Actually I once made a logo out of AOL discs from Barnes and Noble on my wall. There must have been at least 100 which is about 90 more than this idea will ever sell.
I think that the Histroy of computing is one of the coolest subjects out there. I wish that more books would be written on the history of computing, and the history of different fields of computing because it really is so facinating. The more technical the better, because it is interesting the techniques that are laughable and the techniques that we still use.
Books on genuises are cool. I did an essay once, and it was facinating. The public thinks that genuises are born with some 'gift' (thanks Good Will Hunting, thanks A Beautiful Mind). The truth is that most genuises have a very interesting history of focus, drive, and luck. I would love to spend a few hours reading about Bill Joy, what an ass kicker.
Ringbound books mentioned by someone else are a very good idea.
I have a few books that are 1200 pages. One person said "Whatever happened to concise books?" I don't care about that. I would still buy $60 1200 page book, but it would be great if it was a package deal, and split into about 5 sections. Then I could take it places instead of having to freakin' photocopy pages and take them instead.
I think that deadtree books should be sold with the ebook version included. Most technical books come with CD's anyway, what if a page gets torn, wet, or otherwise unlegible? What if a few pages are particularly helpful and I want to print them out. What if I have a PDA and want to take it with me. What if What if What if.
Selling binders specifically for bounding books and tutorials printed off of the internet could be a very cool idea too. I haven't found anything quite suited to it, but I also haven't looked very hard.
First off I think that Objective-C would be an ideal topic right now. There aren't many books on it out there and the ones that are out aren't very detailed, and usually focus on MacOS X programming while going through objective C at the same time.
Also I have found that writing plugins is a very difficult area to get into. Even winamp plugins (which are probably about the easiest to write) didn't come too easy for me, because I had to learn about DLL's (still don't know too much) from online tutorials and such. PLUGINS! It is a very untapped area in technical books. Winamp, 3D Studio, Photoshop, writing programs that use plugins, languages, various OS's, it could fill multiple books if you let it.
Also a book that goes through multiple languages would be pretty cool. Just learning the syntax to various languages is very easy (after the first two or three of course) and for someone who does a lot of programming, having a consistent way to learn multiple languages and also being able to compare them relative to each other would be a big help. Even a big table listing 20 languages and what features they include would make a good reference.
A good book on assembly language (any processors) would help too. I have old books that use old programs and even though I know the syntax and libraries of about 9 languages (some more than others of course) I don't know assembly because I haven't found something easy enough to make me want to learn it instead of something else.
I can't believe this hasn't been moderated up further, the wolfman one doesn't even look like a game. It would have been impressive by itself even 3 years ago, that fact that it is realtime blows me away.
The Video Toaster was and is still quite a bit different. It was a complete system that was really a video tool, including hardware switching, hardware compression, editing, a copy of Lightwave, and CG Generation. So yeah, there's a whole list of things, especially because the Video Toaster had hardware too. Now the Video Toaster has been out on Windows 2000 for a while (and 2.0 rocks). So the Video Toaster is no longer a reason to buy an amiga, although it is a reason to keep them around, they do what they were made for so well that it would still be a shame to throw one away.
The N64 was a 90Mhz MIPS processor compared to a 75 Mhz ARM7 which should be at least as powerful.
How is a console underpowered because someone makes a game that doesn't run smoothly? I could write a program that would run slow for a Cray, that doens't mean that a Cray is underpowered.
This is some cool cool stuff. 75 Mhz is not just over four times as fast as the GBA, it is faster than all the previous generation consoles. Imagine a portable gaming console that is faster than a N64, but renders at half the resolution. Smooth graphics indeed.
Everything is so standard that this could have so many uses besides the normal 'game system'. With wireless RF it could be used as an RF remote, chat program with other people, a wireless LAN debugger, or to unlock cars. It is an MP3 player already. It could emulate just about anything. If you had a wireless LAN that would open up all sorts of possibilities like internet browsing and PC communication.
Unfortunatly though, I think this will fail as a game system, because they just won't be able to get it out there where people will notice it. Game should be plenty easy to develop for, but that doesn't matter if no one is doing it. If history teaches us anything it is that this won't be a gba killer, but I still want one so bad.
Also, if the games are on smart media, how is it that they can cost only 34 dollars?
You are exactly right, and I have no idea, and I wish 1080p was the top too. What the fuck were they thinking? They could have just made 1080p a standard at 30 frames a second or something like that.
Goes down smooth and tastes great. Makes you 10 times stronger, smarter, and more attractive to women. Cures cancer, aids, is a method of birth control and can be used an industrial lubricant. Its Snake oil! Snake oil you say? That's right! Enough for every investor! Choc full of buzzwords and vitamins!
