What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.
My wife and I notice the lack of the sixth speaker if we turn it off, which in most cases is setting the system to not upscale the 5.1 audio to 6.1. The sound field just isn't quite complete.
If you want one scene that *really* shows off that sixth speaker, go to the Return of the King special edition (with the 6.1 tracks) and watch Theoden's fight with the Witch King. At one point the Witch King swings a sword right over Theoden's head that passes over the camera as well, on a 6.1 system you hear the swoosh of the sword pass each surround speaker; very chilling and awesome. Plus at some points the Ring's voice comes out the sixth speaker, kind of a center channel behind you. Freaky.
it takes seconds to turn your character around. On pc that could be done almost instantly
Just like in real life? That's my big beef with the mouse/keyboard. Sure it gives you super human turning and aiming capability, but while that could be believable for the super human warriors of Doom/Quake/UT, it really isn't when you are a Private Eye in Call of Cthulhu, or a WWII soldier in one of the many, many WWII fps games. Yes we humans can change direction and line of sight extremely quickly, but not over and over and over without getting disoriented. If a game introduced some kind of motion blur when you moved your character's sight around too fast for too long, that would rock.
It took time for me to graduate from the mouse/keyboard to the dual joystick setup, almost as much as it took for me to gradute to the mouse/keyboard from the straight keyboard. But now using a mouse and keyboard feels robotic, like I'm in control of a machine and not a human. Just turn up the joystick sensitivity until the character turns as fast as you think he would be able to, and it's awesome. Now I enjoy FPS games more on the XBox (no 360 yet) than I do on the PC, except for graphical glee.
Why get crappy speakers for the surround sound then? If you're going to do it, do it right. Yes, most cheap options are crap; but some (check out Onkyo for starters) cheap HTiBs actually sound quite decent; and you can always upgrade and add components piece by piece.
That's weird. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. Right now I hear construction work going on outside my office window behind me, but I'm not freaked out about it. As far as sound goes, it will always be more dimensional than your sight; you can hear from any direction but you can only see straight ahead.
I love surround effects like when the crows flying in scene in the Fellowship of the Ring. You hear the crows screeching and flapping at the back right before you see them, and then they fly in from the top right of the screen as the sound tracks around the room to follow the birds. That kind of stuff really pulls me into the movie and makes me feel like I'm *there*.
I didn't say scientists shouldn't have money. Only that those who desire to be a scientist FOR the money are not scientists.
You are either a scientist, or you aren't.
The money is there so that the real scientists can focus on their interests that we, as a society, find important. Many, many scientists study things that get no funding at all. At ALL! Yet they study their interests anyway, because that's what they want to do. Many scientists study interests that are deemed worthy of financial support, but they would study their interests anyway.
At no point should someone cast about and think, "There's a lot of money in being a research scientist. I guess I'll get me some of that!"
When did this become about writers? But anyway, real scientists and writers (yes I know a few, and I've read about the experience of writing by famous authors such as Heinlein) are most certainly NOT in it for the money. The money is a good bonus because it allows them to focus solely on their work (if there is enough of it). If there isn't enough to make it a sole income, then it certainly helps.
At no point should someone cast about and think, "Gosh, there's a lot of money in scientific research. I gotta get me a piece of that!"
Do you what you find interesting, and you'll succeed.
A particle physicist has a degree in higher education, thus they found a problem that interested them enough to get a masters and then a phd (or just a straight phd). They undoubtedly went to a university that had equipment that would allow them to study that problem. Eventually that scientist would either solve the problem, or delve deeper and deeper and just become a professor out of necessity. Teach a little to get the funding to have access to the equipment.
At no point should someone think "Gosh, there's a lot of money in research. I guess I'll do some of that!"
Scientists (and engineers aren't exactly scientists) study problems that interest them. They would study these problems while working as a patent clerk, or a food prep in a hotel, or a "real" scientist in a lab. Whether they get paid for their work is not a concern.
Scientists who get PhDs found a problem that seriously interested them in college, and continued to study it; generally not worrying about the money. These are the scientists who do things that really and truly matter.
"Scientists" who look at the earnings potential for a PhD in physics and decided to go for that and then look for a job, aren't.
Japanese do exhibit nationalistic pride (it's not racism).
It actually is, in many cases. Japanese culture is pretty well steeped with homogeneitic inclinations. "Polluted" people are discriminated against in many areas of life. Read up on the "burakumin."
