I don't know about that. I do know that I've never had a computer or a television in my room until very recently, when I moved out of the house. Instead of spending hours in my room on the computer, I spent hours in the common area on the computer.
My little sister used to use the phone all of the time. She would go insane if you didn't let her use it, with all of her whining and screaming. She then discovered AIM, and it completely opened up the phone for everyone else. She used to bitch at me to get off the computer then, if I were using it.
So, if you have more than one kid who is interested in IM, and you only have one computer, you had better teach them how to share... and how to deal with disappointment. Otherwise, you're going to have a high frequency of loud and annoying fights.
IM is relatively harmless, too. Of course, they could be talking to FBI agents in one window and pedophiles in another, but it's up to you to ensure that they exercise good judgement in who they talk to. Remember McGruff? Don't talk to strangers? Take a bite out of crime? The same rules apply to on-line interactions. Make sure that they are talking to their friends or family.
If you're worried about them not getting out, you should be happy. Teenage kids get mixed up in things that are far worse than IM, with consequences that could last a lifetime. Be happy that they're inside, where you can keep an eye on them, instead of out getting high or pregnant.
But, to be fair and balanced, a good quality basketball, football, or baseball setup can run you a 1 time $80 bucks and factoring that over a 2 year period throwing the old pig skin, playing softball, or doing a little boot hockey can be a hella cheaper then a video game.
Are you suggesting that we have to go.... outside?
I have a single "Stuff" directory on the desktop. When I decide that it has too much crap in it, I go through it and move it all to a drive on another folder. There's a folder there/server/Work/Stuff that I stick it all in. I even have a folder in there called 'Done Stuff.'
Of course, this is all garbage. Important data gets separated and stored in other places. I usually keep a copy of everything that hits my drive, with exception of the Ads and images associated with web surfing./Download gets a lot of junk that is unsorted. Every now and then, I go through that directory and sift the stuff into things like/Download/Images,/Download/Misc,/Download/Non-Free,/Download/Free Software,/Download Tools, etc.
When you get the HL:Silver package, you get a lot of old stuff that you probably already have. The original Half Life was in the stores for years and years, in a number of different iterations. I got the silver package for the convenience, but I already have two or three copies of the original HL (from graphics cards, bundles, etc). I also have Opposing Force, Blue Shift (which is not included), and all that other stuff.
The only value that the Silver package added for me was the little platform shooter that they've got, and the ease of installation, and the fact that I've got data without having the physical format.
WOW CE, on the other hand, has a lot of special items. It not only includes the game, and the in-game existant "pet," but it has making-of DVD's and a few other goodies. Sure, you could download a making-of DVD, but I don't have a DVD burner, nor am I inclined to buy one.
Thank goodness, I ordered WOW CE a week ago from Amazon, and it was shipped today. I'd hate to be one of those other people...
Oh, and like they said, the engine is totally insane-crazy. At times it's almost like you're in a movie. And like the first one, there are numerous ways to skin a cat in many of the tactical puzzles. Once you realize that, the game gets a lot easier.
This translates to: SHOOT THE BARRELS!
Seriously. Any time in the beginning where you have a tiny gun, and there's a mob of bad guys, they're always going to be around a line of flammable barrels. Use the barrels to take out those sticky-tongued head munchers too.
Lastly, about the textures... it's really strange. Sometimes you see this wonderfully rendered peice that someone obviously spent a lot of time on. Other times, you're looking at something that looks like it's borrowed from Half-Life. Even with the texture detail turned all the way up, there are some textures that really look like they're low-res and stretched a long way. It just looks bad.
I think that Doom 3 has better textures, even though I don't like the game all that much.
Fine... Then World of Warcraft. There's a loading delay in the very beginning, and that's it. There are no pauses between the outside and the inside, there are no pauses when travelling, etc. It's all smooth.
The graphical detail isn't quite as high, even so, there is no real excuse for it. I hate sitting and waiting for a minute and a half while the game is "Loading."
Don't even get me started on the amount of time it took to load the game menu.
Re:i don't think therefore I am not
on
Killer Ozone?
·
· Score: 1
Oh please. You're turning an article that is sensationalism at its best into a political flamefest.
People who voted republican probably do think twice about things. Maybe, they even think three or four times. People who voted democratic probably do as well. If you judge people's IQ's, ability of rational thought, or their environmental concerns by their religion or political ideologies, then you have some serious priority issues that need resolving.
Tivo doesn't make my reception any faster. That sounds very much like the Intel marketing that the Pentium 4 made the internet faster.
Tivo lets me record a number of shows when I can't watch them, so that I may watch them later. Tivo also provides a service of providing my hardware with up-to-date listings, as well as recording shows that I might like to fill up the space that I don't use.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of that revenue is shared. The good teams that are right now spent that money on free agents. The crappy teams with good farm systems spent that money on the farm system.
