I know most unix flavors have had proper elevator-scheduling I/O for a long time, and you can hear it on the disks - it's fairly rare to hear hard random thrashing. When I tried similar tasks on windows, it's always doing some really nasty back-and-forth seeking, slowing everything way down.
but... "gimmicks", if you call them that, were part of the original game. The music was influenced by a built-in A-Life system, so there is precedent to having complex systems that influence the game, that are not directly part of the gameplay. It adds to the feel of the world, and makes it not-exactly-the-same every time you play it.
This doesn't even being to cover how Christmas NiGHTS changed the weather based on the date. (animal crossing style)
You know... while everything in my being says this is an idiotic waste of money, there is another angle here: citizenship.
The idea of having TPB be a state and offering even a token citizenship could play out in very interesting ways. Now, the chance of them getting into say, the UN is about as good of a chance as them actually raising the money to buy this thing, so it won't happen... and yah, for TPB's normal use being tied to fragile internet connections is not a good idea.
The Sterling/Gibson/Stephenson/etc geek in me would love to see it happen just for the political games they could play, though. Of course, by becoming their own state the penalty for losing such games is now, like, war, instead of a few annoying civil copyright lawsuits. That's a pretty big downer.
Meh. I say they should go for it if they could. I mean, where else could you generate that kind of free international press coverage?
The deaths are all different, and easily the bloodiest thing I've seen. They definatly took a lot of tech/fx style from japanese horror.
Yes, there's a hanging.
The subtitles kindof... suck. But, it's easy enough to follow. It's a VERY "Japanese" movie, though, so that's not a huge problem. You need to be somewhat familiar with their culture, Shinto, how idol-pop works there, etc., or it will go right over your head.
It took several viewings to really get it properly, but it's very on-topic for this article and the current times. I think more people should see it.
I've heard a rumor they tried to ban/restrict the movie in japan for a while, which was hilarious - it was because they thought people would copy the movie and form their own suicide clubs. The thing is, that's a main point of the movie! It centers around a manufactured Idol-Pop band, and how people copy it without thinking.
There's many other points to the movie, though - it works on many levels/sub-plots.
Hmm... I thought the first rule of suicide club was "Are you connected with yourself?"
that was a good movie, if you can take it...
Actually, it's very very on topic for this post. It's all about following trends, and knowing who you are and what you want. Most people don't, and fall prey to other things.
Also the most blood I've ever seen in a movie... wow.
yah, I've done that... the ziplock solution, a small plastic case...
it's all extra annoyance, though. I'd love to be able to just toss the DS in my jacket pocket on my way out somewhere, and not have to worry about an extra bag.
I'm probably just burned on "always on" networking - having to deal with removable media seems so... archaic.
The games for the DS are so incredibly tiny, it would have been easy to make a slot somewhere on it to hold 2-3 extra DS games, kindof like the stylus holder. I'd love to be able to bring just the DS and have the current 2-3 games I'm playing be avaliable.
I've tried to bring them seperatly, but they get lost easily. Right now I have a box for them, but it's bulky.
This has never been possible before, as the games were too big. I believe we finally hit a point, though, where they are small enough for this.
This is something I've been pushing for for a long time.
The FDA is a good thing. Approving drugs/treatments/etc is great. It really needs to be a RECOMENDATION, though.
As in, you can still sell/purchase a treatment that is not approved, if you really want it.
You know that HMOs and such will demand Approved treatments for normal coverage, and that "unaproved" things will be shuned by most doctors, so I don't think it will be that different from today.
What would be different, is that you could go out and get a "new, experimental" treatment if you really really wanted one.
Sure, there is a posibility for abuse by the drug companies here, but I think that could be fixed by a complete ban on advertizing of drugs (or maybe just unaproved drugs). Don't give them an incentive to be able to maket shady products.
Note: this includes all things we "Schedule" now, like weed/etc. If you want to mess yourself up on that stuff, it's your own business, and probably already are.
They seem to be doing all they can to drstroy that privileged status already.
