I looked at the ZBoard for all of five minutes once, about two years ago. It always looked and felt chintzy when I was in CompUSA looking at the display model (which was usually set up with something like an EverQuest keyboard module) and hated it because yet again, it not only screwed with the tried-and-true classic keyboard layout, but it was impossible for lefties to use.
For a while, I wanted the Saitek Eclipse - a nice gaming keyboard, backlit keys, not too much extra crap other than a good feel and the sort of look that would go over well in LAN sessions, but then the Logitech G15 was announced. Holy crap. Logitech actually went and did a gaming keyboard -right-. The only thing that bugs me is that the 'Gamer Keys' are on the left side instead of the right (which is really understandable) and that my first one (I'm on a warranty replacement now, and Logitech was amazingly good about it) had problems with the paint coming off the keys.
Logitech's usual decent quality, keys with lighted letters, a hackable LCD, 18 programmable macro keys with three modes and built-in on the fly programming. And best of all, NO FREAKY FUCKING LAYOUT. I despise what Microsoft has done with newer keyboards, screwing up the home/end/pgup/pgdown/etc. cluster, curving the arrow keys, etc. For a left-handed gamer especially, the G15 just rocks.
Note to lefties: For games like Counter-Strike and other FPS titles, I strongly suggest arrow keys with control for ducking, keyp/ins for jump, delete for reload, and end for use. Those keys are a really good layout once you get used to them, unless you mouse with your right hand.
About two months ago I was deciding whether or not to get a RAZR or an E815 through Verizon, as I didn't have much of a choice in carriers. It took a short while, but I eventually decided to go with the E815, because it was more easily known to be a moddable phone. Unlocked using relatively easy instructions found online, I was able to get it working to play MP3's just fine as ringtones or whatever. Also enabled basic OBEX and DUN over Bluetooth, though none of the 'push' features. Once unlocked, the phone becomes a lot more useful to people with non-Windows systems, though you do need a USB cable and some special software (that isn't difficult to find) to hex-edit the phone in order to free things up.
I figure this kind of modification is perfectly legitimate, as it doesn't take anything away from Verizon that they're obligated to. Any time I spend on the net with the phone uses minutes, and any feature I unlocked simply enables me to use the handset with -my- other electronics. I do wish Verizon would stop this crap and start offering services like the rest of the world can get them, but so long as they'll lock things down, we'll try and unlock them.
Why -should- they care about *nix? After looking at this crowd and the rather snarky reaction from most of the higher-rated posters, they'd wind up spending a year of manpower creating 20 different packages for 40 different *nix distributions, of the 3 applications in the pack that most *nix people don't get already. And then, they'd get bitched at ad-infinitum by the same snarky bastards here, because the package formats wouldn't include ".formatIcameupwithwhilereallystonedandcompilingGe ntoo".
There are several reasons why it makes sense for Google not to bow to the Open Source movement and users, first and foremost being that people who use *nix don't need this level of ease. Second of which, being that they've tried to appeal to this crowd by offering the least evil solution in most markets they enter into. But thirdly, it's because Open Source zealots are a bunch of backstabbing pricks that don't recognize a good thing when it's handed to them or their loved ones that -don't- run free-as-in-speech everything.
Fortunately, Google -is- working on Mac support where it's relevant. They should get credit for that much, rather than attacked and derided for not supporting an Operating System that can't get its shit together even to agree on a standard way of installing software.
I run Debian on headless servers, but after trying to install various flavors of *nix on my P2-366 Toughbook, determined that none of the distributions will handle such a low-spec system as well as even -XP- does. Quit whining about Google and fix that crap.
Actually, America On-Line started out as Quantum Link, which was a Commodore 64 service. Y'know, the cool one that gave out free 1200 baud modems with a subscription for a while, and had the nifty you-walk-around-in-it interface.
Yep, that's brilliant. Completely screw all the die-hards that buy early or pre-order machines, so they don't get a feature that'll be a major selling point a while down the road. Sounds like the wrong way to market a console to me.
Re:I Agree with Monkey Boy. Where's OS Innovation?
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See, I know how to configure and manage Linux well enough to be impressed with what's done. What I'm referring to is the typical Windows user. What is there that they can see on a first boot other than indecipherable icons, non-working sound drivers, and interfaces that look... well, to be honest, IMHO, the interfaces for KDE and Gnome both appear to look a strange combination of both cluttered and barren.
What I want to know about are the things that Open Source development can point to and say "This is where we innovated." in a way that'll impress Joe Windows. Compilers, kernels, and development tools won't do it. The crowning achievements of Open Source in the eyes of Windows users are Firefox and Mozilla, and most of those users don't know where those came from, let alone the heritage. Plus, they're not even particularly innovative.
