no excuse for "well, we need this so you do it so you get to work it". Its better for the users to have someone in the building when they call, then somebody sitting in a theater who has to run out to the hallway and figure out why somebody can't get to their email through the phone connection.
Slashdot Mirror
Dang - I haven't played that game in over a year. I hope the PS2 version is as cool.
I'm not a conspiracy nut, and I certainly don't have total trust, or total mistrust, of the government either.
But it isn't the idea of the FBI trying to use these tools that offends me. I expect them too, and I don't have anything to hide. But the issue of a company that I pay money for to help protect me to turn a blind eye to government intrusion is insane.
If I pay someone to give me security, I expect them to provide it against anyone who wants my information. Pure and simple. And I'm not worried about the "Oh, we won't check the FBI's version - but we would check variants."
Oh, that makes me feel *much* better. Imagine a cracker getting his fingers on the FBI software and using that on my systems. Gee, thanks for not checking that, Symantec.
Of course, you have to admit that Symantec and McAfee are in a bind. If they state they're going to detect the FBI software, then they're anti-government. If they don't, then they're aiding big brother. But considering that the United States was formed from a healthy distrust of our government (and that distrust has only proved to help us, thank you Hubert Hoover and your bra collection), I would rather have the security companies on my side and make my government work just a little harder to prove guilt. Or at least, that's what my tax dollars should be going to.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I'm sure that Sakura Taisen is great, but as I don't have the time to learn Japanese, I'll never know.
And I don't get Sega. They have to know they'd sell 1,000,000 units in the US if they brought it over - the fanboy element alone would handle that.
On the one side, that's a great plug for the Dreamcast. It's a great little system - the games are fun, interesting, the controller is fairly comfortable, and yes, there's all the other cool (Linux) tricks coming out for it.
;).
But there is a dark side to this. A lot of the good games (Grandia II, Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arcadia) are being ported to the Playstation 2, GameCube, and the Xbox.
Then we can take the other side and say it's a good thing Sega is porting those games over. Take Resident Evil: Code Veronica - it's around $40-$50 for the Playstation 2 version, while the Dreamcast version can be found (usually used, granted) for around $20. Looks the same, plays the same, and except for those added scenes in the Playstation 2 version, is pretty much the same game.
So you could get a Dreamcast for $50, and the good games for around $20-$30 each, or just wait until the good games (because most of the crappy ones won't be brought thanks to Darwin's Survival of the Funnest, except for Sakura Taisen which will probably never reach an English market).
Me? I'm buying another Dreamcast, just in case the one I have ever blows up
Hm - I don't have another Xbox to try that out with. I'm wondering if it would use IPX or Netbios or some other propriety protocol for that. If somebody has more than one Xbox and they've done this, drop me a line and tell me how it works and if you've done any packet captures.
For now, the "broadband in the Internet" is out - maybe unless some enterprising developer puts the code directly into their game (which still raises the possibility of a Linux port that uses the Ethernet port).
Oh...that makes more sense. (Never thought of tripping over the wire - then again, I look where I'm going.)
I haven't tried that yet, as I don't have any "copy protected" CDs. Name one, and I'll see if I can check it out from a friend and see what happens.
Well, long winded yeah - but flamebait? Boy, somebody doesn't like me :).
(Shrugs - not really worth the effort of worrying, so I removed the +1 bonus).
For those who don't have an Xbox, here's my own notes on this system. I want to apologize, as this is very long, but it's everything I've discovered about it after playing with it since Thursday night.
First, there's no USB ports. The Ethernet controller doesn't work yet (more on that in a second).
Now, let me get to the meat of the Xbox.
The Xbox is like a hobbled warhorse. You can see how big, how powerful it is, the sleek, black muscles with the power to crush anything else around it. You can feel its energy, its need to break out and use that power.
But the creators, fearing its power to much, fearing those that rode it might use it for what they wanted instead of what the creators wanted, have attached thick, iron chains to its back legs, so matter how fast or how powerful it is, it will never reach that ability - unless the creators finally see that its power is not something to be feared, but something to be celebrated in, and to let the rider use that power for what they see fit would be the greatest use of this powerful animal.
