I've hosed several OS X machines by not exiting gracefully, and several Linux boxes too.
Can anyone confirm whether this information is correct? I was thinking about trying Linux again (I do this every couple of years), but the thought of my system getting hosed because the power went out scares the hell out of me. You know what's coming next... this never happens to me with Windows.
If a Linux computer can't take a simple power outtage yet... oh well, I'll check back with you guys in a couple of years.
Over the past decade, E3Expo has hosted exhibitors in a total of more than 4.5 million square feet of floor space, approximately 520 times the length of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Um, did that author just compare feet to square feet?
Also, it's not a good idea to include gender, because it introduces complexity which we don't really need at this point.
You're not kidding, man. The whole AI/robotics field is in the dark ages, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, we have robots that can follow a line on the floor, or weld joints on a car, or vacuum your floor... that's pitiful. Call me when you have a robot that plays basketball. We're so far from having to worry about gender it's insane.
This requires that, expansions can't introduce 'phat lewt' in the traditional sense. If one gets appreciably stronger by acquiring an item/ability from paid-content, it'll imbalance any conflict with a non-paying customer (it's a pvp game). Imbalancing conflict with non-paying customers, in turn disincentivizes free players from sticking around, which will heavily diminish the viability of the 'free-play' option. Casual gamers won't likely hang out to be pummeled by paying customers with egregious PvP advantages.
You and I came to exactly opposite conclusions. I think they'll get a huge fanbase very quickly initially, on the simple basis that it's a great new game and it's free. Then when the first exansion rolls out, it will most certainly have (it pains me to use the terminology) "phat lewt." Everyone who can pay at that point will do so, knowing that it's required to compete. Those who can't quite afford it will be filtered out mostly, but they were just wasting bandwidth anyway. What's left is a large, dedicated community with money to spend.
It's a good plan if they've got the capital to survive until that first expansion.
A software application is more than just a way somebody figured out to do something. You're not walking down the street and suddenly the source code to Windows springs forth in your mind, fully formed.
Software isn't really a product at all. You're paying for the service of the developers. A large game requires a dozen or more highly-skilled, highly-talented people to labor for maybe a couple of years. That costs millions of dollars, which is one reason you pay $50. The other (bigger) reason is that the market will bear it.
You have to have a certain amount of legal protection, or the system doesn't work, games don't get made, and everyone's playing Quake 3 for the rest of eternity. Is that what you want?
I think we'll see a situation like what happened with AC and AC2. The dedicated players won't want to leave the world and characters they love. New players will go for something else (WoW probably). My money says EQ2 never takes off.
You should be more respectful. Making demoes or (MY GOD) a playable game of such incredible quality in so little code would require an intimate, masterful understanding of almost every aspect of computer science. These guys are VIRTUOSOS. I don't think they're trying to make a commercial game, anyway, so quit comparing it to that. They're trying to shame the rest of for our pathetic coding skills, and let me be the first to say, "Mission accomplished."
I personally use Yahoo Yellow Pages on a frequent basis. Personally, I find it almost as valuable as a good search engine. (You do know go out, don't you? As in, into the "real world.") Maps, Mail, and Groups are occasionally useful too, and I always hear about people playing in Yahoo Games.
Let me put this into riddle form for you: No one searches the web with Yahoo, yet millions of people use Yahoo every day.
Why are asymmetric connections so much cheaper and more common? Data flow is not more expensive one way than the other. Is it the man trying to keep the masses consuming what he dishes out, and keep them from distributing their own content?
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this isn't the work of The Man. Often, data flow actually IS more expensive one way than the other. Some network providers have agreements whereby they pay little or nothing for their downstream data, with fees being based primarily on the upstream. This strange pricing situation is then passed on to consumers.
It wasn't a terrible joke (albeit one I didn't completely get), but you had to go and argue with him about it. How pointlessly crass. Not only that, but he knew what he was talking about and you clearly did NOT. Therefore, as an independent and objective observer, I hereby declare you the loser, with bonus asshole points. Now piss off.
Um, why did that get modded as 'Troll'? I mean, it wasn't very informative or anything, but aren't we allowed to express emotion anymore without carefully crafting it into the perfect funny, informative, exciting, life-changing post of euphoria?
Anyway, it wasn't a troll, because I was completely serious. This movie looks awesome, and I think they're going to make truckloads. Especially if these first two films become the basis of a Bond-like series, and they keep the quality up. I don't buy DVD's much, but it sure would be neat to own such a collection.
Um... is your post an elaborate, sarcastic way of saying it's more trouble than it's worth? You know how hard sarcasm is to detect in digital form.
Re:Journey to the center of the earth
on
The Year In Ideas
·
· Score: 2, Funny
The one thing i did not understand about the journey to the center of the earth proposal is how would you attach a sensor package with telemetry to a pile of goo at several thousands of degrees f.
