Then again Americans also call Arkansas "Arkensaw" and solder "sodder", and about half of them seem to pronounce the Internet as "Ennernat".
You don't even want to know how we pronounce Gruene, Texas or Natchitoches, Louisiana. Or which Elgin in Illinois, Oklahoma, or Texas are pronounced with a hard G or a soft G.
I'm sorry, but half of these don't come near the suckitude of the Emerson Arcadia 2001. Not only was it technologically two years behind (a long time in that era), but whoever programmed the games must have been certifiably tone-deaf, because the sound is awful. Typical modern-system myopia.
Another one that should be on the list is the RCA Studio II. Now admittedly it was only the second programmable console ever made (the Channel F was the first), but it had no color, no wired controllers (just two keypads on the console itself), and only had 11 cartridges made for it. Its only audio support was a fixed-frequency beeper which could beep or chirp.
And the Saturn absolutely does not deserve to be on that list. It may have had a totally fucked up launch, one which may even be a portent of the PS3's future, but it was not a sucky system. It was designed to be a great 2D system, just when things were about to go 3D.
the wavelength of 405nm is right on the edge of the visible spectrum. i'm not even sure you can display that color on a typical RGB monitor.
Since when is violet not visible? Violet is a shorter wavelength than blue. Next comes ultraviolet.
Of course you can't display it on a typical RGB monitor, because RGB monitors use combinations of single-color phosphors to trick the eye into thinking it's seeing a wider range of colors.
Thank you. I was trying to come up with something teh funnay like "so what's his special power, can he freeze time with a CVS snapshot?", but simple is best with teh funnay. They've been trying to save that damn cheerleader for what, four episodes now?
Actually, my only real problem with RDM is their freaking URLs. (well, that and the fanboi art which looks like something out of a 1990's-era Mac fanatic magazine.)
Who thought it was a good idea to use a GUID for a blog URL? Can you make a URL any less meaningful? (and the GUID was invented by... could it be... Microsoft?)
I have to disagree. The real question should be which history will be repeated with the PS3? I just happen to think it's going to be the Saturn and 3DO history, rather than the PS2 history.
I also recall that when Slashdot switched over to the current database, they arbitrarily started the new message IDs at one million, to leave room for pulling the archived topics back in. Still, that means at least 8 million comments in the four or so years (I don't remember exactly how long) since then.
Now I wish Nintendo had gone ahead and made the Wii release date be a few days before the PS3 release. Then we could walk in and right out of the store, waving our newly purchased Wiis at them.
The article seems to be comparing DSLRs with low-end cameras ("no shutter lag" in #5, "most digicams are plastic" in #7, "small digicam" in #9). I'm sorry, but you just can't make a comparison between a DSLR and a $200 Sony toy.
My first digital camera was a 1.3MP Olympus, then a 4MP Olympus which was a really good camera, but it broke, and I lost it around the house after getting it repaired (I only recently found it again), so I got a Canon A95. I. Hated. That. Thing. In addition to the up direction on the D-pad not working, the red-eye flash was WORTHLESS (unlike the multi-flash on the Olympus), and it took forever after pressing the button before it finally decided to take a picture. Then it would take forever to compress to the CF. And the mode wheel was more like a "wheel of fortune" because it was too easy to turn by bumping the camera against things. I ended up with more than one AVI of myself cursing wondering WTF the camera was doing until I realized it was in movie mode.
Then I finally got tired of it and dropped $600 on a Lumix a few months ago. That thing is great. Most importantly, it takes pictures very fast. Sometimes the multi-picture button gets pressed by accident, and I only realize a few pictures later that this thing has been happily taking two or three pictures at a time and instantly writing them to the SD card. It even takes pictures in very low light (IR?), though you need to put the camera on a stable surface, and they come out red (which can be changed to grayscale later in Photoshop.) About the only thing I don't like is that the multi-picture button is too easy to hit by accident, the last picture review can't be set as long as I would like, and it doesn't have a solenoid to automatically pop up the flash.
And the swivel LCD makes "shoot from the hip" much easier. The article author must not wear glasses, because I do, and it's a pain to put my eye up to a tiny little viewfinder. But the big thing to me is that the reason to use an SLR with film is exactly the reason NOT to use an SLR with a digital camera. The viewfinder in a film SLR "sees what the film will see". But the screen on a regular digital camera also "sees what the film will see", since it's taken directly from the same source!
Basically, if you're already using film SLR, or you need the pro level of mechanical control that an SLR body will give you (exposure, lenses, filters, etc.), and especially if you care enough to use the camera on a tripod much of the time, you should get a DSLR. In defense of the article, the first thing it says is that if you're going to leave it on automatic, don't waste your money. I say instead put that $600 or so into a good regular digital camera. And even then, a semi-pro digital camera like the Lumix will give you some level of exposure control if you need it.