I Agree with Monkey Boy. Where's OS Innovation?
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I submitted a question to Slashdot about this a couple years ago, wondering the same thing. Where is the Open Source innovation coming from? Are there any projects out there that really innovate, coming from Open Source developers?
Sure, Microsoft and Apple have the resources to hire artists, and study usability, and implement ideas that come to mind, but the entire desktop paradigm, for example, hasn't made significant improvement since the days of Windows 95. Are there any projects out there for any platform that actually show innovation in a way that's not just like trying to copy or slightly-alter something that's been done by one of these commercial entities?
It's a serious question. What can those of us who enjoy Open Source software use as a showpiece, an example of just how much better it can get for a user? I've installed three linux distributions on a server of mine just this past month, and let me tell you, they're not all that impressive to your typical Windows person. ("What's that dialog about your sound not working?" "What the hell is that icon supposed to be?" "What the hell is that?")
Of course something big is about to happen, and video may be it. Remember, the iPod is only half of the iTunes / iPod combination punch, and iTunes just hit version 4.9. That means the next revision, 5.0, is going to most likely include something big. I can't see Apple being the kind of company that'll release a new major version of iTunes without something big under the hood. Video may be it.
I've got to say that I've found Outlook in general to be very nice for recovering from another type of system issue - the monthly Windows system reinstall! Hey, all I need to do is wipe/windows, reinstall Windows and Office, import the PST and I'm all done!
Except for... wiping... my entire... fucking OS... because it SUCKS. And adding all my email accounts in, and redesigning my filters, and... Etc.
I'm probably going to be moving all my email to one of my Mac machines soon. It'd be better to just use my Powerbook for email if I can get into the habit. For just email, the standard Tiger client is pretty nice. But I really hope the FOSS community - and Apple, for that matter - look at this thread and take some ideas of those areas that Outlook got right, and acknowledge where it went wrong.
Oh my fucking god. This O'Gara bitch calls herself a fucking journalist and publishes this stuff? Anyone that defends this kind of action taken against ANYONE should just give up and publish their own details in this thread, because you'll be giving up any semblance of a right to privacy - or you're a hypocritical SCO planted fuckwit.
LinuxWorld / Sys-Con isn't censoring anyone, and if you think the decision to pull Mog's articles is censorship after reading the article in question, you're a moron. What Mog did is a total and complete violation of every ethical standard that any reporter should ever aspire to in the realm of news publishing.
I mean, shit. I'm practically in a blood feud with my slimy, asshole brother that refuses to pay me money he owes me from the 2 years I spent working for him, and even I won't stoop so low as to publish this kind of detail about his life online. For Mog's publication of this sort of crap to be anything remotely kosher, PJ would have had to have molested Mog as a child, run over her new puppy and pissed on the corpse!
I mean, a nice launching of the Michael from someplace in Washington State (Redmond, perhaps?) would probably do the trick of getting a nice payload into orbit. Of course, without the baby elephants... but we'd still get to nuke Redmond!
Ever since I got my first mouse ($50 from Radio Shack, 1990 or so) I've disliked the mouse concept. Why? Desk space. I want my desk space for me, not transitional wrist and arm movements, goddammit. So I picked up an ALPS Trackpad for $80 when they first hit the shelves where I lived. A 1.3-1.5" surface, two buttons and a 'chord' middle, and that was it. I used that sonofabitch for six years for everything from Windows to Counter-Strike and did pretty damn well with it. Then, when it came time to get another input device I found myself totally screwed. So what did I come up with? The good old Logitech Marble Mouse. (Now available in blister-added formula, with two more buttons!) Now my marble mouse barely shows the Logitech logo any more, the new ones have raised symbols on the two new buttons that look like they'd dig the hell out of the sides of my fingers, and every mouse on the shelf is ergonomic.
This thing doesn't look like it's a bad idea, or a very good one - but at least it looks non-discriminatory in regard to what hand you use. But it's expensive, niche, and eventually pointless as it just won't do what people currently expect from a mouse.
What options are out there for lefties these days, anyhow? Do I need to stock up on spare Marble Mice for the next 20 years, or am I going to get raped for an actual left-handed mouse special order?
The trend toward mini PC's has been growing for quite some time now, with a lot of the major OEM vendors coming out with form factors and case designs intended to bring the size of systems down. Did a Mac Mini leak do damage by giving the Wintel world a few weeks of a headstart? Maybe, but it doesn't matter a bit. That thing Intel demoed was, as most Intel-world copies of Apple ideas are, ugly as hell.
