"Dorm Storm" from the other angle
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Dorm Storm?
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· Score: 1
I'm on my way out to college in a few weeks (at my not-so-majour southern art school we start a little later; September 7th is our move-in date) and I can't wait to see what fun it's going to be to get online.
You see, my school recently -- and I mean RECENTLY, as in this month -- got wired with some sort of high-speed access, and it is now installed in every dorm room. Unfortunately, the school has neglected to inform the student body of just HOW exactly this is going to work. Those who don't know much about computers (I'd guess about half of the student body) won't know to buy a computer with an ethernet card, because my school has released absolutely no information about what an incoming student should bring for a computer. No info. This is a school whose second largest majour is CG (after architecture) and we aren't being given any sort of reccommendation on hardware. Not even a PC v. Mac type deal (the school uses both). Nothing. Nada. We were just told, quite simply, to bring "a computer."
Just this evening a friend of mine who will also be going down to Savannah called me, long distance, from her home in North Carolina, just so her father could ask what she should bring. They know I have a bit of experience with computers, and wanted to know if I had any idea what they should bring. I emphasised that they needed an ethernet card, and of course had to explain just what exactly that IS.
What's worse, I emailed the school a week ago to ask what kind of services they'd be providing for students who ran minor servers (
My point is this: Mr Anonymous Ape, I imagine the sysadmins at Savannah are envious of your Sisyphean task. Not only do Savannah's sysadmins have to worry about getting an absolutely brand new network up and running (how can you stress test it for 5000 students over the summer?), but they will also have to deal with the fact that the student adviserment committee (or whoever) has neglected to mention anything about kind of HARDWARE students will need (I sure as hell hope they don't expect students to be Mac-addicts; but at this point, they might, and I'd never be the wiser!). This is going to be a rough transition for all of us (imagine, if you would, being suddenly thrust into a new world, without internet access of any kind... I never really realized how much I rely on my net access for normal communication). I will be very disappointed if snail-mail and long distance phone calls (Georgia ---> Mass) are my only options. Pity our sysadmins. =)
... sooner or later. There are a few fundamental problems with trying to play games on Linux that will help Linux gaming go the way of the dodo. Loki's death was preordained by the market, and by Loki themself.
::dons his flame-retardent suit::
Gaming on Linux has always suffered--much like gaming on Macs--from lack of support. Few companies--if any--support Linux out of the box; most big-title Linux games are ports from the Windows version that are contracted out to firms like Loki. As a result, these games come out days, weeks, or months after their Windows counterparts. In the mean time, the Windows version is establishing a huge user base, and by the time the Linux version is published, the numbers it pulls in are miniscule relative to the numbers pulled by the Windows version.
Linux users have always been presented with a choice: a) Keep a small partition with Windows installed just to run these games, or b) wait until the Linux version of the game is released, sometimes months afterward. If the game is in any way endorsed, published, or supported by Microsoft, however, you can forget ever seeing it on Linux (AoE, Motocross Madness, Asheron's Call, etc). Oh, and if it relies on Direct3D for its acceleration, count on it taking a LOT longer to port.
The reason Linux gaming will never break mainstream is the same reason the Mac has not been a viable game platform for years: Developers simply do not have the time / desire to build a game that must cater to an additional, less-prolific OS. They have enough to worry about, what with hardware compatibility issues and all without multiplying the complications by two, or three.
In truth, it is this principle that makes me worry for the future of the Windows PC; the X-Box really does stand poised to cause a mountain of problems for Windows-using PC gamers. Here is a $300 box that can run new games beautifully, has the potential to create a HUGE installed base literally overnight, and is very easy to develop for. No more worrying about hardware compatibility, renderer variants, etc. Just one big happy solid system to develop for, and that's it.
Regardless of speculations on a possible distant future (and that's all my X-Box fears are), Windows provides publishers with the largest installed base to cater toward; the general population uses Windows, and most games are geared toward the general population to begin with. When Joe Sixpack goes out to buy a computer game he is--more often than not--picking up software for his HP or Dell or Compaq or Gateway desktop; he probably doesn't even know that the software over in that "Linux" section won't run on his computer.
At this point in time, Windows gaming is the way to go. The games people want to play are only going to be available on Windows, with few exceptions. Loki made a valiant effort, but it will take a lot more than just one or twenty companies to make Linux gaming work. It will take the cooperation of the entire industry, and that's something we aren't likely to see until Linux has a 50% home-user market share.
[Disclaimer: I am slightly biased, since I'm a Windows user. I use Windows 2000 because it is (contrary to popular belief) stable, it runs 3DS Max 4, Photoshop (Free Dmitry, but let me do my job!), and all of other games and apps.]
~Forager.
Re:Curiosity killed the cat
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Star In A Jar
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· Score: 1
That's just what we need.. a black hole that ends up sucking in the entire planet and replacing our once lush planet with a naked singularity.
