? By red, I'd always assumed it was the English connotation of "red skin" - that is, like a Native in colour. I'd just imagined some dusky Filippino looking boy with warm-coloured hair.
How about this: Setup the system in a properly gestapotronic secure mode. Then, start making forms. Paper ones. If a prof requests somethign stupid, fax him the form to fill out and sign. The form includes a complete description of the risks, giving you, the IT guy, a big filing cabinet full of deniability.
Tell them that they're getting special IT administrator priviledges and so they have to sign as "admin-users".
Scott has managed to weasel his way into being the industry advocate for Webcomics. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but he's now the point-of-contact for the press. Sucks, don'it?
I don't find that you're being fair - I think Fellowship and Return were both very well done - they cut out the pieces they had to, brought in the Arwen side-plot to dilute the story with a little romance (necessary to diversify appeal). The Arwen plot _is_ Tolkein - its all from his appendices. My real problem was threefold: 1: they positively butchered The Two Towers, removing everything but Rohan vs. Orcs, even adding new battles to fill it out, and the friggin elves at helms' deep. 2: Jar Jar Gimly. My fave character is now comic releif. 3: The total death of the subtlety of magic. Saruman's powers of manipulation and cunning are replaced by brute force of magic and mind-control. This is best illustrated in TTT, where in the book King Theoden frees himself from Wormtongue's power with a stirring pep-talk from Gandalf, while in the movie its a dramatic magical exorcism. The same at Orthanc, where Saruman defeats Gandalf in a battle of wills, instead a battle of old-guys-flying-around-the-room.
Still, otherwise I found it to be an excellent adaptation. The cast was exceptional, the writing fairly faithful, and the movie was well made. Asking for better is just being unrealistic - so far only Tolkein and Harry Potter are the only fantasy/sci fi that have gotten decent adaptations from Hollywood. Remember, you could have gotten LXG or Aliens Vs. Predator.
Hm. You can get a pretty good joystick at Radio Shack for $15 if you don't care about a hat or throttle (not really needed for Alliance). Why don't you pick one up and give it another shot? All the best underdogs of the late '90s were passed over because of joystick oriented play (HardWar, Pysgnosis Lander, many car-based games, etc.).
I feel so special. I just Slashdotted my childhood goddess! w00t!
Hmm - couldn't help but notice that 90% of her complaints were about the fact that they changed the story into all white people. I didn't get the impression that race was a huge issue in the novels - it was just part of the *colour* of the setting, if you'll pardon the pun. While it certainly isn't nice to lose that part of the story, it seems kinda odd to obsess over it. On the other hand, the scuttlebutt is that Ender's Game is being made with a less international cast, which really hurts the story.
At any rate - after reading her comments, I suddenly don't feel so bad that I missed it.
X-Wing Alliance. For some reason they didn't pump the title, but it was pretty good. A little old - it was made circa Quake 3, but a solid DirectX game. Let me tell you, 2 teams of TIE-interceptors and TIE-bombers each defending a Corellian Corvette is wicked-cool.
Heheh, expect to see that in the next version of VB. XP SP2 bundled in MS's new P2P network, so a custom control is moments away. Ditto Java, with JXTA.
Gaming is a big one. I've always felt that the opensource world needs a solid FPS user-driven game system. You look at the massive following that games like Quake, Half-Life, and UT get - the thing that gives them their long life is the mods, which is the perfect example of a player-driven community. The problem is that mod-devs these days are modeller-oriented who're used to pirating 3DSMax and so aren't really very Linuxy people. Currently, the most mod-oriented complete FPS game on the free software side is FreeDoom. OpenQuartz doesn't have a singleplayer mode to speak of (not even a Q3 style ladder), and still has all of the horrible usability issues associated with playing mods on Quake (command-line _everything_). Plus, both of these games have paleolithic graphics and butt-ugly models.
The OS world has an advantage, and that is maintenance: where a closed FPS game will stagnate, an open FPS game can keep abreast of new technology by adding support for newer file formats, newer engine features, etc. The problem is that no OSS FPS gaming project has reached "critical mass" like FireFox and OOo have, where users become advocates and developers flock to develop extensions and mods for the project.
Quake 3 is going OSS soon. Q3 is unique in that it was the first Id engine where the mod experience wasn't a console-oriented hack for the end-user. Q3 mods were in the menu, and had their own in-game configuration screens. This means that you could release a Q3-based package game that included dozens of mods with no RTFM required.