The Xbox is truly one big box. It's made to stand up one way - with it's bottom on the surface. You're not going to stand it on its side at all, and to do so would be folly.
It feels powerful, solid. Everything about it says its solid and strong, from the weight (almost 10 pounds), to the hard, black plastic on the outside, and even the wires. The RCA plugs are thick and meaty, and the ends are covered in thick, black plastic except for the colored ends. On top is the gigantic black X with the rounded circle stating that this is the Xbox.
It's also brutally simple. On the back there are three slots - one for power, one for media output, and the Ethernet port. Let's leave the Ethernet port alone for now - we'll come to that in a moment.
In the front we've got 4 input controller slots, the eject button, and the off button. That's it. No USB, FireWire, or otherwise. I can understand why there's no USB, and it's going to be a recurring theme. With USB, Microsoft might have given keyboard/mouse access to the Xbox, and above all that, they can't have that happening, because that would encourage hacking, and above all else, Microsoft cannot allow that to happen.
Why no hacking? Well, because this is as close to a computer that plugs into your TV as most people will get without building their own - and for $300 dollars, the idea is temping. It has an Intel 733 processor. An Nvidia graphics/chipset controller. 64 MB RAM. A 8 MB Seagate HDD (Hard Disk Drive). After finding the screws so I could get the pictures inside, I want to find the tools to dig deeper, to unplug the hard drive and find out how its partitioned, how to make it do what I want it to do.
But we'll get to that in a little bit.
When I first turn it on, I can hear the hard drive crunch for a moment, and it's obvious as I move around the settings and listen close that the operating system is probably stores on the HDD. (Again, if somebody figures out how to hack this thing open and start messing around, we might see something like LILO or Partition Magic in the works for dual-booting).
The menu system is very green, not "Daikatana annoying green" but more cool and high tech green. Looks very nice and I could find what I wanted in a few moments. The text was clear - perhaps the clearest text I've seen from a computer anything on screen.
First, let's hit the settings. Sound (mono, stereo, Dolby), video (normal, wide, etc) - then the DVD and Game rating section. You can use a parental lockout for both the movies or games, which for parents can at least offer some help to make sure they aren't going to find their copy of La Blue Girl in the machine while they're away for the night.
But there is one thing that absolutely kills me. I refer to Page 15 of the Xbox Instruction Manual:
That's right, the Ethernet controller is like my gall bladder - it's useless. It does nothing. There is no reason for its existence. I was actually interested in plugging this into my home network (I use DSL and have a Linux box providing NAT) and going online for...well, some reason. After all the crowing the Xbox guys did at E3, I was expecting to do something on the Internet with the damned thing.
Now I know that's not going to happen until - when? Summer 2002? What's the problem here? Last I checked, Microsoft had a TCP/IP stack. They couldn't put some simple FTP/Telnet/SMB protocols on the box? DHCP can't be that hard - let me get this guy doing something. Multiplayer for Halo? Not over the Internet - which, at least in my head, was going to be one of the cool things about the game. How about Metal Gear Solid 2 X and finding out how well I did online instantly? Nope - not gonna happen.
But I know the reason why, and it comes down to hacking. Once they open this thing on a network, it's going to become a mini-PC, and down goes the $$$ from game selling. Folks are already working on MAME (an arcade game emulator) and SNES (Super Nintendo) emulators for the Xbox. If that becomes a reality, you've got yourself a $300 PC that runs all the games you want, and with a Ethernet IP connection - well, you can put the pieces together. For those who can't, that means that Microsoft could be losing money every time they sell an Xbox.
Personally, I think they can capitalize on that. I think they should say to themselves "It's going to happen, one way or the other. So we'll hope that people do buy the Xbox for reasons we don't want them to - because they're also going to want to play the games that are coming for it, and if they've already got an Xbox, no matter what the reason, they'll come around to the games - and we'll make out money once we get that Killer Application, the one game nobody can live without. And from that one game we can make more, and eventually win."
