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User: Chelloveck

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  1. Re:williams should embrace this on Pinball 2000 + Ethernet = ... · · Score: 1

    Cool. Put a Striker Xtreme next to a Flipper Football and you'll really have something! (Just what that thing would be, I have no idea...)

    Seriously, I hope Stern can turn a buck or two in this industry. I worked at Capcom Coin-Op up 'til the bitter end. I love pinball, and really wish I was still making them... :-(


    Chelloveck
  2. Re:Bah, stop looking at home use!!! on "D-VHS": Will it replace DVD? · · Score: 1
    The only thing that scares me though, is this being adopted by the pr0n industry. Isn't there enough of that crap out there already? Do we really need amateurs being able to shoot 300 gigs worth of pr0n?

    Wow! Then we'd REALLY need that broadband connection!

    I won't rest easy until I can view a streaming 300G amateur pr0n video on my cellphone at HDTV resolution. This is my new goal in life.


    Chelloveck
  3. Re:quick thoughts. on First Looks At XBox · · Score: 1
    Making cartridges is way too expensive, especially if you want to allow game designers to actually produce something cool (i.e. big textures, movies, etc) The age of Nintendo using tiny texture maps and crazy compression hacks is over - the challenge nowadays is making a good game, not making a game work. Multi-gigabyte games are financially impossible with cartridges.

    So maybe multi-gigabyte games aren't really desirable? What are you going going to use those gigabytes for, anyway? More boring cut-scenes? Why? I want to play a game, not watch a movie. What else can you use massive amounts of slow storage for? You can't have more textures or geometry than you have RAM. Sounds to me that if you're spending all your time and budget making gigabytes of pretty pictures you're focusing a whole lot more on eye-candy than game-play anyway.

    <span style="OLD_FART">Why, back in my day, designers actually cared about making a good game. You couldn't sell a game based on gratuitous eye-candy when your target platform was an Atari VCS or Intellivision. You actually had to make a game good enough to immerse the players without tens of millions of 32-bit mip-mapped subpixel rendered polygons.</span>


    Chelloveck
  4. Re:Digital on Triple-Density CD-RW From TDK & Friends · · Score: 1
    I thought the point of 1 bit per spot, also known as "digital", was to reduce the amounts of errors. Now they want to go back to storing data analog?

    No, it's still digital. "Digital" just means that each element can hold one of a discrete number of values. Binary is just a special case of those values being "0" and "1". Think of the decimal number system where each symbol can hold one of ten discrete values. These symbols, btw, are called digits...

    It's like the shift from 300 bps modems to 1200 bps. 300 bps encoded 1 bit into each state change (so 300 bps was in fact 300 baud). 1200 bps encoded 4 bits into each state, so 1200 bps is still just 300 baud. (And thus started the semantic wars!)

    What I wonder, though, is what's the point of high-density CDRW disks that can't be read in any existing drive? I was under the impression that CDRW was just a stop-gap measure until DVDRW matured.


    Chelloveck
  5. Gotta get 'em all? on Number 9, Here We Come? · · Score: 1

    While I'm generally in favor of space exploration, is there actually a scientific point to the trip or is it just the planetary equivalent of Pokèmon?


    Chelloveck
  6. Re:Wow. Nice potential on Digital Camera With Wireless Browser · · Score: 1

    I can also see this as being useful to realtors, insurance adjustors, et al. At least it saves the "download to laptop" step before "upload to home office".

    If the thing has an IP stack, does it have an FTP server? That'd be cool. Plug it in to a serial port running PPP and just FTP the pictures out. No more messing around with reverse-engineering proprietary drivers.


    Chelloveck
  7. Re:real file type information? on Pro-Linux Mail Trojan Running Around · · Score: 1
    You should never, ever let your OS take care of files. You should *always* open a program, and let the program try to open the files.

    Right. Your shell has no business opening up that file, scanning for the #! line, and passing it off to the interpreter. You should *always* type "sh filename" or "perl filename" or whatever. In fact, you'd better put the full paths to the interpreter and script in there, just in case someone screwed with your PATH variable.


    Chelloveck
  8. Re:Great on Linux Running Bluetooth Access Points · · Score: 1

    What I can't figure out is how Bluetooth is supposed to do its magic. There are some pretty restrictive limitations to the technology:

    • Only 8 devices in a piconet. Sure, a device can be in more than one net (I think 2 is the max, but I could be wrong) but there's no capability to bridge networks. If this really catches on I could easily blow past 8 devices just on my desk.
    • Addressing and security issues haven't been taken care of. Bluetooth is supposed to be magic in that two devices can talk just by coming into proximity of each other. Okay... So how do I tell my laptop to send the document to the printer on my desk, rather than the one on my cubemate's desk? How do I prevent him from using my printer? This is one of those issues that's supposed to "work itself out". Uh-uh. If it's not worked out by the time the first piece of hardware ships (oops, too late already!) we'll be left with a bunch of kludgy work-arounds.
  9. Sounds like a great idea! on Microsoft Cracked · · Score: 5

    Ah, yes, evil hackers from Russia stealing the "software blueprints". Smells like the plot of a James Bond movie.