But most of what I do is precisely those "shoot from the hip" quick shots for which I can't go futzing around with exposure settings, and shots of people indoors (not in a "studio"), so red-eye is a big issue with me. (yes, I know getting a foot flash could help, but that's extra bulk)
Oh yeah, and you can get a Lumix in black. Black is apparently bling for photographers.
Also, the way it actually displays makes it too fickle to be useful. For example, one time I was trying to use it to create a map which would than be printed out. But I had to fight the map settings, and then the way it handles the sites and comments was too unpredictable. I got the map printed out in a way that was close to what I wanted, but it took far longer than I wanted it too, and IMO it looked like garbage.
And the reason you didn't just do a bunch of screen shots and stitch them together in some kind of paint-o-shop program is...?
Objects stationed at these points do not fall towards either the earth or the sun.
That is only true of the L4 and L5 points. The others are unstable and require station keeping. Specifically, I remember (it's not in the wikipedia page) that the solar L3 point has a stability of about 180 days. Fortunately you can orbit the L1/L2/L3 points.
Another problem that others have brought up here is the solar wind. For a solar monitoring mission, it's not much of a problem, but once you "spread your wings" to scatter the light, you'll keep getting blown away by the solar winds.
As for what it will look like, L1 is far enough out there that it shouldn't affect anything in the sky other than the brightness of the sun. Solar astronomers will be pissed off, but a random African bushman wouldn't notice.
Uh, no, actually I heard it first-hand at the Austin game developer's conference back in September. One SPE will be unusable for yield purposes, another will be reserved for the OS, and that's Sony's official word to developers.
Unfortunately, fanbois like you keep denying this lack of functionality no matter how many times you are told about it.
The real question is, of course, are any games going to actually make use of the eight cores?
Well, first, the answer is NO. Why? Because Sony is officially declaring one SPE unusable to increase chip yield. Which means that even two years from now when there are no yield problems, games will still be limited to seven cores. Except even that's not right, because Sony is reserving another core (or two? I can't remember) for use by their libraries, etc.
So a game can't use more than six cores for its own processing, no matter what.
I have incoming port 25 firewall blocks set up for all the Chinese and Korean netblocks I could find, plus specific blocks for hosted spammers. A few weeks ago, right after entering some Russian hosting blocks to filter out a bunch of spam that my mom was getting, suddenly my own spam levels shot right through the roof. And they were from all over the place, quite obviously botnet spam. My increase was so dramatic specifically because I had blocks for my "usual" sources.
Thank you Microsoft, for focusing so much on security, even at the expense of usability or market share. Oh wait, you didn't. You had that "Security February" a couple of years ago, and things just got worse from there.
Well, right now, you can't buy a retail copy of OS X with Intel binaries on it. So the only way to get it is from an installer disc included with a new Mac, which was provided specifically for that computer. (it also may not install on any other model without patching, as it is a "restore disc")
Eventually, when 10.5 is released, they'll have to put Intel in a retail box. Then we'll see.
I'm running 10.2.8 - quite old. Printing 0xFFFF1600 as a string with printf causes a seg. fault on my box.
That would probably because this is specific to the Intel version, and Intel wasn't supported before 10.4.x. Even Tiger PPC doesn't have the Don't Steal extension.
The DSMOS extension, by definition, can't itself be encrypted so why didn't he run dump of it and either extract the key or confirm IntelMacs are using TCPA hardware so the wailing can begin?
Maybe because of this little bit of text which is in both the binary and two copies of a file called LICENSE:
Copyright (c) 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrighted
materials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify,
reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense,
transfer or redistribute this software, in whole or in part. If you have
obtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid license
from Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete it
from your computer.
Yeah, that seems to be a sufficient warning that it's not kosher under the DMCA to look into how it works.
There is a decent argument of using it as a dry space-dock where we could build and launch deeper space exploration vehicles for less fuel costs.
That would be great... if the ISS were on a more equitorial orbit. As it is, it's on a rather inclined orbit, chosen to make it easier for Russian launches.
P&T did a show on Feng Shui in which no two of the three "experts" came up with the same answers about how to arrange the furniture. There's only one place Feng Shui works, and that's in Nintendo's Animal Crossing game.
Slashdot Mirror
Then again Americans also call Arkansas "Arkensaw" and solder "sodder", and about half of them seem to pronounce the Internet as "Ennernat".
You don't even want to know how we pronounce Gruene, Texas or Natchitoches, Louisiana. Or which Elgin in Illinois, Oklahoma, or Texas are pronounced with a hard G or a soft G.