With all the talk of filteringVoice Over IP and such, let alone all the content filtering of P2P networks and such, it's amazing they can claim common carrier status today.
In fact... maybe they can't? It'd be hilarious if someone tried to sue for pr0n on the net again, like was happening in the 90s. The big defense ISPs used then was "We are a Common Carrier". If they destroyed that status, I'd think they could be liable for all content again, like the sue-for-pr0n people were hoping for.
I've kicked basically every major drug type out there. nicotine, ethanol, opiates, etc. All sucked, but NOTHING has sucked as much as trying to kick lexapro. When the world becomes nasty waves of suicidal depressive headachs for many days in a row, it's not fun.
and this is a "non-addictive" substance according to the literature! Because it doesn't touch dopamine, apparently it's "non-addictive", even though the tolerance and withdrawl is easily as bad as morphine, if not worse.
I love how in the PI-sheet and other literature they talk about "discontinuation side effects", if they mention it at all, by are careful not to use "withdrawl" like every other drug out there...
(note - not saying it's necessarily a bad drug; if it works for you, more power to you. everybody is different...)
I'm not strictly disagreeing with what you are saying. There definatly is a kernel of truth here.
The problem, for many people (me included) is that it's a feedback loop (vicious circle). You are depressed, so you can't deal with things, so the internal conflicts get worse, so you get more depressed... etc etc.
Just trying to fix the conflict may not work for all people. (it definatly does for some!) They need to break the cycle first, so it stops getting worse. Meds and such are a very useful way of doing that.
I think what most people don't realise is that most anti-depressants are powerful stimulants, which are very similar to MDMA/XTC. You get a lift from it, and a forced positive outlook for a while. This gives you the energy to break the cycle, and actually make progress dealing with internal conflicts and other problems. Many people can stop the medication after things get better, which is great. Some can't, and I feal for them, but it's better than before, usually.
Sure, seasonal depression can be from a variety of causes, and may not be bad enough to need strong meds. Also, I definatly agree that drug companies and the medial fields in general need to have a better grounding in research/science.
I'm writing to commend on the St. John's Wort thing, though. It's just another drug, and has an action very similar to some of the drugs the pharma companies push. It's much weaker, though - this is a good thing is some cases! If you have only a mild, seasonal need for such medication, a mild drug with very few side-effects is probably a great idea! Some people have success with things like 5-HTP and L-Tyrosine as well, for the same reason (similar to prosac and ritalin, respectivly).
As to if it should be called a "disease", it shouldn't be. That implies an outside influence (virus/etc). It's a "syndrom". Now... is it because we as a species aren't built for these extended winter work schedules and such? Maybe. It probably varried from person to person. It's really a matter of prespective, though. The world is what you make of it, to some extent, so if it's a problem to YOU, then it's a problem. Maybe this involves "engineering" ourselves to be different creatures than what we evolved to be, but why not? It's all how you look at it...
These are obviously different people making these comments, who have different opinions.
The thing is, and this is why I responded, is that online-play is the new buzzword. It's a sea-chance in progress from the old ranting of fanboys. I've seen it a lot these days...
It's almost as though MS and Sony have realised that Nintendo has a good idea about getting out of the "faster/better/more graphics" race. Regardless of how the revolution does, it's looking like a good idea. So now we are seeing a shift towards the fanboys pushing "online play"/etc as the new cool feature.
Meh... revolution will be cool for the NES games, and if that doesn't work, there is always Nethack....
This is, almost word for word what I'm talking about.
Uninformed and irrational support for something defines "fanboy".
Most games use STEREO sound. Yes, a few use positional audio that may be relavant in some instances. FPS games and things like Silent Hill are good examples. They are a minority of games, though. Most are just a music track (STEREO) with sound effects (STEREO).
In all those cases, 44.1kHz PCM is better. More bandwidth dedicated to the two needed channels. Sure, MGS2 did some annoying switching, but that game was annoying in many cases.