There's a great novel about that, actually. David Brin's Earth. It's really an eco-alert piece (nasty near-future where the current generation's environmental fuckups have caused life to be pretty harsh on parts of the next generation [mine]) but the main storyline centers around a singularity that "falls" into the earth. Oops, right? You have no idea =) Read the book. It's slow, but a little over half way through it REALLY picks up pace, the plot twists... wow. Good book. Check it out =)
Explanation: Three weeks ago, my girlfriend purchased Myst III: Exile, as her and her mother are HUGE fans of the series. They have an Intel graphics card, and so it wouldn't work. They called me, I diagnosed the problem, and we looked for a patch. The folks at UbiSoft encouraged users not to return the software because a patch would be ready next week.
Well, that deadline came and went, and came again and went, and came once more and went. So now they have this useless piece of plastic that they don't quite know what to do with.
I talked to them about this yesterday and they want to return the game. Had they bought it from Electronics Boutique like I encouraged, this MIGHT have been no problem. But, no, they bought it from Best Buy, who refuse to accept returns on software; you can only exchange open CD software within one week of purchasing it for the EXACT SAME SOFTWARE.
Now, the killers:
1. Our local software stores have ALL pulled M3:E from their shelves. I went to buy a copy for myself, I played it fine on my system and it's pretty nice, but it's nowhere to be found. All the stores (including Best Buy) pulled it.
2. The license agreement states: "If you are the original installer of the software you may promptly return the software (including printed materials) with proof of purchase to the place where it was purchased for a full refund of the amount paid."
This leads me to believe that a) legally Best Buy is required to accept a return within whatever time period is defined by the adverb "promptly;" and b) that the stores are doing a sort of unofficial recall on the software.
Now if I go with her to Best Buy tomorrow, you and I all know damn well that Best Buy will NOT accept the return. The question is, what can we do? Are my girlfriend and her mum stuck with 4 $50 (they pre-ordered the Collectors Edition, no less) coasters, a music CD, and a Making-of the Game You Can't Play Movie CD? Or can I go into Best Buy, flash them the EULA, and tell them to take their software back?
IANAFLA (I am not asking for legal advice) but I need some idea of what to do here. (Expect me to post this to Ask Slashdot if there aren't enough/any answers generated =))
Is it just me, or is there anyone else out there who ISN'T incredibly fond of OMM? It's a funny site and all, but seriously, it's difficult to get through all the fluff on that site and get to the meat, the news itself. It's buried under so much sarcasm and satire that I spend my whole time just cross-checking their stories against the other more straight-forward sites like Bluesnews and Gamespy. I'm not saying I don't like OMM, I just wonder if it's not much of a news site, but maybe more of a story and satire site. Personally, I'm still mourning the death of Gamecenter.
I only wish it had been a little longer, and addressed games for Open Source OSes, too.
The odds of Mr. Garriot doing a game for any of the Open Source OSes are slim-to-none, because Garriot is not a visionary like the rest of you Linux users. Garriot is a gamer and buisnessman, cut and dry. He's going to have his work cut out for him just developing for Windows and the majour consoles, let alone adding support for MacOS and others like Linux.
This is why the X-Box could be such a hit. The X-Box graphics drivers should look at least a LITTLE like that for Windows; DirectX is something of a standard and I can't imagine them deviating from that too much. Programming for something that they're already familiar with and something that ports VERY easily to the PC will be a big incentive for developers. Why get their hands dirty with Linux for the few thousand copies it would sell? It's just like adventure games in America; the Europeans make plenty of them, but we never get them over here because they simply don't sell. For instance, The Longest Journey got rave reviews, but sold only a pathetic 500 copies in America last year. How can the Euros justify publishing toward that? It's the same thing for Linux & company.
NY Times - After Millner's successful jump from 130,000 ft, President Bush has announced that he is planning to NASA's budget from his original plans of a 4% increase.
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted on reentry costs every year," the President stated. "All of this time we've had a completely viable alternative on our hands, but we never made use of it until now."
President Bush's new budget plans actually cuts NASA's funding by 4%, and calls for an "active use of high altitude reentry prodcedures. Rather than riding the space shuttle back to the earth's surface, the astronauts will take it into lower orbit, where they can jump and freefall planetside.
When asked what NASA planned to do with what could ammount to dozens of unmanned, functioning Space Shuttles in orbit, President Bush paused thoughtfully. "Oh dear," he was quoted as saying, "I hadn't thought of that," and he promptly disappeared in a puff of logic.
As some have already pointed out, this is no big deal. DVDs do it. TV does it. So what? Games already include features like this (ie- Soldier of Fortune, Half-Life, Unreal Tourney, etc) but that hasn't stopped people from bitching about it. People don't want to be able to control the ammount of violence in video games; they want it gone, completely. Point a parent to the parental locks these games feature and they'll still say that it's a threat to society and no way are my kids going to get access to it. Doesn't matter if they can turn off the bad stuff; they don't want to have to. Micro$oft is trying to cover their collective ass, but this isn't going to help. People are still going to clamour for no violence, and Microsoft will continue to deny responsibility, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.
