I was about to call you out on the model number but instead I learned of a new, UK-only Amiga model. I did chuckle when reading that under the A1500 label is an A2000 label.:)
Sure, if the workbench was loaded, you could start a shell and write a script (with that awful built-in line editor, uuugh), but it wasn't the same as the instant-on of the C64.
I used to do similar things at Radio Shack; there was a POKE you could use to toggle the internal relay on/off much faster than you should (the BASIC command to toggle the relay would wait a second or so before each state - the POKE obviously didn't). Put this in an infinite loop, walk away and watch the poor clerk run to the front of the store to reset the demo machine.
My order is still in the "Submitted" stage, I don't know if that comes before or after "Processing" status. It's a good thing I got the accessories I wanted on Sunday (there was still plenty left), because all of the HP Touchpad stuff was removed from the BestBuy/FutureShop shelves Monday, including the demo units which were still on display Sunday.
I've heard that HP will actually get new stock in the coming days, which I presume is the result of the "last production run" started before they canned everything.
Now I'm actually surprised HP canned it at all, because selling a $400 touchpad at $99 is the very definition of a loss-leader, and clearly there is consumer interest in the product at that price point.
Thanks for the tip, managed to order a 32GB from the HP store yesterday night, long after it was sold out in local stores. Today was the run for accessories, while they still exist (charging stand, cover, etc). Cases shouldn't be a problem since the device is about the same size and depth as an iPad 1, and those are plentiful. Not sure if I'll need one or not, maybe the cover will be sufficient.
Did the sales rep mention a time frame for the overcharge correction? I tried calling to check but their phone lines are (understandably) overloaded right now. I wonder if I should worry...
Took significantly less then 5 years to crack the PS3. The people who ended up finding the right stuff werent even looking until motivated by Sony.
You're arguing semantics;)
Ok, so the crack itself didn't take 5 years to develop (I think it took geohot mere days to find one?). My point was that in the eyes of Sony, the DRM "held" for 5 years, so I'm pretty sure it was worth it. For a long time the PS3 was the only secure console of this generation, thanks to the OtherOS option keeping the homebrew crowd happy. When Sony removed it, the race was on...
But in practice: a) They figure maybe they can hide the secret well enough that you won't be able to find it.
b) They figure that if they can keep you looking for it long enough, it will be a success even if you do eventually find it. If the gamecube were just cracked yesterday, its DRM would have been an unqualified success.
[...]
I'd say it worked well enough for Sony (not that I agree with them on this). It took 5 years for the PS3 security system to be broken... Compare to the Wii (instant) or the Xbox 360 (within the first year).
Re:That's one heck of a "long goodbye"
on
Goodbye, VGA
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· Score: 4, Informative
You *must* power down the machine before plugging in a PS/2 device, or risk blowing up the port controller/fuse. I have killed at least one motherboard this way (PS/2 devices no longer work on it).
If you have to run Windows, the Microsoft Security Essentials package is excellent. I haven't had the urge to uninstall it yet (unlike Avast and AVG), and it doesn't noticeably slow your system. It's free if you have a valid Windows license...
XP Mode or Hyper-V, without the VT switch on, it will just laugh at you.
Actually there was an update early this year that removed the limitation, presumably because plenty of cheapo Dell PCs (for example) don't even expose the VT switch in their BIOSes (even though the CPU supports it).
I haven't noticed any speed difference in XP Mode or VirtualBox with or without VT.
Oh, I certainly agree, WINE is quite an achievement. My point was that it's much too soon to celebrate an open-source DX11 implementation because they haven't started doing the hard part yet; look at how long it took WINE to get accelerated DX9 to a "mostly working (with limitations)" state...
Yes. It seems very likely to me that an open-source implementation of a Microsoft API, and implementation "in its infancy", will soon surpass Microsoft's own offering.
I was about to post the same thing. The summary is amazingly hasty in its conclusion... I mean, WINE has been at it for what, 10 years? They still don't have it working as well as the original. Not dissing WINE, but I mean, implementing the entry points of a published API is easy. Making it do the correct things under the hood is the hard part...
That being said, I can certainly applaud the effort, but this should be news once it's working otherwise it's meaningless.
Amen. The best practice I ever adopted was adding comments like "As per bug #1351", so that a year later I can remember why I picked took a seemingly screwy approach
I agree with the sentiment, but I prefer to be a bit more verbose than "bug #1351". Bug trackers change, projects change, access levels too. When bug #1351 in project ABC refers to a bug database that is no longer available, you'll still know what it refers to. No need for being excessively verbose, but just a simple explanation can help tremendously.. e.g. "bug #1351 - state ptr can be NULL when reloading". In my case we frequently re-use code from other projects, but seldom have access to their bug databases (and often they no longer exist).