That being said, I think Apple is simply the barracuda of the PC world, trying to survive by being a vicious bastard so it can survive attacks from polar bears and the occasional penguin. If they'd open up a little more, and let these suits drop, I'd have a lot more respect for them as a corporation. But what can I say? I'm typing this on a Powerbook because they simply make better hardware and software. It's not like Microsoft because Microsoft refuses to innovate unless someone pushes them. Apple is constantly being pushed, so they're making like that barracuda and thrashing at everything they can.
A few years ago, I got an HP Laserjet 1200 for a price that was practically a steal (Store mismarked it, I verified the ultra-low price with a clueless manager, and they sold it to me for $54) and never expected to buy another inkjet printer, ever. Well, I spotted a Canon i2000 printer at Target for another steal of a price ($29.99 price dropped from $79.00) and due to it having borderless photo printing, decided I'd pick it up.
I'm completely happy with it. The only downside is that it doesn't use the multiple tanks for each color, but at the same time the ink carts are very simple. Just ink, seperate printhead, and they look easily refillable. And even if I don't want to screw with that, the price on replacement cartridges isn't even all that bad. The print quality seems great, price was amazing, and it doesn't try and screw me.
I have a suspicion that the "Do the Math" campaign that Napster seems to be running right now, is going to do pretty much nothing. I don't think they'll win over anyone that -already- uses the iTunes Music Store. Why? Because they're incompatible - on the software, and hardware levels.
Odds are, if someone's using the iTMS, they already have an iPod. If they already have an iPod, they won't be able to listen to Napster's form of DRM. If they already have iTunes songs, they won't be able to listen to those on Napster-compatible devices. So where's the practical reason to switch?
There isn't one. Napster's pretty much hoping to create a whole new all-you-can-download market, which is going to collapse hard as soon as someone releases a Napster music file DRM stripper. People will go ahead and legally download thousands of tracks, crack them, then cancel. The RIAA will not like this.
I don't think you can say there's an unwillingness to re-evaluate government programs. That's far too much of a blanket statement to be able to honestly consider. Are they unwilling to simply eliminate a program in place? Probably - but the problem is that there's never a position where they can look at the entire system from the ground up in order to do it right.
For example, let's look at AFDC and Medicaid. These programs are operated by the states, and funded by the federal government. You can't just kill them, and you can't -quite- merge them. So how do you deal with these programs, especially ones that are managed on a state level? You have to rethink it all, once in a while. Sadly, there's no way the current political system can let that happen. The democrats don't have the pull or the drive to get it done, and the Republicans would probably just gut them both in the process. Screw fixing the problems when you can just cut a bunch of the money away and push for more faith-based stuff so people have to walk into a church, right?
Yes, that's an overly broad comment. But the problem is there's just no -easy- way to do it. And the Democratic party we have today doesn't think things through in the long term like they did half a century ago. Perhaps with Dean in charge, the DNC will grow the balls it needs. I just hope (I'd pray if I were religious) that they can do it without using the same tactics.
To clarify, my "Red Stater" remark is primarily focused that way because of the arrogance I've encountered on Slashdot and other forums where people said things along the lines of being a "proud Red Stater".
My personal belief is that people in "Red States" of the rank-and-file populace variety were lied to, repeatedly, and unwaveringly, and they failed to care as lie after lie was exposed - becacuse the spin was so great from the conservative side of the political spectrum.
I'm not foolish enough to think it's Republican/Democrat, and that the Democratic side would NEVER do anything like this - I know my history. Chicago, anyone? However, these days tit seems like you could reasonably break up the political spectrum into XXXX types of person. For each of the following concepts, there's a conservative and a liberal side - and usually a militant equivalent for both. And yes, this is a pretty short list made up on the fly for this posting.
Environmentalism On one end of this spectrum, you have your rabid environmentalists spiking trees in old-growth forest. On the other, you have the clearcutting corporate slimebags that don't want to be forced to drop a seed when they haul off a tree. There aren't a lot of either extreme end of this spectrum, so it usually tends to be a battle of moderates. (My leaning is right in the middle. There's a balance to be struck, and it's not a hard one. Clearing old growth is a good idea, but you do need to replant. Tree farms == Good. Toilet Paper == Awesome.)
Social Programs/Economy You've got your rabid communists, and your rabid libertarians. AKA "Feed the people." vs. "Fuck the poor!" The point of moderation between those two sides is pretty much represented by what we've seen up until this past few years and the "Crisis" in Social Security. Spend more vs. Spend less. Nobody wants to leave grandma starving to death - except maybe one or two the rabid Libertarians reading this post. Business interests and economic growth always deserve careful attention, but weighing all the options -fairly- is something we should all strive for. (Again, I fall pretty much in the middle)
International Politics There're so many ways to break this down, I'm going to try and keep it simple. You've got isolationism vs. multinationalism vs. neo-imperialism, which is what I've come up with to summarize what I see coming out of the Paul Wolfowitzes of the world. Oddly, the neo-imperialists and the isolationists tend to share a brain on a few areas, seeming to come across as "Fuck the world, but don't let it fuck with us." A matter of very, very varied degrees. You need a balancing act, and mainstream politics is so splintered that I think we're stuck in the middle due to gridlock not so much for lack of trying on all sides.
