OK, I've never said something like this about slashdot before, and I realize it's a slow newsday, but what's THIS doing here? If this game was unique, new, origional, etc. I could understand. But from the description, it sounds far from it. Let's review some possibly similar games:
DDR 1/2/3/Disney/Whatever
Frequency
PaRappa The Rappa (1 and 2)
UmJamma Lammy
Am I leaving some out? Almost certainly
This game isn't origional. This isn't a review of the game (that I could understand). This isn't much more than an ad, IMHO. Keep paying attention tomarrow for new headlines including:
I Gave My Dog A Bath
New "Army Men" Game Released (this will now appear once a week, to coincide with releases)
TV Networks: We're On TV
New Study: Studies Study Stuff Studiously
--MBCook (going anon because I'm a karma whore today)
While suggestions like "teach 'em vi" are cute, I think we all know how easily that would go over. Why not make 'em learn emacs, or tex while your at it.
For an editor, you have a lot of choices. While there are the command line ones, I assume that you want something in X. My suggestions would be Kedit (a great notepad/wordpad replacement) or use something like Koffice/OpenOfficfe if you want something more like Word.
There seem to be at least a few versions of BASIC for linux. You could also just run QBasic in DOSemu:)
As shells go, I think that bash is the easiest, but that's just me. It's the default anyway.
As for other things make sure to put on Konqueror/Mozilla/whatever for the web, and don't forget to put a few games on (XBill! XBILL!).
That should hopefully get you started. My only other suggestion would be to get a list of programs from the teachers that the students like/use (or just categories) and try to find versions/replacements for them. Or just wait untill someone asks for a program ("Mr. Teacher, I want a program to paint happy faces in") and find one.
That makes me think, I belive that the Debian Jr. project has quite a few good programs aimed at little kids. Debian Jr. is here
Why don't they just isolate the network that the ship's computers are on (the important ones like navigation) from all other computers. Don't connect it to the internet. And have every computer on it locked down, take out disk drives/etc. It would be very hard to get a virus that way, and you could run whatever you want for an OS.
Never thought about that. "Son, you must only use the Slashdot effect for good, never for evil. You may also use it on friday nights as long as you fill up the gas tank and bring it back in one piece." Oh wait.
I don't like these software "leaks". They mess things up, IMHO. Let's take this program for example (I'll point out I haven't played it, I have a GeForce 2 Go and I'm not a masochist).
One possibility of what will happen is what seems common to me when things are leaked. People play it, and they like/dislike a certain feature. Then when it's taken out/changed, they complain, when they never would have seen it (or missed it) otherwise. When people get to play something like this, they seem to think that it's their game.
Another possibility is that people play it and think it's the best game ever (and when it changes, complain, as above). If this doesn't happen, then the other extreme does, and that one seems a bit common to me. People play it, it's got lots of problems (it's an internal alpha, what do you expect) and so they say it's terrible, etc when the work on it is no where near complete. So when it DOES come out, alot of these people have already made up their minds.
I do think that this is news, and I'm glad it made it onto slashdot, but I DON'T think that slashdot should be posting mirrors to the leaked alpha (I know they'd show up in the comments but still...)
Just remember that in your sample boxes that you listed, the P4s would have hyperthreading, which might boost their performance even more (I'm not sure how much of an effect that would have on something like this). So if you're looking at maybe 2 P4s, this will throw another monkey wrench in things. But I agree with some of the posters before me, ask the sales rep, see if they have any benchmarks.
OK, I am a very conservative person and am generally disgusted by the kind of things shown/done in movies and on TV. I am also an avid gamer.
Now that you know where I'm comming from, here is my take on things. This is the second game mentioned on/. recently, so I'll give you my oppinion on both, and why they differ.
GTA
I have played GTA3 and it was fun, and I plan to play vice city. Does it show killing? Yes. Does it show hookers? Yes. Does it show law breaking? Yes. Do they do it all just to get people mad? NO. All of these things are in the game because they belong there. The guy you play lives in this seedy world, and these are the kind of things that go on. It's sorta like real life. Do people complain that there are people dying in war games? No. Can you make a good wargame where you're a soldier without killing? Probably not, at least not one that's realistic. In the same way, you can't make a game about a thug/gangster/whatever without the kind of missions in Vice City. In shot: these things are there for mood and story. They are not just thrown in. Objecting to the content in this game is like objecting to the death and nazi stuff in Schindler's List. It's an essential part of the story/game/movie/whatever.