Same thing for checkin comments - just telling me the bug number won't help me if I wasn't on your team.
Surely you'll remember that screenshots were often from the Amiga version. There was a single box for all versions of the game, and a sticker telling you which platform was inside...:)
[...] I'm pretty sure you can just transfer your profile, saved games, arcade games to a regular old USB flash drive and then transfer all that stuff to a new console.
It's gonna take a while doing it manually.... More importantly, some content and some saved games cannot be moved to another storage device. If you use the transfer cable, everything is moved to the new hard drive in a single operation, including stuff that you cannot move manually.
It's too bad you can't replace your Xbox hard drive with a USB external drive (well you can, but you're limited to 16GB!), that would have been amazingly convenient.
The whole purpose of a robotics environment like this is so that robotics builders can concentrate on actual robot stuff, whereas MSRDS makes you waste so much time learning their proprietary formats & techniques that you could easily loose the fun in learning robots!
(disclaimer: not a robotics guy, I just messed around with an NXT set last year)
My main issue with their environment is that the resulting robot doesn't actually do any of the thinking, you need a PC running MSRDS connected at all times. All processing is done on the PC, and commands are sent down to a slave program running on the robot. Other development environments supporting the NXT (like NQC) target the brick directly and give you a fully-independent robot, which is (to me) much more interesting.
Their realtime 3D simulation environment looked like a big selling point, but then I couldn't make it do anything myself besides running built-in samples. As you said, MSRDS focuses on the wrong thing, because NQC (or even the built-in Lego software!) was a lot more fun.
+1. I also remember playing.mods on the PC squealer, it sounded quite different than the original Amiga version, but it was still impressive:)
When I saw/heard the Amiga, I instantly sold my PC (286 12MHz) and bought an A500. One of my first games for it was Turrican II, I used to listen to the main menu music all the time...
Before I heard the Amiga, I was amazed hearing the sounds in Links (the golf game -- don't remember which version had digitized sound) on the PC speaker. Oh how far we've come...
Not every store scans the serial numbers, for example Costco. I've swapped defective consoles that were past their warranty over there, if you do it once it's no big deal.
I've seen some posts earlier suggesting that this is scamming the store, but if you've ever worked at retail, you know that the store does not deal with the consoles - everything is done through a supplier, who deals with the manufacturer. Returns do get to the manufacturer eventually, at no cost to the store.
Yes, I realize that it's an abuse of the system, but I only did it as a last resort (e.g. before Microsoft extended the warranty on RRoD 360s).
+1. I was confused by this story since I've been tethering with my iPhone 3GS just fine since I got it, and it was just like you said (turn it on and it works right away, zero hassles). I'm now amazed that Rogers enables tethering if most US providers don't...
Of course you must make sure tethering is included in your data plan, otherwise a big surprise will await you on your next bill.
Sorry, but I have to call you on this one, from personal experience.
GP is correct, read the rest of his post. All the info is there: an explanation of how the licensing system works, and how to fix it if you're stuck having to connect to XBL to acquire your licenses.
That reminds me, the one time I really screwed up a Linux machine was when I failed an upgrade of glibc on a running system (I was a unix newbie and didn't know what I was doing).
It's been more than 15 years but I still remember the overwhelming sense of panic when none of the standard utils worked anymore, so I could not undo what I just did.
That day I learned not to mess with the glibc symlink, and how to fix an unbootable system from a boot floppy. Good times... (not!)
Actually, I don't know why I didn't think of this before... It's possible that simply wrapping the iPad inside something like an InvisiSHIELD may be enough to weatherproof it for your uses, as it encloses the entire device.
What kind of issues does it have? Wrong position of the touch, not detecting the touch, random phantom touchs with no actual input?
Usually, if there's water on the touch screen, the touch input won't be responsive. You get missed inputs, or you can't drag the on-screen controls (because it thinks your multi-touching). I haven't seen phantom inputs. Wiping the water drops off the screen will take care of it... Maybe keeping a towel nearby is enough to deal with this.
You could probably simulate the problem by putting one or more drops of water on your iPhone screen, or by touching the screen with a wet finger. Controlled tests only, no need to use the phone in the shower:)
Slashdot Mirror
I was about to call you out on the model number but instead I learned of a new, UK-only Amiga model. I did chuckle when reading that under the A1500 label is an A2000 label. :)
Sure, if the workbench was loaded, you could start a shell and write a script (with that awful built-in line editor, uuugh), but it wasn't the same as the instant-on of the C64.