Dude, that's the easiest part. Just slap a big ol' water cooling kit in there (and maybe some neons just for the hell of it).
Do you honestly believe that our language is going to stay fixed in stone? What's so foolish about using lingustics as a plot device?
Example: in Firefly, people cursed in Chinese or something. No idea why, they just did. I understood what the writers were trying to do there, but the actors couldn't make it seem natural.
Once you have a self sustaining colony you are insured a perpetual mission and are free of the whims of whether Mars 18 will be funded or not.
What if we send some people there on a one-way trip, then discover some reason why they can't stay there permanently (like unknown side-effects of long-term radiation exposure). Then we'd have to send a rescue mission to bring them back. And no, we wouldn't leave them to die. Americans would put half the country into poverty to save one life, it's just our way. So we have to do a round trip first, just to make sure we can.
Re:Stick with Windows and if you do...
on
PC Annoyances
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Linux is no longer hard. Once you have a modern Debian, Red Hat, or Mandrake installed, everything runs easy-peasy. I've been using it on and off for 6 years, and in that time frame it's gone from nothing but command line editing of.ini files to something downright usable.
No longer hard? That's what they were saying a couple of years ago when I gave Linux a try. It sucked. There was not a single area where it worked better than the Win2k I was used to. Installers for major distributions looked amateurish. "But they just fixed it!" Sure. I bet it does seem great now if you've been using it for 6 years while watching it improve.
My biggest PC annoyance is my father. Am I the only one who has a father (or some other relation), that knows nothing about computers, yet insists upon playing with all the settings they can find?
It wouldn't be a bad thing if they actually went to the effort of picking the BEST games out there. But no, they seem to have just picked the best sellers. Sorry, but that's no indication of quality. I can look at something like Amazon's best sellers list if I suddenly start caring what the masses are buying.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, damn the karma.
I've hosed several OS X machines by not exiting gracefully, and several Linux boxes too.
Can anyone confirm whether this information is correct? I was thinking about trying Linux again (I do this every couple of years), but the thought of my system getting hosed because the power went out scares the hell out of me. You know what's coming next... this never happens to me with Windows.
If a Linux computer can't take a simple power outtage yet... oh well, I'll check back with you guys in a couple of years.
It's not just because of the currently small marketshare. Linux has no future in gaming unless some fundamental things change. Allow me to prove it.
Fact 1: Games are expensive.
Conclusion 1: People who buy games are serious gamers or have money to burn.
Fact 2: Windows is a better gaming environment.
Conclusion 2: Serious gamers use Windows.
Fact 3: Windows is expensive and familiar to everyone, Linux is free and strange to most people.
Conclusion 3: People with money to burn use Windows.
Therefore, people who buy games don't use Linux.
Over the past decade, E3Expo has hosted exhibitors in a total of more than 4.5 million square feet of floor space, approximately 520 times the length of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Um, did that author just compare feet to square feet?
No problem man, just eDonkey that shit and be done with it.
Also, it's not a good idea to include gender, because it introduces complexity which we don't really need at this point.
You're not kidding, man. The whole AI/robotics field is in the dark ages, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, we have robots that can follow a line on the floor, or weld joints on a car, or vacuum your floor... that's pitiful. Call me when you have a robot that plays basketball. We're so far from having to worry about gender it's insane.
This requires that, expansions can't introduce 'phat lewt' in the traditional sense. If one gets appreciably stronger by acquiring an item/ability from paid-content, it'll imbalance any conflict with a non-paying customer (it's a pvp game). Imbalancing conflict with non-paying customers, in turn disincentivizes free players from sticking around, which will heavily diminish the viability of the 'free-play' option. Casual gamers won't likely hang out to be pummeled by paying customers with egregious PvP advantages.
You and I came to exactly opposite conclusions. I think they'll get a huge fanbase very quickly initially, on the simple basis that it's a great new game and it's free. Then when the first exansion rolls out, it will most certainly have (it pains me to use the terminology) "phat lewt." Everyone who can pay at that point will do so, knowing that it's required to compete. Those who can't quite afford it will be filtered out mostly, but they were just wasting bandwidth anyway. What's left is a large, dedicated community with money to spend.
It's a good plan if they've got the capital to survive until that first expansion.
A software application is more than just a way somebody figured out to do something. You're not walking down the street and suddenly the source code to Windows springs forth in your mind, fully formed.
Software isn't really a product at all. You're paying for the service of the developers. A large game requires a dozen or more highly-skilled, highly-talented people to labor for maybe a couple of years. That costs millions of dollars, which is one reason you pay $50. The other (bigger) reason is that the market will bear it.