Kind of like that pizza-oven car we saw on the Dominoes commercials? I can see it now: CSI investigator delivered fresh and hot in 30 minutes or he's free!
Everyone seems so upset about losing the Pluto mission, but did you read the rest of the article? (Standard Disclaimer: I hate Bush, I think he stole the presidency, but I'll be fair) Check out the funding plans
snip
Highlights of 2002 Funding
Provides $14.5 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a 2-percent increase over 2001 and a 7-percent increase over 2000.
Provides increased funding for International Space Station development and operations consistent with a strategy of constraining space station cost growth.... NASA will be undertaking a number of management reforms to bring space station costs under control.
Provides a 64-percent increase over 2001 for NASA's Space Launch Initiative. This increase continues NASA's commitment to provide commercial industry the opportunity to meet NASA's future launch needs and to dramatically reduce space transportation costs and improve space transportation safety and reliability.
Funds a more robust Mars Exploration Program.
Funds a science-driven program of prioritized follow-on missions for second-generation Earth Observing System measurements that will provide a greater understanding of how Earth and its climate are changing -- an increase of 5 percent over 2001.
snip
Did I read wrong, or is Bush actually INCREASING the budget for some majour programs? And privatizing space flight? There is strong support for the argument that privatizing space flight will send us forward by leaps and bounds, because of the increased funding, the increased safety requirements, and the increased interest (competition, etc).
Truth be told, NASA isn't getting enough. But when Bush actually increases their budget, rather than decreasing it like I feared he would, I think he deserves a little credit. True, some of the bazillion dollars given to military could have gone to NASA, but at least he increased spending on space stuff!
So don't be so quick to criticise Bush on this one; he seems to be doing NASA a favour this time.
Blizzard's claim should pretty much be tossed out as baseless, because you can't trademark movie titles. Take a look at all of the titles of your DVD (or VHS or whatever) movies, on the covers of their cases. Notice that not a single title is trademarked. Do a search on the IMDB for "The Patriot." Movies titled "The Patriot" were made in 1916, 1917, 1928, 1986, 1998, and 2000. And this is totally legit, because you can't claim exclusive rights to a movie title.
So think about it. If you can't trademark a movie title, where is Blizzard's right to claim the title "Diablo" exclusively? Legally they could release a movie titled "Diablo" the same day as New Line releases their own "Diablo," and neither would be guilty of anything wrong (except perhaps a lack of creativity). Is Blizzard also trying to claim that they will sue anyone who releases a movie titled "Diablo" later, after the movie has been released? If so, I think Mel Gibson should watch out, because William S. Hart might have something to say about his recent blockbuster hit...
Well, while everyone is wondering about the region encoding on their players, I've got another question that I think begs answering: What movies did they get? Bet you The Astornaut's Wife, Armageddon, and Apollo 13 didn't make the list =) Anyone else curious?
The only thing that kids of today put their efforts into is dealing drugs, getting alcohol and committing crimes.
Springfield, MA is a living, breathing ghetto. Our population, by percentage, is more than half Hispanic, thirty percent black, and 18 percent white. The white population controls about 70 percent of the city's wealth. We have the highest rate of HIV in the state, and a recent (as of a month or two ago) report shows us to be third in the country, if I'm not mistaken, for reported HIV cases. This HIV is not spread by sex, it is spread largely by intraveinous drug usage. Springfield is a city, and a ghetto.
That said, I'm still appalled to hear you say that all we students spend our time doing is "dealing drugs, getting alcohol and committing crimes." I attend an inner-city school, and I will swear on my Bible that the majority of students here do not participate in any of that.
My school--inner city as it is, with a largely lower-income Hispanic student body--is recognized as one of the best schools for artists this side of the state. With the richer, well-to-do towns of Wilbraham, Longmeadow, North Hampton, and Westfield (generally, the richer towns of the Berkshires) right next door, we are still the best art, theatre, and music school outside of Boston. Of our population of 2200 students, almost half is involved with the arts somehow. Combined with our sports program, over 70 percent of our student body is involved in extracurricular activities other than looting, drinking, and all sorts of debauchery that you would accuse us of.
