God, I would have loved to see a CF-based handheld console. You must remember, however, that the minidisc actually remains a very popular format in Japan (new PCs are even touted as including 32X MD writers!), so despite Sony's failure in the US market, minidisc and memory stick were "good enough" on a global scale to warrant Sony's continued development of proprietary formats. Additionally, despite the ability to play movies and music, the UMD remains a format which is essentially concieved as a means for game distribution, and every portable console ever (with the exception of the Korean GamePark 32) has used a proprietary format. The fact that the UMD is optical media and not a ROM cartridge leads us to desire a standard format, but the history of portables just doesn't point in that direction (even home consoles that use CD/DVD media implement it in some non-standard way by altering the ISO format, introducing intentionally unreadable sectors, etc.).
Anyway, my prediction is that the UMD will tank as a means for video distribution (btw, does anyone know if UMD video is encoded in the PSP's native 480x272 resolution? If so, a DVD at 720x480 is preferrable in yet another way), and people will just bite the bullet and pick up a big memory stick to watch videos on their PSPs instead. The UMD will live on as a means to distribute games, however, because frankly whatever the manufacturer dictates is what you're going to be using to play games on your console system (MS, Sony, and Nintendo consoles are all, of course, proprietary systems). Unlike Video and Audio, where open standards rule the day, there hasn't been an "industry standard" game console architecture since the 3DO, and a successful proprietary console can bring whatever media format it likes along for the ride.
I did this as Monk Zeng, but you can probably do this with any of the other males or, if your post is any indication, one of the female player characters as well.
Firstly, you'll want to quest with Dawn Star as your follower a lot early in the game. In your conversations with her, be sure and ask her about her feelings, compliment her on her kindness and empathy, and tell her that her happiness is very important to you. Dawn Star is definitely an Open Palm character, so when she is your follower, she will be impressed when you show generosity to strangers and mercy to enemies. You should therefore avoid unecessary fighting and, wherever possible, try to peacefully and justly resolve conflicts between NPCs and convince potential enemies to repent and lead better lives. Later on, in the Imperial City, Dawn Star will be amused and delighted if you decide to take a roll in the play, and, if you choose to infiltrate the Lotus Assassins through the inquisitors, you should follow her wishes and attempt to force the Judge to resign without killing him. Gentle Breezes will help you out (she would rather you kill him, but she will still help you to force his resignation).
As for Silk Fox/Princess Lian, she is not as goody-goody as Dawn Star, but she's far from being closed-fist, either. I suggest bringing her along for a good portion of the Imperial City. She wants you to be decisive and strong, but hopefully to use your strengths to restore justice to the Empire. She will get impatient with you if you sidequest a lot, but this isn't a huge problem. When chatting to her, don't criticize her family before she's ready, and be sure to show sympathy when she complains of the obligations that her station holds. She will ask how she is seen among her people at some point... say that she is known as being generous and kind. When talk turns to love, she will complain about the pathetic selection of men at court and ask if you have a particular special someone. Just say "a noble", and there will be plenty implied.
Once you've piqued the interest of both ladies, take Silk Fox along with you and head for the Lotus Assasin fortress. Before you enter, Dawn Star will interrupt, and the two will confront you about how you've been leading both of them on. Here is where things get very tricky. Be sure that your intuition and charm skills are as high as humanly possible for this conversation. Always avoid explicitly picking one woman or the other, and say things like "you are both very important to me", etc. Whenever an intuition or charm option is available, take it and pray for it to be successful. If you follow these techniques, you can defuse the confrontation. The best case scenario here is that Dawn Star is flattered that you speak of her as the princess' equal, and Princess Lian is intrigued by your coy charm and suggests that the three of you should explore this more, further.
Alas, the rivalry between the two is far from over. As you continue the game onwards towards the Imperial Palace, it will flare up at least once more. Once again, avoid favoring one woman over the other and try to be complimentary to them both in the same breath when you can. Eventually, however, you will be backed into a corner, with no charm or intuition options to fall back on. Here, you should choose the option that goes something like "don't pretend my actions don't intrigue you". This will leave the ladies flustered but essentially disarmed, allowing you to continue on to the confrontation in the Throne Room.
As you probably know, some crazy plot stuff ensues after that. When you manage to get yourself restored in the temple at Dirge, but before you prepare for the arrival of the army, Silk Fox will want to talk to you. She will tell you about how she and Dawn Star bonded in their grief and resolved their rivalry, then ask you who you truly love. Say that you really can't choose, and suddenly Dawn Star will emerge from the shadows and... you've done it! Special romantic cutscene follows.