BMX: XXX
This game, IMNTBHO never should have been made. While most everyting "objectionable" in GTA is there for a reason, all the disgusting raunchy perverted sub-juvinile stuff in the game is just there to get publicity and the attention of horny people. There is no reason for nudity and pimps in a game about BMX biking. Last time I checked, there were very few pimps who are BMX stars. Dave Mira BMX doesn't need that stuff. This game is simply grossity for grossocity's sake. It is perfectly reasonable to object to this game for the kind of content in it, because that content has no bearing on the gameplay.
In short, GTA:VC is perfectly fine; the people who made BMX XXX need to be dragged out into the street, and run over repeatidly by hookers and pimps on bicycles. Under stand I tend to use hyperboly, and that I haven't played either game. I intend to play GTA:VC, but I'll be dead before I play BMX XXX.
I like being able to mess with the hardware like I can in C/C++. Don't get me wrong, you need abstractions, but I think that C/C++ have it just about right. I can program without learning anything about hardware, or I can cast null pointers and crash it.
Once he sells 300 copies? That's like 80% of all newtons ever sold! (*rimshot*)
OK seriously, that's pretty cool. I had one of the origional ones way back. It was really nice. I still think that it's one of the best PDAs ever made (especially for that time). It's only real failing was that as expensive as it was, YOU HAD TO PAY EXTRA for a sync cable/software. And it's not like you had $15 or $20, or even $50. If I remember correctly you had to pay $100. Because of that, I could never put any software on my newton, I couldn't afford to sell that cable. That's one of the reasons (IMHO) that Palm succeded. They were one of the first (or at least as it appeared to me) major PDA makers to include the cable, instead of charging extra. The handwriting on the things was actually very nice, especially considering how long ago they first appeared.
As for the name, I like how he's "appelized" it, but as many other comments have pointed out, nSync is not that great a name. Personally, I'd prefer "iNewt". That name is just cool.
I have a question about sync methods though. I know newtons could be synced by serial. I seem to remember you could use IR (is that right)? Did they ever support using TCP/IP to sync? I remember trying to use a PCMCIA modem, but it drew too much power so I never got to mess around with it's "internet" ablilities.
There are enhancements to the kernel in the form of patches (they are applied by default to Gentoo's kernel) that let you controll all sorts of things in the name of security. If I remember correctly, one of them was to allow random response numbers and other such things. Why not look into that?
Well it's really too bad, because the internet is a great way for bands to find audiences. I can think of quite a few bands whose CDs I've bought who I never would have found if it wasn't for Napster/KaZaA/etc. Bands like Moxy Fruvous (a canadian group) I had never heard of. I think I MIGHT have heard one of their songs once. But really they get no radio play (at least that's what it seems like to me). I found them because of Napster, and now own every CD they've made because of it. A large chunk of my music collection came this way; because as it's been said, I can't afford to drop $20+ on a CD from a band I've never heard of. But if I go online, download a few of their songs, I can find out if it's worth it. If it is, I buy the CDs. If not, I ditch the files. It seems to me that more and more artists will start to hate the RIAA and come out against them. Prince (?) did this a little while ago, but hopefully the next artists to come out won't use "i sp34k no CAPS im srt-hnd for u and r smart at what 'dey speak." I don't know how many good points he made in what he came out with, I couldn't read past the 1st line without a major headache and thinking he was an idiot. I'm sure that's not true, I've seen interviews with him on TV, but anyone who types like that instantly looks like an idiot to me. I guess I'm really ramblin' here. So in summary: RIAA bad, internet good, trading good, l33t im srt-hnd bad.
Every once in a while I get a lovely little error from Half-Life. It's a simple little dialog box with an OK button. It's titled "Half-Life", has one of those yeild signs with an exclamation on it, and has this helpful message:
I relalize that they have a theme going, naming things starting with a 'k', but surely someone else out there things that "kroupware" isn't the best name for a groupware program. "kgroupware" would be ok, "kooperate" would be good, even "kommunity", but "kroupware"? I had the kroup a few times as a kid and it wasn't fun. I like KDE, but if I have get the kroup to use it...
OK, OK, it's a bad pun/joke, but I hadn't seen it yet, and you've got to admit, there are better names they could use.