This is a good thing for a few reasons and bad for a few more.
1. Don't panic about the copy protection stuff, DVD has copy protection too ya know (barely). People are starting to find out macrovision and are starting to get very pissed off at copy protection once they run into it. They find out that they can't run their DVD player into their shitty TV through their VCR because the VCR is crippled and macrovision kicks in. Needless to say they aren't happy campers.
2. This is NOT aimed at regular consumers right now. People already don't like having to buy DVD players to get something new, they would shit a brick if they had to buy a new $2000 or even $200 machine just to play movies after they just got their nice new POS $75 Apex so no one will accept it.
3. Think DAT. No one uses it to distribute music but it does still have a lot of uses. Have you ever seen true 1080i HDTV? Probably not. It looks incredible. It blows everything away. Grainless, perfectly smooth, HDTV that was 1080i the whole way through (not upconverted) is an experience that you won't forget. HDTV doesn't really have any standard way of being transported. There needs to be something there, even if it isn't going to be distributed to the masses. Distribution is a the biggest problem for HDTV right now. People want it but no one will give it to them, except HBO and Showtime off of DirectTV and Dish Network.
3. Video production work will get a giant kick out of this, and thus it will be easier to get actual HD broadcasts.
4. Movie theatres could use this it is in such high resolution, cameras could tape to it for local TV stations, it will be adopted, but not by consumers that is for sure.
Very keen and in fact techniques like that are used in Vorbis sound compression. It has lower frequencies separated from higher, and the higher are recreated using a number to set the sensitivity and a number to set the sample. At least that is how I took it from the people in #vorbis.
The difference is, that I don't consider AOL my enemy for any reason and I also think the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' is complete bullshit. I haven't seen AOL do anything on the same level as Microsoft. Now they are part ofa huge ass company and that isn't good, and I certainly hate any member of the RIAA and MPAA, but I really can't remember any bad things that AOL has done. Microsoft has pulled every horrible dirty trick in the book. I could switch from AOL to someone else in a second, but I still have trouble leaving windows behind me. There is a difference.
I can't believe all the negative feedback from this. What is so bad about AOL? They aren't for you and me, it is annoying having to delete them off a new computer for someone, and they sugar coat everything, but who cares? If there is one thing that could dramatically change the history of computing and put power back into YOUR hands, this is it. Quit compaining about the best thing that could realistically happen to computing right now.
Maybe you missed the part of my post where I said that I hate what the US is doing too. I was just saying that the Ukraine has way worse piracy then the US, not that what the US is doing is right, because it isn't.
That's not really the whole story. In the Ukraine there are lots of major piracy organizations that make very good copies of CD's, pressed and printed to look real, because they practically are. You can buy and computer game or CD you want for $2. That is why the MS and Nintendo care so much about copy protection, because there are major groups out there who will do it so well you don't even notice. It isn't just about making burned CD's and MP3's there, it is about people getting together in an organizaed fashion and completly undercutting the original sellers with copies so good, you would have to feel very guilty to buy the real version, and prices so low, why even try to burn copies yourself. They appear in stores and on streets just as you might go to Circuit City and buy them, and are more common then the real versions. The Ukraine is a piracy haven. I don't think what is happening to them is right by any means, but piracy is about as bad there as it could conceivably get, so the US is not even on the same level.
Too bad I have a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 and can do digital routing from my spdif out to my spdif in. Lets seem them try to coy protect that! Let me at these new CD's. My card and it's drivers have full control over copy protection too.
This is a very good point and something that I have thought about from time to time. People ask the questions "What are they going to do with all that power, no on needs it" (which really frustrates me when I see the near sightedness) and also (what is Linux doing for the desktop/home market). If some company would just get it together and create a Linux server/terminal for the home it could be huge. One bigger computer in the basement, gigabit ethernet over standard cat-5, and cheap terminals (think small flat panel or something) everywhere you want a computer. Everything runs on the basement computer so everyone gets their e-mail, their shared mp3's, their shared internet, and their buisness apps, yet everyone has a computer in their room. If someone would just fuckin' tie it all together, they could really do great things with this polished consumer version of Unix we have been blessed with.
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It was a joke, as in Windows ME.
I remember when I got my ME degree
Jesus, and I thought MSCE's were useless, what ever possesed you to go through that?
Actually I once made a logo out of AOL discs from Barnes and Noble on my wall. There must have been at least 100 which is about 90 more than this idea will ever sell.
