You are correct - but look at the prices on Steam!
I picked up Assassin's Creed, new, for $10. TF2 for $10. Left4Dead had a sale for $20 or $25. New games generally show up at $40 or less, and have launch sales of at least 50% off, or pre-order 10-20% off. (depends on the company)
If I compare buying brand new on Steam and not being able to resell, with buying brand new in a store and selling after... it's cheaper on Steam.
Yeah, but how many post offices are there? Doesn't each post office need one machine to talk to the main cluster?
And do people mail stuff 24 hours per day, or is there a rush hour? Where everything spikes 10x as high?
Do these servers have to do any of that optical character recognition crap to figure out where to mail stuff, or is that handled by whatever company designed that part of the system?
There's plenty of valid reasons for why they *might* need that many servers. It could even be preparations for Christmas. Maybe they keep half of them in reserve for when they're needed?
What happens if you're going from 1.8.1 to 1.9.3, then 1.9.3 to 2.0.0? How do you tell which is a major update?
I'm more of a fan of how java does it.
JRE 1.6 u13 -> JRE 1.6 u14
1.7 will support new stuff over 1.6. u (update) denotes security/bugfixes, with the occasional experimental feature(default = off) that you can enable to help bugtest the next version.
FYI, robots.txt can be ignored by anything that chooses to ignore it. In fact, many web crawlers have caused problems because of this. If directory "huge_downloads_in_here" is marked to disallow, it's annoying when a web crawler starts downloading everything in there 10 times per day.
Re:All you need to know:
on
R.I.P. FTP
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Some of the stuff that can be missed by a thorough examination can't be purged through a reinstall.
I'm talking about those nasty buggers that hide in the BIOS chips, and re-infect on OS reinstall.
My (current) computer has never been infected by a virus or any malware - but I'm so anal that I open any possibly dangerous links in Opera, with all plugins disabled, rather than my default browser. (Firefox)
I also type many sites into the address bar in a form that'll go through Google's servers(www.slashdot.org -> "slash dot"), rather than using bookmarks. That way it'll warn me if the site could infect me with something.
Probably the most useful new feature is the Linux-like window manager shortcuts, so you can maximise, snap to left/right of the screen etc. I've been using these in KDE for donkey's years.
Sold!
Ever since I discovered that feature in Trillian years and years ago, I've been addicted to it. Honestly, Linux has the best window snapping action (and window placement) I've ever seen - if they can match that, it'll be a huge breakthrough over just placing everything on top of whatever is already onscreen.
The post I replied to is spreading uncertainty and doubt about the post it replied to, which could very well be 100% factual.
My post supported that post. In my experience Linux still has a ways to go before the cmdline is unnecessary.
But then again, Windows isn't totally GUI either. Lots of games require editing a settings file in notepad. Better than cmdline, but still not a terribly friendly GUI experience, unless you've done it a couple times in the past.
No, your post is pure FUD. I bet you're posting from a top of the line gaming machine right? Bought the parts off newegg, and put it together yourself? Good hardware support, right?
I have an old Dell computer sitting here, which is something the average user would have. Here's the problems I encountered:
1) xorg.conf needed to be manually configured to fix the resolution and refresh rate. It required a lot of cmdline stuff; not as simple as opening the file in gedit and clicking save.
2) Ubuntu 8.10 broke compatibility with the SATA controller, in such a way that it booted okay, and then corrupted the disk while running. This took quite a bit of cmdline work to "fix". I wiped out the partition and installed a SATA PCI card to run the drive from.
3) Permissions wouldn't stick on my ext3 partition. Had to use cmdline rather than Nautilus to get it so users could read files and create new files on the partition. Without doing that, gedit couldn't save anywhere, and I couldn't open anything Firefox downloaded.
No offense to you, but the average user won't tolerate this crap. They barely tolerate stuff like UAC, and this is way beyond that.
I remember when I was playing Oblivion, I came around a corner and there was big stretches of oblivion soup everywhere. (read: blurry textures)
As you get closer, they suddenly snap into detailed mode - or they don't. Sometimes you're walking on detailed ground, and other times it's a blurry mess. The repeating textures which stretch into the distance also get very annoying. Overall, I thought it looked worse than Fable 1.
I was playing Crysis a while back(when it was released), and noted that AntiAliasing misbehaves on anything older than a GeForce 8. It's not actually applied while motion blur is, which gives massive jaggies all across the screen.
If something looks "out of place", it'll give a much worse experience than if you go for a more cartooney style, but keep that style consistent and interesting.