Case in point, I just finished up Western Mass district chorus last month. We had 4 of 8 students make it in, a good percentage compared to our suburban competition. I held a lead in our school's annual Shakespeare production (which we are famous for in the Berkshires, as we perform as part of a fall festival of Shakespeare and are still regarded as the school to see). For you more racially-prejudiced folk out there, sorry, but the majority of our cast is hispanic, and damn good at Shakespeare, too. I auditioned for our just auditioned for the annual spring musical last week, and tonight was opening night for our production of Sophocles' _Antigone_, which I am lighting coordinator for. A few side notes: our National Art Honors chapter (of which I am a 4-year member) is one of the largest in WMass; over 75 percent of our class graduates to college annually; we have never, in the history of our school, had a shooting, even though only 3 unarmed security officers patrol the school (armed officers have been seen all of twice in the four years I've been there); our football team is the second best in the district, and our basketball team went on to the state championship only a few years ago (if you haven't guessed my high-school yet, here's a hint: UMass alumnus Travis Best graduated from here only five or six years ago).
But apparently, "the only thing [we] kids put [our] efforts into is dealing drugs, getting alcohol and committing crimes." Well thank you, sir, for informing myself and my classmates who read this that we are, indeed, nothing more than hoodlums in yours and many other's eyes. I'll remember that when I'm in the middle of another 6-hour after-school rehearsal (2:25 [dismissal] thru 8:30) next month.
"it gets to the point where even the nerd gets into it, and then the cool kids have to move on to something else."
That's funny, in my understanding anime was a fringe thing to begin with, and is just becoming popular now... more like "it gets to the point where even the cool kids get are it, and then the nerds have to move on to something else."
But let's say that all the other RIAA companies jump on with BMG and the $5/mnth service continues with lots of sign-upers. At $5/mnth, that's about equal to 3 to 5 CDs a YEAR in terms of price, and I know that's a bargain.
There are a few problems with this, which would make much less than the bargain that you make it out to be.
First of all, consider what you are getting. This is a relative term, something that varies from user to user. The fact of the matter is, not everyone has high-speed internet access, and most people couldn't have that access even if they wanted to, because of availability in their area. I live in Springfield, MA, about a mile outside my local DSL carrier's range, and about 500 yards from the Wilbriham/Springfield border. My ex-girlfriend's brother works for the DSL provider and he said there are currently no plans to extend the range of availability any sooner than a year from now. In Springfield there is no cable broadband access, but I see houses from my bedroom window where there is cable broadband. Again, plans don't call to extend it for at least a year.
So here I am, chugging along at a whopping 5.2k/s max, 3.5k/s on average (that is the record I've seen on my own system, at 3am on a Sunday night) and Napster wants me to pay $5 a month for rights to BMG's music. On my modem, I can download about 3-5 songs (128kbps quality) an hour, assuming I have no ISP disconnects (rare), no transfer errors through Napster (even more rare), and I do not do anything else with the internet (because even surfing/. uses valuable bandwith). So even if I download those 4 songs an hour, it will take me 3-4 hours to download some of the newest records. But this is not realistic. Speaking from experience, it can take me up to a week to download an entire CD off of Napster. Now all of you who have broadband can smile and say $5/month is great, because you can download a CD an hour on a bad day (my friend from Wilbriham takes about twenty minutes for a full CD). But for someone like me (and believe me, I'm not alone) it is a much bigger deal. For $5 a month, if I spend an hour or two every day exclusively downloading music with my bandwith, I can only get between 3 and 5 CDs a month. For someone with broadband, that number becomes 7 CDs a week (1 hour per CD, 7 days a week), and 25-35 CDs a month. Who's getting the bigger bargain there?
Also consider quality. I'm downloading 128kbps songs, because I simply can't afford the 192s and the 320s I've seen lately are unthinkable. Now most people will say they can't hear the difference. But some people can. Believe me, the quality gap between 128 and 320 is HUGE. But then again, so is the file size. At up to 3 times the size of a 128, 320s are just too "expensive" for me to download. That would cut my downloads/month in half, at least, if not in thirds. So rather than getting 3-5 CDs worth of noticeably less-than-CD-quality music every month, I can get 1 or 2 at near-CD-quality. But again, for broadband it's different. Even if the MP3s were 5 times the size of a 128 (file sizes at 5 megs per minute of sound), the average broadband user could, at 1 hour a day, 7 days a week, download 5-7 CDs worth at very high sound quality. Again, who is getting the bargain?
So what's the solution? Maybe there should be modulating access fees based on your modem speed. If you're downloading at 60k/s, pay $5 a month. If you're downloading at 4k/s, shouldn't the fee be proportionately lower? Something like 33-50 cents a month (it may seem silly, but it's more realistic than $5 a month for everyone)? I'll tell you flat out, the same reason I won't pay for Napster is the same reason I won't pay for EQ or Ash's Call or UO, etc: the price they charge is simply not worth the frustration of lag, low transfer rates, and high packet loss. Maybe broadband will change my tune. But for now I for one will find other alternatives to the new Napster.
"... you got the sense that in the futures he created we had progressed as a species, scientifically and culturally."