    "And now, Mr. Bond, by altering the blueprints I will be able to take control of every desktop computer on the planet! I'll have an entire cybernetic zombie legion at my disposal!"

    "We're one step ahead of you, Smirnoff. Office is a very fragile piece of code. Change even one line and the whole thing will come crashing down like a house of cards. The worst you'll be able to do is crash every computer. And who would be able to tell the difference between that and the way Office normally runs, eh?"

    "Curse you, James! Now I'll have to kill you by an incredibly intricate device which you'll no doubt escape. The only way out of your cell is to cross this tile floor. Land mines are hidden under nearly half the tiles. Fancy a game of full-contact Minesweeper, Mr. Bond?"

  10. Re:Unrealistic... on New 3D Cards On Slower PCs · · Score: 1
    celery 300a @450
    p2 400~450
    K6/2-450

    Huh. These are the high-end machines on my desk at work. Low-end are the P166 I run Linux on, the P133 that's my mail server / firewall at home, and the P133's that are my wife's and kids' machines. My home P233 is midrange...

    "Grandpa, what was it like back in the olden days before gigahertz processors and hundreds of megabytes of RAM? How did you get anything done!?" "Sonny, let me tell you, in my day we only had an Apple ][ with 48K of RAM and a cassette drive. And we liked it that way, by jingo!"

  11. Re:I'm sorry, but... on New Singer Sewing Machine Uses ... Game Boy · · Score: 1
    whine whine No More Overtime for California Programmers whine whine...

    What, you think the rest of us programmers outside of California get overtime?

    Just this morning my boss asked when I would have a program done. I said, "I'll have it done before I go home." He said, "Great! I'll mark it as being done by the end of the day!" "No, I said I'll have it done before I go home. That's not necessarily the same thing!"

  12. Good idea, but... on Online Hardware Swap-Meet · · Score: 1

    This is a good idea, except that it's the kind of thing that needs to be implemented on a local level rather than global. Most of my junk hardware is just that -- junk. It's not even worth my time to put it in a box, slap a mailing label on it, and take it to UPS. If you want to come to my house, great. It's yours. If there was a local swap meet where I could dump all my old crap at once, great. I'll take it there. But mailing it piecemeal just isn't worth the effort. It's not like any of this stuff is rare or a collector's item.

  13. Re:Cell Phones In Ear... Farenheit 451 anyone? on DoCoMos Finger Phone · · Score: 2

    Actually, I want a phone that sits unobtrusively in my ear. I have a Jabra earpiece for my cellphone now, but it's a little big and the wire dangling down is awkward. I'm thinking something more like an in- or around-the-ear hearing aid. Not sure what to do about the wire, though...

    The big reason why I don't wear the Jabra all the time is that it makes me look like a doofus. I wouldn't mind it if it was a socially acceptable thing to do. Yes, I think changing society's perceptions so that being wired is cool is a good thing!

    And while we're at it, I also want a head-up display superimposed directly on my optic nerve. Just so long as I get to pick what's on the display, and I can turn both it and the phone off at my own discretion!

    Next thing you know, we'll have huge flat screen TVs you can work into your walls....

    I've attended a couple trade shows this past month. I've noticed that the big flat plasma displays are really popular amongst exhibitors! Almost all the booths use them now. I'm hoping this means that the prices will drop into the consumer range soon.

  14. Re:OH! So that's what Cue Cat does! on Why the World Needs Reverse Engineering · · Score: 1

    Thank you for installing the Cue:Clit Personal Massage Unit by Digital:Pervergence. By using the Cue:Clit you agree to the following terms:

    1. Certain non-identifying demographic information will be sent to Digital:Pervergence each time you use the Cue:Clit.
    2. Never mind that the Cue:Clit has a unique serial number that's transmitted each time you use it. We don't even look at that. Honest.
    3. The Cue:Clit contains an advanced scanner that detects in which orifices it's being used. The Cue:Clit will then load appropriate pr0n sites into your web browser for your shopping^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hviewing pleasure.
    4. Never mind the camera in the sensor. We'd never enable it. It just came as part of the scanner package from Taiwan. Really.
    5. From time to time, the Cue:Clit may place an order for lubricant or other aids. The charges will appear on your credit card bill as "Plain Brown Wrapper, Ltd." Refusing shipment or payment is in violation of these terms.
    6. This product is licensed for a single user only. Use by multiple persons will result in stern phone calls to your mothers.
    7. Reverse engineering of the Cue:Clit hardware and software is expressly forbidden. We don't want you to find out that it's nothing more than a cheap motor driving an offset weight. It's advanced technology! You don't need to look at it! No user servicable parts inside!
    8. Use of the Cue:Clit with operating systems other than Windows is strictly forbidden. We have an exclusive contract with Microsoft, which wants to dominate the pr0n industry like it does everything else it touches.
    9. Okay, stop laughing. We know that a name like "Micro Soft" doesn't exactly evoke a positive image for pr0n.
    10. Uninstalling the Cue:Clit software from your PC is in violation of these terms.
    11. We reserve the right to change these terms at any time. Please check our web site for updates to the EULA, where we've conveniently posted it in a 1-point font.
  15. Re:Press Enter on The Satori Effect · · Score: 2
    Isn't that title of Haldeman's (was it Haldeman?) story?

    John Varley, actually, and it was only 16 years ago. Of course, the seminal work in the net-comes-alive genre is Vernor Vinge's 1980 True Names.

  16. Re:Okay STOP right there! on Windows Whistler Screenshots · · Score: 1

    Oh, come now. No real console-dweller would be without 4DOS or its big brother, 4NT. It almost completely removes the pain from the DOS command line.

  17. Lacking Features on Open Source Mozilla Crypto Released · · Score: 1
    This is the only significant feature I've found lacking in Mozilla.

    <sarcasm>If you don't count usability as a feature...</sarcasm>

  18. Re:More time efficient... on Why First Person Shooters Beat Text Adventure Games · · Score: 1
    Amen, brother! When I was but a student with (comparatively) loads of free time, I spent much of it plaing Infocom games on my state-of-the-art Apple //e. That and designing equally intricate adventures for my D&D group. (The major difference is that I never designed solutions for D&D, just puzzles. I left it to the players to come up with free-form solutions. This is where paper-and-pencil RPGs will always have an advantage over computer games. But I digress.)

    Anyway, after I graduated and entered the Real World I found I had much less free time. I could play out adventures on the computer, or with real people. Not both. So, I chose to play with people. (Do I lose geek points for saying that?)

    Then I got married and had kids. I have approximately one hour a day of unstructured play time. I generally choose a mindless computer game, or I read a book. No, not an e-book, a real one. But I certainly don't have the time or energy for creating or solving intricate puzzles. Let me blow someone up, or slice them to bits, or have my army stomp on their army.

    So why is adventure gaming dead? Personally, it's time constraints. In general I don't think it's dead, it just has a smaller following than glitzy FPSs.

    One of the weirdest things I've ever seen in the computer game section of Babbage's is the Diablo II Adventure Game . It's a paper-and-pencil RPG using D&D rules in the world of Diablo. As the box says, "No computer necessary to play!" I gotta hand it to those guys at Wizards of the Coast -- They know marketting! And I hope this game does well and sucks more people into role-playing and adventure games, both on and off the computer.

    And remember, PocketRogue is your friend!

  19. Re:The one big logic flaw in Diablo 2 on Diablo II Expansion Announced · · Score: 2

    My favorite is when my Paladin finds something labelled "Undesecrated Grave". So whaddaya think the first thing he does is? :-)

    Diablo II is a good game, but if it had any sort of real role-playing (IMHO, a Paladin should not get rewarded for this sort of behavior!) it'd be tons better.

    Ah, whaddaya want from a glitzy Rogue clone?

  20. Re:Global Economy on U.S. To Re-Administer .US Domain Space · · Score: 2
    On the flip side, to what end do we want to delineate a site by the geographic location of its server? As the world integrates its services, it shouldn't matter which country is home to the business. Or, in more extreme situations (actually, rather common), a company has offices running in different countries.

    Oh, that's easy. First, eliminate all TLDs except for country codes. (Grandfather in existing domains, but deprecate the whole ".com/.org/.net" system.) Now it's up to each nation to partition its space as it sees fit, and to arbitrate disputes under its own laws.

    Remember that the country codes partition the net by political boundaries, which may or may not correspond to geographic boundaries. So a multinational corporation like McDonalds could register "mcdonalds.XX" for every value of "XX" in which it does business. Or, "mcdonalds.com.XX" or some such if the country wants to sub-partition its space.

