Slashdot Mirror


User: Pxtl

Pxtl's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,287
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,287

  1. Re:Where is the outrage? on Diebold Insider Comments on Voting System Flaw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't understand. Left wing organisations aren't allowed to be outraged - when they get loud, they become shrill whiners, and laughed at. You get things like the crybaby-seal for the Democrats, or the "Michael Moore Is Fat" meme. Only equal-time-giving responsible centrists are allowed to discuss issues on the left.

    Meanwhile, right-wing organisations are oppressed by the liberal media monopoly and must struggle to get their messages out. After all, white folks are oppressed by affirmative action and political correctness, Christians are oppressed by the secular school system and the activist judges, and the right-wingers are oppressed by the liberal media. As such, it's only appropriate that they can be voluminous and angry.

    So of course, any outrage from the left wing is absolutlely preposterous. Don't suggest something so insultingly unamerican.

  2. Re:Bwah? on The UMD and PSP Getting Off The Ground · · Score: 1

    I could understand if the PSP had a TV-out and good resolution on the TV screen so that you could watch your movie on the home screen. As it stands, I can't see the appeal of watching a movie on the tiny-screen instead of the small one.

  3. Re:Python? on Extending Games With Lua · · Score: 1

    I realise that this reply is very late, but Guido has long since deprecated rexec, and apparently it was never really safe. Currently (and for many years) the mainstream Python release has no working method for running untrusted code.

    While many platforms include their own solution (Zope, for example) no-one seems to have released an officially dedicated distribution for restricted code. To my knowledge, Stackless has the same weakness.

  4. Re:Simple question: on Hydrogen Generating Module to Help Your Car? · · Score: 1

    Don't be ridiculous. The new gadget uses surplus energy to create hydrogen (inneficiently) which can be converted back into kinetic energy later. This is basically a really inefficient battery, which only improves on the traditional mode by using energy that would be otherwise waste.

    In the hybrid, there is no surplus energy. Ever time the engine is on, it's creating electrical energy.

    Think about the physics of the situation before spouting off.

  5. Re:No Problem on Global Warming Past The Point of No Return · · Score: 1

    Just steal it from the dehabitated American Midwest.

  6. Re:I've read it. It's still stupid on Nintendo Revolution Controller Revealed · · Score: 1

    Yep. I can see why Miyamoto talked about games being the last "classic Zelda" etc. Most normal modern genres of games will have to be seriously screwed with to get them to work on this thing. There might not even be another Super Smash. Kart should be fine. Fighting games in general will be in trouble. FPS titles might have a problem with the shortage of buttons - with the pad for steering, the trigger for firing, and the wireless for aiming, how do you jump?

  7. Re:Python? on Extending Games With Lua · · Score: 3, Informative

    The problem is that Python (in it's base form) is wholly inappropriate for this. Python has no restricted execution, no sandbox, and many of the core Python commands can damage the system. File access is within the builtins.

    It takes a lot of work to rip out all that dangerous stuff and convert Python into a vessel appropriate for running untrusted code. Because any game with a scripting engine will be modded, untrusted code is a given.

  8. Re:UI suggestion on IE UI Designer On His Switch To FireFox · · Score: 1

    Mozgest makes the mouse as powerful as the keyboard, so that's what I use. For example, hold right-mouse and scroll = cycle through tabs. right-mouse and move mouse left = back, and so on.

  9. Re:UI suggestion on IE UI Designer On His Switch To FireFox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I totally agree - consistency is more important than convenience. Since firefox tabs are really just a customized approach to the traditional MDI-style approach, it only makes sense that the inner-X would be to close tab and outer X would close window. The problem is caused by the fact that most MDI programs didn't have tabs, just a crappy "Window" menu, so the close window X was on the menu bar - right below the main X. Firefox broke this tradition because it had an explicit tab bar (imho, a massive improvement).

    My problems with firefox are as follows:
    1) ctrl+tab behaves different from alt+tab - alt+tab in windows orders by history, while ctrl+tab orders by left-right order. So, there's no "last tab I used" command in FF. It's hard to get a balance here tho - windows accomplishes the odering visibly by showing a pop-up of the program-tabbing history so you can see the order you cycle through.

    2) not good keyboard access of the search bar. No useful history, up+down don't do anything.