You need to read my post again. I know the origins and logic behind these words, but I point out that they are also, quite lame.
For example, you say:
Floppy disks: were floppy at one point, so hard disk is a viable term to differentiate the two.
While, I said:
hard disk: to differentiate from "floppy" disk (also lame). certainly highlights sexual frustration
And can you honestly say that the phrase "world wide web" isn't chock full of annoying, superfluous poetic grandeur? Oooh, it's a web of stuff. Like, like drops of morning dew glistening in the morning rays of our Sun servers.
Furthermore, memory is NOT "how the computer remembers things, more or less". That's the well intentioned but unavoidably vague description from a 1980s computer help book. That's also what the hard disk is. Memory is where the computer puts things that it is currently doing. Do you install Photoshop into "memory"? Right. So when you memorize a new fact do you put it into your head's hard disk? What do you call that? Your *memory*? Ah.
Yes I know the origin of "blog." I've had a "blog" since 1997 (we called it a homepage or online journal back then). I think I even had a "My Name's Weblog" at one point.
But because its so desperately important, let me just restate my main point with one of my examples:
Transmission of a message via wires invented. New, awesome word ("Telegraph") coined for this new technology. This new vocabulariffic word was made by combining the Greek for far (tele) and write (graphein). Back then, we had mad neologistic skillz.
Transmission of a message via wires using computer networks invented. New, lame word phrase (electronic mail) coined for this new technology. This new horrific word was made by combining the English word for electronic (electronic) and mail (mail). It is eventually shortened in various stages of hyphenation to "email." We have lost our mad neologistic skillz. We have lost them to such an extent that almost all of the "words" we coin for our new techno toys are acronyms!
Not to my hands. True, at first the two analog stick control felt like clunker city, but now I really dislike mouse+keyboard fps gaming. Kinda like my transition from all keyboard to mouse+keyboard.
No. But it's too late to change it. Just like we are stuck with "the web" and "Internet" and all the other silly names for computer objects and ideas.
Keyboard: lame, a board with keys? original
mouse: just 'cause of a cord? silly
the web (esp. the world wide web): annoying, superfluous poetic grandeur
memory: false cognate for non-computer users, in any sense except the computer usage memory is more like the hard disk and computer memory is more like "active thought"
hard disk: to differentiate from "floppy" disk (also lame). certainly highlights sexual frustration
monitor: what is it monitoring?
email: we have telegram, phone call, letter, etc. Why don't we get a new name for a new technology this time? We didn't call phone calls vmails.
e-anything: same gripe.
Hell, in light of all this we should thank our lucky stars that we actually have a real(ish) neologism with "blogging." I wouldn't have been surprised if people called them "wemails" or "public pages" (shortened to puges, or pups) or something else even more lame.
The big problem with the mouse and keyboard is realism. If I'm playing a WWII FPS then it's hardly realistic for my avatar to be capable of lightning fast changes in direction. Using a joystick controller limits the speed at which my character can react, without me having to turn the sensitivity of the game so far down that I have to do the mouse pick up shuffle to turn around.
I'll go out on a small limb and predict that we will *never* have direct mind to game interfaces in the manner you describe. Directly manipulating the sensation of pain or level of endorphins? That's insane. Do you really want to play a game that would give you post-traumatic stress disorder?
Teaching children via mind-interface? Are you out of your mind? Our brains are extraordinarily complicated beings, capable of processing tons of information at once in a mechanism we aren't even close to understanding. Directly manipulating it would be like tuning a computer processor with a hammer.
I've learnt an amazing amount by taking aparent modern electronics. The main thing I take apart (as well as most slashdoters) is my P.C. From this I've learnt basic computer architecture and how to install hardware. I've learnt how the PSU supplys power to each component.
Wow. That's an amazing amount of superficial knowledge. Replacing a video card doesn't really count as taking a computer apart. Yes, you learned that there are strips of green plastic with electronics that do stuff in the computer. When you tell me that you took apart the card itself I'll be impressed.
I've also taken apart and fixed my optical mouse. From this I learnt how the mechanism for the scroll wheel works.
So you took apart an optical mouse, but only learned how the *physical* mechanism works. Bravo. Did you take apart the optics or the circuit board?
I also took apart and rebuilt my faulty C.D player. I wasn't able to diagnose the problem but it still works as welll as it did before I took it apart.
