I find it amusing that the industry thought they could get away with that one. That they thought such a law could withstand the will of hordes of enraged and ruined people. No, BP is going to pay far, far more than $75 million.
I think you'd be surprised. They can't change the law retroactively. Ex post facto is prohibited by the constitution.
But if you don't have that 1%, the other 99% is for naught. As far as I can tell there are very few problems with the implementation of games these days (besides DRM). Everyone gets that 99% right. Very few companies get that 1% of inspiration right.
"I'm older, so I want something more complex". Well, my current favourite game is the pinball machine I've bought, and I'm 38.
Pinball isn't complex? You're dealing with real, honest to god laws of physics, with sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Sure you can just walk up and play a pinball machine, but you'll never, ever complete it. Getting good at pinball, or Galaga, or Robotron 2084 will take years, not weeks or months.
Worms was entirely derivative of many, many tank games that came before it. Most notably Scorched Earth, but that certainly wasn't the first. Check out this video for a historical overview of artillery games.
Don't get me wrong, Worms is a great game. It's a great implementation of a great concept with lots of humor. But it wasn't original by a long shot.
I hate to break this to you but the ideas are the easiest part of game development.
Then why do so many games suffer from a lack of originality? Art and programming might be the most labor intensive part, but everyone can do them. Not everyone can come up with a brilliant new idea. If you're coming up with dozens of game ideas, chances are they're either derivative of something that already exists, or they'll actually suck when you get around to programming. It's separating the good ideas from the mediocre ones that's really, really hard. A great concept can turn into a great game even with a limited engine and poor artwork. The best graphics and programming in the world can't save a crappy idea.
Why do games, especially FPS's and most RPG's need to fit into the standard character moulds so religiously. In every game, even ones where I can be evil like Fallout 3 I always seem to be the hero. If not the hero then the anti-hero. There's no ambiguous moral choices, it's too black and white. Then again with the enemies, they always have to be nameless, faceless certain evil like Nazi's, Zombie's and Terrorists. Why cant I encounter say, a personal letter from one of the guards I've dispatched back to his wife and kids.
To have a just as great experience without investing a lot of time in it. The "just as great" is the key here.
That's just not possible. We call it "investing" time, because it pays off. The first few hours should be fun of course, but they can't match the enjoyment of truly mastering a game.
I simply don't have the time to finish a 60 hour game anymore.
You have an hour a night? You can complete a great RPG in 2 months. And you'll be sorry when it's over. I don't think the problem is the length of the game, but your ADD.
All because 1st semester calc never, ever transfers.
I don't doubt what you went through, but I had no problem transferring 4 semesters of calculus from my community college to a state university in a different state. I really can't recommend community college enough, but I guess it depends on where you go.
You make a good point, but what are you going to do about the students who are motivated and intelligent enough to pass a class without attending class? Why should they be punished for being ahead of their classmates? And if you're making attendance part of the grade, what are you going to do about the edge cases where they would fail the class but perfect attendance brings up their grade? Why should they pass when they're clearly not competent? Grades should ideally be a metric of competence in the subject. Throwing attendance in there ruins that.
Come on now. These are adults. If they choose to skip class because they feel their time is better spent elsewhere, that's their business. If they're wrong, they'll be punished at exam time. No attendance checks are necessary.
i'm not sure what you're getting at here. are you saying you'd rather click a link to have a media player launch to handle video?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.
for myself, i'd prefer to have the embedded video; you can leave it at the size it loads or full-screen it if you prefer. it's a nicer interface for the end user as they don't have to launch another app.
Your external video player can scale videos anyway you want, or not at all. I'd also suggest that a one click "open with" dialog is a nicer interface than a web browser that starts a video as soon as you hit the page. Why is launching another app such a big deal?
i'd take the smooth integration of embedded video any day.
What happens if you're viewing a video in a webpage and you click a link on that page? The video stops playing. What happens when you have a video playing in one tab, and you switch to another tab. It might not be clear which tab has the video that you want to pause, rewind, whatever. With an external video player it's trivial to find it in your task manager. You call it integration, I call it entanglement. There is a benefit to having these functions separated. Software should do one thing, and do it well.
There is one thing I'll say. It would be nice if there were a one click way to pass an URL to an external video player for streaming, instead of "open with" which downloads the file first and passes that file to the video player. This could easily be done with no changes to the protocol.
It's not really. What's the difference between an HTML5 video tag and a simple hyperlink to a video file, which has worked for as long as video files have been around?