The problem is twofold: first, make a FreeQ3 project to replace the core Q3 gamedata, making it suitable for redistibution (like OQ and FreeDoom did), but not fugly this time. This should be easier than it was for Q3 and OQ, as there are numerous independant modellers who've made simple replacements for all the main models - these were much more rare on Q1 and Doom.
Second, get a few IP-issue-less modders to agree to allow their mods to be redistributed with your Q3 remake. Then, you've got a freely redistibutable package that's not just a replacement for Q3, but a superset of it - the bundled mods would far supercede the original.
This would, in turn, attract a real developerbase, as you have a free platform available and the option of becoming a "bundled mod" as a goal for devs. OSS coders would continue to do what they do, making new engine extensions and whatnot, like has been done with Doom, Q1, and Q2, but this time you'd be able to have a real base of content developers behind you, which is what the first two remakes really lacked.
In the end, the project would really exist on 3 fronts, and all of them would be crucial: first, the task of replacing Q3 media - I understand this is already underway. But when that's complete, that's not the end. Second, and this is the part that most people forget: get some prominent community mods bundled into the project, and release it as an ISO. That way, players get more than just a game, they get a full "game distro" - much like how Linux Distros offer you more than just the kernel and a desktop. Third, do the usual linux-geek thing of maintaining the project by slapping on normal-mapping and rigid-body-physics and all the other bells & whistles into the engine for modders to use, bringing it up to code with newer engines.
Then bundle the whole sucker in with Fedora and solidify the concept of Linux As A Gaming Platform.
Really, its harsh to blame Sony for lasers dying - the Dreamcast had the same problem, and the contacts on cartridge-fed systems like the N64 start to go with time too (but you can clean those). With the prices these things go at its no suprise that there'll be problems.
I think people just wet themselves so bad over the DS and are so miffed at Sony for the whole RIAA thing that any bad news about Sony's flagship product is frontpage-worthy.
Because middle-click to paste is the biggest waste of the middle mouse button that I've ever heard of. Say what you will, but the MS "middle click scroller arrow" thing is a much more appopriate use of the middle button.
Yes, but why must the flash movies be embedded into a webpage? Couldn't they just be.flash files and my browser could spawn an external program to handle them? Why can't the browser work like the explorer, nautilus, and every other file browser - why does everything have to happen in-page? Nobody likes it anyways - everybody I know who knows how has AcroReader set to spawn in its own window instead of in the browser.
Yes, but 3d modelling programs are notoriously complicated, so an application that maybe uses a few oversimplifying abstractions as a compromise that allows users to produce quality (if possibly formulaic) artwork without struggling through a seemingly endless UI is most definitely a good thing.
Yes Mrs. Collington, sorry about the run-on sentance Mrs. Collington.
Or they were planning on offerign some sort of stacked-cart like the old Game Genie as a "special offer" for legacy players - something very few will want, but might pay a lot for.
How about a mod to get back the support for the GBA link cable games? That feature-death was a nasty one. Of course I'm being unrealistic - that's most likely impossible due to different architecture.
No. Heaven forbid anyone ever try and improve HTTP - that's blasphemy, even though it seems to be the source of most of the weakness of the internet (can't home serve due to lack of NAT traversal, can't serving large files is suicide because of lack of swarming, no way to differentially update content or inform the user of updates so you have users mashing "refresh" over and over again and redownloading the same goddamn html).
No, http is perfect, that's why nobody ever ever bothers to change it.
Well, as I understand it, Communism and Democracy are not mutually exclusive - it is simply an unfortunate fact that Communists tend to think they know better, and after having put in the effort to run a violent revolution they seem to think that this justifies their title as "dictator for life".
While it might not be long-term stable, I don't quite see why one couldn't implement a communism headed by a democratic body.
I'm guessing that's what the parent poster might have been referring to.
I find DosBox slow for most old apps, even on my 2ghz machine. As such, I always try with VDMSound first, since usually the soudn is all you really need to emulate.
Oh, and Star Control II will always be the best space fighter evar.
Slashdot Mirror
? By red, I'd always assumed it was the English connotation of "red skin" - that is, like a Native in colour. I'd just imagined some dusky Filippino looking boy with warm-coloured hair.
How about this: Setup the system in a properly gestapotronic secure mode. Then, start making forms. Paper ones. If a prof requests somethign stupid, fax him the form to fill out and sign. The form includes a complete description of the risks, giving you, the IT guy, a big filing cabinet full of deniability.