I happen to think games like Psychonauts look quite good. Paired with being just about the most fun game I've ever played, and you have a powerful combination that makes a great game.
Right you are. I remember reading an article about the efficiency of wind power. It basically said not to bother at ground-level, unless you're in an extremely windy area. It had a graph going from 25 to about 150 feet, with one of those exponential curves demonstrating the increased power generation of the same turbine at different heights.
I would assume at 400 feet tall with such huge blades, these things are all megawatt beasts.
It'll probably boot almost instantly(15-30 seconds), as opposed to ~45-60 seconds(Ubuntu), or 30-45 seconds(XP).
Remember: The target is Netbook hardware.
And if you reduce the number of installed and running services/programs, the number of attack vectors is significantly reduced. If they design it right, to hack it you have to hack the browser.
I frequently visit a computer club of novice computer users over age 60, to help out with stuff like "How to get your pictures off your new camera.", and "How to organize files."
Recently the topic of operating systems came up, and I was surprised that at least 50% had heard of other operating systems, and even understood that a Mac != Windows != Linux.
But I must admit, there are people that don't want to learn anything about their own PC. They just want to hit the magic button so music plays, so to speak.;)
Recently a car crashed into a meridian near where I used to go to school.
A hero rushed in and pulled the driver from the car. About 20-30 seconds later, it exploded in a giant fireball, similar to those explosions you see in the movies.
I don't care if electric is perfectly safe... nothing is.
Slashdot Mirror
You are correct - but look at the prices on Steam!
I picked up Assassin's Creed, new, for $10. TF2 for $10. Left4Dead had a sale for $20 or $25. New games generally show up at $40 or less, and have launch sales of at least 50% off, or pre-order 10-20% off. (depends on the company)
If I compare buying brand new on Steam and not being able to resell, with buying brand new in a store and selling after... it's cheaper on Steam.
Haha - you joke about it, but I can't help but wonder if it might be the result of increasing ocean acidification.
Yeah, but how many post offices are there? Doesn't each post office need one machine to talk to the main cluster?
And do people mail stuff 24 hours per day, or is there a rush hour? Where everything spikes 10x as high?
Do these servers have to do any of that optical character recognition crap to figure out where to mail stuff, or is that handled by whatever company designed that part of the system?
There's plenty of valid reasons for why they *might* need that many servers. It could even be preparations for Christmas. Maybe they keep half of them in reserve for when they're needed?
I use IE NetRender for all my IE development. In my experience, it's accurate.
1.1.1 -> 2.0.0 - major release
What happens if you're going from 1.8.1 to 1.9.3, then 1.9.3 to 2.0.0? How do you tell which is a major update?
I'm more of a fan of how java does it.
JRE 1.6 u13 -> JRE 1.6 u14
1.7 will support new stuff over 1.6. u (update) denotes security/bugfixes, with the occasional experimental feature(default = off) that you can enable to help bugtest the next version.
I recall reading that high up in the atmosphere the temperature wasn't so bad.
Once we have the technology to build floating cities, we'll be able to colonize venus without any terraforming.
And we'll probably have that technology before we get to Venus. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oNHD41MLMk
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1612230/Robotic-Glider-Set-To-Break-Autonomous-Flight-Records?art_pos=1
FYI, robots.txt can be ignored by anything that chooses to ignore it. In fact, many web crawlers have caused problems because of this. If directory "huge_downloads_in_here" is marked to disallow, it's annoying when a web crawler starts downloading everything in there 10 times per day.
Some of the stuff that can be missed by a thorough examination can't be purged through a reinstall.
I'm talking about those nasty buggers that hide in the BIOS chips, and re-infect on OS reinstall.
My (current) computer has never been infected by a virus or any malware - but I'm so anal that I open any possibly dangerous links in Opera, with all plugins disabled, rather than my default browser. (Firefox)
I also type many sites into the address bar in a form that'll go through Google's servers(www.slashdot.org -> "slash dot"), rather than using bookmarks. That way it'll warn me if the site could infect me with something.
Probably the most useful new feature is the Linux-like window manager shortcuts, so you can maximise, snap to left/right of the screen etc. I've been using these in KDE for donkey's years.
Sold!
Ever since I discovered that feature in Trillian years and years ago, I've been addicted to it. Honestly, Linux has the best window snapping action (and window placement) I've ever seen - if they can match that, it'll be a huge breakthrough over just placing everything on top of whatever is already onscreen.
You mean waist.