I have to agree with the poster, this is one of the best RPGs I've played in a very long time. I'd like to add a few of my thoughts to the review however...
Firstly, the game's setting is absolutely fantastic. Bioware have put an enormous amount of creativity into creating their fictional gameworld, and it definitely shows. There are abundant references to Chinese literature and mythology, which are a treat if you already have familiarity with them, but which are so organically woven into the gameworld that even people without familiarity with the Chinese classics will love discovering them. I particularly enjoyed how each of the game's "chapters" opens with 3 lines of foreshadowing (a la Monkey a.k.a. Journey to the West), the rich "celestial beaurocracy" glimpsed so often in Chinese literature, and the numerous historical allusions (the northern horselords clearly refer to the Mongol hordes, while the land of the six sacred scrolls in the west seems to be a reference to Bhuddist Tibet). Actually, the background universe is so vast that it almost seems dissapointing that you don't get to travel to some of the more famed cities like Pheonix Gate (sequel, anyone? please?).
Secondly, there is the utterly fantastic story. The main plot is epic to say the least, and contains some excellent twists (one about 2/3 of the way through the game just blew me away). The numerous interesting side quests keep the game interesting as well, and if you spend the time to really explore the world and get to know the characters, you'll be rewarded greatly (did I mention that a certain Monty Python alum makes a hillarious appearance as the game's only European character?). Interactions with members of your party are interesting as well, with possibilities for friendship, rivalry, and romance. This is a slight spoiler, but if you're a male character and you play your cards EXACTLY right, it is actually possible to arrange a threesome of sorts with the game's two female lead NPCs. I'm not certain if something similar is possible playing as female, but I just started a run as Wu the Lotus Blossum, so I guess I'll have the chance to find out.
Finally, the game is pretty much perfectly streamlined. While you can learn numerous styles and techniques, the fighting is always easily controllable through the 3 basic moves: fast attack, strong attack, and block (area attack is also available by pressing fast and strong at the same time). Having only 3 basic character attributes makes character customization a much less taxing experience (don't get me wrong, I love the depth of the D20 system, but this is a nice change of pace), and the fact that equipable inventory is limited to your amulet and the single-follower system all combine to make a very accessable system. Basically, the typical RPG elements are there, but they never get in your way. You won't ever spend 5 minutes equipping before a battle, you'll pretty much always be directly engaged in the story. And when the combat and story are as good as they are in Jade Empire, this is definitely a very good thing.
As others have pointed out, the case is actually 13-sided, not 11, as the front and back count as sides. This makes it an irregular tridecahedron (which doesn't tell you a whole lot about the shape, other that the number of sides), or more specifically an undecagonal right cylinder.
Maybe if these features turn out to be a success in the marketplace -- unlikely if the DS is any indicator...
If anything, I'd say DS sales bode quite well for Nintendo. It's already past 6 million units, set the all-time record for highest-volume launch sales in the UK, sold 40% past Nintendo's holiday projections... And, Nintendo's production line is up to speed and has thus far prevented any serious DS shortages in any market (say what you will about the limited initial supply of the PS2 or the PSP creating additional product lust, it's still nice to be able to actually buy a console).
The DS has a lot going for it: the touch screen and microphone enable some very fun interaction that's perfect for short stints of mobile gaming. Plus, it has backwards compatibility with the whole library of GBA titles. Everyone says the PSP has a strong launch lineup... this is somewhat true, although many of the titles are just ports of PS2 games with reduced technical capability (near-PS2 graphics is an exaggeration, the graphics look more like some of the better quality Dreamcast games, but that still ain't bad). The only PSP title that really does it for me right now is Lumines, and that doesn't use the PSP's horsepower anyway.
Nintendo still knows the portable gaming market very well, and I think the interface features on the DS will continue to do quite well there. The PlayStation Portable is pretty much just that, a shrunken-down version of an ordinary console. Nintendo is trying to enable a new, unique experience on the DS, whereas Sony is trying to deliver a home-console gaming experience that comes along with you. The one thing that the PSP has going over the DS as a portable entertainment device is its multimedia capabilities, but even those are far from polished. If you want to enjoy music and video on the PSP, you have to buy a bigger memory stick (and it has to be the Duo version), and you can't just drag and drop songs and videos from your PC, that'd be way too easy. Instead, you must use special software (definitely not included in the box) to properly convert and obfuscate those files, and you're still limited to the 1GB size of Sony's largest memory stick. Sony has made an effort to make the PSP a multimedia convergence device, but it is, unfortunately, halfhearted. Hopefully they will roll in some improvements in subsequent firmware updates, but I still wish they would have included a little slot on the back that could hold a mini hard-drive option.