I'd say that Dell makes money in the same way that car insurance companies do. Dell isn't really in the business of selling machines, that's what it started out as, and that's what their business entails... but Dell is more of a computer-insurance company. The fact that you have to buy the computer first in order to buy the insurance policy is a bene.
The corporate support is where the big bucks are. If you get seventy companies to sign on, and only twenty of them really require support, you've made a killing. When warranties run out, the companies will either buy a new machine, or renew the support contract. Either way, I'd say that Dell comes out on top.
It's a good company. My place of employment uses nothing but Dells (except for IT, where the developers have custom rigs). We used to have a guy who did nothing but fix hardware problems full time. Dell eliminated the need for his position. I can't really say that it's good from his standpoint, but from the view of business, it is a good thing.
We have bought over 500 machines do far, I imagine, and only about 60 of them have required Dell's support. Consider the cost of the support policies for those 500, and the return we get on 60, and that's where profit is. There is a case where we'll have 500 machines that need support, but it will probably never happen. That's why Dell is an insurance company.
I dunno... blackdown is required by the OpenOffice ebuild. If one of the biggest cross-platform office products requires blackdown, I would say that blackdown is not being ignored.
You also have forgotten that though MS has the "head start" in the System.Windows namespace, Mono has GTK#, which satisfies GUI/widget needs. Hell, that's even cross-platform. Mono also has more in the way of database connectivity, and Novell has contributed quite a bit to the Mono stack.
Given the way that Mono has matured, and the amount of time that it's taken to do so, Microsoft's implementation is going to be left behind fairly soon.
The patent issues will be worked out. I wouldn't be too afraid of them, and it's best not the wonder about them as a developer, either. Miguel has also said that if a patent issue comes up, they'll either re-work the code, or snip it. Mono's stack isn't encumbered with patents anyway.
The UI's are all the same to me too. It appears that Google and MSN do a nesting thing to their results, but that's about it.
What distinguishes Google from everyone else is the tools they offer. I never go to dictionary.com anymore, because I just type define:word into Google, and get a listing of definitions from multiple sites. The same goes for searches like "25 Kg in lb," (which is inaccurate, poundage depends on altitude). Altavista has "convert," which looks useful. My only wish is that Google had maps, something that many of the others have.
The MSN search is web only. They've copied that pretty well, but they don't have any useful bits in there.
I would have jumped on FilePlanet, but they required you to pay for service in order to get the key. I don't ever use FilePlanet, so paying for it is sort of stupid for me.
Thankfully, I got an open beta account last night... around midnight.
The single best atmospheric location is Teldrassil, the home of the night elves. It's pretty dark, but there are little glowing floating things that fall from the sky, and it's got a really peaceful feeling.
I hope that they some day implement seasons and day/night. Running around when it's day all the time just feels wierd, especially after playing something like Morrowind.
I'm curious about the 'endgame' -- in DAoC it's all about (extremely addictive) consentual PvP. In EQ, it's all about camping. Being Warcraft, I'd assume that the first expansions are going to be seriously PvP focused, similar to what DAoC's got. At least that's my hope.
They addressed this in one of their FAQ's. WoW is built around being PvP, but it's uniquely PvP. If you are a hoard member, it is extremely difficult to communicate with alliance members. Furthermore, if you enter an opposing side's "zone," an event pops up that says that the zone is being attacked.
When I was in the 1st stress test, I was a lowish level druid night elf... once I got off of the big tree, I found myself in the middle of a rather massive attack by 30-40 level hoard members. Thank goodness that the graveyard was right next to the beach.
I played the 1st stress test, and was probably the first to sign up for an open beta account last night (I checked the site, it worked, I jumped for joy.).
I'd have to say that the animation and cartoonish look and feel is beautiful, and much in line with all of the previous warcraft games. It is supposed to look cartoonish. The character animation is slick and smooth, and it also looks very natural.
I only wish that the professions allowed for unique / fantastic items in the end. As it is, you can have two professions, but you'll never make items that are as powerful as some of the item drops by monsters. I'd rather have some sort of quest or something that I could complete that would allow me to generate a powerful unique item. You read about legendary items being created by characters in books, why can't we also participate in this? But this would be a load on the server if everyone had their own unique item.
Oh well. It ain't perfect, but it sure is nice and fun.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about that. I do know that I've never had a computer or a television in my room until very recently, when I moved out of the house. Instead of spending hours in my room on the computer, I spent hours in the common area on the computer.
My little sister used to use the phone all of the time. She would go insane if you didn't let her use it, with all of her whining and screaming. She then discovered AIM, and it completely opened up the phone for everyone else. She used to bitch at me to get off the computer then, if I were using it.
