If anything, special features generally detract from the enjoyment of a good movie as you struggle to reconcile how a group of such insipid and insincere people could have pulled it off.
Only on Slashdot, where people are only interested in how the special effects were done.
I was a huge fan of Total Annihilation, and TA:Spring took it in some new directions that even the big money TA successor, Supreme Commander didn't try (like deformable terrain). However, from what I can tell, TA:Spring is dead in the water. While fully playable on Windows, it's a pain to get running on Linux, and not compatible with the Windows versions, and development and forum discussion seems to have dried up.
Frustrating, but not as frustrating as the propensity for Linux games to be cheap clones of games developed on other platforms, especially boring first-person shooters which consist of wandering around dreary tunnels with a big penis^wgun in front of you shooting people.
I'm not sure why I'm replying:) but actually Word has always had some pretty nice features. Most recently comments and annotations are amongst them, along with versioning features. People I work with use them all the time for collaboration.
I remember when people were saying "people don't need Word" when the big feature was tables.. which are obviously a very handy feature people use all the time, once they know about them. It just takes a while for the new features to percolate, and then you can't live without them. Usually the latest versions of programs will have them (or brand new software), not the copycats.
Word has always been a very good office suite, and even if it weren't, the sad reality is if you open a.doc format and it doesn't look the same as your collaborator's, it sucks (and I know, different versions of Word have this problem).
In case you think I'm a shill, I haven't purchased or used Word in over 5 years. I use OpenOffice, which commendably has kept up with the significant features, though not always elegantly. I'm sure OpenOffice has innovated with some nice features, but as a general user, I have no idea what they are (aside from leading with built in PDF support, oh yeah, and being free for anyone to use or build on). Though with OO's XML support, there should be a lot of interesting third party (especially server) software available. And before Word, there was WP, and before that, WordStar.;)
You're right.. we need input device 2.0.. and head mounted displays. That'll be a whole new experience. I have a UMPC and it serves some purposes, but its clearly an awkward stopgap.
I'm 40 something, have lots of Facebook friends mostly my age, have yet to run into anyone I went to school with, but it has been quite useful to me as a social tool.
Just join a few groups of interest, and from then on you have access to a constant stream of events you can attend, talk about, etc.
It also gives you a window on people's world, which can be too much sometimes, but its nice to have an excuse to contact people that is sometimes missing in the big world.
People also like organizing and sharing their personal info, a modern day photo album that can be shared easily.
I don't use it for that purpose much myself, and if you find gossip to be oppressive and prefer all your social interactions to be over a cup of coffee, it may not be for you. But I've had a few "Luddite" friends sucked in and they obviously find it useful or fun.
I see Facebook type sites as being a very important component of the modern Internet, which is about social connections for fine grained interests.
Of course, all these applications have been around for a while, Facebook is simply the latest in making all this easy for casual users (the vast majority of people).
Any open source project, by nature, will allow full access to source code without registration.
What value does registration have, anyway?
This is a bug, not a feature. Over time, the incidence of exploits will get very low. Whereas with a closed source app, they can always be hiding somewhere.
And it's about as easy to find an exploit via a reverse engineering tool on a closed source app. As well, many app exploits come from system wide exploits, so it's not so much sleuthing as it is watching for these vulnerabilities and trying them in an app. Many exploiters are more "script kiddies" than real experts. The real experts tend to have earned their knowledge and are not inclined to be irresponsible with it, though no system depends on this fact.
Again, I don't think you understand how the process works. It is entirely open only in transparency, and operates in a network of trust. A random stranger cannot just commit code to Firefox, or any significant project. It takes a considerable amount of trust building to get commit status, and once you are in, multiple people will see and examine your code, because code is interdependent.
(this is why I think that devs whining about the lack of an iPhone SDK is dumb. Web 2.0 is the way to go). ...
Wouldn't it suck if you were using a great Web 2.0 interactive site on your iPhone and you got to your desk and discovered it didn't work properly with your desktop browser?
Wouldn't it suck if it was hard to sync your bookmarks between your phone and your desktop browsers?