People want a convergence device, but the PSP hasn't made multimedia use easy enough for the average user yet, and I doubt it will do a whole lot to stave off the cell phone's continued drive to assimilate every other peice of portable electronics. This isn't a huge issue for Sony, as they are in that market, too (I have a T610 and I love it, Sony's definitely got that down, don't get me wrong). If you want a portable gaming device, though, the innovation present in the DS, for me and for a whole lot of other gamers, trumps the raw power and the (I'll admit it) oh-so-sexy screen of the PSP.
Notice, however, that what Nintendo has going on with the DS doesn't necessarily translate to whatever the hell they're planning with revolution. To succeed in the home console space, they need 3rd party developer support (it's becoming clear that, despite continued strong showings from the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid franchises, they just aren't system sellers anymore), and they need to make a decent technical showing against Microsoft and Sony. Now, Microsoft started this generation with a very small selection of games but obvious technical superiority, showcased by their trump title Halo, and gradually built up a solid selection of titles. Sony had backwards compatibility with the vast universe of PS1 games, plus astoundingly great 3rd party support that gave them plenty of system sellers at no development cost to them (Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Tekken, Soul Calibur... all developed by 3rd parties), and was first to launch by
This isn't as crazy an idea as it sounds. Gentoo runs on several non-Linux systems as it is, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OS X. Why not port Gentoo to cygwin, a suitably UNIX-like environment which already exists on windows? The required devtools are already available with cygwin, and could be used to bootstrap portage and the gentoo base system. Sounds fun.
The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover.
Damn, Nintendo, really shooting for the luxery market with this one, huh? Hoping people will assume it's better than the PSP because it has twice the screens and ten times the price?;)
Here I thought that computing was a hobby that was compatible with my vegetarianism (unlike, say, my Dad's deer hunting). Guess I'll have to switch to underwater basket weaving.
If I'm not mistaken, Apple already released source code for at least part of Rendezvous in their MDNSResponderPosix project (I use it to advertise my Linux-based iTunes server to my Mac and Windows-using neighbors). Additionally, the Howl project (another implementation of zeroconf) has some Rendezvous-compatibility features.
Anyway, when I was setting up that iTunes server, I found it very strange that Apple was so generous with Rendezvous, and yet they jealously gaurd DAAP (their music sharing protocol) such that I had to make use of the reverse-engineered implementation in daapd. Furthermore, they made compatibility-breaking changes when they released iTunes 4.5. Incidentally, I updated to the version of daapd that was released upon cracking the new protocol, and I was the only person in my building serving both iTunes 4.2 and iTunes 4.5 hosts.:) The only reason for Apple atempting to break DAAP interoperability that I can think of is to enforce the 5-connections maximum present in iTunes. Either that, or they may be trying to maintain a competive advantage over Windows Media Player, I suppose.
Looking Glass is, obviously, going to require panoramic backgrounds. The screenshots show a forest, some mountains, and what appears to be the campus of Stanford. Something is seriously amiss here, as both Scott McNealy and Bill Joy went to Berkeley. They did just cut a high profile deal with Microsoft, though, and there is a William H. Gates computer science building at Stanford. Coincidence? What about the fact that they have a backdrop of a private university in a product whose source code they are about to make public, in the meantime excluding Sun's public (both in the sense of Berkeley itself and the BSD, back when Sun's OS was SunOS) roots. Something strange is definately afoot.
Actually, I've had the SETI vs. Folding debate several times with my other computer-savvy friends. Personally, I run SETI. I tell them that we've only had radio for barely a century, which is an exceedingly short time compared to the history and the potential lifespan (taking the optimistic view) of our species. So, if the SETI project suceeds, the species we contact is likely to be far more technologically advanced than our own. If they have a biochemistry roughly similar to that of terrestrial life, they may have worked out the "laws of protein folding", allowing us to bypass our current brute-force approach. In the worst case, we can always send them the folding@home workunits and borrow a few minutes on their computers to cure our woes.
So, essentially, I do SETI because it has the potential to leapfrog folding@home. I donate my blood to medicine every six weeks, so I figure I've got my bases covered.
As anyone with even a cursory familiarity with modern biology knows, nobody "writes" genes. We don't understand nearly enough about biochemistry to do this yet. The genetically modified organisms on the market today start from an unmodified genetic stock, then have genes from other strains or species spliced into them. Declaring that you own a gene merely because you were the first to commercially exploit it is patently ridiculous. It's as if I found a rock whilst hiking, then declared a patent on all sedimentary rock and began suing producers of concrete for selling a derivative work without paying royalties.