If there's a single thing I could simply wish ALL sides would do, it would be to honestly, fairly, and legitimately do "studies" on whatever they consider problems to be. All these bought-and-paid-for think tanks and research councils on ALL sides just make the entire process suspect. Given that as an impossible desire, I'll settle for lending most of my support to those institutions which show me some -semblance- of respect and honor. To date, the Republicans haven't done that. My home state is Maine, where both Republican senators are women, and both regularly cross party lines on issues intended to divide the nation. They're the kind of Republican this country needs.
Actually, having seen the parts of my family that follow the "red state" ideals over the course of the last election cycle, I'm thoroughly convinced that most of the people in the "red states" that voted for Bush with such vigor, really did not seem to care that they were being lied to.
I'll use my own mother as an example. She's generally a very level-headed person, but when it comes down to politics she -loves- burying her head in the sand and seeing things as a "black or white, good or evil" issue. And I suspect most mothers are the same way once they're close to sixty. The entire process the right-wing republicans have been using is to make everything a soundbite, a good vs. evil / us against them / with or against us argument. You cannot possibly tell me with a straight face that the democrats were ever this blatant, misleading or dense about anything remotely close to this kind of manipulative behavior.
The answer "But Clinton did it!" does not make it right, and on those occasions when the democrats get caught pulling this nonsense, they should get bitched out too. If anyone ever showed me evidence of them doing it on one tenth of the scale this administration's been caught in just the past -month-, I'd be one of the first ones bitching. It's just much, much easier to give the republicans a black eye for this shit because they're such masters of it. Did Clinton stand behind repeating grids of soundbite text at -every- appearance that didn't have him in front a huge flag instead? Did his administration bribe columnists to push his agenda? (If he did, please cite a Reuters/AP/UPI link so I can learn about it.)
These same people thought there were WMD's. These same people STILL fucking think they exist.
People like having things laid out for them in black and white, they don't like to think about them. Nobody wants to waste the time and energy to contemplate world affairs because they can't change them. So why worry? They put their trust in the person that makes the plainest-spoken argument, not even giving enough of a shit to think he's wrong.
Yes, there are some people out there that follow the Republican way of thought and actually give thought TO that belief. Unfortunately, what they don't do is win elections. John McCain and his type of Republican are an endangered species. The neoconservative wing has discovered how to pull all the puppets into line, and will cut loose the rogues it can't control.
Well, let's see. We've had two columnists paid off, party plants in the Presidential press pool, and 200 scientists now reporting they've been pressured to alter results. Yeah, those red staters really are so much smarter than those of us in the blue states. They memorize the propaganda more easily.
Every year I fear more and more for our country, and every year the average American just seems to be that much more baffled by bullshit. We're never going to see anything resembling what we -thought- was a "clean" electoral process again, I'm afraid.
Several other folks have pointed out the SPECIAL acronym, as well as the source and meaning of it. However, the reason it wasn't really heavily detailed in the interview is because the website that did the interviewing is a site dedicated specifically to fans of Fallout and Fallout 2. Everyone reading that site, not referred from here at least - will definitely know what SPECIAL is, and be very hopeful to see it used again.
The other amusing bit about SPECIAL is that they never intended to use it in the first place. There was a licensing deal with GURPS that fell through late in development for Fallout, so they needed to drop in a whole new system in a hurry. SPECIAL was the result.
But if you ask, and keep asking, for this answer now, you may get a change in that mindset. It's a much better idea, I think, to try and change that kind of thinking when you can - before it's too late - than to wait until someone gets bitten, and bitten hard.
One thing that had me purchasing a ReplayTV system was that there were assurances given that the hardware investment wouldn't go to waste if the company (which was not doing so well) were to fold. They had stated an intent to open the server protocols so people could work on keeping the units up to date some other way, like a community project.
Blizzard does actually utilize a DRM procedure on games, as can be evidenced by the dozens of No-CD cracks available for Warcraft III. Blizzard didn't advance the idea of DRM (as a client app) in the way that Valve did, but is under the same kind of demands that Valve is under because they're both published by... you guessed it, Vivendi Universal.
BnetD was actually at least -somewhat- arguable as a legitimate thing, and there were many ways Blizzard could have handled that better. They didn't, they went on the warpath - which seemed to get a lot of people really, really pissed off around here.
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I looked at the ZBoard for all of five minutes once, about two years ago. It always looked and felt chintzy when I was in CompUSA looking at the display model (which was usually set up with something like an EverQuest keyboard module) and hated it because yet again, it not only screwed with the tried-and-true classic keyboard layout, but it was impossible for lefties to use.