The HTML5 video tag requires your browser to be a video player too, instead of just handing off the video to your systems video player. This increases bloat. What do we get in return? We get videos embedded in a web page, instead of in their own window. Why exactly do I want that? If I'm watching the video, I only want to see the video. If for some reason I want to watch a video and browse the web at the same time, I have to create a new browser window anyway. I am having trouble coming up with any use case where embedded browser video would be preferable to an external video player.
We've got a bathroom full of auto flushing urinals and toilets at my work. The bathroom also has motion controlled lights. Somehow the flush sensors aren't quite calibrated correctly, so the first person to enter the room after the lights have been off for a while gets to experience a symphony of half a dozen toilets flushing together. It's pretty weird first thing in the morning.
Computers years ago already passed the good-enough mark for normal usage. The only thing that still drives processors are transcoding and games really.
Transcoding and games aren't normal usage? What else do you do with a computer?
If there had been anything that could have even remotely made even the most shaky, thin case against Palin in the emails, you don't think it would have been the subject of a special Congressional committee and/or special prosecutor?
No. No I don't. When there has not been a single indictment for any of the well documented crimes of the Bush administration, I don't trust the justice system to prosecute any government official no matter how obvious their crimes. Was Sarah Palin absolved because she was not guilty, or because she was well connected and powerful? Given what I know about the justice system, the latter seems more likely.
If they went after the Bush administration for doing it, they would have to go after the Obama administration also. It's a slippery slope that leads to everyone getting attacked.
GOOD. If both sides are equally corrupt, then fucking prosecute both sides for corruption.
If it becomes a problem, we'll release bacteria eating lizards. When we're overrun with lizards, we'll release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Sure, the snakes are worse but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. The beautiful part is that when winter comes around, the gorillas will simply freeze to death.
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I find it amusing that the industry thought they could get away with that one. That they thought such a law could withstand the will of hordes of enraged and ruined people. No, BP is going to pay far, far more than $75 million.
I think you'd be surprised. They can't change the law retroactively. Ex post facto is prohibited by the constitution.
But if you don't have that 1%, the other 99% is for naught. As far as I can tell there are very few problems with the implementation of games these days (besides DRM). Everyone gets that 99% right. Very few companies get that 1% of inspiration right.
"I'm older, so I want something more complex". Well, my current favourite game is the pinball machine I've bought, and I'm 38.
Pinball isn't complex? You're dealing with real, honest to god laws of physics, with sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Sure you can just walk up and play a pinball machine, but you'll never, ever complete it. Getting good at pinball, or Galaga, or Robotron 2084 will take years, not weeks or months.
Worms was entirely derivative of many, many tank games that came before it. Most notably Scorched Earth, but that certainly wasn't the first. Check out this video for a historical overview of artillery games.
Don't get me wrong, Worms is a great game. It's a great implementation of a great concept with lots of humor. But it wasn't original by a long shot.
I hate to break this to you but the ideas are the easiest part of game development.
Then why do so many games suffer from a lack of originality? Art and programming might be the most labor intensive part, but everyone can do them. Not everyone can come up with a brilliant new idea. If you're coming up with dozens of game ideas, chances are they're either derivative of something that already exists, or they'll actually suck when you get around to programming. It's separating the good ideas from the mediocre ones that's really, really hard. A great concept can turn into a great game even with a limited engine and poor artwork. The best graphics and programming in the world can't save a crappy idea.
Why do games, especially FPS's and most RPG's need to fit into the standard character moulds so religiously. In every game, even ones where I can be evil like Fallout 3 I always seem to be the hero. If not the hero then the anti-hero. There's no ambiguous moral choices, it's too black and white. Then again with the enemies, they always have to be nameless, faceless certain evil like Nazi's, Zombie's and Terrorists. Why cant I encounter say, a personal letter from one of the guards I've dispatched back to his wife and kids.
Haven't played The Witcher yet, huh?
To have a just as great experience without investing a lot of time in it. The "just as great" is the key here.
That's just not possible. We call it "investing" time, because it pays off. The first few hours should be fun of course, but they can't match the enjoyment of truly mastering a game.
I simply don't have the time to finish a 60 hour game anymore.
You have an hour a night? You can complete a great RPG in 2 months. And you'll be sorry when it's over. I don't think the problem is the length of the game, but your ADD.
That's the weakest attempt at trolling I've ever seen on /. And that's saying something.
All because 1st semester calc never, ever transfers.
I don't doubt what you went through, but I had no problem transferring 4 semesters of calculus from my community college to a state university in a different state. I really can't recommend community college enough, but I guess it depends on where you go.