Why am I just hearing of this now? The combination of Slashdot and Japan is just... beyond words. Interestingly enough, the page title is mostly english words transliterated into katakana:
Surashudotto Japan: Arege-na Nuusu to ****I suck at Kanji, mumble, mumble**** Seito
Let me point out that the above sentence contains the word "Japan". Not Nihon (), but the English word Japan. Wierdness. Slashdot gets Japanized as Japan gets westernized.
Hmm... is Slashdot headed towards simple, concise headlines which state things which are completely obvious to any human with more CPU power than a raddish? Here are some suggestions, if that is the case:
1. SCO pursuing meritless litigation.
2. A robot will replace you in 6 years; awesome!
3. Darl McBride Paternity Test Result: Satan
4. An Indian will replace you in 6 months; outsourcing must be stopped.
5. RIAA Extorts Money From Filesharers
6. Survey: Mac users have overwhelming desire to fsck Steve Jobs
7. People starting to get sick of hearing about SCO.
Linux/BSD users already can listen to and download music shared over iTunes using TunesBrowser. The project is rather young, so a do-it-yourself compile is necessary, but it does present a very nice, clean GUI interface to iTunes shares.
(Incidentally, if you'd RTFA, your would notice that this project actually allows you to browse samples from the iTMS store, and has nothing to do with network song sharing.)
You guys are this close to getting voted off the continent. Yeah, I saw Mexico's confessional the other week, and they're just itchin' to cut you Canucks off.
In all seriousness, for as fun as it is to rip on Canadians, being a (United States of) American myself, in the last few years I've come to appreciate Canada a lot more. Despite the fact that we share so much of our culture (Quebec residents excluded), this only serves to highlight some of the differences in our attitudes and our social and political systems. Sure, Americans find a lot of little things about Canada weird (mounties, mooses, and Manitoba, to name a few), but I think Canadians have been a great check on our sanity as of late. A lot of Americans like myself look to those funny guys up north and think, you know, if they go for public health care and sit out aggressive invasions, there's hope for us, too.
Which brings us to copyright law. The recent ruling seemed an inspiring victory, not necessarily for filesharing, but for users' right to privacy on the Internet. I really hope that all you Canadians out there manage to fend off this current threat. Ideally, I'd like to see Larry Lessig's system, wherein musicians are paid directly a share of general royalties collected based on their popularity (a la ASCAP), implemented somewhere (you could even start funding the royalty pool with the levy on blank CDRs). Who knows, if it works out well enough, maybe we'll even steal the idea (a la Lorne Michaels, Dan Akroyd, Mike Myers, etc.). Good luck, my Canadian friends.
(Just a side note: I'm a Michigander, which is about as close to a half-breed as you can get. If any statements seem incongruous, consider them sufficiently explained.)
The LD50 (the dosage at which 50% of human beings will experience a fatal overdose of a substance) of caffiene is about 10 g for oral administration (intravenously, amounts as low as 3.2 g have caused death). A cup of coffee has about 120-170 mg of caffiene. So, 100 cups would easily put you above the LD50 (at 12-17 g), although your body attempting to purge the caffiene (via uncontrollable urination and vomiting, both of which will certainly occur at the doses mentioned) will mitigate the dosage somewhat.
It is worth noting that caffiene, like cocaine, is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Once you pass an amount as little as 250 mg (depending on your weight) you will begin to feel the effects of caffiene intoxication, which include a very reduced sensitivity to pain, and eventually a feeling of intense, vibrant physical energy. As dosage increases however, psychological effects such as paranoia and anxiety are common, and panic attacks are often induced (it's happened to me). Keep going, and you will manifest serious cardiovascular effects, including heart arythmia and fibrilation. A myocardial infarction (heart attack) can be induced, particularly in individuals prone to heart disease. Such cardiovascular effects are likely to cause physical incapacitation before you can drink your way to the LD50, but if you figure out a way to maintain your rate of ingestion then yes, you will very likely die.
Slashdot Mirror
God, I would have loved to see a CF-based handheld console. You must remember, however, that the minidisc actually remains a very popular format in Japan (new PCs are even touted as including 32X MD writers!), so despite Sony's failure in the US market, minidisc and memory stick were "good enough" on a global scale to warrant Sony's continued development of proprietary formats. Additionally, despite the ability to play movies and music, the UMD remains a format which is essentially concieved as a means for game distribution, and every portable console ever (with the exception of the Korean GamePark 32) has used a proprietary format. The fact that the UMD is optical media and not a ROM cartridge leads us to desire a standard format, but the history of portables just doesn't point in that direction (even home consoles that use CD/DVD media implement it in some non-standard way by altering the ISO format, introducing intentionally unreadable sectors, etc.).