So, if you have more than one kid who is interested in IM, and you only have one computer, you had better teach them how to share... and how to deal with disappointment. Otherwise, you're going to have a high frequency of loud and annoying fights.
IM is relatively harmless, too. Of course, they could be talking to FBI agents in one window and pedophiles in another, but it's up to you to ensure that they exercise good judgement in who they talk to. Remember McGruff? Don't talk to strangers? Take a bite out of crime? The same rules apply to on-line interactions. Make sure that they are talking to their friends or family.
If you're worried about them not getting out, you should be happy. Teenage kids get mixed up in things that are far worse than IM, with consequences that could last a lifetime. Be happy that they're inside, where you can keep an eye on them, instead of out getting high or pregnant.
But, to be fair and balanced, a good quality basketball, football, or baseball setup can run you a 1 time $80 bucks and factoring that over a 2 year period throwing the old pig skin, playing softball, or doing a little boot hockey can be a hella cheaper then a video game.
Are you suggesting that we have to go.... outside?
Ick.
Well, you can go fishing.
Level grinds are fun, if you're grouping with people that you like to talk to.
I don't see what the problem is. :shrug:
Yeah... very informative.
I have a single "Stuff" directory on the desktop. When I decide that it has too much crap in it, I go through it and move it all to a drive on another folder. There's a folder there /server/Work/Stuff that I stick it all in. I even have a folder in there called 'Done Stuff.'
Of course, this is all garbage. Important data gets separated and stored in other places. I usually keep a copy of everything that hits my drive, with exception of the Ads and images associated with web surfing. /Download gets a lot of junk that is unsorted. Every now and then, I go through that directory and sift the stuff into things like /Download/Images, /Download/Misc, /Download/Non-Free, /Download/Free Software, /Download Tools, etc.
Not to mention that you can take thousands of bullets, but if you start feeling weak, the blue bubble makes everything better.
When you get the HL:Silver package, you get a lot of old stuff that you probably already have. The original Half Life was in the stores for years and years, in a number of different iterations. I got the silver package for the convenience, but I already have two or three copies of the original HL (from graphics cards, bundles, etc). I also have Opposing Force, Blue Shift (which is not included), and all that other stuff.
The only value that the Silver package added for me was the little platform shooter that they've got, and the ease of installation, and the fact that I've got data without having the physical format.
WOW CE, on the other hand, has a lot of special items. It not only includes the game, and the in-game existant "pet," but it has making-of DVD's and a few other goodies. Sure, you could download a making-of DVD, but I don't have a DVD burner, nor am I inclined to buy one.
Thank goodness, I ordered WOW CE a week ago from Amazon, and it was shipped today. I'd hate to be one of those other people...
Oh, and like they said, the engine is totally insane-crazy. At times it's almost like you're in a movie. And like the first one, there are numerous ways to skin a cat in many of the tactical puzzles. Once you realize that, the game gets a lot easier.
This translates to: SHOOT THE BARRELS!
Seriously. Any time in the beginning where you have a tiny gun, and there's a mob of bad guys, they're always going to be around a line of flammable barrels. Use the barrels to take out those sticky-tongued head munchers too.
Lastly, about the textures... it's really strange. Sometimes you see this wonderfully rendered peice that someone obviously spent a lot of time on. Other times, you're looking at something that looks like it's borrowed from Half-Life. Even with the texture detail turned all the way up, there are some textures that really look like they're low-res and stretched a long way. It just looks bad.
I think that Doom 3 has better textures, even though I don't like the game all that much.
I like G.W. Bush, and I actually use my UID to post.
Then again, stuff that comes out of Red Hat is completely free and GPL'd, if I'm not mistaken, which is a Good Thing (TM).
Let's just boil it down to one point:
-We like to generalize things of which we know nothing about.
Here's the link to the collector's edition sneak peak.
Why the heck does "Warcry" get linked to? It looks like it isn't even run by Blizzard.
Fine... Then World of Warcraft. There's a loading delay in the very beginning, and that's it. There are no pauses between the outside and the inside, there are no pauses when travelling, etc. It's all smooth.
The graphical detail isn't quite as high, even so, there is no real excuse for it. I hate sitting and waiting for a minute and a half while the game is "Loading."
Don't even get me started on the amount of time it took to load the game menu.
Fiber: It keeps the crap running smoothly.
Oh please. You're turning an article that is sensationalism at its best into a political flamefest.
People who voted republican probably do think twice about things. Maybe, they even think three or four times. People who voted democratic probably do as well. If you judge people's IQ's, ability of rational thought, or their environmental concerns by their religion or political ideologies, then you have some serious priority issues that need resolving.
Who the hell mods this crap as insightful??
Umm... no.
Tivo doesn't make my reception any faster. That sounds very much like the Intel marketing that the Pentium 4 made the internet faster.