Tell them that they're getting special IT administrator priviledges and so they have to sign as "admin-users".
Scott has managed to weasel his way into being the industry advocate for Webcomics. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but he's now the point-of-contact for the press. Sucks, don'it?
I don't find that you're being fair - I think Fellowship and Return were both very well done - they cut out the pieces they had to, brought in the Arwen side-plot to dilute the story with a little romance (necessary to diversify appeal). The Arwen plot _is_ Tolkein - its all from his appendices. My real problem was threefold:
1: they positively butchered The Two Towers, removing everything but Rohan vs. Orcs, even adding new battles to fill it out, and the friggin elves at helms' deep.
2: Jar Jar Gimly. My fave character is now comic releif.
3: The total death of the subtlety of magic. Saruman's powers of manipulation and cunning are replaced by brute force of magic and mind-control. This is best illustrated in TTT, where in the book King Theoden frees himself from Wormtongue's power with a stirring pep-talk from Gandalf, while in the movie its a dramatic magical exorcism. The same at Orthanc, where Saruman defeats Gandalf in a battle of wills, instead a battle of old-guys-flying-around-the-room.
Still, otherwise I found it to be an excellent adaptation. The cast was exceptional, the writing fairly faithful, and the movie was well made. Asking for better is just being unrealistic - so far only Tolkein and Harry Potter are the only fantasy/sci fi that have gotten decent adaptations from Hollywood. Remember, you could have gotten LXG or Aliens Vs. Predator.
Hm. You can get a pretty good joystick at Radio Shack for $15 if you don't care about a hat or throttle (not really needed for Alliance). Why don't you pick one up and give it another shot? All the best underdogs of the late '90s were passed over because of joystick oriented play (HardWar, Pysgnosis Lander, many car-based games, etc.).
I feel so special. I just Slashdotted my childhood goddess! w00t!
Hmm - couldn't help but notice that 90% of her complaints were about the fact that they changed the story into all white people. I didn't get the impression that race was a huge issue in the novels - it was just part of the *colour* of the setting, if you'll pardon the pun. While it certainly isn't nice to lose that part of the story, it seems kinda odd to obsess over it. On the other hand, the scuttlebutt is that Ender's Game is being made with a less international cast, which really hurts the story.
At any rate - after reading her comments, I suddenly don't feel so bad that I missed it.
X-Wing Alliance. For some reason they didn't pump the title, but it was pretty good. A little old - it was made circa Quake 3, but a solid DirectX game. Let me tell you, 2 teams of TIE-interceptors and TIE-bombers each defending a Corellian Corvette is wicked-cool.
No piloted-gunners though, except on the Falcon.
Fuck! I missed it! Damn, I forgot it was on.
Heheh, expect to see that in the next version of VB. XP SP2 bundled in MS's new P2P network, so a custom control is moments away. Ditto Java, with JXTA.
That's a good point. He'd have been perfect - hell, he's a D&D nerd too.
Gaming is a big one. I've always felt that the opensource world needs a solid FPS user-driven game system. You look at the massive following that games like Quake, Half-Life, and UT get - the thing that gives them their long life is the mods, which is the perfect example of a player-driven community. The problem is that mod-devs these days are modeller-oriented who're used to pirating 3DSMax and so aren't really very Linuxy people. Currently, the most mod-oriented complete FPS game on the free software side is FreeDoom. OpenQuartz doesn't have a singleplayer mode to speak of (not even a Q3 style ladder), and still has all of the horrible usability issues associated with playing mods on Quake (command-line _everything_). Plus, both of these games have paleolithic graphics and butt-ugly models.
The OS world has an advantage, and that is maintenance: where a closed FPS game will stagnate, an open FPS game can keep abreast of new technology by adding support for newer file formats, newer engine features, etc. The problem is that no OSS FPS gaming project has reached "critical mass" like FireFox and OOo have, where users become advocates and developers flock to develop extensions and mods for the project.
Quake 3 is going OSS soon. Q3 is unique in that it was the first Id engine where the mod experience wasn't a console-oriented hack for the end-user. Q3 mods were in the menu, and had their own in-game configuration screens. This means that you could release a Q3-based package game that included dozens of mods with no RTFM required.
The problem is twofold: first, make a FreeQ3 project to replace the core Q3 gamedata, making it suitable for redistibution (like OQ and FreeDoom did), but not fugly this time. This should be easier than it was for Q3 and OQ, as there are numerous independant modellers who've made simple replacements for all the main models - these were much more rare on Q1 and Doom.