Yeah, for the latter it happens when we put all of that racial shit behind us (I got the impression that a lot of his casts are multinational) and start acting like human beings, and not african humans, caucasian humans, hispanic humans, oriental humans, etc. For the former it comes more when we realize that we do not so much invent and control technology as we do discover and harness it. His characters give his new tech a sort of reverence or awe that we don't exactly have a lot of today. Something, perhaps, we could all take into consideration... Maybe the events of 2001 are a little too far away because he was too optimistic in his maturation of the society...
Back when 3dfx dominated the market, Glide drivers were utterly incompatible with graphics cards with chips other than those made by 3dfx. However, now that nVidia owns 3dfx, might we see Glide-compatible drivers for our TNTs and GeForces? I know, I know, "wrappers do the job nicely" but some things that just look better when its done by the guys who own the thing and are working _through_ it, versus someone trying to work _around_ the technology...
On a separate, unrelated note, anyone know how I can run old Sound-blaster only software on a Diamond Monster audio card? Just curious.
I don't know I've seen a lot of ads on TV for trojans lately, and they're always using LaTeX of some sort or another... aren't we worried at all about the security risks this poses (despite the advertisers' claims, I've never seen a safe or pleasurable trojan...)?
It's kind of funny, you know, they already did. The ingredient of the day was squid, and one of the chefs (the challenger, I think) made ice cream with it -- squid ink ice cream (yum). I think they did it with broccoli, too.
I wonder if this is anything like the Lightsaber input device I saw on here a few months back... they both use USB cams for input... personally I would love to try the lightsaber idea out.
People still actually use the 'Home page' feature? I've had my 'home page' set to a blank page for about 3 years, and ever since IE allowed customization of the toolbar, I haven't had a little 'Home' button.
Some people, like myself, have little surfing routines that we like to maintain. We get online, and immediately we set off on several sites that we visit as a matter of course. For some of us the Home Page button is invaluble. Mine is set for slashdot, but I also use that little links bar in IE 5.0 for all my big sites (in order, left to right: TomsHardware, Yahoo! [i know, but are there any other better engines out there?] FilePlanet, PlanetUnreal).
Just a thought.
Forager
Re:A remark from Don Knuth on the subject..
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"e-mail" vs "email"
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Well, isn't it interesting the dynamic of it? Try typing the word email... note how smoothly your fingers can reach all of those keys, no tricks or majour jumps involved for the fingers. Now try e-mail. You have to move that pinky finger (if you type in standard position, which i don't, but for the sake of argument, lets say i do) all the way up there and get it back into place by the time you reach that final "l" you've got to be really fast. In the small scale this might not seem like much, but in the great big picture, think of how much time is wasted on that single extra "-".
Slashdot Mirror
You see, my school recently -- and I mean RECENTLY, as in this month -- got wired with some sort of high-speed access, and it is now installed in every dorm room. Unfortunately, the school has neglected to inform the student body of just HOW exactly this is going to work. Those who don't know much about computers (I'd guess about half of the student body) won't know to buy a computer with an ethernet card, because my school has released absolutely no information about what an incoming student should bring for a computer. No info. This is a school whose second largest majour is CG (after architecture) and we aren't being given any sort of reccommendation on hardware. Not even a PC v. Mac type deal (the school uses both). Nothing. Nada. We were just told, quite simply, to bring "a computer."
Just this evening a friend of mine who will also be going down to Savannah called me, long distance, from her home in North Carolina, just so her father could ask what she should bring. They know I have a bit of experience with computers, and wanted to know if I had any idea what they should bring. I emphasised that they needed an ethernet card, and of course had to explain just what exactly that IS.
What's worse, I emailed the school a week ago to ask what kind of services they'd be providing for students who ran minor servers ( My point is this: Mr Anonymous Ape, I imagine the sysadmins at Savannah are envious of your Sisyphean task. Not only do Savannah's sysadmins have to worry about getting an absolutely brand new network up and running (how can you stress test it for 5000 students over the summer?), but they will also have to deal with the fact that the student adviserment committee (or whoever) has neglected to mention anything about kind of HARDWARE students will need (I sure as hell hope they don't expect students to be Mac-addicts; but at this point, they might, and I'd never be the wiser!). This is going to be a rough transition for all of us (imagine, if you would, being suddenly thrust into a new world, without internet access of any kind... I never really realized how much I rely on my net access for normal communication). I will be very disappointed if snail-mail and long distance phone calls (Georgia ---> Mass) are my only options. Pity our sysadmins. =)
Good luck, BTW.
~A.
Gaming on Linux has always suffered--much like gaming on Macs--from lack of support. Few companies--if any--support Linux out of the box; most big-title Linux games are ports from the Windows version that are contracted out to firms like Loki. As a result, these games come out days, weeks, or months after their Windows counterparts. In the mean time, the Windows version is establishing a huge user base, and by the time the Linux version is published, the numbers it pulls in are miniscule relative to the numbers pulled by the Windows version.