Tivo lets me record a number of shows when I can't watch them, so that I may watch them later. Tivo also provides a service of providing my hardware with up-to-date listings, as well as recording shows that I might like to fill up the space that I don't use.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of that revenue is shared. The good teams that are right now spent that money on free agents. The crappy teams with good farm systems spent that money on the farm system.
There is no meat budget for hospitals. They've gotten into recycling...
I'd say that Dell makes money in the same way that car insurance companies do. Dell isn't really in the business of selling machines, that's what it started out as, and that's what their business entails... but Dell is more of a computer-insurance company. The fact that you have to buy the computer first in order to buy the insurance policy is a bene.
The corporate support is where the big bucks are. If you get seventy companies to sign on, and only twenty of them really require support, you've made a killing. When warranties run out, the companies will either buy a new machine, or renew the support contract. Either way, I'd say that Dell comes out on top.
It's a good company. My place of employment uses nothing but Dells (except for IT, where the developers have custom rigs). We used to have a guy who did nothing but fix hardware problems full time. Dell eliminated the need for his position. I can't really say that it's good from his standpoint, but from the view of business, it is a good thing.
We have bought over 500 machines do far, I imagine, and only about 60 of them have required Dell's support. Consider the cost of the support policies for those 500, and the return we get on 60, and that's where profit is. There is a case where we'll have 500 machines that need support, but it will probably never happen. That's why Dell is an insurance company.
I dunno... blackdown is required by the OpenOffice ebuild. If one of the biggest cross-platform office products requires blackdown, I would say that blackdown is not being ignored.
You also have forgotten that though MS has the "head start" in the System.Windows namespace, Mono has GTK#, which satisfies GUI/widget needs. Hell, that's even cross-platform. Mono also has more in the way of database connectivity, and Novell has contributed quite a bit to the Mono stack.
Given the way that Mono has matured, and the amount of time that it's taken to do so, Microsoft's implementation is going to be left behind fairly soon.
The patent issues will be worked out. I wouldn't be too afraid of them, and it's best not the wonder about them as a developer, either. Miguel has also said that if a patent issue comes up, they'll either re-work the code, or snip it. Mono's stack isn't encumbered with patents anyway.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean. I was just being really really nerdy.
The UI's are all the same to me too. It appears that Google and MSN do a nesting thing to their results, but that's about it.
What distinguishes Google from everyone else is the tools they offer. I never go to dictionary.com anymore, because I just type define:word into Google, and get a listing of definitions from multiple sites. The same goes for searches like "25 Kg in lb," (which is inaccurate, poundage depends on altitude). Altavista has "convert," which looks useful. My only wish is that Google had maps, something that many of the others have.
The MSN search is web only. They've copied that pretty well, but they don't have any useful bits in there.
I think that they'd all see you stumbling around until you put your taped together glasses on.
I would have jumped on FilePlanet, but they required you to pay for service in order to get the key. I don't ever use FilePlanet, so paying for it is sort of stupid for me.
Thankfully, I got an open beta account last night... around midnight.
The single best atmospheric location is Teldrassil, the home of the night elves. It's pretty dark, but there are little glowing floating things that fall from the sky, and it's got a really peaceful feeling.
I hope that they some day implement seasons and day/night. Running around when it's day all the time just feels wierd, especially after playing something like Morrowind.
I'm curious about the 'endgame' -- in DAoC it's all about (extremely addictive) consentual PvP. In EQ, it's all about camping. Being Warcraft, I'd assume that the first expansions are going to be seriously PvP focused, similar to what DAoC's got. At least that's my hope.
They addressed this in one of their FAQ's. WoW is built around being PvP, but it's uniquely PvP. If you are a hoard member, it is extremely difficult to communicate with alliance members. Furthermore, if you enter an opposing side's "zone," an event pops up that says that the zone is being attacked.
When I was in the 1st stress test, I was a lowish level druid night elf... once I got off of the big tree, I found myself in the middle of a rather massive attack by 30-40 level hoard members. Thank goodness that the graveyard was right next to the beach.
I played the 1st stress test, and was probably the first to sign up for an open beta account last night (I checked the site, it worked, I jumped for joy.).
I'd have to say that the animation and cartoonish look and feel is beautiful, and much in line with all of the previous warcraft games. It is supposed to look cartoonish. The character animation is slick and smooth, and it also looks very natural.
I only wish that the professions allowed for unique / fantastic items in the end. As it is, you can have two professions, but you'll never make items that are as powerful as some of the item drops by monsters. I'd rather have some sort of quest or something that I could complete that would allow me to generate a powerful unique item. You read about legendary items being created by characters in books, why can't we also participate in this? But this would be a load on the server if everyone had their own unique item.
Oh well. It ain't perfect, but it sure is nice and fun.