For a while, I wanted the Saitek Eclipse - a nice gaming keyboard, backlit keys, not too much extra crap other than a good feel and the sort of look that would go over well in LAN sessions, but then the Logitech G15 was announced. Holy crap. Logitech actually went and did a gaming keyboard -right-. The only thing that bugs me is that the 'Gamer Keys' are on the left side instead of the right (which is really understandable) and that my first one (I'm on a warranty replacement now, and Logitech was amazingly good about it) had problems with the paint coming off the keys.
Logitech's usual decent quality, keys with lighted letters, a hackable LCD, 18 programmable macro keys with three modes and built-in on the fly programming. And best of all, NO FREAKY FUCKING LAYOUT. I despise what Microsoft has done with newer keyboards, screwing up the home/end/pgup/pgdown/etc. cluster, curving the arrow keys, etc. For a left-handed gamer especially, the G15 just rocks.
Note to lefties: For games like Counter-Strike and other FPS titles, I strongly suggest arrow keys with control for ducking, keyp/ins for jump, delete for reload, and end for use. Those keys are a really good layout once you get used to them, unless you mouse with your right hand.
About two months ago I was deciding whether or not to get a RAZR or an E815 through Verizon, as I didn't have much of a choice in carriers. It took a short while, but I eventually decided to go with the E815, because it was more easily known to be a moddable phone. Unlocked using relatively easy instructions found online, I was able to get it working to play MP3's just fine as ringtones or whatever. Also enabled basic OBEX and DUN over Bluetooth, though none of the 'push' features. Once unlocked, the phone becomes a lot more useful to people with non-Windows systems, though you do need a USB cable and some special software (that isn't difficult to find) to hex-edit the phone in order to free things up.
I figure this kind of modification is perfectly legitimate, as it doesn't take anything away from Verizon that they're obligated to. Any time I spend on the net with the phone uses minutes, and any feature I unlocked simply enables me to use the handset with -my- other electronics. I do wish Verizon would stop this crap and start offering services like the rest of the world can get them, but so long as they'll lock things down, we'll try and unlock them.
Why -should- they care about *nix? After looking at this crowd and the rather snarky reaction from most of the higher-rated posters, they'd wind up spending a year of manpower creating 20 different packages for 40 different *nix distributions, of the 3 applications in the pack that most *nix people don't get already. And then, they'd get bitched at ad-infinitum by the same snarky bastards here, because the package formats wouldn't include ".formatIcameupwithwhilereallystonedandcompilingGe ntoo".
There are several reasons why it makes sense for Google not to bow to the Open Source movement and users, first and foremost being that people who use *nix don't need this level of ease. Second of which, being that they've tried to appeal to this crowd by offering the least evil solution in most markets they enter into. But thirdly, it's because Open Source zealots are a bunch of backstabbing pricks that don't recognize a good thing when it's handed to them or their loved ones that -don't- run free-as-in-speech everything.
Fortunately, Google -is- working on Mac support where it's relevant. They should get credit for that much, rather than attacked and derided for not supporting an Operating System that can't get its shit together even to agree on a standard way of installing software.
I run Debian on headless servers, but after trying to install various flavors of *nix on my P2-366 Toughbook, determined that none of the distributions will handle such a low-spec system as well as even -XP- does. Quit whining about Google and fix that crap.
Actually, America On-Line started out as Quantum Link, which was a Commodore 64 service. Y'know, the cool one that gave out free 1200 baud modems with a subscription for a while, and had the nifty you-walk-around-in-it interface.
Yep, that's brilliant. Completely screw all the die-hards that buy early or pre-order machines, so they don't get a feature that'll be a major selling point a while down the road. Sounds like the wrong way to market a console to me.
See, I know how to configure and manage Linux well enough to be impressed with what's done. What I'm referring to is the typical Windows user. What is there that they can see on a first boot other than indecipherable icons, non-working sound drivers, and interfaces that look ... well, to be honest, IMHO, the interfaces for KDE and Gnome both appear to look a strange combination of both cluttered and barren.
What I want to know about are the things that Open Source development can point to and say "This is where we innovated." in a way that'll impress Joe Windows. Compilers, kernels, and development tools won't do it. The crowning achievements of Open Source in the eyes of Windows users are Firefox and Mozilla, and most of those users don't know where those came from, let alone the heritage. Plus, they're not even particularly innovative.
I submitted a question to Slashdot about this a couple years ago, wondering the same thing. Where is the Open Source innovation coming from? Are there any projects out there that really innovate, coming from Open Source developers?