So, it's still "faulty"? Amazing. It sounds like you didn't even learn about checking solder connections and such.
I'd say you should read up on tube radios and such to see what our grandparents could learn by messing with their home electronics. Or just read the "He Fixes Radios by Thinking!" chapter in "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman." All you seem to have learned is that black chips are stuck onto green plastic pieces, with other pieces also. That doesn't really sound like a "wealth of knowledge."
Actually in Linux and in Windows it most certainly *is* the kernel that makes things work or not work. Sound card support not compiled into the kernel? No sound for you. Hard disk interface (SATA, IDE, SCSI, whatever) not compiled into the kernel? No hard disk access for you. The user level software can try all it wants, but if the underlying operating system doesn't even know what USB (for example) is, there's no way that a user-level program is going to be able access that cool USB digital camera.
One of the really nifty things about Linux is that you can pick and choose your kernel and compile one that is completely customized for your machine.
That's probably a little of what Microsoft is trying to do here, but rather than have the users compile the kernels themselves they'll just buy the Windows that does the things they want.
That's weird. I had a friend who was an 18-wheeler driver and, according to him, the trucks had so much sensor data they practically drove themselves when on an interstate. And the trucks data was constantly monitored by the company so that if you deviated from the route they would get in touch and see what was going on. They could even monitor his engine in real time and call him if there was a problem. Also the trucks would only drive for a set amount of time and would do a forced shutdown (coasting to a stop) if the driver exceeded that.
He also had a playstation 2 hooked up to an LCD screen in the cab that he'd play when he was supposed to be sleeping.:-)
Actually, it isn't true. "Linux" is the kernel, which is now available in two versions: 2.4 and 2.6 (and all prior versions of course). There are many distributions, but they all use one of those two kernels.
Slashdot Mirror
What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.
f l64.htm
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith (November 13, 1787)
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/je
Point continuing, why not get a decent amp?
Furthermore, does it really have to be all or nothing with regard to surround sound?
My wife and I notice the lack of the sixth speaker if we turn it off, which in most cases is setting the system to not upscale the 5.1 audio to 6.1. The sound field just isn't quite complete.
If you want one scene that *really* shows off that sixth speaker, go to the Return of the King special edition (with the 6.1 tracks) and watch Theoden's fight with the Witch King. At one point the Witch King swings a sword right over Theoden's head that passes over the camera as well, on a 6.1 system you hear the swoosh of the sword pass each surround speaker; very chilling and awesome. Plus at some points the Ring's voice comes out the sixth speaker, kind of a center channel behind you. Freaky.
it takes seconds to turn your character around. On pc that could be done almost instantly
Just like in real life? That's my big beef with the mouse/keyboard. Sure it gives you super human turning and aiming capability, but while that could be believable for the super human warriors of Doom/Quake/UT, it really isn't when you are a Private Eye in Call of Cthulhu, or a WWII soldier in one of the many, many WWII fps games. Yes we humans can change direction and line of sight extremely quickly, but not over and over and over without getting disoriented. If a game introduced some kind of motion blur when you moved your character's sight around too fast for too long, that would rock.
It took time for me to graduate from the mouse/keyboard to the dual joystick setup, almost as much as it took for me to gradute to the mouse/keyboard from the straight keyboard. But now using a mouse and keyboard feels robotic, like I'm in control of a machine and not a human. Just turn up the joystick sensitivity until the character turns as fast as you think he would be able to, and it's awesome. Now I enjoy FPS games more on the XBox (no 360 yet) than I do on the PC, except for graphical glee.
Why get crappy speakers for the surround sound then? If you're going to do it, do it right. Yes, most cheap options are crap; but some (check out Onkyo for starters) cheap HTiBs actually sound quite decent; and you can always upgrade and add components piece by piece.
That's weird. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. Right now I hear construction work going on outside my office window behind me, but I'm not freaked out about it. As far as sound goes, it will always be more dimensional than your sight; you can hear from any direction but you can only see straight ahead.
I love surround effects like when the crows flying in scene in the Fellowship of the Ring. You hear the crows screeching and flapping at the back right before you see them, and then they fly in from the top right of the screen as the sound tracks around the room to follow the birds. That kind of stuff really pulls me into the movie and makes me feel like I'm *there*.