Second, get a few IP-issue-less modders to agree to allow their mods to be redistributed with your Q3 remake. Then, you've got a freely redistibutable package that's not just a replacement for Q3, but a superset of it - the bundled mods would far supercede the original.
This would, in turn, attract a real developerbase, as you have a free platform available and the option of becoming a "bundled mod" as a goal for devs. OSS coders would continue to do what they do, making new engine extensions and whatnot, like has been done with Doom, Q1, and Q2, but this time you'd be able to have a real base of content developers behind you, which is what the first two remakes really lacked.
In the end, the project would really exist on 3 fronts, and all of them would be crucial: first, the task of replacing Q3 media - I understand this is already underway. But when that's complete, that's not the end. Second, and this is the part that most people forget: get some prominent community mods bundled into the project, and release it as an ISO. That way, players get more than just a game, they get a full "game distro" - much like how Linux Distros offer you more than just the kernel and a desktop. Third, do the usual linux-geek thing of maintaining the project by slapping on normal-mapping and rigid-body-physics and all the other bells & whistles into the engine for modders to use, bringing it up to code with newer engines.
Then bundle the whole sucker in with Fedora and solidify the concept of Linux As A Gaming Platform.
Hmm. I smell another "Spirits Within" debacle coming. I imagine Square just giving up on selling anything but games in North America pretty soon.
Yep, I've gragged my Sony MP3 CD player through hell and back, and its still good.
Really, its harsh to blame Sony for lasers dying - the Dreamcast had the same problem, and the contacts on cartridge-fed systems like the N64 start to go with time too (but you can clean those). With the prices these things go at its no suprise that there'll be problems.
I think people just wet themselves so bad over the DS and are so miffed at Sony for the whole RIAA thing that any bad news about Sony's flagship product is frontpage-worthy.
oops, slash ate my "img" tag that I had mentioned in there. Forgot to extrans.
Simple: images are a core part of html - hence the tag. Flash is not - it uses external extensions.
Because middle-click to paste is the biggest waste of the middle mouse button that I've ever heard of. Say what you will, but the MS "middle click scroller arrow" thing is a much more appopriate use of the middle button.
Yes, but why must the flash movies be embedded into a webpage? Couldn't they just be .flash files and my browser could spawn an external program to handle them? Why can't the browser work like the explorer, nautilus, and every other file browser - why does everything have to happen in-page? Nobody likes it anyways - everybody I know who knows how has AcroReader set to spawn in its own window instead of in the browser.
Yes, but 3d modelling programs are notoriously complicated, so an application that maybe uses a few oversimplifying abstractions as a compromise that allows users to produce quality (if possibly formulaic) artwork without struggling through a seemingly endless UI is most definitely a good thing.
Yes Mrs. Collington, sorry about the run-on sentance Mrs. Collington.
Or they were planning on offerign some sort of stacked-cart like the old Game Genie as a "special offer" for legacy players - something very few will want, but might pay a lot for.
How about a mod to get back the support for the GBA link cable games? That feature-death was a nasty one. Of course I'm being unrealistic - that's most likely impossible due to different architecture.
No. Heaven forbid anyone ever try and improve HTTP - that's blasphemy, even though it seems to be the source of most of the weakness of the internet (can't home serve due to lack of NAT traversal, can't serving large files is suicide because of lack of swarming, no way to differentially update content or inform the user of updates so you have users mashing "refresh" over and over again and redownloading the same goddamn html).
No, http is perfect, that's why nobody ever ever bothers to change it.
But I'm not bitter.
Well, as I understand it, Communism and Democracy are not mutually exclusive - it is simply an unfortunate fact that Communists tend to think they know better, and after having put in the effort to run a violent revolution they seem to think that this justifies their title as "dictator for life".
While it might not be long-term stable, I don't quite see why one couldn't implement a communism headed by a democratic body.
I'm guessing that's what the parent poster might have been referring to.
Well, thats my point - if I have to frameskip, then its too slow. Well, for a convoluted definition of "slow".
My portable IDE:
- text hotsync system.
http://palmtextsync.sourceforge.net/
- text editor.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/sied/
done and done.
I find DosBox slow for most old apps, even on my 2ghz machine. As such, I always try with VDMSound first, since usually the soudn is all you really need to emulate.
Oh, and Star Control II will always be the best space fighter evar.