Speaking of things that would suck, how about when you're traveling or in a dead zone, and don't have access to your private data, or a hosted app is compromised? This approach seems unacceptable for any but the most trivial applications.
I'm guessing Dell has some support ties with Microsoft. And I've been using Linux for a logn time but still have occasions where apps misbehave, but following up is just too complicated.
And for Ubuntu to grow, it would need to support novice users..
But I was really trying to work in an idea that is more effective than the scattered message boards and chats we have today that could make collaborative support much more effective.
If Dell has to provide support for the OS, then there's still a cost to them, perhaps greater than supporting Windows.
Since we're starting to see more Web/web services integration in regular apps, perhaps we can look forward to better community support. Right now, if something goes wrong, you first have to figure out if you're being an idiot, then figure out what piece actually went wrong, then figure out how to complain, then hope the gronks actually understood enough to do something about it.
What's needed is an embedded support widget in every app, that knows about the user's current configuration, and could relate that configuration and prompt for a really intelligent report and communications. I've seen hints of this in OS bug reporting tools, but after some work it could create unbeatable support and feedback in an open context.
Of course, to be really effective, it should stretch right into pre-boot.;)
This kind of game isn't about realism. Look at the implied phosphor screens used in the terminals, the sound effects and music, images, and everything else you saw. This kind of franchise game is about piling up generations of successively more vivid clichés to make some über cliché'd masterpiece that 'true fans' will shell out $80 for^W^W^W^Wenjoy.
You laugh, but I used a fingernail with my Fujitsu B series notebook and SE P800.. just curve your pointing finger and use the nail.. it works quite well - accurate, and no finger grease. So I don't see what the big deal is.
Speaking of such things, I horrified a friend by bringing up the idea of "live ads." You arrive at a web page, and there's video of someone sitting patiently. They sit up and say "hi there" and start talking to you.. then you realize.. the reason they're encouraging you to click on an "interact" button is.. they're live! Aaaggh. It'll be the end.
I think Beryl and effects like http://beryl-project.org/images/cube_full.jpg look fantastic, but I currently use a Mac with Virtue Desktops, which provides virtual desktops, and one of the options is to show an effect when switching desktops, including a spinning cube effect. I have had it enabled for maybe 2 minutes, it's fun but annoying when you want to do real work.
Beryl might be a little better, because you can drag and drop between desktops, and with the transparent "backs" of windows, you can orient yourself better. But otherwise these are all really gimmicks until the way individual apps work changes, for example, Sun's innovative lg3d has had a "turn the window around" feature for a while, and you can do things like write notes about apps, but that's not useful until there is a real app - operating environment integration. Which requires very integrated cooperation and support.. the wm has to know what document or page an app is displaying. This is something like what MS OneNote offers, since you can make notes and relate documents.
Further to funfail's message that you can log into the opensrs console directly, bypassing your "registrar," you can also email compliance @ opensrs.org to get your domain unlocked.
It's true that the Mac wakes up much faster than any other notebook I've seen, near instantly (though I think they cheat a bit, because the screen comes up right away, then it sometimes disappears, and the system isn't responsive for a few seconds).
But current Macs have a known problem suspending, related to Bluetooth, USB or network activity. It may just be user confusion, but it's pervasive enough to be an issue. I've seen this problem on some systems, hunting around in preferences didn't help. I've seen other references to this problem, but here's one: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070 210010538919&query=sleep
Basically, when you're in that situation, using a Mac doesn't mean much compared to Windows or even Linux, cause knowledge and hacking are involved for a solution.
On the other hand, I don't have any software problems, but my Macbook Pro's jewelry box like latch doesn't work well, so I have to use masking tape to make sure it doesn't wake up mid journey. Talk about favouring "elegance" over robustness.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, it's not dead, it's just... confusing. ;)
Last time I looked at http://spring.clan-sy.com/ , it sure looked stalled. Is this the right page?
Making Spring easy to work with (easy selection and download of mods, maps, etc) would go a long way towards player enjoyment.