Sure, Microsoft and Apple have the resources to hire artists, and study usability, and implement ideas that come to mind, but the entire desktop paradigm, for example, hasn't made significant improvement since the days of Windows 95. Are there any projects out there for any platform that actually show innovation in a way that's not just like trying to copy or slightly-alter something that's been done by one of these commercial entities?
It's a serious question. What can those of us who enjoy Open Source software use as a showpiece, an example of just how much better it can get for a user? I've installed three linux distributions on a server of mine just this past month, and let me tell you, they're not all that impressive to your typical Windows person. ("What's that dialog about your sound not working?" "What the hell is that icon supposed to be?" "What the hell is that?")
Of course something big is about to happen, and video may be it. Remember, the iPod is only half of the iTunes / iPod combination punch, and iTunes just hit version 4.9. That means the next revision, 5.0, is going to most likely include something big. I can't see Apple being the kind of company that'll release a new major version of iTunes without something big under the hood. Video may be it.
I've got to say that I've found Outlook in general to be very nice for recovering from another type of system issue - the monthly Windows system reinstall! Hey, all I need to do is wipe /windows, reinstall Windows and Office, import the PST and I'm all done!
... wiping ... my entire ... fucking OS ... because it SUCKS. And adding all my email accounts in, and redesigning my filters, and ... Etc.
Except for
I'm probably going to be moving all my email to one of my Mac machines soon. It'd be better to just use my Powerbook for email if I can get into the habit. For just email, the standard Tiger client is pretty nice. But I really hope the FOSS community - and Apple, for that matter - look at this thread and take some ideas of those areas that Outlook got right, and acknowledge where it went wrong.
You know the perfect cure for that?
"Oh my god, the dude next to me is looking at horse porn! Ewwwwwww!" at volume. I suspect the guy will most likely STOP when you say this.
And if he doesn't, you can always ask him if his machine has a burner in it.
Oh my fucking god. This O'Gara bitch calls herself a fucking journalist and publishes this stuff? Anyone that defends this kind of action taken against ANYONE should just give up and publish their own details in this thread, because you'll be giving up any semblance of a right to privacy - or you're a hypocritical SCO planted fuckwit.
LinuxWorld / Sys-Con isn't censoring anyone, and if you think the decision to pull Mog's articles is censorship after reading the article in question, you're a moron. What Mog did is a total and complete violation of every ethical standard that any reporter should ever aspire to in the realm of news publishing.
I mean, shit. I'm practically in a blood feud with my slimy, asshole brother that refuses to pay me money he owes me from the 2 years I spent working for him, and even I won't stoop so low as to publish this kind of detail about his life online. For Mog's publication of this sort of crap to be anything remotely kosher, PJ would have had to have molested Mog as a child, run over her new puppy and pissed on the corpse!
I mean, a nice launching of the Michael from someplace in Washington State (Redmond, perhaps?) would probably do the trick of getting a nice payload into orbit. Of course, without the baby elephants... but we'd still get to nuke Redmond!
You're welcome, coward. :)
Ever since I got my first mouse ($50 from Radio Shack, 1990 or so) I've disliked the mouse concept. Why? Desk space. I want my desk space for me, not transitional wrist and arm movements, goddammit. So I picked up an ALPS Trackpad for $80 when they first hit the shelves where I lived. A 1.3-1.5" surface, two buttons and a 'chord' middle, and that was it. I used that sonofabitch for six years for everything from Windows to Counter-Strike and did pretty damn well with it. Then, when it came time to get another input device I found myself totally screwed. So what did I come up with? The good old Logitech Marble Mouse. (Now available in blister-added formula, with two more buttons!) Now my marble mouse barely shows the Logitech logo any more, the new ones have raised symbols on the two new buttons that look like they'd dig the hell out of the sides of my fingers, and every mouse on the shelf is ergonomic.
This thing doesn't look like it's a bad idea, or a very good one - but at least it looks non-discriminatory in regard to what hand you use. But it's expensive, niche, and eventually pointless as it just won't do what people currently expect from a mouse.
What options are out there for lefties these days, anyhow? Do I need to stock up on spare Marble Mice for the next 20 years, or am I going to get raped for an actual left-handed mouse special order?
The trend toward mini PC's has been growing for quite some time now, with a lot of the major OEM vendors coming out with form factors and case designs intended to bring the size of systems down. Did a Mac Mini leak do damage by giving the Wintel world a few weeks of a headstart? Maybe, but it doesn't matter a bit. That thing Intel demoed was, as most Intel-world copies of Apple ideas are, ugly as hell.