You people actually LIKE the phase-shift effects and subtle harmonic distortion from using Dolby AC3?
I also like how you went from [PS2 can't play AC3] from your link to [PS2 can't play 5.1]. I guess the DTS track I used during all of GTA didn't count, then? (you actualy expect dolby.com to mention DTS, too?)
None of this is relavant, though. The current clame was that XBOX is cool because of Live, not graphis/sound/etc. Apparently it's everything.
It's all about being able to download NES/SNES/N64 games onto it. Such a huge library... it should only take seconds to download most old games, too. They are realy small by today's standards...
X-Box isn't about cracking the best graphics or anything like that... its all about X-Box live and the multiplay capability.
wha? *spit-take*...
Muhahahahaha!
That's exactly contradictory to the annoying rhetoric I've gotten from every single xbox fanboy I've seen!
For such a long time it was "What? PS2? GCN? Never! We want the platform with superior graphics - slightly inferior graphics is so last decade!"
Heck... they even would go off on a rant about how the xbox has far superior sound or some such bs, even though it's still going over the same link quality 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM link to the amp in the end, anyway.
so BG goes and makes one of his wonderful "predictions" again?
that PCs (win95, or at least the win32 line implied) are the "gaming platform of the future"?
I guess the whole XBOX thing just kindof jumped up and bit them a few years later? Kindof like the internet, when win95 was released sans IE?/not suprised
It's a good idea, and I'm sure lots of people try and use games for socialization, but we are really going to have to wait for teledildonics to be perfected first...
Slashdot Mirror
speaking of fairness in I/O and windows...
I know most unix flavors have had proper elevator-scheduling I/O for a long time, and you can hear it on the disks - it's fairly rare to hear hard random thrashing. When I tried similar tasks on windows, it's always doing some really nasty back-and-forth seeking, slowing everything way down.
Does windows even use a sane elevator I/O yet?
but... "gimmicks", if you call them that, were part of the original game. The music was influenced by a built-in A-Life system, so there is precedent to having complex systems that influence the game, that are not directly part of the gameplay. It adds to the feel of the world, and makes it not-exactly-the-same every time you play it.
This doesn't even being to cover how Christmas NiGHTS changed the weather based on the date. (animal crossing style)
You know... while everything in my being says this is an idiotic waste of money, there is another angle here: citizenship.
The idea of having TPB be a state and offering even a token citizenship could play out in very interesting ways. Now, the chance of them getting into say, the UN is about as good of a chance as them actually raising the money to buy this thing, so it won't happen... and yah, for TPB's normal use being tied to fragile internet connections is not a good idea.
The Sterling/Gibson/Stephenson/etc geek in me would love to see it happen just for the political games they could play, though. Of course, by becoming their own state the penalty for losing such games is now, like, war, instead of a few annoying civil copyright lawsuits. That's a pretty big downer.
Meh. I say they should go for it if they could. I mean, where else could you generate that kind of free international press coverage?
umm... make that link Tea from an Empty Cup.
can't type today or something... @.@
Second Life Ends a Life: Skullduggery in Second Life -- probably digital adultery -- ends in a real-life murder.
I see someone has been reading . That plot has been covered already.
* some mild spoilers *
The deaths are all different, and easily the bloodiest thing I've seen. They definatly took a lot of tech/fx style from japanese horror.
Yes, there's a hanging.
The subtitles kindof... suck. But, it's easy enough to follow. It's a VERY "Japanese" movie, though, so that's not a huge problem. You need to be somewhat familiar with their culture, Shinto, how idol-pop works there, etc., or it will go right over your head.
It took several viewings to really get it properly, but it's very on-topic for this article and the current times. I think more people should see it.
I've heard a rumor they tried to ban/restrict the movie in japan for a while, which was hilarious - it was because they thought people would copy the movie and form their own suicide clubs. The thing is, that's a main point of the movie! It centers around a manufactured Idol-Pop band, and how people copy it without thinking.
There's many other points to the movie, though - it works on many levels/sub-plots.