You have to have a certain amount of legal protection, or the system doesn't work, games don't get made, and everyone's playing Quake 3 for the rest of eternity. Is that what you want?
I think we'll see a situation like what happened with AC and AC2. The dedicated players won't want to leave the world and characters they love. New players will go for something else (WoW probably). My money says EQ2 never takes off.
You should be more respectful. Making demoes or (MY GOD) a playable game of such incredible quality in so little code would require an intimate, masterful understanding of almost every aspect of computer science. These guys are VIRTUOSOS. I don't think they're trying to make a commercial game, anyway, so quit comparing it to that. They're trying to shame the rest of for our pathetic coding skills, and let me be the first to say, "Mission accomplished."
I personally use Yahoo Yellow Pages on a frequent basis. Personally, I find it almost as valuable as a good search engine. (You do know go out, don't you? As in, into the "real world.") Maps, Mail, and Groups are occasionally useful too, and I always hear about people playing in Yahoo Games.
Let me put this into riddle form for you: No one searches the web with Yahoo, yet millions of people use Yahoo every day.
Let me know when you figure it out.
You know, sometimes I don't think this website attracts the friendliest crowd around.
Why are asymmetric connections so much cheaper and more common? Data flow is not more expensive one way than the other. Is it the man trying to keep the masses consuming what he dishes out, and keep them from distributing their own content?
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this isn't the work of The Man. Often, data flow actually IS more expensive one way than the other. Some network providers have agreements whereby they pay little or nothing for their downstream data, with fees being based primarily on the upstream. This strange pricing situation is then passed on to consumers.
And knowing is half the battle!
If DVD Sales are good enough, could we see a second season?"
I'll take that one!
No. It just ain't gonna happen.
Thanks, I'll be here all night.
It wasn't a terrible joke (albeit one I didn't completely get), but you had to go and argue with him about it. How pointlessly crass. Not only that, but he knew what he was talking about and you clearly did NOT. Therefore, as an independent and objective observer, I hereby declare you the loser, with bonus asshole points. Now piss off.
Um, why did that get modded as 'Troll'? I mean, it wasn't very informative or anything, but aren't we allowed to express emotion anymore without carefully crafting it into the perfect funny, informative, exciting, life-changing post of euphoria?
Anyway, it wasn't a troll, because I was completely serious. This movie looks awesome, and I think they're going to make truckloads. Especially if these first two films become the basis of a Bond-like series, and they keep the quality up. I don't buy DVD's much, but it sure would be neat to own such a collection.
They are going to sell the SHIT out of this movie.
Um... is your post an elaborate, sarcastic way of saying it's more trouble than it's worth? You know how hard sarcasm is to detect in digital form.
The one thing i did not understand about the journey to the center of the earth proposal is how would you attach a sensor package with telemetry to a pile of goo at several thousands of degrees f.
Dude, that's the easiest part. Just slap a big ol' water cooling kit in there (and maybe some neons just for the hell of it).
Do you honestly believe that our language is going to stay fixed in stone? What's so foolish about using lingustics as a plot device?
Example: in Firefly, people cursed in Chinese or something. No idea why, they just did. I understood what the writers were trying to do there, but the actors couldn't make it seem natural.
Good god, if they put all of that stuff in, the movie will be 10 hours long. Not saying that's a bad thing, just saying.
And yet I can't get a stable connection between two rooms in my apartment. 30 feet, that's all I'm asking for.
Once you have a self sustaining colony you are insured a perpetual mission and are free of the whims of whether Mars 18 will be funded or not.
What if we send some people there on a one-way trip, then discover some reason why they can't stay there permanently (like unknown side-effects of long-term radiation exposure). Then we'd have to send a rescue mission to bring them back. And no, we wouldn't leave them to die. Americans would put half the country into poverty to save one life, it's just our way. So we have to do a round trip first, just to make sure we can.
Linux is no longer hard. Once you have a modern Debian, Red Hat, or Mandrake installed, everything runs easy-peasy. I've been using it on and off for 6 years, and in that time frame it's gone from nothing but command line editing of .ini files to something downright usable.
No longer hard? That's what they were saying a couple of years ago when I gave Linux a try. It sucked. There was not a single area where it worked better than the Win2k I was used to. Installers for major distributions looked amateurish. "But they just fixed it!" Sure. I bet it does seem great now if you've been using it for 6 years while watching it improve.
My biggest PC annoyance is my father. Am I the only one who has a father (or some other relation), that knows nothing about computers, yet insists upon playing with all the settings they can find?
Isn't that how you started out?
It wouldn't be a bad thing if they actually went to the effort of picking the BEST games out there. But no, they seem to have just picked the best sellers. Sorry, but that's no indication of quality. I can look at something like Amazon's best sellers list if I suddenly start caring what the masses are buying.