That being said, I think Apple is simply the barracuda of the PC world, trying to survive by being a vicious bastard so it can survive attacks from polar bears and the occasional penguin. If they'd open up a little more, and let these suits drop, I'd have a lot more respect for them as a corporation. But what can I say? I'm typing this on a Powerbook because they simply make better hardware and software. It's not like Microsoft because Microsoft refuses to innovate unless someone pushes them. Apple is constantly being pushed, so they're making like that barracuda and thrashing at everything they can.
A few years ago, I got an HP Laserjet 1200 for a price that was practically a steal (Store mismarked it, I verified the ultra-low price with a clueless manager, and they sold it to me for $54) and never expected to buy another inkjet printer, ever. Well, I spotted a Canon i2000 printer at Target for another steal of a price ($29.99 price dropped from $79.00) and due to it having borderless photo printing, decided I'd pick it up.
I'm completely happy with it. The only downside is that it doesn't use the multiple tanks for each color, but at the same time the ink carts are very simple. Just ink, seperate printhead, and they look easily refillable. And even if I don't want to screw with that, the price on replacement cartridges isn't even all that bad. The print quality seems great, price was amazing, and it doesn't try and screw me.
Canon's got my business.
I have a suspicion that the "Do the Math" campaign that Napster seems to be running right now, is going to do pretty much nothing. I don't think they'll win over anyone that -already- uses the iTunes Music Store. Why? Because they're incompatible - on the software, and hardware levels.
Odds are, if someone's using the iTMS, they already have an iPod. If they already have an iPod, they won't be able to listen to Napster's form of DRM. If they already have iTunes songs, they won't be able to listen to those on Napster-compatible devices. So where's the practical reason to switch?
There isn't one. Napster's pretty much hoping to create a whole new all-you-can-download market, which is going to collapse hard as soon as someone releases a Napster music file DRM stripper. People will go ahead and legally download thousands of tracks, crack them, then cancel. The RIAA will not like this.
I don't think you can say there's an unwillingness to re-evaluate government programs. That's far too much of a blanket statement to be able to honestly consider. Are they unwilling to simply eliminate a program in place? Probably - but the problem is that there's never a position where they can look at the entire system from the ground up in order to do it right.
For example, let's look at AFDC and Medicaid. These programs are operated by the states, and funded by the federal government. You can't just kill them, and you can't -quite- merge them. So how do you deal with these programs, especially ones that are managed on a state level? You have to rethink it all, once in a while. Sadly, there's no way the current political system can let that happen. The democrats don't have the pull or the drive to get it done, and the Republicans would probably just gut them both in the process. Screw fixing the problems when you can just cut a bunch of the money away and push for more faith-based stuff so people have to walk into a church, right?
Yes, that's an overly broad comment. But the problem is there's just no -easy- way to do it. And the Democratic party we have today doesn't think things through in the long term like they did half a century ago. Perhaps with Dean in charge, the DNC will grow the balls it needs. I just hope (I'd pray if I were religious) that they can do it without using the same tactics.
To clarify, my "Red Stater" remark is primarily focused that way because of the arrogance I've encountered on Slashdot and other forums where people said things along the lines of being a "proud Red Stater".
My personal belief is that people in "Red States" of the rank-and-file populace variety were lied to, repeatedly, and unwaveringly, and they failed to care as lie after lie was exposed - becacuse the spin was so great from the conservative side of the political spectrum.
I'm not foolish enough to think it's Republican/Democrat, and that the Democratic side would NEVER do anything like this - I know my history. Chicago, anyone? However, these days tit seems like you could reasonably break up the political spectrum into XXXX types of person. For each of the following concepts, there's a conservative and a liberal side - and usually a militant equivalent for both. And yes, this is a pretty short list made up on the fly for this posting.
Environmentalism
On one end of this spectrum, you have your rabid environmentalists spiking trees in old-growth forest. On the other, you have the clearcutting corporate slimebags that don't want to be forced to drop a seed when they haul off a tree. There aren't a lot of either extreme end of this spectrum, so it usually tends to be a battle of moderates. (My leaning is right in the middle. There's a balance to be struck, and it's not a hard one. Clearing old growth is a good idea, but you do need to replant. Tree farms == Good. Toilet Paper == Awesome.)
Social Programs/Economy
You've got your rabid communists, and your rabid libertarians. AKA "Feed the people." vs. "Fuck the poor!" The point of moderation between those two sides is pretty much represented by what we've seen up until this past few years and the "Crisis" in Social Security. Spend more vs. Spend less. Nobody wants to leave grandma starving to death - except maybe one or two the rabid Libertarians reading this post. Business interests and economic growth always deserve careful attention, but weighing all the options -fairly- is something we should all strive for. (Again, I fall pretty much in the middle)
International Politics
There're so many ways to break this down, I'm going to try and keep it simple. You've got isolationism vs. multinationalism vs. neo-imperialism, which is what I've come up with to summarize what I see coming out of the Paul Wolfowitzes of the world. Oddly, the neo-imperialists and the isolationists tend to share a brain on a few areas, seeming to come across as "Fuck the world, but don't let it fuck with us." A matter of very, very varied degrees. You need a balancing act, and mainstream politics is so splintered that I think we're stuck in the middle due to gridlock not so much for lack of trying on all sides.