For now, I'm wondering about that Ethernet port. How is the broadband going to look come Summer 2002? Are we going to be forced to play MSN (Microsoft Network), or are we going to be allowed to use our own local systems for Internet capacity? We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but for now, I'm disappointed. After all the hype about the 100 MB Ethernet port - and it turns out its as useful to me as my gall bladder. You could take it from my body, and everything would work just the same.
The music system alone is almost worth the purchase. A good MP3 player is around $300, and the Xbox could compete with them, thanks to Mr. Hard Drive.
When you stick in a music CD, you can listen like normal. Or...you can copy it to the hard drive. I tried Phantom of the Opera out. Waited about 23 minutes and 20 seconds before it was done. It took long enough that the screen saver kicked in (well, it just turned the screen blank), but it was about as long as converting the CD to MP3 would have been.
Any bets that its in WMA (Windows Media Audio) format instead of MP3? (Someone at Xbox tech support said it was, but since they weren't an official company rep, I'm holding out on that one.) But once again, just as I start thinking something about the Xbox is cool, something else gets in my way. Remember that useless Ethernet controller? Well, already this could have been useful. By plugging it into the Internet, I could have used a CDDB (CD Database) to pull the CD's name, the name of all of the tracks, and had the Xbox store that automatically.
As it is, I'm forced to do it with the controller. Now, I might not have minded that, except that if we're talking, say, Phantom of the Opera, we've got 4 CD's with 15-17 tracks apiece, and I'm going to t-y-p-e-i-n-e-a-c-h-l-e-t-t-e-r-o-n-e-b-y-o-n-e - well, you can already see how annoying that is.
The first CD I used was Disk 1 of "The Phantom of the Opera". The disk contains 475 MB of musical data, and by the time it was done, the Xbox reported that it used up 3209 blocks. If you figure that each block is 16.3 kilobytes (calculated by the 8 MB memory module being 503 blocks), then it's been reduced down to 53 MB.
Sound difference? I played Phantom of the Opera through the same speakers on my computer (a pair of flat-screens with a sub-woofer), one with the PC, one with the Xbox copied. Sounded the same.
So I decided to take the test an extra step further, and plug it into the stereo system. speakers are 3" infinity. I still couldn't hear the difference, and I've had 7 years of band, so I'm pretty sure I know what I'm hearing.
Once on the hard drive, you can make up your own playlists, copy tracks around, and so on. It's still clunky with just the controller instead of using a mouse, but the capacity is there. Of course, you can't just copy the MP3's you've already got on your hard drive, unless you converted them back into WAV format, copied them into a CD-RW (seems the Xbox doesn't accept CDR's, but CD-RW is fair game), then had then re-encoded on the Xbox.
Still, the potential for having a great digital music player, with all of your CD's on the Xbox plugged into your stereo system is a temping one. I'm already considering it as I look over all of my Final Fantasy Music Collections on CD.
You know the whole thing about having to purchase a DVD remote controller to watch DVD movies on the Xbox? It's true. I stuck in a DVD movie to see what happens, as was politely told "Nope - you need that DVD remote controller". I'm assuming that MS is making folks buy the remote to pay for the DVD license, and to avoid Sony's initial problem (folks in Japan buying the PS2 for a DVD player rather than a game system).
I don't get this part. Maybe they can claim that since folks can't watch movies they don't need to pay the DVD license, and by making people buy the remote (then using that money to pay the DVD licensing) they can make sure they don't pay for it - but it's still annoying. I know it's another $20 Microsoft would have to pay out, but, dang, it's still annoying.
Like the box itself, the controllers feels like you could take a hammer to it, and it would come back for more. The cord is interesting. First, it looks like a FireWire cord, which if it is would mean you put put a lot of bandwidth down the pipe. Then the controller can have the end plugged in - perhaps the idea is that you leave one part plugged into the Xbox, and if you want to plug in a new controller or a different one (keyboard, mouse, steering wheel) you don't have to pull the jack from the Xbox itself.