I can tell you what 'lotsa nudity' leads to. I seem to remember hearing that a member of the Swedish government was runing on a platform that at least one channel should be forced to air uncensored porn for 24 hours every saturday or something like that in an effort to increase population. In short:
Watching lotsa nudity -> "it" -> population
One Problem With 'Choppers
on
The Coming Air Age
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
One problem with choppers is that they are hard to fly. They are harder than planes, and planes are harder to fly than cars are to drive. This used to be a big problem, but I think we are fast approching a time when any idiot could fly a chopper using a force-ball (you know, some 6-axis controller) and having a PC do all the work of controlling individual axis. On a side note, I think that it's much more likey that gyrocopters will ever be common than 'standard' helecopters.
That other reply to this comment wasn't from me. Yes this is a bit of a price of success thing. A large company like Southwest can afford to do this, but a little mom-and-pop shop might not be able to. This is the same reason why a little tiny store with 2 employees is not requied by law to have a handy-capped bathroom, reserved parking for the handy-capped employees, and have at leasy X% of emploies be a member of a minority. If the place is small enough forcing them to comply could cause them to go out of business.
Good for them. I'm not blind, or disabled in any way (unless lazy is now a disability). I think that this is a good thing. Now while they shouldn't be allowed to sue small website (like my personal site, if they wanted), I see no problem with letting them sue large stores over their websites. Just because someone is blind (which is next to never their fault) doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to shop online too. Sure you could argue "they could get a sighted friend to do it for them", but the point of the ADA was so that you wouldn't need to have some friend near you all the time to do everything for you, correct?
OK, you've read that little raint, so what's the second bird? I am getting very tired of websites that use flash and images for everything on the page. They take a long time to load, they're slower, you can't copy text from them, and you can't view them is text-only browsers. Many of these sites don't even look right on moderatly new browsers (like the 3.x and 4.x serires of IE). Lawsuits to benefit a small group of people can be good for everyone sometimes.
PS, this is all IMHO. I don't mean to offend anyone with this. Somethimes these things can be touchy subjects. Blah blah blah...
One question: if you're making some kind of version controll system, why whould you use BK to develop it? Once it's working, wouldn't you use itself? Before it's working well enough, just do it by hand or with CVS or something.
Actually, MiniDiscs are only about 200 megs or so, they use high compression to fit a CDs worth of data, while DataPlay discs are almost a CD in size. Still, you have to wonder what they were thinking, taking on Sony et all. "A big giant multi-national corporation who OWNS many music lables couldn't make MiniDiscs a standard in the US, even though other companies made them too; so surely our little startup can do it!"
Here is my view of Dataplay. First off the technology is very good. And it's perfect for MP3s. The cost per meg (if you only count the disks) is very cheap (compared to other removable media that size). I recently saw the play and disks in person at a Best Buy and I've gotta say it looks really cool. The problem is that it's out too late. If it came out back when MP3 players were pretty new (origional Nomad and whatnot) it would have been amazing. But these days, if I'm going to plop down $400 for a MP3 player, I'm going with a 20gig iPod (those rock), not a little 500meg thing.
Maybe if I could use it to do other things like buy music for it like I can on CDs. They even say you can! But wait! Can you find any? I doubt it. Can't find a player either (unless the MP3 player does it too). You wanna use it as a tiny CD-RW? Cool! So would I, it's small (and rules compared to Click! drives (or Zip Pocket as they're known now)) and holds alot. But wait! You can't get a drive. You could use the MP3 player as one but, should I have to buy a $400 MP3 player if all I want is something to backup a few files to? How 'bout a PCMCIA type 3 card that could read them and such? Nope. Despite all the drives that they have promised, nothing is really going on. The only thing that's new is it's no longer vaporware, it's just unwanted.
Once again, we see a good technology that could have done great just a few years ago, but they just took too long. This is what hapened to 3Dfx (my opnion, let's not get off topic), BitBoys (the ultimate in vapor), and many other things. Excessive delays can seriously hurt you in the market. How many of you are enjoying you're Segway HTs right now? That's what I though. They should be careful too.
FINE PRINT: This is all my opinion, blah blah blah.
