They kill about half a million people in the United States every year, and all for profit. Money.
Erm, they kill? As far as I know it's still people's own responsibility to smoke. It's not as if we're living at the start of the 1900's, where the effects of smoking weren't known.
Do you also hold carmanufacturers responsible for the deaths of cars each year?
Note: I'm a smoker myself. Fully aware of the risk, but still enjoying my daily cigarette. If I'd be getting cancer, I wouldn't blame the tobacco manufacturers, but my own stupid habit...
I've recently started exploring some Augmented Reality toolkits, and I got to say that for now I -really- like ARToolkit: An open source toolkit, which is very easy to set up, and I'm astonished at how good it is.
If you want to fool around with AR, be sure to give this package a go. Very easy to set up, and the results are amazing.
Only downside (imho) to this is that, for now, it only supports.wrl 3d models (VRML 2.0): But other than that, the source is very cool to modify, and I've been able to let it run (albeit slow) on my N900. Still a lot of work to do though.
On a more serious note: I'm feeling a bit doublesided about the whole debacle of Activision firing Jason West and Vince Zampella: On one hand it's a shame to see that two apparently talented developers are so easy to fire, on the other hand: They brought this onto themselves when they decided to sell the company to Activision.
If they'd done some proper research they would have seen how horrible Activision has been treating their studios/games the past few years (loads of developers have been fleeing to other publishers), so this shouldn't come as a surprise.
I still can't understand why IW choose to let them be bought out though: They were/are a very succesful studio, and they sold for a very low price. Sounded like a dumb move at the time, and after hearing about the incredible sales figures for CoD:MW2, it sounds even more stupid that they've taken that step.
Sorry, I'm from the UK here:)
T-mobile and Vodafone both carry this phone (with excellent packages I might add: I'm currently on a 2 year contract, 20 pounds per months for 300 texts, 300 callminutes and 'unlimited' internet)
But as said: If you have the chance, certainly have a look at this phone.
I decided to not go with the iPhone (though I love its intuitive interface), as I don't like their restrictions with regards to getting your own software/third party software on there. I think this motivation was a blessing in disguise as the N900 is the same, if not better than the iPhone with regards to interface. With its 4 desktops, plenty of customization possibilities, this is every tinkerer's dream-phone.
Damn, reading back this post, I -should- get paid by Nokia: I look like a damn ad!;-)
Nice post there: Completely devoid of any bias towards Microsoft/Windows...
Ok, let me turn off my sarcasm-mode first.
So why the negative article about this? All the users knew beforehand that the free trial would end one day: Saying that it's "nagging" the user to pay up, is nothing more than using some fine choice of words to make it look bad on Microsoft.
Seriously, there's lots of other stuff that you can slack MS for, and you have to do it for this?
Also, you got to love the 'it will shutdown without a warning'... but it warns you from the 15th of February...
Next up: Adobe nags the users after one month of using their trial software. Oh, the horror!
If Infinity Ward are so insistent on improving the variety of our experiences, they don't have to do it at the expense of the experience that many of us already love.
With the game almost having made 1 billion dollars, it seems they can pretty much do anything they want: The people will buy it anyways.
For myself, I've decided to boycot the game as I don't agree with dedicated servers, and absence of player-created content. I wish only more people would actually hold to their (announced) boycot...
As for the RPG elements (which I think is an improvement in some FPS games), I think this mainly has to do with creating the same 'addictive' elements that MMORPGs have: As long as you keep dangling that carrot in front of the players, they'll keep playing.
Can anyone here clarify what robots.txt stands for, as in:
Is it an 'agreement' to not scan the site at all (by a search engine bot), or is it meant to just not -display- those results in the search engine?
I'd assume, since everything on a site is more or less public, that it would be the second. And if so, I can't see anything wrong with what Microsoft's bots did.
I can see how scanning a site's content (even if you're not going to list the results in your search engine) can have some value to a company.
As far as I've heard, the so-called terrorist was just the son of the king of Nigeria, who was -finally- able to flee the country, after he succeeded to get all his money transferred to foreign banks by sending out those emails the past few years.
I assume the fireworks was just to celebrate his escape... I hope he's also going to finally pay my interest he promised,
when I helped transfer those 100.000 dollars.
I'm not saying that the game is not enjoyable now it's missing gibs/corpses, but to defend that it -is- as it's meant to be is bullshit.
They censored it, and as such it's -not- as the developers made it, and wanted the public to play it.
And what about the software? I'd assume that at least some good 3D modeling package is involved, and an editing suite. I think you won't get far with 300 dollars to get decent software (and no, Blender won't cut it;) )
So what about Left 4 Dead 2? Valve might have been too quick to cater to their demands. I hope for the Australians that this ban will also be reversed, and they get to play the game as it was meant to be.
"Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files"
Finally! The amount of times I've had viruses from video-files have been... Erm... Ohwait.
What video files containing viruses -are- they talking about?,br>
With software they might at least have a point, but I've never seen a video file with a virus.
of course, if you are not affected by the problems, you would not understand them.