Anyway, my prediction is that the UMD will tank as a means for video distribution (btw, does anyone know if UMD video is encoded in the PSP's native 480x272 resolution? If so, a DVD at 720x480 is preferrable in yet another way), and people will just bite the bullet and pick up a big memory stick to watch videos on their PSPs instead. The UMD will live on as a means to distribute games, however, because frankly whatever the manufacturer dictates is what you're going to be using to play games on your console system (MS, Sony, and Nintendo consoles are all, of course, proprietary systems). Unlike Video and Audio, where open standards rule the day, there hasn't been an "industry standard" game console architecture since the 3DO, and a successful proprietary console can bring whatever media format it likes along for the ride.
SPOILERS FOLLOW:
Well, since you asked nicely...
I did this as Monk Zeng, but you can probably do this with any of the other males or, if your post is any indication, one of the female player characters as well.
Firstly, you'll want to quest with Dawn Star as your follower a lot early in the game. In your conversations with her, be sure and ask her about her feelings, compliment her on her kindness and empathy, and tell her that her happiness is very important to you. Dawn Star is definitely an Open Palm character, so when she is your follower, she will be impressed when you show generosity to strangers and mercy to enemies. You should therefore avoid unecessary fighting and, wherever possible, try to peacefully and justly resolve conflicts between NPCs and convince potential enemies to repent and lead better lives. Later on, in the Imperial City, Dawn Star will be amused and delighted if you decide to take a roll in the play, and, if you choose to infiltrate the Lotus Assassins through the inquisitors, you should follow her wishes and attempt to force the Judge to resign without killing him. Gentle Breezes will help you out (she would rather you kill him, but she will still help you to force his resignation).
As for Silk Fox/Princess Lian, she is not as goody-goody as Dawn Star, but she's far from being closed-fist, either. I suggest bringing her along for a good portion of the Imperial City. She wants you to be decisive and strong, but hopefully to use your strengths to restore justice to the Empire. She will get impatient with you if you sidequest a lot, but this isn't a huge problem. When chatting to her, don't criticize her family before she's ready, and be sure to show sympathy when she complains of the obligations that her station holds. She will ask how she is seen among her people at some point... say that she is known as being generous and kind. When talk turns to love, she will complain about the pathetic selection of men at court and ask if you have a particular special someone. Just say "a noble", and there will be plenty implied.
Once you've piqued the interest of both ladies, take Silk Fox along with you and head for the Lotus Assasin fortress. Before you enter, Dawn Star will interrupt, and the two will confront you about how you've been leading both of them on. Here is where things get very tricky. Be sure that your intuition and charm skills are as high as humanly possible for this conversation. Always avoid explicitly picking one woman or the other, and say things like "you are both very important to me", etc. Whenever an intuition or charm option is available, take it and pray for it to be successful. If you follow these techniques, you can defuse the confrontation. The best case scenario here is that Dawn Star is flattered that you speak of her as the princess' equal, and Princess Lian is intrigued by your coy charm and suggests that the three of you should explore this more, further.
Alas, the rivalry between the two is far from over. As you continue the game onwards towards the Imperial Palace, it will flare up at least once more. Once again, avoid favoring one woman over the other and try to be complimentary to them both in the same breath when you can. Eventually, however, you will be backed into a corner, with no charm or intuition options to fall back on. Here, you should choose the option that goes something like "don't pretend my actions don't intrigue you". This will leave the ladies flustered but essentially disarmed, allowing you to continue on to the confrontation in the Throne Room.
As you probably know, some crazy plot stuff ensues after that. When you manage to get yourself restored in the temple at Dirge, but before you prepare for the arrival of the army, Silk Fox will want to talk to you. She will tell you about how she and Dawn Star bonded in their grief and resolved their rivalry, then ask you who you truly love. Say that you really can't choose, and suddenly Dawn Star will emerge from the shadows and... you've done it! Special romantic cutscene follows.
I have to agree with the poster, this is one of the best RPGs I've played in a very long time. I'd like to add a few of my thoughts to the review however...