Waste to intake ratio might actually be be another way to chart it. We'd have to do it, to find out. ;)
The post I replied to is spreading uncertainty and doubt about the post it replied to, which could very well be 100% factual.
My post supported that post. In my experience Linux still has a ways to go before the cmdline is unnecessary.
But then again, Windows isn't totally GUI either. Lots of games require editing a settings file in notepad. Better than cmdline, but still not a terribly friendly GUI experience, unless you've done it a couple times in the past.
looks like I have to come up with a random noise generator to hook up to the ground of my power outlets.
Why bother? They already have special cameras that can record LCD screens through walls.
Psychonauts! It's not an endless string of laughs, but it does have an abundance compared to most modern games.
No, your post is pure FUD. I bet you're posting from a top of the line gaming machine right? Bought the parts off newegg, and put it together yourself? Good hardware support, right?
I have an old Dell computer sitting here, which is something the average user would have. Here's the problems I encountered:
1) xorg.conf needed to be manually configured to fix the resolution and refresh rate. It required a lot of cmdline stuff; not as simple as opening the file in gedit and clicking save.
2) Ubuntu 8.10 broke compatibility with the SATA controller, in such a way that it booted okay, and then corrupted the disk while running. This took quite a bit of cmdline work to "fix". I wiped out the partition and installed a SATA PCI card to run the drive from.
3) Permissions wouldn't stick on my ext3 partition. Had to use cmdline rather than Nautilus to get it so users could read files and create new files on the partition. Without doing that, gedit couldn't save anywhere, and I couldn't open anything Firefox downloaded.
No offense to you, but the average user won't tolerate this crap. They barely tolerate stuff like UAC, and this is way beyond that.
Which brings us back to graphical consistency.
I remember when I was playing Oblivion, I came around a corner and there was big stretches of oblivion soup everywhere. (read: blurry textures)
As you get closer, they suddenly snap into detailed mode - or they don't. Sometimes you're walking on detailed ground, and other times it's a blurry mess. The repeating textures which stretch into the distance also get very annoying. Overall, I thought it looked worse than Fable 1.
I was playing Crysis a while back(when it was released), and noted that AntiAliasing misbehaves on anything older than a GeForce 8. It's not actually applied while motion blur is, which gives massive jaggies all across the screen.
Talk about ruining the immersion!
Graphics require consistency - not realism.
If something looks "out of place", it'll give a much worse experience than if you go for a more cartooney style, but keep that style consistent and interesting.
I happen to think games like Psychonauts look quite good. Paired with being just about the most fun game I've ever played, and you have a powerful combination that makes a great game.
Right you are. I remember reading an article about the efficiency of wind power. It basically said not to bother at ground-level, unless you're in an extremely windy area. It had a graph going from 25 to about 150 feet, with one of those exponential curves demonstrating the increased power generation of the same turbine at different heights.
I would assume at 400 feet tall with such huge blades, these things are all megawatt beasts.
I've noted the same thing on my single-core Athlon XP.
But on my Athlon X2, I can flip tabs while slashdot is loading, just fine.
(And the browser is hopefully in a sandbox :P )
Speed, security.
It'll probably boot almost instantly(15-30 seconds), as opposed to ~45-60 seconds(Ubuntu), or 30-45 seconds(XP).
Remember: The target is Netbook hardware.
And if you reduce the number of installed and running services/programs, the number of attack vectors is significantly reduced. If they design it right, to hack it you have to hack the browser.
It already works slower in IE... but that's IE's fault, for not displaying until it has all the data.
And oh, anyone else notice the irony that the Chrome _browser_ for Linux seems largely like an afterthought right now? Still, way to go, Google.
They're fighting tooth and nail with all those X/Gnome bugs. It's not surprising they decided to go completely around the issue.
I frequently visit a computer club of novice computer users over age 60, to help out with stuff like "How to get your pictures off your new camera.", and "How to organize files."
Recently the topic of operating systems came up, and I was surprised that at least 50% had heard of other operating systems, and even understood that a Mac != Windows != Linux.
But I must admit, there are people that don't want to learn anything about their own PC. They just want to hit the magic button so music plays, so to speak. ;)
Recently a car crashed into a meridian near where I used to go to school.
A hero rushed in and pulled the driver from the car. About 20-30 seconds later, it exploded in a giant fireball, similar to those explosions you see in the movies.
I don't care if electric is perfectly safe... nothing is.
One time per month that you go over 40 hours.
I'd rather pay $10/yr and be done with it. Except that, I'm Canadian, so that option isn't available to me.