The biggest problem with their approach is that you can't lightmap stuff that's been destroyed. In fact, if you watch the preview movie, you'll notice this right away. There's a scene where they blow up a tower. Watch as the lightmapping disappears just before it drops.
Problem isn't that creating dynamic worlds is hard; it's that lightmapping it is killer. Until we get processors capable of real-time dynamic lighting with hundreds of lights, or some other method of mimicking the effect on the fly, games are going to have the same visual flaws that you see here.
With all due respect, sir, it's people like you who give pro-life (or anti-choice, whichever one prefers) advocates a bad name. Please show a little restraint in the future. As any advocate will tell you, a convincing argument will get a lot better response than a flame any day.
I, personally, cannot offer any argument that would be likely to convince the general populace around here. And I doubt many posters would be interested in it after this.
In case any moderators are curious as to why I'm utilizing my +1 bonus on this post, it's to counterbalance another +1 response to this message, where the poster rightly discredited the original poster. I'd like people to believe that, even though our views may be different, there are some of us pro-lifers (or anti-choicers) who can at least be civil in a public forum.
Not quite. Berlin is currently using Mesa, yes, but not for what you might think. It's using it as a drawingkit. (I think that's the correct terminology.)
There're other drawing kits available too. It's not the only one.
And as far as X compatibility is concerned, that's already there. There's support, already, for getting a GGI context, from which you can run XGGI on top of it. (XGGI is an X server that runs on a GGI context.) The other method, integration of X into GGI, is something I have no clue as to what's being done. (I'm on the mailing list, but I haven't heard much talk about this at all, so.. *shrug*)
James
Re:Clearing up some points
on
3Dwm Updates
·
· Score: 2
Just thought I'd point out that one of the main limiting factors of 3Dwm, Berlin, and similar projects becoming more than just toys is that the hardware support just isn't there. (Yes it is, if you're running under X, but that's kind of defeating the purpose, now, isn't it..?) We need a lower-level hardware acceleration protocol. DRI is nice and all, but it's X-only. Unless people start pulling X and it's drivers apart, the ball's never going to get rolling, and we're going to end up with a lot of projects that started off great, but never really went anywhere because normal everyday users couldn't use 'em.
Several attempts have been made already to rectify this, but it doesn't look like there's been anything major really accomplished. DRI is still where all of the manpower goes, even though projects like GGI/KGI exist.
Hopefully, someone will come out with a standard soon, and we can eliminate this kind of waste of effort. (Well, it's not likely, but we can hope, right..?)
Preferably, such a spec would allow for:
- kernel-level drivers that just pass along commands
- a library where all of the actual code exists, to keep the junk out of the kernel.
Actually, this is what KGI and GGI are.. but you can read about the XFree86 peoples' reasons for not going with their way of doing things for yourself.... Well, I'm guessing you can. I still haven't found one, myself.
(Incidentally, can anyone think of any reasons why this sort of thing ISN'T a good idea..?? I still haven't figured out myself why the XFree86 people are so hesitant to split X like this. Granted, it's an extra pipeline, but then again, that's pretty much what DRI is, too. And considering the added safety of not having a root application playing with kernel registers..)
Obviously, if Rambus goes bust, then the patents will be sold to whomever when Rambus' creditors put the company's assets on the auction block. Just because the company goes under doesn't mean the patent disappears.
Your judges are coming up for re-election this year. Wouldn't it be nice if the EFF or some other group got together and did a little research on how many computer-related warrants they've issued that've come up with nil..?
On the flip side, you might want to do a little research yourself, as to what each of these judges thinks, and how bright they are whenever it comes to internet matters.
Yes, ATi tends to have some really cruddy drivers, but their hardware's some of the best. If you're looking for decent linux drivers for ATi products, take a look at the utah-glx project, where you can get an OpenGL GLX module for 3.3.6 of X. (Supposedly, the DRI module's in the works, but since it's being done by just one guy, and only in his spare time while he's working on the Radeon driver...) Also, if you're interested in video capture, that too appears to be a bit iffy, but you can find the GATOS project online which provides at least a tv-viewing app, and the beginnings of an xv module.
The preminary work on these two projects has been done, so if people really wanted to start making kernel modules or whatever, it could be done. It's just that no one apparently has the time, and since the cards are pretty old anyways, I think everyone pretty much considers them obsolete.
Personally, I know several people who've said that they'll never buy ATi again, because (a) they can't make windows drivers, and (b) they pointedly ignored linux for yeaaaaaaars, when the Rage Pro was the big thing.
Me, I'm still undecided...but this time, I'm waiting for the drivers before I make my purchase.
Carleton University allows remote access, but it's a joke, really.