    Oh, but wait! The shepherd Angus McDonald has already registered "mcdonalds.uk" for his farm and doesn't want to give it up. What's a poor multinational company to do? Appeal to the UK courts, of course. Let the matter be decided according to UK law.

    As much as we'd all like it to be, the net is not immune to political boundaries . Disputes are going to arise over names. Lumping everything into a single ".com" space is fine for huge multinationals, but sucks rocks when two completely unrelated local companies in different nations argue about who gets "foobar.com". Who settles such a matter?

    As far as the .us domain goes, it needs to get away from the "*.city.state.us" hierarchy. It'd probably be a good idea to subdivide the .us TLD into ".com.us", ".org.us", ".edu.us", etc. And yes, still allow "*.city.state.us" for anyone who wants to show that they're a local concern.

  21. Re:The real solution to protect children online (O on Censorware Blocking Methods Using Akamai · · Score: 2
    If you don't like your kids seeing porn online, then you should stop them.

    And just what do you think censorware is supposed to do? Stop kids. I have two boys, 3 and 8. I do supervise them on the 'net. I'm not worried about them getting warped by stumbling across something by accident. Frankly, I'm not worried if they go out looking for pr0n. (Although at their ages, it'd sure surprise me!) It'd merit a discussion of what they're seeing and why I think it's inappropriate for them, but no serious repercusions unless they do it repeatedly.

    However, I recently installed censorware on their computer, and passworded the screensavers on the others. Why? Teenage babysitters. My wife and I came home from a night out once, and I found a couple of mysterious icons on my desktop. ("Dialer.exe" and "Action.exe", both with images of women. Thank goodness I use a cable modem instead of a telco one, or god only knows what my phone bill would look like!) I checked my browser's history and found several pr0n sites that I know *I* didn't visit. (Not to say I don't visit *any* porn sites, just not those particular ones.) I asked the babysitter about it, and she denied everything. (She later called me back and admitted it.)

    I don't mind her using the 'net while we're out, but I don't think she should be doing something in my house that her parents would object to. So, I installed censorware. Sure, she could get around it if she tried hard enough, but I think just the knowledge that her actions are being tracked is a sufficient deterrant.

    Now, someone might suggest dropping her as a babysitter. Nope. For one, it's tough to get sitters. For two, she's basically a decent girl who seemed to be exploring after the kids were in bed. I can't really fault her for that. I just want to remind her that we'll know if she does anything out of line.

    I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that even imperfect censorware is useful. And if it incorrectly blocks sites that my kids (or sitter) should legitimately see, I hope they'll come and ask me to open that site manually or disable the filter temporarily, rather than attempting to bypass it. Censorware isn't a replacement for parent/child interaction, but it can be an effective tool.

  22. Re:Carried To The Logical End. on The Computer of 2010 · · Score: 1

    Cool! It'll save lots of time in the cities, too. Tap a wall and say "Graffiti" and your gang's symbols will show up.

    Unless, of course, someone's hacked the building to produce a PalmOS interface instead...

  23. Re:Other uses for the free barcode scanner... on Free Barcode Reader From Radio Shack · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, all the uses you mention imply a back-end database somewhere. The UPC code (and most other barcodes) only gives you a numeric key. If you have an inventory database, for example, you can use this key to look up the price or other details about the item. Without the database, a barcode is just a meaningless string of digits.

    I have access to barcode scanners at work, including a Symbol SPT-1740 PalmOS/scanner combo. To this date I've never found anything "interesting" to scan. The best was the 2D (PDF417) barcode on the back of my driver's license. And, just as the State of Illinois claimed, the data contained within is encrypted. (No, I never tried to crack it.) Yippee.

    Maybe now that the RS catalogs are coded I'll actually have a use for the SPT-1740.

  24. Re:Of course the Dolphin/nCube will succeed... on Nintendo's Dolphin Becomes The N-Cube · · Score: 2
    Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy. The reason? Marketing and Mario.

    Which are exactly the reasons I'll buy one. I have two boys, 8 and 3 years old. Let's face it, Nintendo has more to offer young kids. We have a SNES now, specifically because of the Mario games. Mario and Pokemon will drive the purchase of the next console. What does PSX (1 or 2) have to compare?

  25. Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere on Real-time Video Disinformation · · Score: 1

    This sort of thing scares the bejeebers out of me. Not because it's intrinsicly bad, but because it brings us one step closer to the world of John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar". How long before we see a real-life Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere? (Sponsored by all the "with it" brand names, of course.)

    Now, I don't see a problem with "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere" per se. But I don't want to live in Brunner's future! And every year I see that more and more of the things he wrote about are coming true...