Hence why I said I don't understand it, besides the OS incompatibilities.
"i don't understand why all the hype about toyotas accelerating on their own, well, maybe for some increase in crash possibility.
not that i own or have owned a toyota ever. i haven't even ever been near public roads they drive on !"
I've played around with various Linux distros, but found it unsuitable for most tasks (read: compatibility with my software). So yes, I -have- been near the roads, and even driven various Toyotas, but they just seem to fulfill my needs.
As some of the above posters mentioned: There is still a lot of Flash use on stuff besides videos on the Net.
Also, I think that Adobe is definitely going to give Google a call one of these days (if they haven't already), and offer something to keep the default to Flash for some time being: I would not believe that they will let this one slide so easily.
Other than that, I can't really understand the hate for Flash(players), besides maybe OS incompatibilities.
I'm on WinXP myself, so I would not know anything about that, but for me Flashplayers are one of the better alternatives around for playing video content on the web: Quicktime, Realplayer and Windows Media plugins all suck monkeyballs.
Wow, I got to say I'm impressed with the/. editors. After hastily submitting this story at work, I only had links to the Unity3D- and UDK- sites in there. Whereas the text is still the same as I submitted it, the editors done a great job in actually providing some extra informative links in there.
Well done!
On topic: I think this is a very smart move by Epic. It's great to be able to tinker with a top quality engine without having to buy any of their games first. This can definitely come in use for the scientific community, where you would like other people to download your, for example, simulations, and not be constrained by them having to own a game on which it runs.
Also, as some people above mentioned, this is great for some indie developers, who can now build a complete game, see if it's feasible, and if the end-product is to their liking, they can decide to license the engine and sell it.
Of course I'd prefer them to release the whole source, but that can't really be expected of an engine that is still commercially available.
"How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you're also chomping on a sticker label?"
Erm, never? Because I always wash my fruits (as in apples, pears) first before eating them?
This is an answer in search of a problem: To be honest, I'd rather have a blemish-free apple, than one with carvings.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless you play the Hell-version ;-)
Based on this xkcd comic.
I got Abi Word running on it, which is a free app.
They kill about half a million people in the United States every year, and all for profit. Money.
Erm, they kill? As far as I know it's still people's own responsibility to smoke. It's not as if we're living at the start of the 1900's, where the effects of smoking weren't known.
Do you also hold carmanufacturers responsible for the deaths of cars each year?
Note: I'm a smoker myself. Fully aware of the risk, but still enjoying my daily cigarette. If I'd be getting cancer, I wouldn't blame the tobacco manufacturers, but my own stupid habit...
I've recently started exploring some Augmented Reality toolkits, and I got to say that for now I -really- like ARToolkit: An open source toolkit, which is very easy to set up, and I'm astonished at how good it is.
.wrl 3d models (VRML 2.0): But other than that, the source is very cool to modify, and I've been able to let it run (albeit slow) on my N900. Still a lot of work to do though.
If you want to fool around with AR, be sure to give this package a go. Very easy to set up, and the results are amazing.
Only downside (imho) to this is that, for now, it only supports
Call of Duty: Activision Warfare
On a more serious note: I'm feeling a bit doublesided about the whole debacle of Activision firing Jason West and Vince Zampella: On one hand it's a shame to see that two apparently talented developers are so easy to fire, on the other hand: They brought this onto themselves when they decided to sell the company to Activision.
If they'd done some proper research they would have seen how horrible Activision has been treating their studios/games the past few years (loads of developers have been fleeing to other publishers), so this shouldn't come as a surprise.
I still can't understand why IW choose to let them be bought out though: They were/are a very succesful studio, and they sold for a very low price. Sounded like a dumb move at the time, and after hearing about the incredible sales figures for CoD:MW2, it sounds even more stupid that they've taken that step.
Sorry, I'm from the UK here :)
;-)
T-mobile and Vodafone both carry this phone (with excellent packages I might add: I'm currently on a 2 year contract, 20 pounds per months for 300 texts, 300 callminutes and 'unlimited' internet)
But as said: If you have the chance, certainly have a look at this phone.
I decided to not go with the iPhone (though I love its intuitive interface), as I don't like their restrictions with regards to getting your own software/third party software on there. I think this motivation was a blessing in disguise as the N900 is the same, if not better than the iPhone with regards to interface. With its 4 desktops, plenty of customization possibilities, this is every tinkerer's dream-phone.
Damn, reading back this post, I -should- get paid by Nokia: I look like a damn ad!
The N900 has also recently received a port of IOQuake3: Have a look at their site for more details.
If you're looking for a very nice (open) phone, I'd go with the N900. No, I'm not from Nokia, just a -very- satisfied customer.
What was that RMS was saying again?
"Oooh, there's something eatable in between my toes: Shall I eat it?!"
Or were you referring to another quote of him?
Nice post there: Completely devoid of any bias towards Microsoft/Windows...
Ok, let me turn off my sarcasm-mode first.