The controls are obviously inspired by the Dreamcast line. The memory cards go in there (not that you really need them, which now that I know I could have saved myself $35 at Toys R Us, unless you want to copy things to the memory card and from there to someone else's Xbox system).
And yes, damn it, the controllers are too big. The controller runs like this:
At this moment, I'm looking at the controller for the GameCube, and it's almost the same - 2 analog sticks, one D pad, 4 buttons, and three finger triggers along the back - but I can get to every single button without having to stretch.
The black and white are too far from the analog sticks (assuming you've got both thumb on an analog stick) to be able to reach without physically moving my hands. My hands can span 1.5 octaves on a computer, so I'm no small dandy man - but I would have preferred either two more thumb controllers for black/white, or they be moved to the left instead of up.
And...the big green X on the controller. Get rid of it! I know it's an Xbox, and the useless, gigantic center spot does nothing but take up real estate. Make it a tiny little green X if you must, but then you'll have room on the controller for something important, like...my thumbs.
Here's a short gut level review of the 3 games I've been playing with the system. The scores are not final, may change, but these are my "gut" feelings after spending some time with them.
First, each game takes a long time to load. Some games, like Dead or Alive 3, mask this by having cut scenes/messages, and by the time that's done, the game is done loading up. (The initial "copy this software and we'll break your head" message is just perfect for this). Others just say "loading" as you wait, and wait, then get up, walk to the bathroom, "take care of business", and by then it's ready. Then again, once it's done loading, you usually don't see any delays until the next time it has to load. What's going on here?
Well, that hard drive is what's going on, which is both a crutch and a blessing. DVD seek times (the amount of time it takes the DVD to find a specific area of memory on the disk and read from it) is around 150-200 milliseconds. Hard Drive seeks are around 10. So if you copy the information to the HDD (that's Hard Disk Drive), you can quickly access it during gameplay for better performance.
But that means you're spent waiting for the game to start as the developers have decided to copy all that information to the hard drive instead of jumping right to the game. Compare this to Metal Gear Solid 2 - looks great, and I wait 3 seconds for a scene change, and there's no hard drive. Or Soul Reaver, which even on a simpler system (like the Dreamcast) had practically no load times at all. So I can't say the HDD is really giving any benefit, except in the fact that you don't have to shell out for memory cards all the time.
So, without any further ado, here's the games:
Dead or Alive 3:
It's Dead or Alive 2...with better graphics. Same controls (different controller), same gameplay, same nonsensical "stories" that are really characters saying things to each other for some reason - but it always leads to somebody's ass getting kicked. But let's face it - the women are incredibly hot, and that reason alone makes me keep them in the ring.
Except the last boss. For some reason, they felt the need to change the camera angle for some dumb ass reason, so it was harder to figure out what I was trying to do. Then again, I usually don't like fighting games except for Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, so I'll have to keep playing and see if it grabs me.
Gut score: 7-8
Halo
First person action that reminds of Half-Life, looks like Half-Life after the high resolution pack. Actually, it looks pretty damn good. Until you reach the planets surface, then I was truly impressed by how beautiful this game could be. Surrounded by the hills, the waterfalls, looking at the sky above me - granted, a rather static one with the Halo running up into the sky - but still, for the first time I've placed my hands on the Xbox, all I could say was "Damn! That's just pretty.".
I have that "new babe" feeling in the beginning - here you are, dropped into the middle of a situation, learning on the fly what's happening as fast as you can while learning the controls (but it's in a good way, since it gets that fear feeling from the start without actually putting you in risk). The controls are interesting. Left analog stick moves you forward/backwards/left shift/right shift. Right analog button "looks" about. Thumb triggers fire weapons.
The game itself feels like it's going to be pretty cool and fun, with Bungie's own sense of style working for it. But I still find myself reaching for the keyboard/mouse to get that precision that I need. (Note to game makers for consoles: if the console allows you to use a keyboard/mouse with the system, and you don't program your game to take advantage of that, I will come over and teabag your keyboard.