    3) creating a new tab doesn't copy the history like it does in IE. In IE, when you spawn a new window you get the history of the old window. This is really, really handy.

  10. Re:That's fine for us ... on TiVo OS Update Adds Content Protection · · Score: 1

    Knoppmyth, kick ass.

    Now, by "not a network" - I meant none of this frontend stuff with streaming the media through the network - it's still nice to be able to rip the files from the PVR at my lesiure.

    Damn, I wish I hadn't bought an AIW 9600 for my desktop. ATI ripped me off - the included PVR software is the worst POS I've ever seen, and it doesn't support Linux so I can't run MythTV.

  11. Re:That's fine for us ... on TiVo OS Update Adds Content Protection · · Score: 1

    When do we get to see a nice MythTV standalone distro for people who just want one box set up with MythTV? Not a network, not multiple frontends, just something that can record and manage TV recordings, and show the files in a Samba share.

    And no, I won't do it myself. If I have to do it myself, I'll just buy the windows software that's easier.

  12. Re:Answer on US Companies Sponsor Pro Gamers · · Score: 1

    A-freakin'-men. Sucks that Counterstrike and DM get all the attention at pro-level, as they're by far the _worst_ spectator sports. CS is crawling and slow and the action is often spread out, DM is just chaotic and there's not much to follow but the score.

    Games like CTF and ONS are much better, but the action is too spread out still - there's still too many points of combat. The ones that are best for spectators are the ones that cram most players into one space. BombRun/BoomBall (where the action focusses around the ball) works well, so does Assault (where the action is on the next objective point).

    Ultraviolent Hunt games are spectacular to watch (not crawling, stealthy Hunt games like AvsP) - by far the best Hunt-mode experience I've seen is the Quake 3 "BFG tag" mod. One player just pounding all the other players until somebody gets a lucky shot and takes the power from him. The action is incredibly tight and intense. Not as much strategy to enjoy though.

  13. Re:I'm not an expert... on Office 12 Exposed · · Score: 1

    This is why I think that AutoCAD 2000 has the best user interface - the usual crufty menu and a small command-line window. The command-line window can be ignored, as the menu and GUI commands are graphical representations of same... but the actions on the GUI are echoed in the CL, so you can see what commands in GUI correspond to what commands in CL, and the CL commands ask for their parameters explicitly, ie:

    line
    from where?
    5,4
    to where?
    intersect
    select first line of intersection
    select second line of intersection

    and so on. So, it's very easy to use the CL without any help - you can learn the names of commands by using them from the GUI menu, and if you get impatient you just have to read what's happening. You don't have to learn about arguments, because the prompts ask you.

    A little ugly, but the best of both worlds.

    Still, I can see why Gnome developers just gave up and did the pinnable menus and over-tree'd context-sensitive mess - it's just nicer to give up and use a single approach for everything.

  14. Re:Business and Government on Another Round of HP Layoffs · · Score: 1, Troll

    Holy Right Wing Moderation Batman! Correcting the "interesting" post that French unemployment is at 10% instead of 20% is a "troll".

  15. Re:Dumber Article... on The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security · · Score: 1

    You don't even have to get into the cyclopean horror of Java or C# to get those features. C++ has all sorts of facilities for safe code, and if you don't like those that are included the object model is detailed enough to create new ones. I think the fact that Java and C# cought on was less due to the failures of C++ and more due to the fact that Java had a more complete standard library, and C++ was plagued with coders who treated it as a C-with-objects, rather than a new language that happened to be backwards-compatible with C.

  16. Re:Beginning of a B-Movie? on UK Scientists to Create Embryo From Two Women · · Score: 1

    Woody Allen said it best: I don't want to acheive immortality through my work. I want to acheive immortality through not dying.

  17. Re:Sonic on Satisfying Sequels · · Score: 1

    Idunno, I actually found that the Sonic scenese in SA2 were pretty good - they were just too few and far between. Despite the obsurdity of giving Shadow a modern-world pistol, I'm tempted to try the new Shadow game because it was promised as just "more of the sonic race maps, but with a gun". SA1 relied on way too much scripted animation, and the "non-Sonic" scenes in the games have been consistently awful.

    Really, the only way we'll have a good Sonic game is if they just give up and let Shigeru Miyamoto try to save it - Sega is a shell of it's former self. The last truley awsome title I played from Sega was Nights: Into Dreams. Haven't seen much good from them since then.