If there's a single thing I could simply wish ALL sides would do, it would be to honestly, fairly, and legitimately do "studies" on whatever they consider problems to be. All these bought-and-paid-for think tanks and research councils on ALL sides just make the entire process suspect. Given that as an impossible desire, I'll settle for lending most of my support to those institutions which show me some -semblance- of respect and honor. To date, the Republicans haven't done that. My home state is Maine, where both Republican senators are women, and both regularly cross party lines on issues intended to divide the nation. They're the kind of Republican this country needs.
Actually, having seen the parts of my family that follow the "red state" ideals over the course of the last election cycle, I'm thoroughly convinced that most of the people in the "red states" that voted for Bush with such vigor, really did not seem to care that they were being lied to.
I'll use my own mother as an example. She's generally a very level-headed person, but when it comes down to politics she -loves- burying her head in the sand and seeing things as a "black or white, good or evil" issue. And I suspect most mothers are the same way once they're close to sixty. The entire process the right-wing republicans have been using is to make everything a soundbite, a good vs. evil / us against them / with or against us argument. You cannot possibly tell me with a straight face that the democrats were ever this blatant, misleading or dense about anything remotely close to this kind of manipulative behavior.
The answer "But Clinton did it!" does not make it right, and on those occasions when the democrats get caught pulling this nonsense, they should get bitched out too. If anyone ever showed me evidence of them doing it on one tenth of the scale this administration's been caught in just the past -month-, I'd be one of the first ones bitching. It's just much, much easier to give the republicans a black eye for this shit because they're such masters of it. Did Clinton stand behind repeating grids of soundbite text at -every- appearance that didn't have him in front a huge flag instead? Did his administration bribe columnists to push his agenda? (If he did, please cite a Reuters/AP/UPI link so I can learn about it.)
These same people thought there were WMD's. These same people STILL fucking think they exist.
People like having things laid out for them in black and white, they don't like to think about them. Nobody wants to waste the time and energy to contemplate world affairs because they can't change them. So why worry? They put their trust in the person that makes the plainest-spoken argument, not even giving enough of a shit to think he's wrong.
Yes, there are some people out there that follow the Republican way of thought and actually give thought TO that belief. Unfortunately, what they don't do is win elections. John McCain and his type of Republican are an endangered species. The neoconservative wing has discovered how to pull all the puppets into line, and will cut loose the rogues it can't control.
Well, let's see. We've had two columnists paid off, party plants in the Presidential press pool, and 200 scientists now reporting they've been pressured to alter results. Yeah, those red staters really are so much smarter than those of us in the blue states. They memorize the propaganda more easily.
Every year I fear more and more for our country, and every year the average American just seems to be that much more baffled by bullshit. We're never going to see anything resembling what we -thought- was a "clean" electoral process again, I'm afraid.
Several other folks have pointed out the SPECIAL acronym, as well as the source and meaning of it. However, the reason it wasn't really heavily detailed in the interview is because the website that did the interviewing is a site dedicated specifically to fans of Fallout and Fallout 2. Everyone reading that site, not referred from here at least - will definitely know what SPECIAL is, and be very hopeful to see it used again.
The other amusing bit about SPECIAL is that they never intended to use it in the first place. There was a licensing deal with GURPS that fell through late in development for Fallout, so they needed to drop in a whole new system in a hurry. SPECIAL was the result.
But if you ask, and keep asking, for this answer now, you may get a change in that mindset. It's a much better idea, I think, to try and change that kind of thinking when you can - before it's too late - than to wait until someone gets bitten, and bitten hard.
One thing that had me purchasing a ReplayTV system was that there were assurances given that the hardware investment wouldn't go to waste if the company (which was not doing so well) were to fold. They had stated an intent to open the server protocols so people could work on keeping the units up to date some other way, like a community project.
Ah, but the flashlight's built into the suit which runs off the electricity that comes from your skin!
And the gravity gun's all nuclear or something.
Blizzard does actually utilize a DRM procedure on games, as can be evidenced by the dozens of No-CD cracks available for Warcraft III. Blizzard didn't advance the idea of DRM (as a client app) in the way that Valve did, but is under the same kind of demands that Valve is under because they're both published by... you guessed it, Vivendi Universal.
BnetD was actually at least -somewhat- arguable as a legitimate thing, and there were many ways Blizzard could have handled that better. They didn't, they went on the warpath - which seemed to get a lot of people really, really pissed off around here.