Gut Score: 8-9
Munch's Oddysee:
Munch's Oddysee: I've spent the least time with this one, and that's something I plan to fix. First, the humor is already there (the Almighty Raisin got lots of kicks from my co-workers). Abe and his world are rendered smoothly, and it looks good.
Then again, I'm wondering if this is just the previous Abe games in 3D. Oddworld has time to prove otherwise, and I'm willing to give them that chance.
Gut Score: 8-9.
So far? I have to say that based on the games, the system, and everything else, I'm underwhelmed. The graphics are good, but the only thing that impresses me is the lack of jaggies and the clearness of the text. Maybe its because I don't think visually (ask me about that sometime and I'll explain it to you), but I'm not impressed by the graphics.
It's like looking at a good Dreamcast game, or worse, like a game I'd play on the PC. The music thing is cool, but the games themselves are - well, like anything else I'd see, and even worse, like anything else I'd play once on the PC and move on to something else. I'm not feeling the "Must-Keep-Playing" I get with Metal Gear Solid (1 or 2), or the "My god!" of Devil May Cry, or even the "Damn!" from playing Rogue Squadron.
I played Halo - and could put it down. I played Metal Gear Solid 2 - and I couldn't put it down. I got finished playing Super Monkey Ball, and I'm already wanting to go back.
Microsoft needs to get those killer apps - and fast. Right now they're playing catch up, and while history has proven that MS can play catch up as well as anyone by throwing money at it, they have to remember that they're up against opponents with brand names, exclusive deals (Pokemon, Final Fantasy, etc), and, in the case of Sony, a company with more than enough cash to take the long haul - and enough at stake that they'll fight tooth, claw and nail to keep it.
So here's the ultimate deal. If someone were to ask me, right now, if I'd recommend they buy an Xbox for Christmas, I'd say no. Between the 3 systems, it's in last place, and unless we see something impossibly cool (like Panzer Dragon Saga II, Sakura Taisen, or something we'd all have to buy), it'll stay there.
Of course, this is all my opinion - I could be wrong.
I'm the kind of person who didn't believe Episode I was coming out until I purchased a ticket, so I'm not holding my breath.
After calling some local places and a Nintendo rep, I'm not so sure of this rumor either. As near as anyone I can talk to, it appears as though this is a rumor *only*. Most stores I've talked to *do* have Luigi's Mansion in, but they aren't allowed to sell them until the 18th.
If this does turn out to be true, I'd like someone to post a copy of the receipt/image of the box somewhere for proof. As near as I can determine...not yet.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Like the title says. I'm sure the second the independant inspectors look at things, Microsoft will be as unwelcome to them as Bagdad was to the UN Inspectors.
Inspector: "Look, we have this document that proves your violating the agreement!"
MS: "No, I'm sorry, that document is copyrighted and protected by patent law. You can't show that to anybody."
The only things that I'd add into the whole mess:
1. Didn't Morpheus mention something about "a certain form of fusion"? I'm assuming something biological is required for that to work. (Hey, it's called science fiction for a reason.
2. Without sunlight, we can assume that most of the life on Earth got zapped (humans always watching out for themselves). From there it would have been pretty logical to go from "destroy humans" to "capture/harness for fusion system/keep trapped in system". (Maybe the Matrix requires some sort of neural net to run - aka, the machines *need human brains to keep their own programs running*, which makes them even more dependant on us as we are on machines (which lets Morpheus's comment on the irony of humans using tools make sense).
You'd have to assume that by the future, other sources of power (nuclear, oil, etc) are also depleted (which may have launched the whole humans vs AI war to begin with - maybe they didn't *want* to have the energy star label on their monitors...)
Now, isn't this how the Matrix started? All these watches and Palm Pilots trying to take over the human bodies for more warmth, covering people at night like kittens on your bed? I can see it now:
Of course, I could be wrong.
To a certain extent, you're right. Star Trek is about the heroes doing things that are impossible in our reality.