I think that the Histroy of computing is one of the coolest subjects out there. I wish that more books would be written on the history of computing, and the history of different fields of computing because it really is so facinating. The more technical the better, because it is interesting the techniques that are laughable and the techniques that we still use.
Books on genuises are cool. I did an essay once, and it was facinating. The public thinks that genuises are born with some 'gift' (thanks Good Will Hunting, thanks A Beautiful Mind). The truth is that most genuises have a very interesting history of focus, drive, and luck. I would love to spend a few hours reading about Bill Joy, what an ass kicker.
Ringbound books mentioned by someone else are a very good idea.
I have a few books that are 1200 pages. One person said "Whatever happened to concise books?" I don't care about that. I would still buy $60 1200 page book, but it would be great if it was a package deal, and split into about 5 sections. Then I could take it places instead of having to freakin' photocopy pages and take them instead.
I think that deadtree books should be sold with the ebook version included. Most technical books come with CD's anyway, what if a page gets torn, wet, or otherwise unlegible? What if a few pages are particularly helpful and I want to print them out. What if I have a PDA and want to take it with me. What if What if What if.
Selling binders specifically for bounding books and tutorials printed off of the internet could be a very cool idea too. I haven't found anything quite suited to it, but I also haven't looked very hard.
First off I think that Objective-C would be an ideal topic right now. There aren't many books on it out there and the ones that are out aren't very detailed, and usually focus on MacOS X programming while going through objective C at the same time.
Also I have found that writing plugins is a very difficult area to get into. Even winamp plugins (which are probably about the easiest to write) didn't come too easy for me, because I had to learn about DLL's (still don't know too much) from online tutorials and such. PLUGINS! It is a very untapped area in technical books. Winamp, 3D Studio, Photoshop, writing programs that use plugins, languages, various OS's, it could fill multiple books if you let it.
Also a book that goes through multiple languages would be pretty cool. Just learning the syntax to various languages is very easy (after the first two or three of course) and for someone who does a lot of programming, having a consistent way to learn multiple languages and also being able to compare them relative to each other would be a big help. Even a big table listing 20 languages and what features they include would make a good reference.
A good book on assembly language (any processors) would help too. I have old books that use old programs and even though I know the syntax and libraries of about 9 languages (some more than others of course) I don't know assembly because I haven't found something easy enough to make me want to learn it instead of something else.
Actually that would be impressive animation by any standard not just 3 years ago but today. Jesus fuckin tits.
I can't believe this hasn't been moderated up further, the wolfman one doesn't even look like a game. It would have been impressive by itself even 3 years ago, that fact that it is realtime blows me away.
Any static scene can be made into an animation. Do you have a website you can link to? I have wanted to see this in action for a while.
Playing a quicktime movie trailer crashes my pIII 450 384 megs RAM half the time. *Sigh*
The Video Toaster was and is still quite a bit different. It was a complete system that was really a video tool, including hardware switching, hardware compression, editing, a copy of Lightwave, and CG Generation. So yeah, there's a whole list of things, especially because the Video Toaster had hardware too. Now the Video Toaster has been out on Windows 2000 for a while (and 2.0 rocks). So the Video Toaster is no longer a reason to buy an amiga, although it is a reason to keep them around, they do what they were made for so well that it would still be a shame to throw one away.
The N64 was a 90Mhz MIPS processor compared to a 75 Mhz ARM7 which should be at least as powerful.
How is a console underpowered because someone makes a game that doesn't run smoothly? I could write a program that would run slow for a Cray, that doens't mean that a Cray is underpowered.
This is some cool cool stuff. 75 Mhz is not just over four times as fast as the GBA, it is faster than all the previous generation consoles. Imagine a portable gaming console that is faster than a N64, but renders at half the resolution. Smooth graphics indeed.
Everything is so standard that this could have so many uses besides the normal 'game system'. With wireless RF it could be used as an RF remote, chat program with other people, a wireless LAN debugger, or to unlock cars. It is an MP3 player already. It could emulate just about anything. If you had a wireless LAN that would open up all sorts of possibilities like internet browsing and PC communication.
Unfortunatly though, I think this will fail as a game system, because they just won't be able to get it out there where people will notice it. Game should be plenty easy to develop for, but that doesn't matter if no one is doing it. If history teaches us anything it is that this won't be a gba killer, but I still want one so bad.
Also, if the games are on smart media, how is it that they can cost only 34 dollars?
You are exactly right, and I have no idea, and I wish 1080p was the top too. What the fuck were they thinking? They could have just made 1080p a standard at 30 frames a second or something like that.