Linux users have always been presented with a choice: a) Keep a small partition with Windows installed just to run these games, or b) wait until the Linux version of the game is released, sometimes months afterward. If the game is in any way endorsed, published, or supported by Microsoft, however, you can forget ever seeing it on Linux (AoE, Motocross Madness, Asheron's Call, etc). Oh, and if it relies on Direct3D for its acceleration, count on it taking a LOT longer to port.
The reason Linux gaming will never break mainstream is the same reason the Mac has not been a viable game platform for years: Developers simply do not have the time / desire to build a game that must cater to an additional, less-prolific OS. They have enough to worry about, what with hardware compatibility issues and all without multiplying the complications by two, or three.
In truth, it is this principle that makes me worry for the future of the Windows PC; the X-Box really does stand poised to cause a mountain of problems for Windows-using PC gamers. Here is a $300 box that can run new games beautifully, has the potential to create a HUGE installed base literally overnight, and is very easy to develop for. No more worrying about hardware compatibility, renderer variants, etc. Just one big happy solid system to develop for, and that's it.
Regardless of speculations on a possible distant future (and that's all my X-Box fears are), Windows provides publishers with the largest installed base to cater toward; the general population uses Windows, and most games are geared toward the general population to begin with. When Joe Sixpack goes out to buy a computer game he is--more often than not--picking up software for his HP or Dell or Compaq or Gateway desktop; he probably doesn't even know that the software over in that "Linux" section won't run on his computer.
At this point in time, Windows gaming is the way to go. The games people want to play are only going to be available on Windows, with few exceptions. Loki made a valiant effort, but it will take a lot more than just one or twenty companies to make Linux gaming work. It will take the cooperation of the entire industry, and that's something we aren't likely to see until Linux has a 50% home-user market share.
[Disclaimer: I am slightly biased, since I'm a Windows user. I use Windows 2000 because it is (contrary to popular belief) stable, it runs 3DS Max 4, Photoshop (Free Dmitry, but let me do my job!), and all of other games and apps.]
~Forager.
There's a great novel about that, actually. David Brin's Earth. It's really an eco-alert piece (nasty near-future where the current generation's environmental fuckups have caused life to be pretty harsh on parts of the next generation [mine]) but the main storyline centers around a singularity that "falls" into the earth. Oops, right? You have no idea =) Read the book. It's slow, but a little over half way through it REALLY picks up pace, the plot twists... wow. Good book. Check it out =)
Forager
Explanation: Three weeks ago, my girlfriend purchased Myst III: Exile, as her and her mother are HUGE fans of the series. They have an Intel graphics card, and so it wouldn't work. They called me, I diagnosed the problem, and we looked for a patch. The folks at UbiSoft encouraged users not to return the software because a patch would be ready next week.
Well, that deadline came and went, and came again and went, and came once more and went. So now they have this useless piece of plastic that they don't quite know what to do with.
I talked to them about this yesterday and they want to return the game. Had they bought it from Electronics Boutique like I encouraged, this MIGHT have been no problem. But, no, they bought it from Best Buy, who refuse to accept returns on software; you can only exchange open CD software within one week of purchasing it for the EXACT SAME SOFTWARE.
Now, the killers:
1. Our local software stores have ALL pulled M3:E from their shelves. I went to buy a copy for myself, I played it fine on my system and it's pretty nice, but it's nowhere to be found. All the stores (including Best Buy) pulled it.
2. The license agreement states: "If you are the original installer of the software you may promptly return the software (including printed materials) with proof of purchase to the place where it was purchased for a full refund of the amount paid."
This leads me to believe that a) legally Best Buy is required to accept a return within whatever time period is defined by the adverb "promptly;" and b) that the stores are doing a sort of unofficial recall on the software.
Now if I go with her to Best Buy tomorrow, you and I all know damn well that Best Buy will NOT accept the return. The question is, what can we do? Are my girlfriend and her mum stuck with 4 $50 (they pre-ordered the Collectors Edition, no less) coasters, a music CD, and a Making-of the Game You Can't Play Movie CD? Or can I go into Best Buy, flash them the EULA, and tell them to take their software back?
IANAFLA (I am not asking for legal advice) but I need some idea of what to do here. (Expect me to post this to Ask Slashdot if there aren't enough/any answers generated =))
Thanks much,
-Forager
Forager
The odds of Mr. Garriot doing a game for any of the Open Source OSes are slim-to-none, because Garriot is not a visionary like the rest of you Linux users. Garriot is a gamer and buisnessman, cut and dry. He's going to have his work cut out for him just developing for Windows and the majour consoles, let alone adding support for MacOS and others like Linux.