I don't see a probelm as long as they use it correctly. I was in the Earth and Beyond beta and I love the game, but I'm not going to buy it. There are quite a few games that look fun that I won't buy. Why is that you ask? I refuse to shell out $60 for a game, only to have to pay $15 a month for the 'privilage' of playing the game that I bought with my hard earned money. If it cost me $10, I could understand a $15 monthly fee. If the game was the same price, but the monthly cost was $3, I could take that too. But I refuse to be extorted
But back to my origional point from before I got on a rant. If they use this money to do something like elimenate the monthly fee, I'd see no problem. They could even make it an option: pay us $10 a month (or whatever) or see branded items. I don't see a problem with this. As long as they ads aren't obtrusive, it's fine with me. What do I mean? If your sim's computer play the intel song and shows a P4 logo when you turn it on, that's fine. If your sim can buy McDonalds when they're hungy, that's fine too. What I DON'T want to see is my house wallpapered with the golden arches, or finding NPC that always steer the conversation towards "Have you heard about Intel's great new powerful processor? And it's only costs... you should buy one now! Infact you can buy one from me!". THAT would clearly drive people away.
It's like my opinion of product placement in movies. If it seems natural or is unobtrusive (Tom Hanks working for FedEx in "Cast Away") then I see no problem with it. But if it gets like that ad in "The Truman Show" or like Wendy's in "Mr. Deeds", that I don't want to see.
Every time I've seen UML mentioned, it's in refrence to kernel programing/X programing/programing in general/software testing/etc. I understand how it would be incredibly usefull in this circumstances. But my question to you guys is this: how would it benifit Joe User to have this installed if he just surfs the web, does e-mail, plays games, GIMPs, etc? Other than just another layer of crash protection, what good is this to the masses?
Slashdot Mirror
- DDR 1/2/3/Disney/Whatever
- Frequency
- PaRappa The Rappa (1 and 2)
- UmJamma Lammy
- Am I leaving some out? Almost certainly
This game isn't origional. This isn't a review of the game (that I could understand). This isn't much more than an ad, IMHO. Keep paying attention tomarrow for new headlines including:- I Gave My Dog A Bath
- New "Army Men" Game Released (this will now appear once a week, to coincide with releases)
- TV Networks: We're On TV
- New Study: Studies Study Stuff Studiously
--MBCook (going anon because I'm a karma whore today)For an editor, you have a lot of choices. While there are the command line ones, I assume that you want something in X. My suggestions would be Kedit (a great notepad/wordpad replacement) or use something like Koffice/OpenOfficfe if you want something more like Word.
There seem to be at least a few versions of BASIC for linux. You could also just run QBasic in DOSemu :)
As shells go, I think that bash is the easiest, but that's just me. It's the default anyway.
As for other things make sure to put on Konqueror/Mozilla/whatever for the web, and don't forget to put a few games on (XBill! XBILL!).
That should hopefully get you started. My only other suggestion would be to get a list of programs from the teachers that the students like/use (or just categories) and try to find versions/replacements for them. Or just wait untill someone asks for a program ("Mr. Teacher, I want a program to paint happy faces in") and find one.
That makes me think, I belive that the Debian Jr. project has quite a few good programs aimed at little kids. Debian Jr. is here
Why don't they just isolate the network that the ship's computers are on (the important ones like navigation) from all other computers. Don't connect it to the internet. And have every computer on it locked down, take out disk drives/etc. It would be very hard to get a virus that way, and you could run whatever you want for an OS.
Never thought about that. "Son, you must only use the Slashdot effect for good, never for evil. You may also use it on friday nights as long as you fill up the gas tank and bring it back in one piece." Oh wait.
One possibility of what will happen is what seems common to me when things are leaked. People play it, and they like/dislike a certain feature. Then when it's taken out/changed, they complain, when they never would have seen it (or missed it) otherwise. When people get to play something like this, they seem to think that it's their game.
Another possibility is that people play it and think it's the best game ever (and when it changes, complain, as above). If this doesn't happen, then the other extreme does, and that one seems a bit common to me. People play it, it's got lots of problems (it's an internal alpha, what do you expect) and so they say it's terrible, etc when the work on it is no where near complete. So when it DOES come out, alot of these people have already made up their minds.
I do think that this is news, and I'm glad it made it onto slashdot, but I DON'T think that slashdot should be posting mirrors to the leaked alpha (I know they'd show up in the comments but still...)
Just remember that in your sample boxes that you listed, the P4s would have hyperthreading, which might boost their performance even more (I'm not sure how much of an effect that would have on something like this). So if you're looking at maybe 2 P4s, this will throw another monkey wrench in things. But I agree with some of the posters before me, ask the sales rep, see if they have any benchmarks.
Censorship is not always a bad thing.