Hmm... I thought the first rule of suicide club was "Are you connected with yourself?"
that was a good movie, if you can take it...
Actually, it's very very on topic for this post. It's all about following trends, and knowing who you are and what you want. Most people don't, and fall prey to other things.
Also the most blood I've ever seen in a movie... wow.
don't believe the web site numbers...
seriously... I've personally added at least that much to NCBI's archive...
I guess it depends on what they mean by "genetic data", exactly. if they are including the traces, that's not much.
yah, I've done that... the ziplock solution, a small plastic case...
it's all extra annoyance, though. I'd love to be able to just toss the DS in my jacket pocket on my way out somewhere, and not have to worry about an extra bag.
I'm probably just burned on "always on" networking - having to deal with removable media seems so... archaic.
meh
...and a place to store a couple games, please!
The games for the DS are so incredibly tiny, it would have been easy to make a slot somewhere on it to hold 2-3 extra DS games, kindof like the stylus holder. I'd love to be able to bring just the DS and have the current 2-3 games I'm playing be avaliable.
I've tried to bring them seperatly, but they get lost easily. Right now I have a box for them, but it's bulky.
This has never been possible before, as the games were too big. I believe we finally hit a point, though, where they are small enough for this.
This is something I've been pushing for for a long time.
The FDA is a good thing. Approving drugs/treatments/etc is great. It really needs to be a RECOMENDATION, though.
As in, you can still sell/purchase a treatment that is not approved, if you really want it.
You know that HMOs and such will demand Approved treatments for normal coverage, and that "unaproved" things will be shuned by most doctors, so I don't think it will be that different from today.
What would be different, is that you could go out and get a "new, experimental" treatment if you really really wanted one.
Sure, there is a posibility for abuse by the drug companies here, but I think that could be fixed by a complete ban on advertizing of drugs (or maybe just unaproved drugs). Don't give them an incentive to be able to maket shady products.
Note: this includes all things we "Schedule" now, like weed/etc. If you want to mess yourself up on that stuff, it's your own business, and probably already are.
They seem to be doing all they can to drstroy that privileged status already.
With all the talk of filtering Voice Over IP and such, let alone all the content filtering of P2P networks and such, it's amazing they can claim common carrier status today.
In fact... maybe they can't? It'd be hilarious if someone tried to sue for pr0n on the net again, like was happening in the 90s. The big defense ISPs used then was "We are a Common Carrier". If they destroyed that status, I'd think they could be liable for all content again, like the sue-for-pr0n people were hoping for.
heh, no kidding.
I've kicked basically every major drug type out there. nicotine, ethanol, opiates, etc. All sucked, but NOTHING has sucked as much as trying to kick lexapro. When the world becomes nasty waves of suicidal depressive headachs for many days in a row, it's not fun.
and this is a "non-addictive" substance according to the literature! Because it doesn't touch dopamine, apparently it's "non-addictive", even though the tolerance and withdrawl is easily as bad as morphine, if not worse.
I love how in the PI-sheet and other literature they talk about "discontinuation side effects", if they mention it at all, by are careful not to use "withdrawl" like every other drug out there...
(note - not saying it's necessarily a bad drug; if it works for you, more power to you. everybody is different...)
I'm not strictly disagreeing with what you are saying. There definatly is a kernel of truth here.
The problem, for many people (me included) is that it's a feedback loop (vicious circle). You are depressed, so you can't deal with things, so the internal conflicts get worse, so you get more depressed... etc etc.
Just trying to fix the conflict may not work for all people. (it definatly does for some!) They need to break the cycle first, so it stops getting worse. Meds and such are a very useful way of doing that.
I think what most people don't realise is that most anti-depressants are powerful stimulants, which are very similar to MDMA/XTC. You get a lift from it, and a forced positive outlook for a while. This gives you the energy to break the cycle, and actually make progress dealing with internal conflicts and other problems. Many people can stop the medication after things get better, which is great. Some can't, and I feal for them, but it's better than before, usually.