Only on Slashdot, where people are only interested in how the special effects were done.
I was a huge fan of Total Annihilation, and TA:Spring took it in some new directions that even the big money TA successor, Supreme Commander didn't try (like deformable terrain). However, from what I can tell, TA:Spring is dead in the water. While fully playable on Windows, it's a pain to get running on Linux, and not compatible with the Windows versions, and development and forum discussion seems to have dried up.
Frustrating, but not as frustrating as the propensity for Linux games to be cheap clones of games developed on other platforms, especially boring first-person shooters which consist of wandering around dreary tunnels with a big penis^wgun in front of you shooting people.
I use that feature too (using postfix), but I changed the + default to _ waaaaay back.
>> but now that we're at version 7.02, it's become a really stable and useful product
Check it out - it's sponsored by Sun.
Do you mean like this?
Word has always been PART OF a very good office suite. If you ignore Access.
I'm not sure why I'm replying :) but actually Word has always had some pretty nice features. Most recently comments and annotations are amongst them, along with versioning features. People I work with use them all the time for collaboration.
.doc format and it doesn't look the same as your collaborator's, it sucks (and I know, different versions of Word have this problem).
;)
I remember when people were saying "people don't need Word" when the big feature was tables.. which are obviously a very handy feature people use all the time, once they know about them. It just takes a while for the new features to percolate, and then you can't live without them. Usually the latest versions of programs will have them (or brand new software), not the copycats.
Word has always been a very good office suite, and even if it weren't, the sad reality is if you open a
In case you think I'm a shill, I haven't purchased or used Word in over 5 years. I use OpenOffice, which commendably has kept up with the significant features, though not always elegantly. I'm sure OpenOffice has innovated with some nice features, but as a general user, I have no idea what they are (aside from leading with built in PDF support, oh yeah, and being free for anyone to use or build on). Though with OO's XML support, there should be a lot of interesting third party (especially server) software available. And before Word, there was WP, and before that, WordStar.
You're right.. we need input device 2.0.. and head mounted displays. That'll be a whole new experience. I have a UMPC and it serves some purposes, but its clearly an awkward stopgap.
I'm 40 something, have lots of Facebook friends mostly my age, have yet to run into anyone I went to school with, but it has been quite useful to me as a social tool.
Just join a few groups of interest, and from then on you have access to a constant stream of events you can attend, talk about, etc.
It also gives you a window on people's world, which can be too much sometimes, but its nice to have an excuse to contact people that is sometimes missing in the big world.
People also like organizing and sharing their personal info, a modern day photo album that can be shared easily.
I don't use it for that purpose much myself, and if you find gossip to be oppressive and prefer all your social interactions to be over a cup of coffee, it may not be for you. But I've had a few "Luddite" friends sucked in and they obviously find it useful or fun.
I see Facebook type sites as being a very important component of the modern Internet, which is about social connections for fine grained interests.
Of course, all these applications have been around for a while, Facebook is simply the latest in making all this easy for casual users (the vast majority of people).
Any open source project, by nature, will allow full access to source code without registration.
What value does registration have, anyway?
This is a bug, not a feature. Over time, the incidence of exploits will get very low. Whereas with a closed source app, they can always be hiding somewhere.
And it's about as easy to find an exploit via a reverse engineering tool on a closed source app. As well, many app exploits come from system wide exploits, so it's not so much sleuthing as it is watching for these vulnerabilities and trying them in an app. Many exploiters are more "script kiddies" than real experts. The real experts tend to have earned their knowledge and are not inclined to be irresponsible with it, though no system depends on this fact.
Again, I don't think you understand how the process works. It is entirely open only in transparency, and operates in a network of trust. A random stranger cannot just commit code to Firefox, or any significant project. It takes a considerable amount of trust building to get commit status, and once you are in, multiple people will see and examine your code, because code is interdependent.
That's a very US centric point of view you have. The internet wouldn't be the internet if those other countries didn't participate.
And the code contribution process of any significant open source project has many eyeballs ensuring security.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you funny.