I agree with that. It's almost sad. Sometimes there is something to be said for some forms of censorship.
Now that you know where I'm comming from, here is my take on things. This is the second game mentioned on /. recently, so I'll give you my oppinion on both, and why they differ.
GTA
I have played GTA3 and it was fun, and I plan to play vice city. Does it show killing? Yes. Does it show hookers? Yes. Does it show law breaking? Yes. Do they do it all just to get people mad? NO. All of these things are in the game because they belong there. The guy you play lives in this seedy world, and these are the kind of things that go on. It's sorta like real life. Do people complain that there are people dying in war games? No. Can you make a good wargame where you're a soldier without killing? Probably not, at least not one that's realistic. In the same way, you can't make a game about a thug/gangster/whatever without the kind of missions in Vice City. In shot: these things are there for mood and story. They are not just thrown in. Objecting to the content in this game is like objecting to the death and nazi stuff in Schindler's List. It's an essential part of the story/game/movie/whatever.
BMX: XXX
This game, IMNTBHO never should have been made. While most everyting "objectionable" in GTA is there for a reason, all the disgusting raunchy perverted sub-juvinile stuff in the game is just there to get publicity and the attention of horny people. There is no reason for nudity and pimps in a game about BMX biking. Last time I checked, there were very few pimps who are BMX stars. Dave Mira BMX doesn't need that stuff. This game is simply grossity for grossocity's sake. It is perfectly reasonable to object to this game for the kind of content in it, because that content has no bearing on the gameplay.
In short, GTA:VC is perfectly fine; the people who made BMX XXX need to be dragged out into the street, and run over repeatidly by hookers and pimps on bicycles. Under stand I tend to use hyperboly, and that I haven't played either game. I intend to play GTA:VC, but I'll be dead before I play BMX XXX.
I like being able to mess with the hardware like I can in C/C++. Don't get me wrong, you need abstractions, but I think that C/C++ have it just about right. I can program without learning anything about hardware, or I can cast null pointers and crash it.
OK seriously, that's pretty cool. I had one of the origional ones way back. It was really nice. I still think that it's one of the best PDAs ever made (especially for that time). It's only real failing was that as expensive as it was, YOU HAD TO PAY EXTRA for a sync cable/software. And it's not like you had $15 or $20, or even $50. If I remember correctly you had to pay $100. Because of that, I could never put any software on my newton, I couldn't afford to sell that cable. That's one of the reasons (IMHO) that Palm succeded. They were one of the first (or at least as it appeared to me) major PDA makers to include the cable, instead of charging extra. The handwriting on the things was actually very nice, especially considering how long ago they first appeared.
As for the name, I like how he's "appelized" it, but as many other comments have pointed out, nSync is not that great a name. Personally, I'd prefer "iNewt". That name is just cool.
I have a question about sync methods though. I know newtons could be synced by serial. I seem to remember you could use IR (is that right)? Did they ever support using TCP/IP to sync? I remember trying to use a PCMCIA modem, but it drew too much power so I never got to mess around with it's "internet" ablilities.
There are enhancements to the kernel in the form of patches (they are applied by default to Gentoo's kernel) that let you controll all sorts of things in the name of security. If I remember correctly, one of them was to allow random response numbers and other such things. Why not look into that?
Well it's really too bad, because the internet is a great way for bands to find audiences. I can think of quite a few bands whose CDs I've bought who I never would have found if it wasn't for Napster/KaZaA/etc. Bands like Moxy Fruvous (a canadian group) I had never heard of. I think I MIGHT have heard one of their songs once. But really they get no radio play (at least that's what it seems like to me). I found them because of Napster, and now own every CD they've made because of it. A large chunk of my music collection came this way; because as it's been said, I can't afford to drop $20+ on a CD from a band I've never heard of. But if I go online, download a few of their songs, I can find out if it's worth it. If it is, I buy the CDs. If not, I ditch the files. It seems to me that more and more artists will start to hate the RIAA and come out against them. Prince (?) did this a little while ago, but hopefully the next artists to come out won't use "i sp34k no CAPS im srt-hnd for u and r smart at what 'dey speak." I don't know how many good points he made in what he came out with, I couldn't read past the 1st line without a major headache and thinking he was an idiot. I'm sure that's not true, I've seen interviews with him on TV, but anyone who types like that instantly looks like an idiot to me. I guess I'm really ramblin' here. So in summary: RIAA bad, internet good, trading good, l33t im srt-hnd bad.