Separate fantasy world from reality, and enjoy the movie. I love surround sound effects like you describe, all the more if they make me turn.
What do you feel about the ambient effects, like surrounding rain?
Spot on. Add, "I never eat out." and "I never shop at the mall."
Hmm, actually most "I never" statements fall into this category. Ditto for "{something} is for losers."
I didn't say scientists shouldn't have money. Only that those who desire to be a scientist FOR the money are not scientists.
You are either a scientist, or you aren't.
The money is there so that the real scientists can focus on their interests that we, as a society, find important. Many, many scientists study things that get no funding at all. At ALL! Yet they study their interests anyway, because that's what they want to do. Many scientists study interests that are deemed worthy of financial support, but they would study their interests anyway.
At no point should someone cast about and think, "There's a lot of money in being a research scientist. I guess I'll get me some of that!"
When did this become about writers? But anyway, real scientists and writers (yes I know a few, and I've read about the experience of writing by famous authors such as Heinlein) are most certainly NOT in it for the money. The money is a good bonus because it allows them to focus solely on their work (if there is enough of it). If there isn't enough to make it a sole income, then it certainly helps.
At no point should someone cast about and think, "Gosh, there's a lot of money in scientific research. I gotta get me a piece of that!"
Do you what you find interesting, and you'll succeed.
A particle physicist has a degree in higher education, thus they found a problem that interested them enough to get a masters and then a phd (or just a straight phd). They undoubtedly went to a university that had equipment that would allow them to study that problem. Eventually that scientist would either solve the problem, or delve deeper and deeper and just become a professor out of necessity. Teach a little to get the funding to have access to the equipment.
At no point should someone think "Gosh, there's a lot of money in research. I guess I'll do some of that!"
Scientists (and engineers aren't exactly scientists) study problems that interest them. They would study these problems while working as a patent clerk, or a food prep in a hotel, or a "real" scientist in a lab. Whether they get paid for their work is not a concern.
Scientists who get PhDs found a problem that seriously interested them in college, and continued to study it; generally not worrying about the money. These are the scientists who do things that really and truly matter.
"Scientists" who look at the earnings potential for a PhD in physics and decided to go for that and then look for a job, aren't.
That's ok. I liked "E.T. Phone Home" for the Atari.
Japanese do exhibit nationalistic pride (it's not racism).
It actually is, in many cases. Japanese culture is pretty well steeped with homogeneitic inclinations. "Polluted" people are discriminated against in many areas of life. Read up on the "burakumin."
You need to read my post again. I know the origins and logic behind these words, but I point out that they are also, quite lame.
For example, you say:
Floppy disks: were floppy at one point, so hard disk is a viable term to differentiate the two.
While, I said:
hard disk: to differentiate from "floppy" disk (also lame). certainly highlights sexual frustration
And can you honestly say that the phrase "world wide web" isn't chock full of annoying, superfluous poetic grandeur? Oooh, it's a web of stuff. Like, like drops of morning dew glistening in the morning rays of our Sun servers.
Furthermore, memory is NOT "how the computer remembers things, more or less". That's the well intentioned but unavoidably vague description from a 1980s computer help book. That's also what the hard disk is. Memory is where the computer puts things that it is currently doing. Do you install Photoshop into "memory"? Right. So when you memorize a new fact do you put it into your head's hard disk? What do you call that? Your *memory*? Ah.
Yes I know the origin of "blog." I've had a "blog" since 1997 (we called it a homepage or online journal back then). I think I even had a "My Name's Weblog" at one point.
But because its so desperately important, let me just restate my main point with one of my examples:
Transmission of a message via wires invented. New, awesome word ("Telegraph") coined for this new technology. This new vocabulariffic word was made by combining the Greek for far (tele) and write (graphein). Back then, we had mad neologistic skillz.
Transmission of a message via wires using computer networks invented. New, lame word phrase (electronic mail) coined for this new technology. This new horrific word was made by combining the English word for electronic (electronic) and mail (mail). It is eventually shortened in various stages of hyphenation to "email." We have lost our mad neologistic skillz. We have lost them to such an extent that almost all of the "words" we coin for our new techno toys are acronyms!
Some games directly teach programming skills, like Sierra's Dr. Brain series.
Not to my hands. True, at first the two analog stick control felt like clunker city, but now I really dislike mouse+keyboard fps gaming. Kinda like my transition from all keyboard to mouse+keyboard.