Goes down smooth and tastes great. Makes you 10 times stronger, smarter, and more attractive to women. Cures cancer, aids, is a method of birth control and can be used an industrial lubricant. Its Snake oil! Snake oil you say? That's right! Enough for every investor! Choc full of buzzwords and vitamins!
This is a good thing for a few reasons and bad for a few more.
1. Don't panic about the copy protection stuff, DVD has copy protection too ya know (barely). People are starting to find out macrovision and are starting to get very pissed off at copy protection once they run into it. They find out that they can't run their DVD player into their shitty TV through their VCR because the VCR is crippled and macrovision kicks in. Needless to say they aren't happy campers.
2. This is NOT aimed at regular consumers right now. People already don't like having to buy DVD players to get something new, they would shit a brick if they had to buy a new $2000 or even $200 machine just to play movies after they just got their nice new POS $75 Apex so no one will accept it.
3. Think DAT. No one uses it to distribute music but it does still have a lot of uses. Have you ever seen true 1080i HDTV? Probably not. It looks incredible. It blows everything away. Grainless, perfectly smooth, HDTV that was 1080i the whole way through (not upconverted) is an experience that you won't forget. HDTV doesn't really have any standard way of being transported. There needs to be something there, even if it isn't going to be distributed to the masses. Distribution is a the biggest problem for HDTV right now. People want it but no one will give it to them, except HBO and Showtime off of DirectTV and Dish Network.
3. Video production work will get a giant kick out of this, and thus it will be easier to get actual HD broadcasts.
4. Movie theatres could use this it is in such high resolution, cameras could tape to it for local TV stations, it will be adopted, but not by consumers that is for sure.
1) "Compress" at a higher rate than the CD uses (I've seen this)
That isn't compression, its interpolation between the samples.
2) Use POV Ray to render Lord of the Rings for the cinema
How would using a slow renderer take up more hard drive space?
Very keen and in fact techniques like that are used in Vorbis sound compression. It has lower frequencies separated from higher, and the higher are recreated using a number to set the sensitivity and a number to set the sample. At least that is how I took it from the people in #vorbis.
The difference is, that I don't consider AOL my enemy for any reason and I also think the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' is complete bullshit. I haven't seen AOL do anything on the same level as Microsoft. Now they are part ofa huge ass company and that isn't good, and I certainly hate any member of the RIAA and MPAA, but I really can't remember any bad things that AOL has done. Microsoft has pulled every horrible dirty trick in the book. I could switch from AOL to someone else in a second, but I still have trouble leaving windows behind me. There is a difference.
Maybe you missed the word 'realistically' in your own quote.
I can't believe all the negative feedback from this. What is so bad about AOL? They aren't for you and me, it is annoying having to delete them off a new computer for someone, and they sugar coat everything, but who cares? If there is one thing that could dramatically change the history of computing and put power back into YOUR hands, this is it. Quit compaining about the best thing that could realistically happen to computing right now.
Maybe you missed the part of my post where I said that I hate what the US is doing too. I was just saying that the Ukraine has way worse piracy then the US, not that what the US is doing is right, because it isn't.
That's not really the whole story. In the Ukraine there are lots of major piracy organizations that make very good copies of CD's, pressed and printed to look real, because they practically are. You can buy and computer game or CD you want for $2. That is why the MS and Nintendo care so much about copy protection, because there are major groups out there who will do it so well you don't even notice. It isn't just about making burned CD's and MP3's there, it is about people getting together in an organizaed fashion and completly undercutting the original sellers with copies so good, you would have to feel very guilty to buy the real version, and prices so low, why even try to burn copies yourself. They appear in stores and on streets just as you might go to Circuit City and buy them, and are more common then the real versions. The Ukraine is a piracy haven. I don't think what is happening to them is right by any means, but piracy is about as bad there as it could conceivably get, so the US is not even on the same level.
Too bad I have a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 and can do digital routing from my spdif out to my spdif in. Lets seem them try to coy protect that! Let me at these new CD's. My card and it's drivers have full control over copy protection too.
This is a very good point and something that I have thought about from time to time. People ask the questions "What are they going to do with all that power, no on needs it" (which really frustrates me when I see the near sightedness) and also (what is Linux doing for the desktop/home market). If some company would just get it together and create a Linux server/terminal for the home it could be huge. One bigger computer in the basement, gigabit ethernet over standard cat-5, and cheap terminals (think small flat panel or something) everywhere you want a computer. Everything runs on the basement computer so everyone gets their e-mail, their shared mp3's, their shared internet, and their buisness apps, yet everyone has a computer in their room. If someone would just fuckin' tie it all together, they could really do great things with this polished consumer version of Unix we have been blessed with.