This is why the X-Box could be such a hit. The X-Box graphics drivers should look at least a LITTLE like that for Windows; DirectX is something of a standard and I can't imagine them deviating from that too much. Programming for something that they're already familiar with and something that ports VERY easily to the PC will be a big incentive for developers. Why get their hands dirty with Linux for the few thousand copies it would sell? It's just like adventure games in America; the Europeans make plenty of them, but we never get them over here because they simply don't sell. For instance, The Longest Journey got rave reviews, but sold only a pathetic 500 copies in America last year. How can the Euros justify publishing toward that? It's the same thing for Linux & company.
HBO, HBO 2, HBO 3, Starz, Encore, Cinemax, etc ...
Forager
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted on reentry costs every year," the President stated. "All of this time we've had a completely viable alternative on our hands, but we never made use of it until now."
President Bush's new budget plans actually cuts NASA's funding by 4%, and calls for an "active use of high altitude reentry prodcedures. Rather than riding the space shuttle back to the earth's surface, the astronauts will take it into lower orbit, where they can jump and freefall planetside.
When asked what NASA planned to do with what could ammount to dozens of unmanned, functioning Space Shuttles in orbit, President Bush paused thoughtfully. "Oh dear," he was quoted as saying, "I hadn't thought of that," and he promptly disappeared in a puff of logic.
~Forager
Forager
Kind of like that pizza-oven car we saw on the Dominoes commercials? I can see it now: CSI investigator delivered fresh and hot in 30 minutes or he's free!
Forager
snip
Highlights of 2002 Funding
snip
Did I read wrong, or is Bush actually INCREASING the budget for some majour programs? And privatizing space flight? There is strong support for the argument that privatizing space flight will send us forward by leaps and bounds, because of the increased funding, the increased safety requirements, and the increased interest (competition, etc).
Truth be told, NASA isn't getting enough. But when Bush actually increases their budget, rather than decreasing it like I feared he would, I think he deserves a little credit. True, some of the bazillion dollars given to military could have gone to NASA, but at least he increased spending on space stuff!
So don't be so quick to criticise Bush on this one; he seems to be doing NASA a favour this time.
Forager
So think about it. If you can't trademark a movie title, where is Blizzard's right to claim the title "Diablo" exclusively? Legally they could release a movie titled "Diablo" the same day as New Line releases their own "Diablo," and neither would be guilty of anything wrong (except perhaps a lack of creativity). Is Blizzard also trying to claim that they will sue anyone who releases a movie titled "Diablo" later, after the movie has been released? If so, I think Mel Gibson should watch out, because William S. Hart might have something to say about his recent blockbuster hit...
Forager
~Forager
Springfield, MA is a living, breathing ghetto. Our population, by percentage, is more than half Hispanic, thirty percent black, and 18 percent white. The white population controls about 70 percent of the city's wealth. We have the highest rate of HIV in the state, and a recent (as of a month or two ago) report shows us to be third in the country, if I'm not mistaken, for reported HIV cases. This HIV is not spread by sex, it is spread largely by intraveinous drug usage. Springfield is a city, and a ghetto.
That said, I'm still appalled to hear you say that all we students spend our time doing is "dealing drugs, getting alcohol and committing crimes." I attend an inner-city school, and I will swear on my Bible that the majority of students here do not participate in any of that.
My school--inner city as it is, with a largely lower-income Hispanic student body--is recognized as one of the best schools for artists this side of the state. With the richer, well-to-do towns of Wilbraham, Longmeadow, North Hampton, and Westfield (generally, the richer towns of the Berkshires) right next door, we are still the best art, theatre, and music school outside of Boston. Of our population of 2200 students, almost half is involved with the arts somehow. Combined with our sports program, over 70 percent of our student body is involved in extracurricular activities other than looting, drinking, and all sorts of debauchery that you would accuse us of.
Case in point, I just finished up Western Mass district chorus last month. We had 4 of 8 students make it in, a good percentage compared to our suburban competition. I held a lead in our school's annual Shakespeare production (which we are famous for in the Berkshires, as we perform as part of a fall festival of Shakespeare and are still regarded as the school to see). For you more racially-prejudiced folk out there, sorry, but the majority of our cast is hispanic, and damn good at Shakespeare, too. I auditioned for our just auditioned for the annual spring musical last week, and tonight was opening night for our production of Sophocles' _Antigone_, which I am lighting coordinator for. A few side notes: our National Art Honors chapter (of which I am a 4-year member) is one of the largest in WMass; over 75 percent of our class graduates to college annually; we have never, in the history of our school, had a shooting, even though only 3 unarmed security officers patrol the school (armed officers have been seen all of twice in the four years I've been there); our football team is the second best in the district, and our basketball team went on to the state championship only a few years ago (if you haven't guessed my high-school yet, here's a hint: UMass alumnus Travis Best graduated from here only five or six years ago).
But apparently, "the only thing [we] kids put [our] efforts into is dealing drugs, getting alcohol and committing crimes." Well thank you, sir, for informing myself and my classmates who read this that we are, indeed, nothing more than hoodlums in yours and many other's eyes. I'll remember that when I'm in the middle of another 6-hour after-school rehearsal (2:25 [dismissal] thru 8:30) next month.