I used to do similar things at Radio Shack; there was a POKE you could use to toggle the internal relay on/off much faster than you should (the BASIC command to toggle the relay would wait a second or so before each state - the POKE obviously didn't). Put this in an infinite loop, walk away and watch the poor clerk run to the front of the store to reset the demo machine.
My order is still in the "Submitted" stage, I don't know if that comes before or after "Processing" status. It's a good thing I got the accessories I wanted on Sunday (there was still plenty left), because all of the HP Touchpad stuff was removed from the BestBuy/FutureShop shelves Monday, including the demo units which were still on display Sunday.
I've heard that HP will actually get new stock in the coming days, which I presume is the result of the "last production run" started before they canned everything.
Now I'm actually surprised HP canned it at all, because selling a $400 touchpad at $99 is the very definition of a loss-leader, and clearly there is consumer interest in the product at that price point.
Thanks for the tip, managed to order a 32GB from the HP store yesterday night, long after it was sold out in local stores. Today was the run for accessories, while they still exist (charging stand, cover, etc). Cases shouldn't be a problem since the device is about the same size and depth as an iPad 1, and those are plentiful. Not sure if I'll need one or not, maybe the cover will be sufficient.
Did the sales rep mention a time frame for the overcharge correction? I tried calling to check but their phone lines are (understandably) overloaded right now. I wonder if I should worry...
Took significantly less then 5 years to crack the PS3. The people who ended up finding the right stuff werent even looking until motivated by Sony.
You're arguing semantics ;)
Ok, so the crack itself didn't take 5 years to develop (I think it took geohot mere days to find one?). My point was that in the eyes of Sony, the DRM "held" for 5 years, so I'm pretty sure it was worth it. For a long time the PS3 was the only secure console of this generation, thanks to the OtherOS option keeping the homebrew crowd happy. When Sony removed it, the race was on...
[...]
But in practice:
a) They figure maybe they can hide the secret well enough that you won't be able to find it.
b) They figure that if they can keep you looking for it long enough, it will be a success even if you do eventually find it. If the gamecube were just cracked yesterday, its DRM would have been an unqualified success.
[...]
I'd say it worked well enough for Sony (not that I agree with them on this). It took 5 years for the PS3 security system to be broken... Compare to the Wii (instant) or the Xbox 360 (within the first year).
The problem isn't the OS, it's the port: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_connector (see the "hotplugging" section).
You *must* power down the machine before plugging in a PS/2 device, or risk blowing up the port controller/fuse. I have killed at least one motherboard this way (PS/2 devices no longer work on it).
What's a decent free one to use?
If you have to run Windows, the Microsoft Security Essentials package is excellent. I haven't had the urge to uninstall it yet (unlike Avast and AVG), and it doesn't noticeably slow your system. It's free if you have a valid Windows license...
XP Mode or Hyper-V, without the VT switch on, it will just laugh at you.
Actually there was an update early this year that removed the limitation, presumably because plenty of cheapo Dell PCs (for example) don't even expose the VT switch in their BIOSes (even though the CPU supports it).
I haven't noticed any speed difference in XP Mode or VirtualBox with or without VT.
Oh, I certainly agree, WINE is quite an achievement. My point was that it's much too soon to celebrate an open-source DX11 implementation because they haven't started doing the hard part yet; look at how long it took WINE to get accelerated DX9 to a "mostly working (with limitations)" state...
Yes. It seems very likely to me that an open-source implementation of a Microsoft API, and implementation "in its infancy", will soon surpass Microsoft's own offering.
I was about to post the same thing. The summary is amazingly hasty in its conclusion... I mean, WINE has been at it for what, 10 years? They still don't have it working as well as the original. Not dissing WINE, but I mean, implementing the entry points of a published API is easy. Making it do the correct things under the hood is the hard part...
That being said, I can certainly applaud the effort, but this should be news once it's working otherwise it's meaningless.
Then we are in violent agreement ;)
Some people at work haven't learned this yet and only put bug numbers in their code/checkin comments, so I didn't pick up on the shorthand.
Cheers!
Amen. The best practice I ever adopted was adding comments like "As per bug #1351", so that a year later I can remember why I picked took a seemingly screwy approach
I agree with the sentiment, but I prefer to be a bit more verbose than "bug #1351". Bug trackers change, projects change, access levels too. When bug #1351 in project ABC refers to a bug database that is no longer available, you'll still know what it refers to. No need for being excessively verbose, but just a simple explanation can help tremendously.. e.g. "bug #1351 - state ptr can be NULL when reloading". In my case we frequently re-use code from other projects, but seldom have access to their bug databases (and often they no longer exist).