    Platfomers _can_ be done in 3d with success. Mario 64 is one of my all-time favourite games. Crash Bandicoot has some very fast levels that do the high-speed action of Sonic in 3d better than Sonic does.

    Sonic Riders sounds just like some old hoverboard racing games I played on the Dreamcast and the Playstation. Streak: Hoverboard Racing for example. Racing games where you do stunts to gain speed.

    Yeah, they sucked.

  18. Re:Scary nerds talking about this game on Review: The Incredible Hulk - Ultimate Destruction · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nonsense. They're talking about realistic weapons. Comic book nerdery is only part time - you can tell, these are Counterstrike/Tom Clancy nerds.

  19. Re:an alternate theory on Oregon Is Growing A Mystery Bulge · · Score: 0

    Alternately, if it is a volcano, America may be about to go on the rag.

  20. Re:how much am I payed? on How Much Money do Programmers Really Make? · · Score: 1

    That article kicked so much ass. All I could think about was the old Pink Floyd line:

    "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way".

  21. Re:What the internet will do ? on Berners-Lee Says Internet Will Make Kids Creative · · Score: 1

    Search for porn? Which, I suspect, is why kids are more creative. They need better and better ways to circumvent net-nannys, purge histories, and switch to other apps when the door opens. This constant mental challenge pushes mental innovation to the limits.

    I suspect this is why boys are often more proficient with computers than girls - girls do not spend as much time learning about their computers through concealing their porn habits. Instead, they focus on the normal, surface visible features that do not require intensive problem-solving.

  22. Re:Good old Don. on Don Mattrick leaves EA · · Score: 1

    God, was that the C64 game where you start as an amoeba and then go through several levels, like a mouse... I don't remember... the final level was a human with a gun that bounced off walls, right?

    Classic. How the mighty have fallen. EA kicked ass back in the C64 days. Too bad they became the monster.

  23. Re:Good Investment on Marvel Gets Cash to do 10 Films · · Score: 1

    What, and you're expecting Nick Fury or Captain America not to suck hard? Do you remember the crapfest that was Blade? Punisher? Marvel has become the main goldmine for B-movies, and Cap and Fury are the ultimate B-heroes. Or the Avengers - superhero teams of completely unrelated superheroes hasn't been attempted on film yet.

    I'm thinking these will suck, hard. Hawkeye could be passable, but I doubt it.

    Wake me when they do Adam Warlock. The Infinity Watch was the last cool thing Marvel did in a while.

  24. Re:Gamecube is finally breaking out of its shell on Realism vs. Style: the Zelda Debate · · Score: 1

    Real 20-somethings don't give a crap if their games have kiddie-cartoony graphics or adult ones, they care if it's cool and fun.

    Only teenagers obsess over being "adult". 20-somethings already know that they're adults and actually focus on getting the most out of their spare time.

    What's more mature? Animal Farm, or a Steven Seagal action movie? One's about cute farm animals, and one's about a heroic Navy Seal battling with evil terrorists. Which one's better? More enjoyable?

  25. Re:a vote for realism on Realism vs. Style: the Zelda Debate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Screw realism. I've already got all the reality I can handle. On a game console you've got the power to make any reality you like - why slave away making a pantomine of this one?

    The same thing cheeses me off in FPS games - how players want sniper rifles and nazis and waiting for the next round to restart because respawning is unrealistic... this perspective limits things so damn much. Reality and history has a much shorter list of gameplay and artistic possibilities than your imagination.

    I loved the cel-shaded games the moment I saw them. Dreamcast had a laundry-list of awesome titles with cartoon shader graphics.

    The problem is that the US game market is full of early teens. These kids are quite possibly the worst possible target market - look at the wasteland of the movie and music industries that cater to them. In games, they're obsessed with things being adult and serious and dramatic, because they're so desperate not to look like kids. In the end, it's a reflection of their music - the games are as emo as they are. Everything has to have an end-of-the-world plotline and serious, dramatic graphics and real-world weaponry.

    By the time you realise that what really rocks are games that are fun and unique, you're too old to have the time on your hands to kill playing them.

    Which is the more adult person? The one who plays KillZone? Or the one who plays Chu Chu Rocket unabashedly because it's FUN.