So why the negative article about this? All the users knew beforehand that the free trial would end one day: Saying that it's "nagging" the user to pay up, is nothing more than using some fine choice of words to make it look bad on Microsoft.
Seriously, there's lots of other stuff that you can slack MS for, and you have to do it for this?
Also, you got to love the 'it will shutdown without a warning'... but it warns you from the 15th of February...
Next up: Adobe nags the users after one month of using their trial software. Oh, the horror!
If Infinity Ward are so insistent on improving the variety of our experiences, they don't have to do it at the expense of the experience that many of us already love.
With the game almost having made 1 billion dollars, it seems they can pretty much do anything they want: The people will buy it anyways.
For myself, I've decided to boycot the game as I don't agree with dedicated servers, and absence of player-created content. I wish only more people would actually hold to their (announced) boycot...
As for the RPG elements (which I think is an improvement in some FPS games), I think this mainly has to do with creating the same 'addictive' elements that MMORPGs have: As long as you keep dangling that carrot in front of the players, they'll keep playing.
Ahright. Never thought of that: That makes sense. Thanks for the answer :-)
Can anyone here clarify what robots.txt stands for, as in:
Is it an 'agreement' to not scan the site at all (by a search engine bot), or is it meant to just not -display- those results in the search engine?
I'd assume, since everything on a site is more or less public, that it would be the second. And if so, I can't see anything wrong with what Microsoft's bots did.
I can see how scanning a site's content (even if you're not going to list the results in your search engine) can have some value to a company.
Sounds a lot like the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPQ1XrllZmA&feature=player_embedded>Streetfighter II video(s) they did.
Very well done. Although not that good, it certainly is a nice idea.
The second one can be found here
Both are excellent comedy imho.
As far as I've heard, the so-called terrorist was just the son of the king of Nigeria, who was -finally- able to flee the country, after he succeeded to get all his money transferred to foreign banks by sending out those emails the past few years.
I assume the fireworks was just to celebrate his escape... I hope he's also going to finally pay my interest he promised, when I helped transfer those 100.000 dollars.
I'm not saying that the game is not enjoyable now it's missing gibs/corpses, but to defend that it -is- as it's meant to be is bullshit.
They censored it, and as such it's -not- as the developers made it, and wanted the public to play it.
And what about the software? I'd assume that at least some good 3D modeling package is involved, and an editing suite. I think you won't get far with 300 dollars to get decent software (and no, Blender won't cut it ;) )
So what about Left 4 Dead 2? Valve might have been too quick to cater to their demands. I hope for the Australians that this ban will also be reversed, and they get to play the game as it was meant to be.
A cat tag!
I assume they mean the Netherlands, since the Rotterdam Erasmus University is in the Netherlands.
"Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files"
Finally! The amount of times I've had viruses from video-files have been... Erm... Ohwait.
What video files containing viruses -are- they talking about?,br>
With software they might at least have a point, but I've never seen a video file with a virus.
of course, if you are not affected by the problems, you would not understand them.
Hence why I said I don't understand it, besides the OS incompatibilities.
"i don't understand why all the hype about toyotas accelerating on their own, well, maybe for some increase in crash possibility.
not that i own or have owned a toyota ever. i haven't even ever been near public roads they drive on !"
I've played around with various Linux distros, but found it unsuitable for most tasks (read: compatibility with my software). So yes, I -have- been near the roads, and even driven various Toyotas, but they just seem to fulfill my needs.
Happy now?
As some of the above posters mentioned: There is still a lot of Flash use on stuff besides videos on the Net.
Also, I think that Adobe is definitely going to give Google a call one of these days (if they haven't already), and offer something to keep the default to Flash for some time being: I would not believe that they will let this one slide so easily.
Other than that, I can't really understand the hate for Flash(players), besides maybe OS incompatibilities.
I'm on WinXP myself, so I would not know anything about that, but for me Flashplayers are one of the better alternatives around for playing video content on the web: Quicktime, Realplayer and Windows Media plugins all suck monkeyballs.
Wow, I got to say I'm impressed with the /. editors. After hastily submitting this story at work, I only had links to the Unity3D- and UDK- sites in there. Whereas the text is still the same as I submitted it, the editors done a great job in actually providing some extra informative links in there.
Well done!
On topic: I think this is a very smart move by Epic. It's great to be able to tinker with a top quality engine without having to buy any of their games first. This can definitely come in use for the scientific community, where you would like other people to download your, for example, simulations, and not be constrained by them having to own a game on which it runs.
Also, as some people above mentioned, this is great for some indie developers, who can now build a complete game, see if it's feasible, and if the end-product is to their liking, they can decide to license the engine and sell it.
Of course I'd prefer them to release the whole source, but that can't really be expected of an engine that is still commercially available.
Overall, great move Epic!
"How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you're also chomping on a sticker label?"
Erm, never? Because I always wash my fruits (as in apples, pears) first before eating them?
This is an answer in search of a problem: To be honest, I'd rather have a blemish-free apple, than one with carvings.