But what's happened in the last 20 years is that heroes have turned from "people who can do anything and never get hurt", to "people who are like you and me but pull it through just barely".
Who's more exciting - Indiana Jones, who gets the crap kicked out of him for 75% of the movie, then starts kicking ass, or to watch Superman shrug off bullets or never get hurt? I'll take Dr. Jones any day of the week (and twice on Sundays).
So I'm actually applauding Paramounts change of direction to more "ordinary" people who will become more than human through their trials and experiences.
Just as long as they never need the Girdle....
Of course, I could be wrong.
Well, I'm assuming if they're in Juvi, they're at least over 12 - and I'd probably let the kids play it if they were over 14.
Of course, I could be wrong.
I'm trying to define "no violence" as anything that might insite the kids to riot. So here's my short list:
1. Myst/Riven/Myst III (well, if you get around Myst III's copy protection). Games with lot's o' puzzles, interesting plots, and should keep them engrossed for awhile and make them think.
2. The Longest Journey - another adventure game, but really, really good. Yes, the main character does have an underwear scene, but it's tame.
3. Gadget Tycoon - teach folks how to run a business. A little on the hard side, but interesting.
4. Tritrys - I've known many a person to be addicted to this one.
5. Lode Runner. 'Nuff said.
That should get you started. Most of your "non-violent" games are going to be of the adventure/puzzle variety. I'd also see what the limits of "non-violent" are - would 4X games (like Starships Unlimited) count? Racing games (Mario Kart - sounds stupid, but loads of fun) might also be up the alley.
I was thinking about this recently when checking out a news story on ZDNet, and reading someone's comment that "Open Source was communism".
The statement irritated me, but I didn't know why. Which is usually when I start doing some research, because not knowing why I'm irritated means there's something important to figure out.
I use open source in my own work - from development, web pages, graphical images, and the like. I could say "because it's cheap", and that would be true. I don't have a lot of cash, so most free (as in beer) programs appeal to me.
But there's two big reasons why I use Open Source software:
1: Free (as in speech) idea. Take Sun, who's setting up StarOffice to use XML as their default documents. XML - an open standard. What happens if 10 years from now I want to open a file, a story, an article I wrote in XML? I'd be able to read it, because I wouldn't be worried that MS went out of business/Caldera dropped Wordperfect/Lotus died out, or that the document editor I originally wrote didn't work on my new OS.
OS is democracy in its truest form (not like the US, which is a *republic*, thank you very much). Everyone has a voice, good, bad, or indifferent. It can't be bought out by business (which tries to force customers down a path to make it more money, sometimes when the customer doesn't want to go that way). It can't be subverted by government. The users, and the users alone, have the power to decide if a program lives or dies.
OS is also true innovation. The idea that "necessity is the mother of invention" applies here. If someone has that "itch they need to scratch" (like a program to edit tons of graphics from the command line (thank you ImageMagick!), it gets done. And just like the Internet is a place where you can find people that have the same interest as yourself, you can always find someone who has that same itch they need scratched, and sometimes people who are better than you at scratching it. (Which usually means you've got to have some humility to work with OS software.)
2: Most people comment on how OS software is so stable, and I've proven that time and time again. Why so stable? Because everybody can see the mistakes. Granted, your "ordinary users" (aka, non-developers) won't care. But to folks who's jobs deal with security, or reliability, the capacity to see why your program broke down and, even if you can't fix it yourself, at least tell other people why it happened so the developer can fix it makes the system that much stronger.
Right now, OS has overcome the first few hurdles of any system. First we had programs that work, now we have programs that work well. People have seen the need to make these programs more user friendly, and I see this being the next stage of OS software (companies like Mandrake are really setting good examples here). Interfaces will evolve - but they will evolve well, because thousands of voices will decide what works and what doesn't.
In the end, I truly believe that Open Source programs are the way to go. It makes business sense to do so (now I've harnessed the collective brain power of a *planet* to help with my projects - I just have to let go of the idea that I *own* the software, and I'll get software that will make my business better). It makes personal sense to do so (I know that my improvements to OS programs will help other people).