Firstly, the game's setting is absolutely fantastic. Bioware have put an enormous amount of creativity into creating their fictional gameworld, and it definitely shows. There are abundant references to Chinese literature and mythology, which are a treat if you already have familiarity with them, but which are so organically woven into the gameworld that even people without familiarity with the Chinese classics will love discovering them. I particularly enjoyed how each of the game's "chapters" opens with 3 lines of foreshadowing (a la Monkey a.k.a. Journey to the West), the rich "celestial beaurocracy" glimpsed so often in Chinese literature, and the numerous historical allusions (the northern horselords clearly refer to the Mongol hordes, while the land of the six sacred scrolls in the west seems to be a reference to Bhuddist Tibet). Actually, the background universe is so vast that it almost seems dissapointing that you don't get to travel to some of the more famed cities like Pheonix Gate (sequel, anyone? please?).
Secondly, there is the utterly fantastic story. The main plot is epic to say the least, and contains some excellent twists (one about 2/3 of the way through the game just blew me away). The numerous interesting side quests keep the game interesting as well, and if you spend the time to really explore the world and get to know the characters, you'll be rewarded greatly (did I mention that a certain Monty Python alum makes a hillarious appearance as the game's only European character?). Interactions with members of your party are interesting as well, with possibilities for friendship, rivalry, and romance. This is a slight spoiler, but if you're a male character and you play your cards EXACTLY right, it is actually possible to arrange a threesome of sorts with the game's two female lead NPCs. I'm not certain if something similar is possible playing as female, but I just started a run as Wu the Lotus Blossum, so I guess I'll have the chance to find out.
Finally, the game is pretty much perfectly streamlined. While you can learn numerous styles and techniques, the fighting is always easily controllable through the 3 basic moves: fast attack, strong attack, and block (area attack is also available by pressing fast and strong at the same time). Having only 3 basic character attributes makes character customization a much less taxing experience (don't get me wrong, I love the depth of the D20 system, but this is a nice change of pace), and the fact that equipable inventory is limited to your amulet and the single-follower system all combine to make a very accessable system. Basically, the typical RPG elements are there, but they never get in your way. You won't ever spend 5 minutes equipping before a battle, you'll pretty much always be directly engaged in the story. And when the combat and story are as good as they are in Jade Empire, this is definitely a very good thing.
As others have pointed out, the case is actually 13-sided, not 11, as the front and back count as sides. This makes it an irregular tridecahedron (which doesn't tell you a whole lot about the shape, other that the number of sides), or more specifically an undecagonal right cylinder.
Seems like just yesterday people were saying Linux doesn't yet deliver as an alternative to Solaris.
Maybe if these features turn out to be a success in the marketplace -- unlikely if the DS is any indicator...
If anything, I'd say DS sales bode quite well for Nintendo. It's already past 6 million units, set the all-time record for highest-volume launch sales in the UK, sold 40% past Nintendo's holiday projections... And, Nintendo's production line is up to speed and has thus far prevented any serious DS shortages in any market (say what you will about the limited initial supply of the PS2 or the PSP creating additional product lust, it's still nice to be able to actually buy a console).
The DS has a lot going for it: the touch screen and microphone enable some very fun interaction that's perfect for short stints of mobile gaming. Plus, it has backwards compatibility with the whole library of GBA titles. Everyone says the PSP has a strong launch lineup... this is somewhat true, although many of the titles are just ports of PS2 games with reduced technical capability (near-PS2 graphics is an exaggeration, the graphics look more like some of the better quality Dreamcast games, but that still ain't bad). The only PSP title that really does it for me right now is Lumines, and that doesn't use the PSP's horsepower anyway.
Nintendo still knows the portable gaming market very well, and I think the interface features on the DS will continue to do quite well there. The PlayStation Portable is pretty much just that, a shrunken-down version of an ordinary console. Nintendo is trying to enable a new, unique experience on the DS, whereas Sony is trying to deliver a home-console gaming experience that comes along with you. The one thing that the PSP has going over the DS as a portable entertainment device is its multimedia capabilities, but even those are far from polished. If you want to enjoy music and video on the PSP, you have to buy a bigger memory stick (and it has to be the Duo version), and you can't just drag and drop songs and videos from your PC, that'd be way too easy. Instead, you must use special software (definitely not included in the box) to properly convert and obfuscate those files, and you're still limited to the 1GB size of Sony's largest memory stick. Sony has made an effort to make the PSP a multimedia convergence device, but it is, unfortunately, halfhearted. Hopefully they will roll in some improvements in subsequent firmware updates, but I still wish they would have included a little slot on the back that could hold a mini hard-drive option.