Slightly peeved,
Forager
That's funny, in my understanding anime was a fringe thing to begin with, and is just becoming popular now ... more like "it gets to the point where even the cool kids get are it, and then the nerds have to move on to something else."
Forager
There are a few problems with this, which would make much less than the bargain that you make it out to be.
First of all, consider what you are getting. This is a relative term, something that varies from user to user. The fact of the matter is, not everyone has high-speed internet access, and most people couldn't have that access even if they wanted to, because of availability in their area. I live in Springfield, MA, about a mile outside my local DSL carrier's range, and about 500 yards from the Wilbriham/Springfield border. My ex-girlfriend's brother works for the DSL provider and he said there are currently no plans to extend the range of availability any sooner than a year from now. In Springfield there is no cable broadband access, but I see houses from my bedroom window where there is cable broadband. Again, plans don't call to extend it for at least a year.
So here I am, chugging along at a whopping 5.2k/s max, 3.5k/s on average (that is the record I've seen on my own system, at 3am on a Sunday night) and Napster wants me to pay $5 a month for rights to BMG's music. On my modem, I can download about 3-5 songs (128kbps quality) an hour, assuming I have no ISP disconnects (rare), no transfer errors through Napster (even more rare), and I do not do anything else with the internet (because even surfing /. uses valuable bandwith). So even if I download those 4 songs an hour, it will take me 3-4 hours to download some of the newest records. But this is not realistic. Speaking from experience, it can take me up to a week to download an entire CD off of Napster. Now all of you who have broadband can smile and say $5/month is great, because you can download a CD an hour on a bad day (my friend from Wilbriham takes about twenty minutes for a full CD). But for someone like me (and believe me, I'm not alone) it is a much bigger deal. For $5 a month, if I spend an hour or two every day exclusively downloading music with my bandwith, I can only get between 3 and 5 CDs a month. For someone with broadband, that number becomes 7 CDs a week (1 hour per CD, 7 days a week), and 25-35 CDs a month. Who's getting the bigger bargain there?
Also consider quality. I'm downloading 128kbps songs, because I simply can't afford the 192s and the 320s I've seen lately are unthinkable. Now most people will say they can't hear the difference. But some people can. Believe me, the quality gap between 128 and 320 is HUGE. But then again, so is the file size. At up to 3 times the size of a 128, 320s are just too "expensive" for me to download. That would cut my downloads/month in half, at least, if not in thirds. So rather than getting 3-5 CDs worth of noticeably less-than-CD-quality music every month, I can get 1 or 2 at near-CD-quality. But again, for broadband it's different. Even if the MP3s were 5 times the size of a 128 (file sizes at 5 megs per minute of sound), the average broadband user could, at 1 hour a day, 7 days a week, download 5-7 CDs worth at very high sound quality. Again, who is getting the bargain?
So what's the solution? Maybe there should be modulating access fees based on your modem speed. If you're downloading at 60k/s, pay $5 a month. If you're downloading at 4k/s, shouldn't the fee be proportionately lower? Something like 33-50 cents a month (it may seem silly, but it's more realistic than $5 a month for everyone)? I'll tell you flat out, the same reason I won't pay for Napster is the same reason I won't pay for EQ or Ash's Call or UO, etc: the price they charge is simply not worth the frustration of lag, low transfer rates, and high packet loss. Maybe broadband will change my tune. But for now I for one will find other alternatives to the new Napster.
-Forager.
-Forager
Yeah, for the latter it happens when we put all of that racial shit behind us (I got the impression that a lot of his casts are multinational) and start acting like human beings, and not african humans, caucasian humans, hispanic humans, oriental humans, etc. For the former it comes more when we realize that we do not so much invent and control technology as we do discover and harness it. His characters give his new tech a sort of reverence or awe that we don't exactly have a lot of today. Something, perhaps, we could all take into consideration ... Maybe the events of 2001 are a little too far away because he was too optimistic in his maturation of the society...
Forager
On a separate, unrelated note, anyone know how I can run old Sound-blaster only software on a Diamond Monster audio card? Just curious.
forager
Forager
It's kind of funny, you know, they already did. The ingredient of the day was squid, and one of the chefs (the challenger, I think) made ice cream with it -- squid ink ice cream (yum). I think they did it with broccoli, too.
-Forager.
-Forager
Forager
Some people, like myself, have little surfing routines that we like to maintain. We get online, and immediately we set off on several sites that we visit as a matter of course. For some of us the Home Page button is invaluble. Mine is set for slashdot, but I also use that little links bar in IE 5.0 for all my big sites (in order, left to right: TomsHardware, Yahoo! [i know, but are there any other better engines out there?] FilePlanet, PlanetUnreal).
Just a thought.
Forager
forager