Sure, seasonal depression can be from a variety of causes, and may not be bad enough to need strong meds. Also, I definatly agree that drug companies and the medial fields in general need to have a better grounding in research/science.
I'm writing to commend on the St. John's Wort thing, though. It's just another drug, and has an action very similar to some of the drugs the pharma companies push. It's much weaker, though - this is a good thing is some cases! If you have only a mild, seasonal need for such medication, a mild drug with very few side-effects is probably a great idea! Some people have success with things like 5-HTP and L-Tyrosine as well, for the same reason (similar to prosac and ritalin, respectivly).
As to if it should be called a "disease", it shouldn't be. That implies an outside influence (virus/etc). It's a "syndrom". Now... is it because we as a species aren't built for these extended winter work schedules and such? Maybe. It probably varried from person to person. It's really a matter of prespective, though. The world is what you make of it, to some extent, so if it's a problem to YOU, then it's a problem. Maybe this involves "engineering" ourselves to be different creatures than what we evolved to be, but why not? It's all how you look at it...
and X apps that use proper session management will do the same... like they always have...
Bingo.
XBOX tends to be this nasty testosterone-fuled dicksize war about how "my theoritical feature is bigger than yours!".
Nintendo seems to be the onle one that is puting the games FIRST.
True, true.
These are obviously different people making these comments, who have different opinions.
The thing is, and this is why I responded, is that online-play is the new buzzword. It's a sea-chance in progress from the old ranting of fanboys. I've seen it a lot these days...
It's almost as though MS and Sony have realised that Nintendo has a good idea about getting out of the "faster/better/more graphics" race. Regardless of how the revolution does, it's looking like a good idea. So now we are seeing a shift towards the fanboys pushing "online play"/etc as the new cool feature.
Meh... revolution will be cool for the NES games, and if that doesn't work, there is always Nethack....
Somehow I saw this coming.
This is, almost word for word what I'm talking about.
Uninformed and irrational support for something defines "fanboy".
Most games use STEREO sound. Yes, a few use positional audio that may be relavant in some instances. FPS games and things like Silent Hill are good examples. They are a minority of games, though. Most are just a music track (STEREO) with sound effects (STEREO).
In all those cases, 44.1kHz PCM is better. More bandwidth dedicated to the two needed channels. Sure, MGS2 did some annoying switching, but that game was annoying in many cases.
You people actually LIKE the phase-shift effects and subtle harmonic distortion from using Dolby AC3?
I also like how you went from [PS2 can't play AC3] from your link to [PS2 can't play 5.1]. I guess the DTS track I used during all of GTA didn't count, then? (you actualy expect dolby.com to mention DTS, too?)
None of this is relavant, though. The current clame was that XBOX is cool because of Live, not graphis/sound/etc. Apparently it's everything.
The controller? Meh.
It's all about being able to download NES/SNES/N64 games onto it. Such a huge library... it should only take seconds to download most old games, too. They are realy small by today's standards...
X-Box isn't about cracking the best graphics or anything like that... its all about X-Box live and the multiplay capability.
...
wha? *spit-take*
Muhahahahaha!
That's exactly contradictory to the annoying rhetoric I've gotten from every single xbox fanboy I've seen!
For such a long time it was "What? PS2? GCN? Never! We want the platform with superior graphics - slightly inferior graphics is so last decade!"
Heck... they even would go off on a rant about how the xbox has far superior sound or some such bs, even though it's still going over the same link quality 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM link to the amp in the end, anyway.
It's amazing how short memories are...
so BG goes and makes one of his wonderful "predictions" again?
/not suprised
that PCs (win95, or at least the win32 line implied) are the "gaming platform of the future"?
I guess the whole XBOX thing just kindof jumped up and bit them a few years later? Kindof like the internet, when win95 was released sans IE?
what, a new, incompatable movie playing format on a portable gaming system isn't a gimic then?
It's a good idea, and I'm sure lots of people try and use games for socialization, but we are really going to have to wait for teledildonics to be perfected first...