People want a convergence device, but the PSP hasn't made multimedia use easy enough for the average user yet, and I doubt it will do a whole lot to stave off the cell phone's continued drive to assimilate every other peice of portable electronics. This isn't a huge issue for Sony, as they are in that market, too (I have a T610 and I love it, Sony's definitely got that down, don't get me wrong). If you want a portable gaming device, though, the innovation present in the DS, for me and for a whole lot of other gamers, trumps the raw power and the (I'll admit it) oh-so-sexy screen of the PSP.
Notice, however, that what Nintendo has going on with the DS doesn't necessarily translate to whatever the hell they're planning with revolution. To succeed in the home console space, they need 3rd party developer support (it's becoming clear that, despite continued strong showings from the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid franchises, they just aren't system sellers anymore), and they need to make a decent technical showing against Microsoft and Sony. Now, Microsoft started this generation with a very small selection of games but obvious technical superiority, showcased by their trump title Halo, and gradually built up a solid selection of titles. Sony had backwards compatibility with the vast universe of PS1 games, plus astoundingly great 3rd party support that gave them plenty of system sellers at no development cost to them (Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Tekken, Soul Calibur... all developed by 3rd parties), and was first to launch by
This isn't as crazy an idea as it sounds. Gentoo runs on several non-Linux systems as it is, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OS X. Why not port Gentoo to cygwin, a suitably UNIX-like environment which already exists on windows? The required devtools are already available with cygwin, and could be used to bootstrap portage and the gentoo base system. Sounds fun.
Platinum = expensive = joke
See the joke was about Platinum, which is a precious metal, being... oh, never mind.
From the press release:
The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover.
Damn, Nintendo, really shooting for the luxery market with this one, huh? Hoping people will assume it's better than the PSP because it has twice the screens and ten times the price? ;)
Here I thought that computing was a hobby that was compatible with my vegetarianism (unlike, say, my Dad's deer hunting). Guess I'll have to switch to underwater basket weaving.
If I'm not mistaken, Apple already released source code for at least part of Rendezvous in their MDNSResponderPosix project (I use it to advertise my Linux-based iTunes server to my Mac and Windows-using neighbors). Additionally, the Howl project (another implementation of zeroconf) has some Rendezvous-compatibility features.
:) The only reason for Apple atempting to break DAAP interoperability that I can think of is to enforce the 5-connections maximum present in iTunes. Either that, or they may be trying to maintain a competive advantage over Windows Media Player, I suppose.
Anyway, when I was setting up that iTunes server, I found it very strange that Apple was so generous with Rendezvous, and yet they jealously gaurd DAAP (their music sharing protocol) such that I had to make use of the reverse-engineered implementation in daapd. Furthermore, they made compatibility-breaking changes when they released iTunes 4.5. Incidentally, I updated to the version of daapd that was released upon cracking the new protocol, and I was the only person in my building serving both iTunes 4.2 and iTunes 4.5 hosts.
Looking Glass is, obviously, going to require panoramic backgrounds. The screenshots show a forest, some mountains, and what appears to be the campus of Stanford. Something is seriously amiss here, as both Scott McNealy and Bill Joy went to Berkeley. They did just cut a high profile deal with Microsoft, though, and there is a William H. Gates computer science building at Stanford. Coincidence? What about the fact that they have a backdrop of a private university in a product whose source code they are about to make public, in the meantime excluding Sun's public (both in the sense of Berkeley itself and the BSD, back when Sun's OS was SunOS) roots. Something strange is definately afoot.
Actually, I've had the SETI vs. Folding debate several times with my other computer-savvy friends. Personally, I run SETI. I tell them that we've only had radio for barely a century, which is an exceedingly short time compared to the history and the potential lifespan (taking the optimistic view) of our species. So, if the SETI project suceeds, the species we contact is likely to be far more technologically advanced than our own. If they have a biochemistry roughly similar to that of terrestrial life, they may have worked out the "laws of protein folding", allowing us to bypass our current brute-force approach. In the worst case, we can always send them the folding@home workunits and borrow a few minutes on their computers to cure our woes.
So, essentially, I do SETI because it has the potential to leapfrog folding@home. I donate my blood to medicine every six weeks, so I figure I've got my bases covered.
As anyone with even a cursory familiarity with modern biology knows, nobody "writes" genes. We don't understand nearly enough about biochemistry to do this yet. The genetically modified organisms on the market today start from an unmodified genetic stock, then have genes from other strains or species spliced into them. Declaring that you own a gene merely because you were the first to commercially exploit it is patently ridiculous. It's as if I found a rock whilst hiking, then declared a patent on all sedimentary rock and began suing producers of concrete for selling a derivative work without paying royalties.