I'm sorry, but half of these don't come near the suckitude of the Emerson Arcadia 2001. Not only was it technologically two years behind (a long time in that era), but whoever programmed the games must have been certifiably tone-deaf, because the sound is awful. Typical modern-system myopia.
Another one that should be on the list is the RCA Studio II. Now admittedly it was only the second programmable console ever made (the Channel F was the first), but it had no color, no wired controllers (just two keypads on the console itself), and only had 11 cartridges made for it. Its only audio support was a fixed-frequency beeper which could beep or chirp.
And the Saturn absolutely does not deserve to be on that list. It may have had a totally fucked up launch, one which may even be a portent of the PS3's future, but it was not a sucky system. It was designed to be a great 2D system, just when things were about to go 3D.
P.S. You insensitive clods!
the wavelength of 405nm is right on the edge of the visible spectrum. i'm not even sure you can display that color on a typical RGB monitor.
Since when is violet not visible? Violet is a shorter wavelength than blue. Next comes ultraviolet.
Of course you can't display it on a typical RGB monitor, because RGB monitors use combinations of single-color phosphors to trick the eye into thinking it's seeing a wider range of colors.
So when will they get back to playing music again? (as opposed to the "c-is-silent" noise)
Thank you. I was trying to come up with something teh funnay like "so what's his special power, can he freeze time with a CVS snapshot?", but simple is best with teh funnay. They've been trying to save that damn cheerleader for what, four episodes now?
Actually, my only real problem with RDM is their freaking URLs. (well, that and the fanboi art which looks like something out of a 1990's-era Mac fanatic magazine.)
Who thought it was a good idea to use a GUID for a blog URL? Can you make a URL any less meaningful? (and the GUID was invented by... could it be... Microsoft?)
"NO STAIRWAY"
I have to disagree. The real question should be which history will be repeated with the PS3? I just happen to think it's going to be the Saturn and 3DO history, rather than the PS2 history.
Our db-1 assigns odd-numbered primary key IDs, and db-2 assigns even-numbered.
I also recall that when Slashdot switched over to the current database, they arbitrarily started the new message IDs at one million, to leave room for pulling the archived topics back in. Still, that means at least 8 million comments in the four or so years (I don't remember exactly how long) since then.
Now I wish Nintendo had gone ahead and made the Wii release date be a few days before the PS3 release. Then we could walk in and right out of the store, waving our newly purchased Wiis at them.
Why wait? Wii!
The article seems to be comparing DSLRs with low-end cameras ("no shutter lag" in #5, "most digicams are plastic" in #7, "small digicam" in #9). I'm sorry, but you just can't make a comparison between a DSLR and a $200 Sony toy.
My first digital camera was a 1.3MP Olympus, then a 4MP Olympus which was a really good camera, but it broke, and I lost it around the house after getting it repaired (I only recently found it again), so I got a Canon A95. I. Hated. That. Thing. In addition to the up direction on the D-pad not working, the red-eye flash was WORTHLESS (unlike the multi-flash on the Olympus), and it took forever after pressing the button before it finally decided to take a picture. Then it would take forever to compress to the CF. And the mode wheel was more like a "wheel of fortune" because it was too easy to turn by bumping the camera against things. I ended up with more than one AVI of myself cursing wondering WTF the camera was doing until I realized it was in movie mode.
Then I finally got tired of it and dropped $600 on a Lumix a few months ago. That thing is great. Most importantly, it takes pictures very fast. Sometimes the multi-picture button gets pressed by accident, and I only realize a few pictures later that this thing has been happily taking two or three pictures at a time and instantly writing them to the SD card. It even takes pictures in very low light (IR?), though you need to put the camera on a stable surface, and they come out red (which can be changed to grayscale later in Photoshop.) About the only thing I don't like is that the multi-picture button is too easy to hit by accident, the last picture review can't be set as long as I would like, and it doesn't have a solenoid to automatically pop up the flash.
And the swivel LCD makes "shoot from the hip" much easier. The article author must not wear glasses, because I do, and it's a pain to put my eye up to a tiny little viewfinder. But the big thing to me is that the reason to use an SLR with film is exactly the reason NOT to use an SLR with a digital camera. The viewfinder in a film SLR "sees what the film will see". But the screen on a regular digital camera also "sees what the film will see", since it's taken directly from the same source!
Basically, if you're already using film SLR, or you need the pro level of mechanical control that an SLR body will give you (exposure, lenses, filters, etc.), and especially if you care enough to use the camera on a tripod much of the time, you should get a DSLR. In defense of the article, the first thing it says is that if you're going to leave it on automatic, don't waste your money. I say instead put that $600 or so into a good regular digital camera. And even then, a semi-pro digital camera like the Lumix will give you some level of exposure control if you need it.