Same thing for checkin comments - just telling me the bug number won't help me if I wasn't on your team.
Surely you'll remember that screenshots were often from the Amiga version. There was a single box for all versions of the game, and a sticker telling you which platform was inside... :)
[...] I'm pretty sure you can just transfer your profile, saved games, arcade games to a regular old USB flash drive and then transfer all that stuff to a new console.
It's gonna take a while doing it manually.... More importantly, some content and some saved games cannot be moved to another storage device. If you use the transfer cable, everything is moved to the new hard drive in a single operation, including stuff that you cannot move manually.
It's too bad you can't replace your Xbox hard drive with a USB external drive (well you can, but you're limited to 16GB!), that would have been amazingly convenient.
The whole purpose of a robotics environment like this is so that robotics builders can concentrate on actual robot stuff, whereas MSRDS makes you waste so much time learning their proprietary formats & techniques that you could easily loose the fun in learning robots!
(disclaimer: not a robotics guy, I just messed around with an NXT set last year)
My main issue with their environment is that the resulting robot doesn't actually do any of the thinking, you need a PC running MSRDS connected at all times. All processing is done on the PC, and commands are sent down to a slave program running on the robot. Other development environments supporting the NXT (like NQC) target the brick directly and give you a fully-independent robot, which is (to me) much more interesting.
Their realtime 3D simulation environment looked like a big selling point, but then I couldn't make it do anything myself besides running built-in samples. As you said, MSRDS focuses on the wrong thing, because NQC (or even the built-in Lego software!) was a lot more fun.
+1. I also remember playing .mods on the PC squealer, it sounded quite different than the original Amiga version, but it was still impressive :)
When I saw/heard the Amiga, I instantly sold my PC (286 12MHz) and bought an A500. One of my first games for it was Turrican II, I used to listen to the main menu music all the time...
Before I heard the Amiga, I was amazed hearing the sounds in Links (the golf game -- don't remember which version had digitized sound) on the PC speaker. Oh how far we've come...
Devkits can run unsigned code - retail PS3s cannot (except in Other OS mode). Having just a few won't help you.
Not every store scans the serial numbers, for example Costco. I've swapped defective consoles that were past their warranty over there, if you do it once it's no big deal.
I've seen some posts earlier suggesting that this is scamming the store, but if you've ever worked at retail, you know that the store does not deal with the consoles - everything is done through a supplier, who deals with the manufacturer. Returns do get to the manufacturer eventually, at no cost to the store.
Yes, I realize that it's an abuse of the system, but I only did it as a last resort (e.g. before Microsoft extended the warranty on RRoD 360s).
Don't most routers have a way to change their MAC addresses in the settings.
Good luck changing the MAC sticker text through the settings...
+1. I was confused by this story since I've been tethering with my iPhone 3GS just fine since I got it, and it was just like you said (turn it on and it works right away, zero hassles). I'm now amazed that Rogers enables tethering if most US providers don't...
Of course you must make sure tethering is included in your data plan, otherwise a big surprise will await you on your next bill.
Sorry, but I have to call you on this one, from personal experience.
GP is correct, read the rest of his post. All the info is there: an explanation of how the licensing system works, and how to fix it if you're stuck having to connect to XBL to acquire your licenses.
That reminds me, the one time I really screwed up a Linux machine was when I failed an upgrade of glibc on a running system (I was a unix newbie and didn't know what I was doing).
It's been more than 15 years but I still remember the overwhelming sense of panic when none of the standard utils worked anymore, so I could not undo what I just did.
That day I learned not to mess with the glibc symlink, and how to fix an unbootable system from a boot floppy. Good times... (not!)
Actually, I don't know why I didn't think of this before... It's possible that simply wrapping the iPad inside something like an InvisiSHIELD may be enough to weatherproof it for your uses, as it encloses the entire device.
Surely they will make a version for the iPad...
damn, I've been reading too much slashdot, I'm starting to write "your" when I mean "you're", grr!
What kind of issues does it have? Wrong position of the touch, not detecting the touch, random phantom touchs with no actual input?
Usually, if there's water on the touch screen, the touch input won't be responsive. You get missed inputs, or you can't drag the on-screen controls (because it thinks your multi-touching). I haven't seen phantom inputs. Wiping the water drops off the screen will take care of it... Maybe keeping a towel nearby is enough to deal with this.
You could probably simulate the problem by putting one or more drops of water on your iPhone screen, or by touching the screen with a wet finger. Controlled tests only, no need to use the phone in the shower :)