No. But it's too late to change it. Just like we are stuck with "the web" and "Internet" and all the other silly names for computer objects and ideas.
Keyboard: lame, a board with keys? original
mouse: just 'cause of a cord? silly
the web (esp. the world wide web): annoying, superfluous poetic grandeur
memory: false cognate for non-computer users, in any sense except the computer usage memory is more like the hard disk and computer memory is more like "active thought"
hard disk: to differentiate from "floppy" disk (also lame). certainly highlights sexual frustration
monitor: what is it monitoring?
email: we have telegram, phone call, letter, etc. Why don't we get a new name for a new technology this time? We didn't call phone calls vmails.
e-anything: same gripe.
Hell, in light of all this we should thank our lucky stars that we actually have a real(ish) neologism with "blogging." I wouldn't have been surprised if people called them "wemails" or "public pages" (shortened to puges, or pups) or something else even more lame.
The big problem with the mouse and keyboard is realism. If I'm playing a WWII FPS then it's hardly realistic for my avatar to be capable of lightning fast changes in direction. Using a joystick controller limits the speed at which my character can react, without me having to turn the sensitivity of the game so far down that I have to do the mouse pick up shuffle to turn around.
I guess you have radiation proof underwear?
Dude. Sounds like you're Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
I'll go out on a small limb and predict that we will *never* have direct mind to game interfaces in the manner you describe. Directly manipulating the sensation of pain or level of endorphins? That's insane. Do you really want to play a game that would give you post-traumatic stress disorder?
Teaching children via mind-interface? Are you out of your mind? Our brains are extraordinarily complicated beings, capable of processing tons of information at once in a mechanism we aren't even close to understanding. Directly manipulating it would be like tuning a computer processor with a hammer.
Heh.
I've learnt an amazing amount by taking aparent modern electronics. The main thing I take apart (as well as most slashdoters) is my P.C. From this I've learnt basic computer architecture and how to install hardware. I've learnt how the PSU supplys power to each component.
Wow. That's an amazing amount of superficial knowledge. Replacing a video card doesn't really count as taking a computer apart. Yes, you learned that there are strips of green plastic with electronics that do stuff in the computer. When you tell me that you took apart the card itself I'll be impressed.
I've also taken apart and fixed my optical mouse. From this I learnt how the mechanism for the scroll wheel works.
So you took apart an optical mouse, but only learned how the *physical* mechanism works. Bravo. Did you take apart the optics or the circuit board?
I also took apart and rebuilt my faulty C.D player. I wasn't able to diagnose the problem but it still works as welll as it did before I took it apart.
So, it's still "faulty"? Amazing. It sounds like you didn't even learn about checking solder connections and such.
I'd say you should read up on tube radios and such to see what our grandparents could learn by messing with their home electronics. Or just read the "He Fixes Radios by Thinking!" chapter in "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman." All you seem to have learned is that black chips are stuck onto green plastic pieces, with other pieces also. That doesn't really sound like a "wealth of knowledge."
Actually in Linux and in Windows it most certainly *is* the kernel that makes things work or not work. Sound card support not compiled into the kernel? No sound for you. Hard disk interface (SATA, IDE, SCSI, whatever) not compiled into the kernel? No hard disk access for you. The user level software can try all it wants, but if the underlying operating system doesn't even know what USB (for example) is, there's no way that a user-level program is going to be able access that cool USB digital camera.
One of the really nifty things about Linux is that you can pick and choose your kernel and compile one that is completely customized for your machine.
That's probably a little of what Microsoft is trying to do here, but rather than have the users compile the kernels themselves they'll just buy the Windows that does the things they want.
That's weird. I had a friend who was an 18-wheeler driver and, according to him, the trucks had so much sensor data they practically drove themselves when on an interstate. And the trucks data was constantly monitored by the company so that if you deviated from the route they would get in touch and see what was going on. They could even monitor his engine in real time and call him if there was a problem. Also the trucks would only drive for a set amount of time and would do a forced shutdown (coasting to a stop) if the driver exceeded that.
:-)
He also had a playstation 2 hooked up to an LCD screen in the cab that he'd play when he was supposed to be sleeping.
Actually, it isn't true. "Linux" is the kernel, which is now available in two versions: 2.4 and 2.6 (and all prior versions of course). There are many distributions, but they all use one of those two kernels.