NET_Send ERROR: NO ERROR
OK, OK, it's a bad pun/joke, but I hadn't seen it yet, and you've got to admit, there are better names they could use.
Watching lotsa nudity -> "it" -> population
One problem with choppers is that they are hard to fly. They are harder than planes, and planes are harder to fly than cars are to drive. This used to be a big problem, but I think we are fast approching a time when any idiot could fly a chopper using a force-ball (you know, some 6-axis controller) and having a PC do all the work of controlling individual axis. On a side note, I think that it's much more likey that gyrocopters will ever be common than 'standard' helecopters.
That other reply to this comment wasn't from me. Yes this is a bit of a price of success thing. A large company like Southwest can afford to do this, but a little mom-and-pop shop might not be able to. This is the same reason why a little tiny store with 2 employees is not requied by law to have a handy-capped bathroom, reserved parking for the handy-capped employees, and have at leasy X% of emploies be a member of a minority. If the place is small enough forcing them to comply could cause them to go out of business.
OK, you've read that little raint, so what's the second bird? I am getting very tired of websites that use flash and images for everything on the page. They take a long time to load, they're slower, you can't copy text from them, and you can't view them is text-only browsers. Many of these sites don't even look right on moderatly new browsers (like the 3.x and 4.x serires of IE). Lawsuits to benefit a small group of people can be good for everyone sometimes.
PS, this is all IMHO. I don't mean to offend anyone with this. Somethimes these things can be touchy subjects. Blah blah blah...
One question: if you're making some kind of version controll system, why whould you use BK to develop it? Once it's working, wouldn't you use itself? Before it's working well enough, just do it by hand or with CVS or something.
Actually, MiniDiscs are only about 200 megs or so, they use high compression to fit a CDs worth of data, while DataPlay discs are almost a CD in size. Still, you have to wonder what they were thinking, taking on Sony et all. "A big giant multi-national corporation who OWNS many music lables couldn't make MiniDiscs a standard in the US, even though other companies made them too; so surely our little startup can do it!"
Maybe if I could use it to do other things like buy music for it like I can on CDs. They even say you can! But wait! Can you find any? I doubt it. Can't find a player either (unless the MP3 player does it too). You wanna use it as a tiny CD-RW? Cool! So would I, it's small (and rules compared to Click! drives (or Zip Pocket as they're known now)) and holds alot. But wait! You can't get a drive. You could use the MP3 player as one but, should I have to buy a $400 MP3 player if all I want is something to backup a few files to? How 'bout a PCMCIA type 3 card that could read them and such? Nope. Despite all the drives that they have promised, nothing is really going on. The only thing that's new is it's no longer vaporware, it's just unwanted.
Once again, we see a good technology that could have done great just a few years ago, but they just took too long. This is what hapened to 3Dfx (my opnion, let's not get off topic), BitBoys (the ultimate in vapor), and many other things. Excessive delays can seriously hurt you in the market. How many of you are enjoying you're Segway HTs right now? That's what I though. They should be careful too.
FINE PRINT: This is all my opinion, blah blah blah.
Of course, you could always port unionfs ;)
But back to my origional point from before I got on a rant. If they use this money to do something like elimenate the monthly fee, I'd see no problem. They could even make it an option: pay us $10 a month (or whatever) or see branded items. I don't see a problem with this. As long as they ads aren't obtrusive, it's fine with me. What do I mean? If your sim's computer play the intel song and shows a P4 logo when you turn it on, that's fine. If your sim can buy McDonalds when they're hungy, that's fine too. What I DON'T want to see is my house wallpapered with the golden arches, or finding NPC that always steer the conversation towards "Have you heard about Intel's great new powerful processor? And it's only costs... you should buy one now! Infact you can buy one from me!". THAT would clearly drive people away.
It's like my opinion of product placement in movies. If it seems natural or is unobtrusive (Tom Hanks working for FedEx in "Cast Away") then I see no problem with it. But if it gets like that ad in "The Truman Show" or like Wendy's in "Mr. Deeds", that I don't want to see.
Every time I've seen UML mentioned, it's in refrence to kernel programing/X programing/programing in general/software testing/etc. I understand how it would be incredibly usefull in this circumstances. But my question to you guys is this: how would it benifit Joe User to have this installed if he just surfs the web, does e-mail, plays games, GIMPs, etc? Other than just another layer of crash protection, what good is this to the masses?