Why am I just hearing of this now? The combination of Slashdot and Japan is just... beyond words. Interestingly enough, the page title is mostly english words transliterated into katakana:
Surashudotto Japan: Arege-na Nuusu to ****I suck at Kanji, mumble, mumble**** Seito
Let me point out that the above sentence contains the word "Japan". Not Nihon (), but the English word Japan. Wierdness. Slashdot gets Japanized as Japan gets westernized.
Hmm... is Slashdot headed towards simple, concise headlines which state things which are completely obvious to any human with more CPU power than a raddish? Here are some suggestions, if that is the case:
1. SCO pursuing meritless litigation.
2. A robot will replace you in 6 years; awesome!
3. Darl McBride Paternity Test Result: Satan
4. An Indian will replace you in 6 months; outsourcing must be stopped.
5. RIAA Extorts Money From Filesharers
6. Survey: Mac users have overwhelming desire to fsck Steve Jobs
7. People starting to get sick of hearing about SCO.
8. Politicians may be corrupt
9. RMS is pissed off about something
10. Star Wars movies ain't what they used to be
11. Earth doomed, more at 11:00
12. Blah, blah, SCO, blah, blah, blah
Linux/BSD users already can listen to and download music shared over iTunes using TunesBrowser. The project is rather young, so a do-it-yourself compile is necessary, but it does present a very nice, clean GUI interface to iTunes shares.
(Incidentally, if you'd RTFA, your would notice that this project actually allows you to browse samples from the iTMS store, and has nothing to do with network song sharing.)
This is all well and good, except for the tablet model (Helium). Doesn't he know that it's extremely difficult to IONize Helium?
Sounds like a challenge to me.
You guys are this close to getting voted off the continent. Yeah, I saw Mexico's confessional the other week, and they're just itchin' to cut you Canucks off.
In all seriousness, for as fun as it is to rip on Canadians, being a (United States of) American myself, in the last few years I've come to appreciate Canada a lot more. Despite the fact that we share so much of our culture (Quebec residents excluded), this only serves to highlight some of the differences in our attitudes and our social and political systems. Sure, Americans find a lot of little things about Canada weird (mounties, mooses, and Manitoba, to name a few), but I think Canadians have been a great check on our sanity as of late. A lot of Americans like myself look to those funny guys up north and think, you know, if they go for public health care and sit out aggressive invasions, there's hope for us, too.
Which brings us to copyright law. The recent ruling seemed an inspiring victory, not necessarily for filesharing, but for users' right to privacy on the Internet. I really hope that all you Canadians out there manage to fend off this current threat. Ideally, I'd like to see Larry Lessig's system, wherein musicians are paid directly a share of general royalties collected based on their popularity (a la ASCAP), implemented somewhere (you could even start funding the royalty pool with the levy on blank CDRs). Who knows, if it works out well enough, maybe we'll even steal the idea (a la Lorne Michaels, Dan Akroyd, Mike Myers, etc.). Good luck, my Canadian friends.
(Just a side note: I'm a Michigander, which is about as close to a half-breed as you can get. If any statements seem incongruous, consider them sufficiently explained.)
Networks around the world suffered varying degrees of damage today as 20 million geeks achieved simultaneous orgasm.
Lest we forget, Janus is also two-faced.
That's totally irrelevant, my friend, as a 100% tax on zero pounds sterling = 0 pounds.
The LD50 (the dosage at which 50% of human beings will experience a fatal overdose of a substance) of caffiene is about 10 g for oral administration (intravenously, amounts as low as 3.2 g have caused death). A cup of coffee has about 120-170 mg of caffiene. So, 100 cups would easily put you above the LD50 (at 12-17 g), although your body attempting to purge the caffiene (via uncontrollable urination and vomiting, both of which will certainly occur at the doses mentioned) will mitigate the dosage somewhat.
It is worth noting that caffiene, like cocaine, is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Once you pass an amount as little as 250 mg (depending on your weight) you will begin to feel the effects of caffiene intoxication, which include a very reduced sensitivity to pain, and eventually a feeling of intense, vibrant physical energy. As dosage increases however, psychological effects such as paranoia and anxiety are common, and panic attacks are often induced (it's happened to me). Keep going, and you will manifest serious cardiovascular effects, including heart arythmia and fibrilation. A myocardial infarction (heart attack) can be induced, particularly in individuals prone to heart disease. Such cardiovascular effects are likely to cause physical incapacitation before you can drink your way to the LD50, but if you figure out a way to maintain your rate of ingestion then yes, you will very likely die.