Of course, I could be wrong.
Probably the most important thing I've realized with the "advances" - instant messaging, phone mail, email, relay - is the ability to just say no.
Yes, it sounds trite. But next time the phone rings (cell or otherwise) during your personal time - don't answer it. I make it a point not to answer my cell phone while I'm at lunch, or in the restroom. If it's really important, they'll leave a message or call back.
It's something that actually takes some effort, because all of these devices were formed to say "Notice me! Pay attention to me!" But there is a time and a place for all things (Moderation in Everything is almost becoming my mantra).
If people can not handle this - then perhaps they need to learn to let go too.
Of course, I could be wrong.
A version of Windows XP (because the only reason I still use Windows is for my ATI-TV card, and to review computer games) that only has these features:
1. Basic OS/Gui.
2. Directx 8
That's it. I don't want a media player, a browser, or all of the other stuff. If they had this out, I'd pay $30 for it, and be perfectly happy. If I wanted the other pieces (browser, chat module, blah, blah, blah), I could choose whether to buy them from MS, or go and use something else (so an extra $15 for MS Explorer, or I could put Mozilla on the box).
Now everybody wins. MS is happy because it gets $30 from me (and the potential of more money if I choose to pay $99/$199 if I want all the bells an whistles), the DOJ is happy (because it makes a truly level playing frield, since other companies can compete with the other add-ons (at least in theory)), and I'm happy because I can review my games.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Realizing that doing something like this would increase the cost by, well, a lot, couldn't the astronauts accelerate at around .5 to 1 G for half the trip (creating gravity), then reverse the spaceship and decelerate (yes, I can't spell, but neither can the Slashdot staff some days).
You'd need more fuel for this, of course. But it could reduce the problems of microgravity.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Yeah, I screwed up - I admit it. I've made a change, but kept the original in there.
Thanks for letting me know :).
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
I really don't know why.
Maybe because it's a campy idea.
Or perhaps because I actually learn something about food.
Because I can't stand either the fortune teller woman or the food critic.
Because I'm secretly in love with the Chairman with the way he bites that big, yellow pepper.
Because out of them all, I think that Iron Chef French has the most fun attitude.
Because I'm glad Bobby Flay lost. Die, Flay.
Because it has nothing to do with computers, giant robots, cute anime girls, computer games, or otherwise.
Because if they ever make "The Iron Chef for the PS2" it will probably suck.
But the real reason - because its different from anything else. Ross doesn't love Rachel some other week, I'm not watching people act like asses for an hour in an attempt at humor, I'm not hearing scientific psychobabble, and I don't watch tabloid information presented as real news.
Long live the Iron Chef. And the Chairman.
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
You know, I could comment from there - but I'm not :).
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
As much as this sounds like a shameless plug, this is why I tend to buy games rather then bug developers for them. (That, and the fact I'm such a wuss and I'm afraid they'll yell at me....) I don't mind getting a Beta, but 99% of the time I'll just buy the game myself rather than wait for a "review copy" to arrive in the mail.
Then again, we don't have that many reviews up compared to other folks.
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
I had a job with Philips/Magnavox (a small branch operation, mind you, but part of the system). Because we had marketers in every part of the world, it was decided that their machines always had to be running, therefore, the IT Dept always had to be working.
I wasn't opposed to the basic idea of this - except that they didn't want to hire more people to cover the time. So 2 people who usually covered an 8 hour shift were suppose to trade off a cell phone between the two of us, and always be available during that time. If one of us took a vacation, tough - the other guy was then on for a 24 hour shift. But since we were salary, we didn't get 24 hour pay. If you were having sex with your wife and that damned phone rang, you had to answer it.
I left. If a company wants to provide a warm body for support, then make them pay for it. There's no excuse for "well, we need this so you do it so you get to work it". Its better for the users to have someone in the building when they call, then somebody sitting in a theater who has to run out to the hallway and figure out why somebody can't get to their email through the phone connection.
Of course, I could be wrong.
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel