I had no intention of switching, but the review solidified things. I wouldn't have recommended the product to anyone (I'd say just get an iPod) and this only makes things worse.
Let's see what they've got to entice me away? I've got a large collection of music, but basically no DRMed AAC files so I would make an easy switch.
There is a photo viewer... where you have to turn the thing on it's side to look at the photo
There is wireless sharing... that automatically deletes it's self, limits playback to only three times, needs another Zune... Why not let me listen to ANYTHING AS MANY TIMES AS I WANT as long as I'm in range of that other person (say two people sitting on a bus)?
It's bigger and heavier
It can't be used as a hard drive (iPods have had that from day 1, so does EVERY OTHER PLAYER ON THE MARKET
It doesn't work with WMP (a plus) but requires a second (and very similar program, a minus)
Doesn't work with a Mac that I can see (that would kill it for me or any of the people I know switching to Macs for various reasons)
It doesn't have a scroll-wheel.... the genius of the iPod. It LOOKS like it, but it's really just a D-pad hidden under some round plastic. That's just pure genius for you
Some of the things (like putting a custom photo for a background) are neat but... no TV shows (don't have any, but I might), no movies (don't have any, but I might), no games (something I think was a great idea, even the bad solitare game)
Let's face it, it's pathetic if they think they are going ANYWHERE with this. As for the "We're selling it in 3x as many stores"... who cares? Everyone who matters sells iPods. Target, Wal*Mart, CompUSA, Apple, Microcenter, Frys, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, Borders Books, and more. There are some I can't check (because I don't live near them) but I bet Meijers sells iPods. I've seen them in some odd places. They are everywhere. I think even those scam-on-poor-people places like Rent-A-Center probably sell 'em. They'll be more places for the Zune though? Let's see... who else would be a good partner for selling the Zune...
JoAnne Fabrics? PetsMart? I know I'm looking for an MP3 player that's not an iPod when I go into my local paint-ball gun store, but maybe that's just me.
No, wait, I don't go to paint-ball gun stores for consumer electronics.
About the only place I can think of is Radio Shack. I don't know if they sell iPods now but they are going down the tubes fast any way.
Does anyone know of a good NetHack GUI for OS X? All I've found is the old Carbon version, and something based on QT. They are both incredibly ugly. I also know there is the command line version, but I fell in love with the Windows GUI and I was wondering if anyone knew of a similar GUI for OS X?
As for me? I'm terrible. I have gotten to the end of the Gnomish mines two or three times. Doing that and getting back up to the main dungeon then down a few levels is my biggest accomplishment.
The chipset is only capable of addressing 32 bits or 4 gigs of memory. Many "64 bit" desktops are the same way. The problem is that while the chipset can see the full 4 gigs of ram, a portion of it (~768mb) is hidden by other address space (video card shadowing, PCI memory addresses, etc). The machine can hold 4 gigs of ram, you just won't be able to see it all. I have a friend with a Dell desktop with the same "problem".
Frankly I like Apple approach as opposed to what many others do ("Supprots 4+ GIGs* (* unable to see top 1/2 gig)").
The problem should go away when they stop using the current chipset (which was designed for the 32 bit Core) and move to the next chipset that was designed specifically for the Core 2 chips.
My gut is telling me that this is just to stop customer hemorrhaging. People say "We like PHP and that's what our code is in so we can't use Windows" or "... but Linux is faster" (just a guess). So MS is helping with PHP so people can either switch FROM Linux to Windows and easily keep/develop PHP, or just get better performance for their current code (if there is a very measurable performance hit from running Windows, they'd want that fixed).
Either way it's good, but that's my guess why they are doing this ("Just switch to ASP.Net, it's great" probably wasn't working well for most shops that already have $$$ invested in PHP code).
I'm a HUGE music game fan. I've even picked up a band or two that I listen to because of exposure through games (like Freezepop). The problem as I see it though is the soundtracks. You want a soundtrack for that music game? Good luck, many of the best don't have them (like ANYTHING by Harmonix). Other games may have soundtracks, but they are pathetic (SSX 3 had great music, but the "soundtrack" was just a handful of tracks). The same thing happened in both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future.
GTA has done a good job with the soundtracks from what I've seen (since they do seem to include all the music). But many games where the music is good (like music games, again) just don't have soundtracks.
Which is not to mention that even if the MAC address never hit the wire as part of the protocol, MS could easily pass it as part of the conversation that goes on when connecting to XBox Live (just like I assume they also pass the serial number, dashboard version, etc).
While they were put up for order on Tuesday, they haven't hit the street yet (as far as I know). You can't go buy them in stores right now (unless someone knows otherwise). So basically this person got their hands on the laptop early.
So why all the fuss? First, this is a Core 2 Duo so it is supposed to have better performance than the Core Duo models that were replaces (and it is supposed to run circles around my little Powerbook G4). But more importantly while the MacBook Pros were nice computers, there were quite a few complaints about the amount of heat they generate, noises (from the speaker/screen/who-knows). A lot of people (myself included) want to know if the laptops run as hot as the MacBook Pros did.
To the Mac community this is a bit like someone getting their hands on a Zune and answering people's questions when there is no information about the Zune but specs out there (which I realize is not quite the case, but it's an example).
Can anyone get through to find out about heat/noise? Even the cache is down for me. I've got a Powerbook G4 (when they just added the sudden motion sensor) and while I like the laptop I would LOVE to be able to play recent games (as well as have the second core) but I'm a bit worried about the heat and noise of the new MacBook Pros. One of my favorite things about my G4 is that it stays relativly cool unless I'm really pushing it, and unless I have it's about dead silent. Even when the fans are on full (like during a 3D game) it's still rather quiet compared to the leaf-blowers that many laptops turn into.
So how is the situation with the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros? Is it the same as the Core Duos, or is it better/worse?
I intend to upgrade, it would take quite a bit to stop me. That said, my laptop still works so I plan on holding out until Leopard comes out. I'm hoping there is another revision by then (just for the speed bump or price drop), but if not I'll still get Leopard free (since it will come preinstalled).
XHTML is VERY strict. That makes it very easy to parse. But that same facet makes it very tough to write by hand. What I mean is that with HTML you've got all your tags, but many people don't write them correctly. How often do you write a closing P tag? Do you close your IMG tags like you should (<IMG SRC=.../>)? Most people don't. If you did that in XHTML, you're page would be wrong and if the browser is in strict mode, things die with an error. Improper nesting can also cause this (<P>Some <B>stuff</P> things </B>).
This adds serious complexity for some people. While Dreamweaver can easily handle that, can you imagine what it would take to make/. XHTML? You would have to write little bits to parse out every comment and story submission that's in HTML and then output it into valid XHTML. That's a TON of work. Otherwise, one single error and/. could stop rendering at all (if the browser does what, IIRC, it should).
However, the fact that tags are always opened/closed correctly, always nested correctly, etc makes XHTML very easy to parse for a computer. This would make things like screen reading, data scraping, automatic transformations (like with XSLT), much easier.
Yep. "The industry is dying." I'm sure this is COMPLETELY different from every other time game sales drop off before a new console launch. And I'm sure the PS2 isn't down because everyone and their brother owns one, or the fact that Sony has been hyping a $600 console for over a year (so if you want one... SAVE UP). I'm sure the PSP hasn't grown much because no one is buying stuff, not because Nintendo is stealing all their sales. I'm sure Microsoft having the 360 out NOW has had nothing to do with the PS2's sales over the last year either.
It couldn't be that games are just waiting for what happens in 3 weeks when TWO big consoles come out. It couldn't be that Nintendo isn't having any trouble selling DSes (in fact, there were shortage problems). I'm sure it isn't that the PS2 is basically replaced at this point. Nintendo is doing great. MS is doing well. The Wii has TONS of people (gamers and non-gamers) excited. The PS3 has all the hard-core fan boys waving cash. The fact that there haven't been much in the way of killer games in the last few months (Bully is about all I've heard about, and that was mostly because of Jacky Boy). The big games are either coming soon (Guitar Hero II, Zelda, etc.) or coming later (Gears of War, God of War II). Okami wasn't a smash hit (and who really expected it to be), plus I've seen some reviews saying the game is uneven (some spots great, some boring).
I think the industry is either fine or great. I think SONY is the one having a slowdown. And their non-stop PS3 hype hasn't been helping.
I'm not surprised at this at all. Let's just ignore all the obvious evidence for a moment (DMCA, "series of tubes", etc.) Politicians are just like CEOs and such in some respects. They both get paid to do big jobs that require knowing things. Knowing computers is NOT one of those things. This means that most of them have generic computer skills, but I bet if they need anything more complex than something simple they get an assistant/secretary/whoever to do it. There are people who know how to do that stuff FOR them. As a consequence, they don't know as much about technology as they would need to if they were "normal" and had a "normal" job making say $30,000 a year.
As they get more powerful, they can easily insulate themselves from technology more and have other people take care of that allowing them less stress and the ability to get more done.
So then they go to vote on issues knowing: a) half-truths b) mis-interpretations c) lobbyist's "facts", d) what they get from pages/assistants/the public
Those who know about it went in that way and are interested in it (like many/.ers). The majority just "get by" just like 95%+ of computer users out there.
That's why the US cell phone networks are in the state they are. How many Senators and Congressmen do you think have had to get their own cell phone recently? How many do you think just say "I need a new phone" and they get one because someone else deals with all that. When things go wrong with the phone, do you think they deal with it personally (like the rest of us) or do you think they get someone on their staff to do it (like a CEO would)?
Dreamhost (note: my hosting provider, and a referral link) recently announced Files Forever (non-referral link) that I think would let you do what you are after. It's beta now (I don't know if they will let non-Dreamhost customers in) but I think it's an easy solution to what you're looking for. When they announced it on their Blog they specifically mentioned being able to use it as an iTunes alternative.
Abbreviations are not allowed. I'm not sure about "op" (probably a shortened version of operation, the singular version of "ops"), but I know "za" was just added to the official dictionary this year, it's a shortened form of "pizza".
Re:Say what about the Dreamcast?!
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Consoles M.I.A.
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I only ever remember hearing about a single game that actually used WinCE (other than the networking stack, which I think most games used if they used the modem/ethernet). Sega Rally was supposed to use it when it was released in Japan. The game had framerate issues and didn't look very good at all. By the time the game got to the US it had been rewritten to be completely native fixing the issues.
I don't think the DC was fast enough for a large layer of middleware under a game like WinCE.
Sounds a bit like the "Holey Wars" I once heard of. A quick check of Wikipedia and Google didn't turn it up. The idea is that the first steam irons for homes had one hole in them. Some other manufacturer topped this with 2, then 3, etc. This continued until we ended up with irons with tons of holes like we have today.
And that was the Holey Wars.
Now at 5 the blade density is already getting up there so I'm not quite sure how much higher they can go (without pointless tricks like splitting the blades in half and calling it "10 bladed").
If you want a free copy of Vista, do it right. Just wait until you can buy a copy pre-installed on a new computer. With the new MacBook Pros out that's what I'm thinking of doing. By the time Leopard comes out my little G4 will be two years old. I can replace it, get a free copy of Leopard, and I'll have gotten a good use out of my current Powerbook. Plus there is always the chance of another speed/RAM bump or price drop by then.
But a "free" upgrade is a crock. You'll almost never get it.
I remember getting a "free" upgrade on a couple of laptops from 95 to 98 because of when 98 came out. You had to fill out the form and turn the in cash and wait. They filled one of two, and it was a huge fight to get them to fill the other one. None of this counts all the time it took to gather the proof, ship the forms to them, wait for fulfillment, etc.
If you want Vista on your new computer, just wait until it's pre-installed. It will save you time, and you'll probably get a better computer for the money too (thanks to the fact there is probably a new model/refresh at the same time).
Why? They have to get the warrant to get your DNA. Once they have it, they can test it.
Getting a picture is easy. In fact, they take one when they book you. Why shouldn't they be able to use it?
Also, they use non-scientific face matching all the time (line-ups and eye-witnesses). Why shouldn't they be allowed to do the same thing with a more accurate and unbiased judge like a computer over a person (who may be the victim, or biased in some other way)?
I would think it would be allowed now without any kind of warrant.
The problem is the inputs. Do you inputs sets of geometry (eyes are X" apart, at an angle of 0.53 degrees, chin is.5" below lips, blah blah blah), the raw image, or something else? If you use the raw image, you'd need a system in the front end scale/rotate the images to be in about the same place otherwise you probably have no chance (unless you want your neural net to do that TOO, which would make training harder and take longer).
Even if you use geometry (we have a vague understanding of what makes people look similar or beautiful) you'll still run into problem. You have problems of perspective (not all pictures are taken straight on).
Garbage in, garbage out. The best solution is to provide tons of information and let the neural net sort out what matters and what doesn't (they are quite good at that) but that will require more training which means more time.
So in the end you may build a good system. But to use it you must provide it with geometry of a face that someone picks out after fixing the perspective on a photo. Or it works much like our brains and accounts for all that, but it will take you 6 years of non-stop training alone.
And what is a success? Two people who look similar? A perfect match? What if your software rates a picture of a celebrity impersonator (looking like the celebrity) over a picture of that celebrity looking different (movie role, disheveled mugshot, etc)? Is that a success?
And how do you rate the people for the training input? Sure a neural net can figure out the way to something where we know the end, but what about when we don't quite know the end?
It probably took evolution a VERY long time to get good at recognizing individuals. And even then, we are not that great (mistaken identity, all cocker spaniels look alike until you spend more time with them, etc).
It's a neat problem, but it is seriously tough even with the "voodoo magic" that a neural net would provide over trying to come up with a straight formula.
I commented on why I never played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within above, but I'd forgotten about Jak II. I really enjoyed Jak and Daxter and I was amazed what they did with the second. Not only was it put in the future and made edgy, they decided to give the characters GUNS. If the characters were different you'd probably have no way to ever know both games took place in the same universe.
Another game I didn't play because they screwed with the original too much.
I mean, why not just give Ryu Hyabusa of Ninja Gaiden a pair of Uzis? That's more "cool". Especially is he holds them sideways. "He was Gangsta before there was Gangsta."
Sequels should improve. They should innovate. They should not be carbon copy clones. But something more than the main character's names should stay the same.
I've never even played Warrior Within or the third game. I played Sands of Time and LOVED it. Not only was the game beautiful, but it had great platforming challenges and puzzles. The fighting wasn't that great, but it wasn't too bad. The story was good, and the telling was fantastic (like what happened when you would die and the price would say "No wait... that wasn't how it happened").
I eagerly awaited the sequel until I found out more about it. They took the game I really loved and made it "cool". Death Metal? "Edgy" prince? These were exactly the kind of reasons I LIKED the first game. It was charming, and not "extreme" or "hip". The article says the sequel's development started during the development of the first game (which I totally believe) so I have to wonder what the theory was. "If the first one doesn't succeed, the second will 'cause it's hip. If the the first succeeds, the second will do even better because it's hip."
They could have done the story and made the game darker without going to the lengths that they did. I had (and still have) NO interest in playing the game.
Then the third game (which was supposed to be more like the original) decided to have the "rage prince" mechanic (or whatever it was called) where at certain predetermined points in the game you would be transformed into a much tougher dark-prince-monster-thing. Guess how appealing that was to me?
They got it almost perfectly right. Then they messed with it to the point I lost all interest in playing the games even though some people say they are better.
I could nit-pick at other things on the list (FF VIII is not a sequel to FF VII, although I didn't play it because I liked the cartoony misshapen characters of FF VII and IX). But Prince of Persia will probably always stick in my mind as a game that they ALREADY HAD RIGHT when they screwed it up. If they had started with Warrior Within, I might have tried it. But instead they took the character and did a major change and put me (and I'd imagine a great many parents) off of the game.
The data also comes from a fertility clinic. They took a group of patients and asked them about their cell phone use. What are the chances that there is a correlation between the people showing up having good jobs? I'm guessing if you can afford to go to a fertility clinic, you're probably not poor. If you're not poor, you have job responsibilities. If you have job responsibilities, you may have a phone for it. And if the phone gives you stress.. then the phone is indirectly causing your problem.
Is it something that correlates like that? Is it keeping your cellphone in your pocket? Is it just the fact that EVERYONE is using phones more and more theses days (and counts are dropping)?
While interesting, this study is nothing but a "Isn't this weird? We should test this more."
This is simply ingenious. Someone deserves a promotion. This is so good, I thought it was a good idea. It took me a couple of minutes to realize the insidiousness of this.
This isn't a problem or that much of a burden at all for all those people who want to blog about the same random stuff. What they did today, their fights with their friends, etc. While annoying, it's a definite step up from no blogging at all. This will probably make a great many teens happy (if they are anything like the people on blogger/myspace/etc). They can even write poetry and stories and such anonymously.
At the same time, this gives the government an exact name and address to go "talk to" if someone writes something "inappropriate." I suppose you'd better be careful what those poems and stories you write are about, huh?
It seems like a win at first glance, but it's worse than no blogs at all (without all the teens who want to write about their day, a bug chunk of people who would want less restricted 'net access is much smaller).
I bet Machiavelli would be proud.
PS: How cool is it that Safari knows how to spell Machiavelli's name? I wonder if that means anything...
I agree. There are basis for all those in there. I meant the literal words, which I why I quoted them. There are differences between the establishment clause and the "government can never have anything to do with religion every" line many "church and state" people would have you believe is in the constitution.
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I had no intention of switching, but the review solidified things. I wouldn't have recommended the product to anyone (I'd say just get an iPod) and this only makes things worse.
Let's see what they've got to entice me away? I've got a large collection of music, but basically no DRMed AAC files so I would make an easy switch.
Let's face it, it's pathetic if they think they are going ANYWHERE with this. As for the "We're selling it in 3x as many stores"... who cares? Everyone who matters sells iPods. Target, Wal*Mart, CompUSA, Apple, Microcenter, Frys, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, Borders Books, and more. There are some I can't check (because I don't live near them) but I bet Meijers sells iPods. I've seen them in some odd places. They are everywhere. I think even those scam-on-poor-people places like Rent-A-Center probably sell 'em. They'll be more places for the Zune though? Let's see... who else would be a good partner for selling the Zune...
JoAnne Fabrics? PetsMart? I know I'm looking for an MP3 player that's not an iPod when I go into my local paint-ball gun store, but maybe that's just me.
No, wait, I don't go to paint-ball gun stores for consumer electronics.
About the only place I can think of is Radio Shack. I don't know if they sell iPods now but they are going down the tubes fast any way.
Are you worried about... mesothelioma?
Then just go to Google.com and type it in! Once you've clicked search, use one of the handy ads on the side of the page. </announcer_voice>
<legal_note>I'm the Google hive mind and I've approved this advertisement.</legal_note>
Does anyone know of a good NetHack GUI for OS X? All I've found is the old Carbon version, and something based on QT. They are both incredibly ugly. I also know there is the command line version, but I fell in love with the Windows GUI and I was wondering if anyone knew of a similar GUI for OS X?
As for me? I'm terrible. I have gotten to the end of the Gnomish mines two or three times. Doing that and getting back up to the main dungeon then down a few levels is my biggest accomplishment.
The chipset is only capable of addressing 32 bits or 4 gigs of memory. Many "64 bit" desktops are the same way. The problem is that while the chipset can see the full 4 gigs of ram, a portion of it (~768mb) is hidden by other address space (video card shadowing, PCI memory addresses, etc). The machine can hold 4 gigs of ram, you just won't be able to see it all. I have a friend with a Dell desktop with the same "problem".
Frankly I like Apple approach as opposed to what many others do ("Supprots 4+ GIGs* (* unable to see top 1/2 gig)").
The problem should go away when they stop using the current chipset (which was designed for the 32 bit Core) and move to the next chipset that was designed specifically for the Core 2 chips.
My gut is telling me that this is just to stop customer hemorrhaging. People say "We like PHP and that's what our code is in so we can't use Windows" or "... but Linux is faster" (just a guess). So MS is helping with PHP so people can either switch FROM Linux to Windows and easily keep/develop PHP, or just get better performance for their current code (if there is a very measurable performance hit from running Windows, they'd want that fixed).
Either way it's good, but that's my guess why they are doing this ("Just switch to ASP.Net, it's great" probably wasn't working well for most shops that already have $$$ invested in PHP code).
I'm a HUGE music game fan. I've even picked up a band or two that I listen to because of exposure through games (like Freezepop). The problem as I see it though is the soundtracks. You want a soundtrack for that music game? Good luck, many of the best don't have them (like ANYTHING by Harmonix). Other games may have soundtracks, but they are pathetic (SSX 3 had great music, but the "soundtrack" was just a handful of tracks). The same thing happened in both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future.
GTA has done a good job with the soundtracks from what I've seen (since they do seem to include all the music). But many games where the music is good (like music games, again) just don't have soundtracks.
Which is not to mention that even if the MAC address never hit the wire as part of the protocol, MS could easily pass it as part of the conversation that goes on when connecting to XBox Live (just like I assume they also pass the serial number, dashboard version, etc).
While they were put up for order on Tuesday, they haven't hit the street yet (as far as I know). You can't go buy them in stores right now (unless someone knows otherwise). So basically this person got their hands on the laptop early.
So why all the fuss? First, this is a Core 2 Duo so it is supposed to have better performance than the Core Duo models that were replaces (and it is supposed to run circles around my little Powerbook G4). But more importantly while the MacBook Pros were nice computers, there were quite a few complaints about the amount of heat they generate, noises (from the speaker/screen/who-knows). A lot of people (myself included) want to know if the laptops run as hot as the MacBook Pros did.
To the Mac community this is a bit like someone getting their hands on a Zune and answering people's questions when there is no information about the Zune but specs out there (which I realize is not quite the case, but it's an example).
Can anyone get through to find out about heat/noise? Even the cache is down for me. I've got a Powerbook G4 (when they just added the sudden motion sensor) and while I like the laptop I would LOVE to be able to play recent games (as well as have the second core) but I'm a bit worried about the heat and noise of the new MacBook Pros. One of my favorite things about my G4 is that it stays relativly cool unless I'm really pushing it, and unless I have it's about dead silent. Even when the fans are on full (like during a 3D game) it's still rather quiet compared to the leaf-blowers that many laptops turn into.
So how is the situation with the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros? Is it the same as the Core Duos, or is it better/worse?
I intend to upgrade, it would take quite a bit to stop me. That said, my laptop still works so I plan on holding out until Leopard comes out. I'm hoping there is another revision by then (just for the speed bump or price drop), but if not I'll still get Leopard free (since it will come preinstalled).
XHTML is VERY strict. That makes it very easy to parse. But that same facet makes it very tough to write by hand. What I mean is that with HTML you've got all your tags, but many people don't write them correctly. How often do you write a closing P tag? Do you close your IMG tags like you should (<IMG SRC=... />)? Most people don't. If you did that in XHTML, you're page would be wrong and if the browser is in strict mode, things die with an error. Improper nesting can also cause this (<P>Some <B>stuff</P> things </B>).
This adds serious complexity for some people. While Dreamweaver can easily handle that, can you imagine what it would take to make /. XHTML? You would have to write little bits to parse out every comment and story submission that's in HTML and then output it into valid XHTML. That's a TON of work. Otherwise, one single error and /. could stop rendering at all (if the browser does what, IIRC, it should).
However, the fact that tags are always opened/closed correctly, always nested correctly, etc makes XHTML very easy to parse for a computer. This would make things like screen reading, data scraping, automatic transformations (like with XSLT), much easier.
Yep. "The industry is dying." I'm sure this is COMPLETELY different from every other time game sales drop off before a new console launch. And I'm sure the PS2 isn't down because everyone and their brother owns one, or the fact that Sony has been hyping a $600 console for over a year (so if you want one... SAVE UP). I'm sure the PSP hasn't grown much because no one is buying stuff, not because Nintendo is stealing all their sales. I'm sure Microsoft having the 360 out NOW has had nothing to do with the PS2's sales over the last year either.
It couldn't be that games are just waiting for what happens in 3 weeks when TWO big consoles come out. It couldn't be that Nintendo isn't having any trouble selling DSes (in fact, there were shortage problems). I'm sure it isn't that the PS2 is basically replaced at this point. Nintendo is doing great. MS is doing well. The Wii has TONS of people (gamers and non-gamers) excited. The PS3 has all the hard-core fan boys waving cash. The fact that there haven't been much in the way of killer games in the last few months (Bully is about all I've heard about, and that was mostly because of Jacky Boy). The big games are either coming soon (Guitar Hero II, Zelda, etc.) or coming later (Gears of War, God of War II). Okami wasn't a smash hit (and who really expected it to be), plus I've seen some reviews saying the game is uneven (some spots great, some boring).
I think the industry is either fine or great. I think SONY is the one having a slowdown. And their non-stop PS3 hype hasn't been helping.
I'm not surprised at this at all. Let's just ignore all the obvious evidence for a moment (DMCA, "series of tubes", etc.) Politicians are just like CEOs and such in some respects. They both get paid to do big jobs that require knowing things. Knowing computers is NOT one of those things. This means that most of them have generic computer skills, but I bet if they need anything more complex than something simple they get an assistant/secretary/whoever to do it. There are people who know how to do that stuff FOR them. As a consequence, they don't know as much about technology as they would need to if they were "normal" and had a "normal" job making say $30,000 a year.
As they get more powerful, they can easily insulate themselves from technology more and have other people take care of that allowing them less stress and the ability to get more done.
So then they go to vote on issues knowing: a) half-truths b) mis-interpretations c) lobbyist's "facts", d) what they get from pages/assistants/the public
Those who know about it went in that way and are interested in it (like many /.ers). The majority just "get by" just like 95%+ of computer users out there.
That's why the US cell phone networks are in the state they are. How many Senators and Congressmen do you think have had to get their own cell phone recently? How many do you think just say "I need a new phone" and they get one because someone else deals with all that. When things go wrong with the phone, do you think they deal with it personally (like the rest of us) or do you think they get someone on their staff to do it (like a CEO would)?
Insulation, pure and simple.
Dreamhost (note: my hosting provider, and a referral link) recently announced Files Forever (non-referral link) that I think would let you do what you are after. It's beta now (I don't know if they will let non-Dreamhost customers in) but I think it's an easy solution to what you're looking for. When they announced it on their Blog they specifically mentioned being able to use it as an iTunes alternative.
Hope that helps.
Abbreviations are not allowed. I'm not sure about "op" (probably a shortened version of operation, the singular version of "ops"), but I know "za" was just added to the official dictionary this year, it's a shortened form of "pizza".
I only ever remember hearing about a single game that actually used WinCE (other than the networking stack, which I think most games used if they used the modem/ethernet). Sega Rally was supposed to use it when it was released in Japan. The game had framerate issues and didn't look very good at all. By the time the game got to the US it had been rewritten to be completely native fixing the issues.
I don't think the DC was fast enough for a large layer of middleware under a game like WinCE.
Sounds a bit like the "Holey Wars" I once heard of. A quick check of Wikipedia and Google didn't turn it up. The idea is that the first steam irons for homes had one hole in them. Some other manufacturer topped this with 2, then 3, etc. This continued until we ended up with irons with tons of holes like we have today.
And that was the Holey Wars.
Now at 5 the blade density is already getting up there so I'm not quite sure how much higher they can go (without pointless tricks like splitting the blades in half and calling it "10 bladed").
If you want a free copy of Vista, do it right. Just wait until you can buy a copy pre-installed on a new computer. With the new MacBook Pros out that's what I'm thinking of doing. By the time Leopard comes out my little G4 will be two years old. I can replace it, get a free copy of Leopard, and I'll have gotten a good use out of my current Powerbook. Plus there is always the chance of another speed/RAM bump or price drop by then.
But a "free" upgrade is a crock. You'll almost never get it.
I remember getting a "free" upgrade on a couple of laptops from 95 to 98 because of when 98 came out. You had to fill out the form and turn the in cash and wait. They filled one of two, and it was a huge fight to get them to fill the other one. None of this counts all the time it took to gather the proof, ship the forms to them, wait for fulfillment, etc.
If you want Vista on your new computer, just wait until it's pre-installed. It will save you time, and you'll probably get a better computer for the money too (thanks to the fact there is probably a new model/refresh at the same time).
This post is just 6 words long.
Why? They have to get the warrant to get your DNA. Once they have it, they can test it.
Getting a picture is easy. In fact, they take one when they book you. Why shouldn't they be able to use it?
Also, they use non-scientific face matching all the time (line-ups and eye-witnesses). Why shouldn't they be allowed to do the same thing with a more accurate and unbiased judge like a computer over a person (who may be the victim, or biased in some other way)?
I would think it would be allowed now without any kind of warrant.
The problem is the inputs. Do you inputs sets of geometry (eyes are X" apart, at an angle of 0.53 degrees, chin is .5" below lips, blah blah blah), the raw image, or something else? If you use the raw image, you'd need a system in the front end scale/rotate the images to be in about the same place otherwise you probably have no chance (unless you want your neural net to do that TOO, which would make training harder and take longer).
Even if you use geometry (we have a vague understanding of what makes people look similar or beautiful) you'll still run into problem. You have problems of perspective (not all pictures are taken straight on).
Garbage in, garbage out. The best solution is to provide tons of information and let the neural net sort out what matters and what doesn't (they are quite good at that) but that will require more training which means more time.
So in the end you may build a good system. But to use it you must provide it with geometry of a face that someone picks out after fixing the perspective on a photo. Or it works much like our brains and accounts for all that, but it will take you 6 years of non-stop training alone.
And what is a success? Two people who look similar? A perfect match? What if your software rates a picture of a celebrity impersonator (looking like the celebrity) over a picture of that celebrity looking different (movie role, disheveled mugshot, etc)? Is that a success?
And how do you rate the people for the training input? Sure a neural net can figure out the way to something where we know the end, but what about when we don't quite know the end?
It probably took evolution a VERY long time to get good at recognizing individuals. And even then, we are not that great (mistaken identity, all cocker spaniels look alike until you spend more time with them, etc).
It's a neat problem, but it is seriously tough even with the "voodoo magic" that a neural net would provide over trying to come up with a straight formula.
I commented on why I never played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within above, but I'd forgotten about Jak II. I really enjoyed Jak and Daxter and I was amazed what they did with the second. Not only was it put in the future and made edgy, they decided to give the characters GUNS. If the characters were different you'd probably have no way to ever know both games took place in the same universe.
Another game I didn't play because they screwed with the original too much.
I mean, why not just give Ryu Hyabusa of Ninja Gaiden a pair of Uzis? That's more "cool". Especially is he holds them sideways. "He was Gangsta before there was Gangsta."
Sequels should improve. They should innovate. They should not be carbon copy clones. But something more than the main character's names should stay the same.
I've never even played Warrior Within or the third game. I played Sands of Time and LOVED it. Not only was the game beautiful, but it had great platforming challenges and puzzles. The fighting wasn't that great, but it wasn't too bad. The story was good, and the telling was fantastic (like what happened when you would die and the price would say "No wait... that wasn't how it happened").
I eagerly awaited the sequel until I found out more about it. They took the game I really loved and made it "cool". Death Metal? "Edgy" prince? These were exactly the kind of reasons I LIKED the first game. It was charming, and not "extreme" or "hip". The article says the sequel's development started during the development of the first game (which I totally believe) so I have to wonder what the theory was. "If the first one doesn't succeed, the second will 'cause it's hip. If the the first succeeds, the second will do even better because it's hip."
They could have done the story and made the game darker without going to the lengths that they did. I had (and still have) NO interest in playing the game.
Then the third game (which was supposed to be more like the original) decided to have the "rage prince" mechanic (or whatever it was called) where at certain predetermined points in the game you would be transformed into a much tougher dark-prince-monster-thing. Guess how appealing that was to me?
They got it almost perfectly right. Then they messed with it to the point I lost all interest in playing the games even though some people say they are better.
I could nit-pick at other things on the list (FF VIII is not a sequel to FF VII, although I didn't play it because I liked the cartoony misshapen characters of FF VII and IX). But Prince of Persia will probably always stick in my mind as a game that they ALREADY HAD RIGHT when they screwed it up. If they had started with Warrior Within, I might have tried it. But instead they took the character and did a major change and put me (and I'd imagine a great many parents) off of the game.
The data also comes from a fertility clinic. They took a group of patients and asked them about their cell phone use. What are the chances that there is a correlation between the people showing up having good jobs? I'm guessing if you can afford to go to a fertility clinic, you're probably not poor. If you're not poor, you have job responsibilities. If you have job responsibilities, you may have a phone for it. And if the phone gives you stress.. then the phone is indirectly causing your problem.
Is it something that correlates like that? Is it keeping your cellphone in your pocket? Is it just the fact that EVERYONE is using phones more and more theses days (and counts are dropping)?
While interesting, this study is nothing but a "Isn't this weird? We should test this more."
This is simply ingenious. Someone deserves a promotion. This is so good, I thought it was a good idea. It took me a couple of minutes to realize the insidiousness of this.
This isn't a problem or that much of a burden at all for all those people who want to blog about the same random stuff. What they did today, their fights with their friends, etc. While annoying, it's a definite step up from no blogging at all. This will probably make a great many teens happy (if they are anything like the people on blogger/myspace/etc). They can even write poetry and stories and such anonymously.
At the same time, this gives the government an exact name and address to go "talk to" if someone writes something "inappropriate." I suppose you'd better be careful what those poems and stories you write are about, huh?
It seems like a win at first glance, but it's worse than no blogs at all (without all the teens who want to write about their day, a bug chunk of people who would want less restricted 'net access is much smaller).
I bet Machiavelli would be proud.
PS: How cool is it that Safari knows how to spell Machiavelli's name? I wonder if that means anything...
I agree. There are basis for all those in there. I meant the literal words, which I why I quoted them. There are differences between the establishment clause and the "government can never have anything to do with religion every" line many "church and state" people would have you believe is in the constitution.