You make a good point, but what are you going to do about the students who are motivated and intelligent enough to pass a class without attending class? Why should they be punished for being ahead of their classmates? And if you're making attendance part of the grade, what are you going to do about the edge cases where they would fail the class but perfect attendance brings up their grade? Why should they pass when they're clearly not competent? Grades should ideally be a metric of competence in the subject. Throwing attendance in there ruins that.
Come on now. These are adults. If they choose to skip class because they feel their time is better spent elsewhere, that's their business. If they're wrong, they'll be punished at exam time. No attendance checks are necessary.
How is the browser a video player, if the video tag is format-agnostic?
The browser is going to have to provide controls for pausing, seeking, scaling, etc. It's not all in the codec.
Not having to get out of your browser to watch videos would be the main one.
Why is that a benefit? Really? What is so bad about opening another window?
Can you honestly say that you've never watched a video inline on a page? On YouTube, for instance?
When I watch online videos, I use Download Helper and launch the flv in mplayer. It's much nicer than flash.
Your grandma doesn't want to know the difference between a web browser and a video player, she wants it to work when she hits play.
When I watch videos on archive.org (they do provide direct links), it just works. Click the link, hit "open with" and it plays.
i'm not sure what you're getting at here. are you saying you'd rather click a link to have a media player launch to handle video?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.
for myself, i'd prefer to have the embedded video; you can leave it at the size it loads or full-screen it if you prefer. it's a nicer interface for the end user as they don't have to launch another app.
Your external video player can scale videos anyway you want, or not at all. I'd also suggest that a one click "open with" dialog is a nicer interface than a web browser that starts a video as soon as you hit the page. Why is launching another app such a big deal?
i'd take the smooth integration of embedded video any day.
What happens if you're viewing a video in a webpage and you click a link on that page? The video stops playing. What happens when you have a video playing in one tab, and you switch to another tab. It might not be clear which tab has the video that you want to pause, rewind, whatever. With an external video player it's trivial to find it in your task manager. You call it integration, I call it entanglement. There is a benefit to having these functions separated. Software should do one thing, and do it well.
There is one thing I'll say. It would be nice if there were a one click way to pass an URL to an external video player for streaming, instead of "open with" which downloads the file first and passes that file to the video player. This could easily be done with no changes to the protocol.
HTML5 video is a major leap forward.
It's not really. What's the difference between an HTML5 video tag and a simple hyperlink to a video file, which has worked for as long as video files have been around?
The HTML5 video tag requires your browser to be a video player too, instead of just handing off the video to your systems video player. This increases bloat. What do we get in return? We get videos embedded in a web page, instead of in their own window. Why exactly do I want that? If I'm watching the video, I only want to see the video. If for some reason I want to watch a video and browse the web at the same time, I have to create a new browser window anyway. I am having trouble coming up with any use case where embedded browser video would be preferable to an external video player.
We've got a bathroom full of auto flushing urinals and toilets at my work. The bathroom also has motion controlled lights. Somehow the flush sensors aren't quite calibrated correctly, so the first person to enter the room after the lights have been off for a while gets to experience a symphony of half a dozen toilets flushing together. It's pretty weird first thing in the morning.
I'd be more interested in a response from Xiph on Job's email concerning Theora.
Computers years ago already passed the good-enough mark for normal usage. The only thing that still drives processors are transcoding and games really.
Transcoding and games aren't normal usage? What else do you do with a computer?
I'm sick of overpriced, ad infested cable internet.
as of late?
You can be case insensitive without storing in plain text. Just convert everything to one case before you hash it.
If there had been anything that could have even remotely made even the most shaky, thin case against Palin in the emails, you don't think it would have been the subject of a special Congressional committee and/or special prosecutor?
No. No I don't. When there has not been a single indictment for any of the well documented crimes of the Bush administration, I don't trust the justice system to prosecute any government official no matter how obvious their crimes. Was Sarah Palin absolved because she was not guilty, or because she was well connected and powerful? Given what I know about the justice system, the latter seems more likely.
If they went after the Bush administration for doing it, they would have to go after the Obama administration also. It's a slippery slope that leads to everyone getting attacked.
GOOD. If both sides are equally corrupt, then fucking prosecute both sides for corruption.
If it becomes a problem, we'll release bacteria eating lizards. When we're overrun with lizards, we'll release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Sure, the snakes are worse but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. The beautiful part is that when winter comes around, the gorillas will simply freeze to death.
I would suggest those "troubled health professionals" find a summer camp where they can go fuck themselves for 3 hours a day.