But most of what I do is precisely those "shoot from the hip" quick shots for which I can't go futzing around with exposure settings, and shots of people indoors (not in a "studio"), so red-eye is a big issue with me. (yes, I know getting a foot flash could help, but that's extra bulk)
Oh yeah, and you can get a Lumix in black. Black is apparently bling for photographers.
Or put it closer to the sun than the L1 point, and have the sun's gravity compensate for solar wind/photon pressure.
In other words, a variation of a statite.
Also, the way it actually displays makes it too fickle to be useful. For example, one time I was trying to use it to create a map which would than be printed out. But I had to fight the map settings, and then the way it handles the sites and comments was too unpredictable. I got the map printed out in a way that was close to what I wanted, but it took far longer than I wanted it too, and IMO it looked like garbage.
And the reason you didn't just do a bunch of screen shots and stitch them together in some kind of paint-o-shop program is...?
This thread wouldn't be complete without a Google Maps link.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&z=17&ll=18.3444,-6 6.7527&spn=0.0054,0.0084&t=k
Apparently they added hi-resolution pictures of it in the past few months.
Objects stationed at these points do not fall towards either the earth or the sun.
That is only true of the L4 and L5 points. The others are unstable and require station keeping. Specifically, I remember (it's not in the wikipedia page) that the solar L3 point has a stability of about 180 days. Fortunately you can orbit the L1/L2/L3 points.
Another problem that others have brought up here is the solar wind. For a solar monitoring mission, it's not much of a problem, but once you "spread your wings" to scatter the light, you'll keep getting blown away by the solar winds.
As for what it will look like, L1 is far enough out there that it shouldn't affect anything in the sky other than the brightness of the sun. Solar astronomers will be pissed off, but a random African bushman wouldn't notice.
Uh, no, actually I heard it first-hand at the Austin game developer's conference back in September. One SPE will be unusable for yield purposes, another will be reserved for the OS, and that's Sony's official word to developers.
Unfortunately, fanbois like you keep denying this lack of functionality no matter how many times you are told about it.
The real question is, of course, are any games going to actually make use of the eight cores?
Well, first, the answer is NO. Why? Because Sony is officially declaring one SPE unusable to increase chip yield. Which means that even two years from now when there are no yield problems, games will still be limited to seven cores. Except even that's not right, because Sony is reserving another core (or two? I can't remember) for use by their libraries, etc.
So a game can't use more than six cores for its own processing, no matter what.
I have incoming port 25 firewall blocks set up for all the Chinese and Korean netblocks I could find, plus specific blocks for hosted spammers. A few weeks ago, right after entering some Russian hosting blocks to filter out a bunch of spam that my mom was getting, suddenly my own spam levels shot right through the roof. And they were from all over the place, quite obviously botnet spam. My increase was so dramatic specifically because I had blocks for my "usual" sources.
Thank you Microsoft, for focusing so much on security, even at the expense of usability or market share. Oh wait, you didn't. You had that "Security February" a couple of years ago, and things just got worse from there.
They're going to make a special version of Crazy Taxi where you get points for smashing up farmers' markets.
How is this stealing?
Well, right now, you can't buy a retail copy of OS X with Intel binaries on it. So the only way to get it is from an installer disc included with a new Mac, which was provided specifically for that computer. (it also may not install on any other model without patching, as it is a "restore disc")
Eventually, when 10.5 is released, they'll have to put Intel in a retail box. Then we'll see.
I'm running 10.2.8 - quite old. Printing 0xFFFF1600 as a string with printf causes a seg. fault on my box.
That would probably because this is specific to the Intel version, and Intel wasn't supported before 10.4.x. Even Tiger PPC doesn't have the Don't Steal extension.
The DSMOS extension, by definition, can't itself be encrypted so why didn't he run dump of it and either extract the key or confirm IntelMacs are using TCPA hardware so the wailing can begin?
Maybe because of this little bit of text which is in both the binary and two copies of a file called LICENSE:
Yeah, that seems to be a sufficient warning that it's not kosher under the DMCA to look into how it works.
There is a decent argument of using it as a dry space-dock where we could build and launch deeper space exploration vehicles for less fuel costs.
That would be great... if the ISS were on a more equitorial orbit. As it is, it's on a rather inclined orbit, chosen to make it easier for Russian launches.
How are you going to hold the damn thing when every spot along the edge does something?
Just because they patented something doesn't mean they're going to use it. It may turn out to have inherent problems which make it unusable.
You forgot the obligatory link.
P&T did a show on Feng Shui in which no two of the three "experts" came up with the same answers about how to arrange the furniture. There's only one place Feng Shui works, and that's in Nintendo's Animal Crossing game.