That's the first time I've heard someone say a closed source app is more secure in years. About the only thing that is better closed is a password.
You do realize that Safari's basis, WebKit, is open source, right? http://webkit.org/
I do agree more choice is good, if it means developers focus more on standards than implementations.
Speaking of things that would suck, how about when you're traveling or in a dead zone, and don't have access to your private data, or a hosted app is compromised? This approach seems unacceptable for any but the most trivial applications.
I'm guessing Dell has some support ties with Microsoft. And I've been using Linux for a logn time but still have occasions where apps misbehave, but following up is just too complicated.
And for Ubuntu to grow, it would need to support novice users..
But I was really trying to work in an idea that is more effective than the scattered message boards and chats we have today that could make collaborative support much more effective.
If Dell has to provide support for the OS, then there's still a cost to them, perhaps greater than supporting Windows.
Since we're starting to see more Web/web services integration in regular apps, perhaps we can look forward to better community support. Right now, if something goes wrong, you first have to figure out if you're being an idiot, then figure out what piece actually went wrong, then figure out how to complain, then hope the gronks actually understood enough to do something about it.
What's needed is an embedded support widget in every app, that knows about the user's current configuration, and could relate that configuration and prompt for a really intelligent report and communications. I've seen hints of this in OS bug reporting tools, but after some work it could create unbeatable support and feedback in an open context.
Of course, to be really effective, it should stretch right into pre-boot.
This kind of game isn't about realism. Look at the implied phosphor screens used in the terminals, the sound effects and music, images, and everything else you saw. This kind of franchise game is about piling up generations of successively more vivid clichés to make some über cliché'd masterpiece that 'true fans' will shell out $80 for^W^W^W^Wenjoy.
You laugh, but I used a fingernail with my Fujitsu B series notebook and SE P800.. just curve your pointing finger and use the nail.. it works quite well - accurate, and no finger grease. So I don't see what the big deal is.
Speaking of such things, I horrified a friend by bringing up the idea of "live ads." You arrive at a web page, and there's video of someone sitting patiently. They sit up and say "hi there" and start talking to you.. then you realize.. the reason they're encouraging you to click on an "interact" button is.. they're live! Aaaggh. It'll be the end.
I think Beryl and effects like http://beryl-project.org/images/cube_full.jpg look fantastic, but I currently use a Mac with Virtue Desktops, which provides virtual desktops, and one of the options is to show an effect when switching desktops, including a spinning cube effect. I have had it enabled for maybe 2 minutes, it's fun but annoying when you want to do real work.
Beryl might be a little better, because you can drag and drop between desktops, and with the transparent "backs" of windows, you can orient yourself better. But otherwise these are all really gimmicks until the way individual apps work changes, for example, Sun's innovative lg3d has had a "turn the window around" feature for a while, and you can do things like write notes about apps, but that's not useful until there is a real app - operating environment integration. Which requires very integrated cooperation and support.. the wm has to know what document or page an app is displaying. This is something like what MS OneNote offers, since you can make notes and relate documents.
Further to funfail's message that you can log into the opensrs console directly, bypassing your "registrar," you can also email compliance @ opensrs.org to get your domain unlocked.
While OpenSRS's interface is clunky, at least you have this option.
It's true that the Mac wakes up much faster than any other notebook I've seen, near instantly (though I think they cheat a bit, because the screen comes up right away, then it sometimes disappears, and the system isn't responsive for a few seconds).
0 210010538919&query=sleep
But current Macs have a known problem suspending, related to Bluetooth, USB or network activity. It may just be user confusion, but it's pervasive enough to be an issue. I've seen this problem on some systems, hunting around in preferences didn't help. I've seen other references to this problem, but here's one: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2007
Basically, when you're in that situation, using a Mac doesn't mean much compared to Windows or even Linux, cause knowledge and hacking are involved for a solution.
On the other hand, I don't have any software problems, but my Macbook Pro's jewelry box like latch doesn't work well, so I have to use masking tape to make sure it doesn't wake up mid journey. Talk about favouring "elegance" over robustness.