In order to get into the file servers, you have to gain access through a portal server. To do this, you need to use ssh. After gaining access with ssh, you have to then telnet into the correct server, and from there, transfer your files. To further terrorize the select few who attempt this, they've disabled zmodem protocols, so the only way you can transfer files is to open an X FTP client, and transfer files backwards, pulling files off of your own computer remotely.
The addition of one-time-passwords into the mix makes it nearly impossible for someone like myself to remember my passwords from week to week. I shudder to think what would happen if they attempted to teach people new to computers all of the things that are required to gain access remotely to our network..
Honestly, if you're looking to maintain a high-level of security, you're not going to be able to attempt any of what you're suggesting. Sysadmins are paranoid about their systems, and universities love to keep things locked up tight. Carleton sure is...
Re:I foresee a Slashdot ethics clash.
on
The PS2 Experience
·
· Score: 1
All will continue as before. It has already been arranged. The Quake lovers will continue to moan about the graphics in Quake, while playing it only occasionally. The UT lovers will continue to be unable to find the time to do anything else with their lives, rather than play UT.
(My theory is that, while UT fans are out playing the game in their spare time, the only people who have the time to post here on Slashdot are Q3 players, whose attention spans have been shortened to such a degree by the quick and repetative gameplay of Q3 that they're no longer able to maintain interest in playing the game again long enough to actually get the CD loaded in the drive.;)
Incidentally, I still don't see why some people still consider Quake III to be better than Unreal Tournament. True, the technology used in Quake III sounds cooler, and the game looks a tad cooler, but when it comes to actual gameplay, UT's got the last say.
Example: Dual fire adds an element of strategy that you won't find anywhere in Q3. The shock rifle has an amazing amount of thought behind it, in that the secondary blast can be shot by the primary blast, and caused to discharge in midair, causing a spherical explosion. That's true innovation in the FPS market, my friend.
So which one do I own? Neither. I can't afford them, as a starving student, nor can I afford the new videocard that would be required to play them on my computer. But when I get the moola, you can bet that I'll be playing me some Loki UT on my new Radeon.
(And for those of you who're wondering if this really leaves me with any actual experience with either game to form an actual opinion of 'em, I've test-driven 'em both at work, okay?;)
Still don't see how useful a FPS is gonna be on one of them thar consoles, though...
Ever heard of Use Case Maps? They're what our prof's teaching in our (Carleton University) Object-Oriented Software Engineering class.
There's a UCM tool there, too, that's available for linux. It's still a mite buggy, but it really simplifies making the UCMs themselves.
James
Re:Viability of CD-Rs as a legitimate backup mater
on
DivX ;-) Deux Update
·
· Score: 1
I'm just curious where you got your information. Most things I've read about the durability of CD-R's put their lifespan 10-20 years.
These figures are the results of simulated tests on the technology whenever it first came out. Simulated means that no one really knows for sure.
Besides, I suspect that, like all products' breakdown cycles, the amount it breaks down is represented logarithmically. Since CD-Rs need practically every bit of information, a CD-R will only last as long as it's weakest link. Which, of course, can easily be found out by looking at the specs. I can't remember off of the top of my head, but I suspect that they were factoring in the error correction as well, so your product will probably start to go bad before those 10-20 years are up.
Additionally, you have to ask yourself how many people out there will purchase brand-name CD-Rs? Personally, I've been going with bulk CD-Rs for a while now. Which means that I expect to have a high faulty-CD-R turnover rate. Your mileage will probably be different.
Besides 5 years down the road(or less), Hard Drives will reaching the TB range and DVD-Burners are going as cheap as CD-Burners. CD-R's will be phased out by new technology long before they degrade to the point where they are unreadable.
True. But whenever that time comes, I doubt a lot of people will remember to move forward to a new format. Since DVD-ROM technology's backwards compatible with CD-ROM technology, I suspect a lot of regular users won't figure it out until it's too late.
James
Viability of CD-Rs as a legitimate backup material
on
DivX ;-) Deux Update
·
· Score: 1
I'm sorry to inform you of this, but CD-Rs weren't made for this sort of use. While the data can be stored temporarily, you're going to have a horrendous amount of trouble in 5+ years, whenever your CD-Rs become unreadable.
CD-Rs are made using an organic dye that will degrade after a certain period of time. This makes your CD-Rs a rather poor choice as a backup medium, considering that it has a short lifetime. And as far as storing Babylon 5 and Sliders episodes, I suspect that it won't work so well for that either, considering how often you'll probably wish to watch an episode.
If you're planning on remaking your entire backup library every 5 or so years, then go for it. Otherwise, I suggest using backup tapes or going with a commercial data-backup vendor solution. (Those DO exist, right..?)
I would propose a different theory. The reason that you don't hear as much about Konquerer as you do about Mozilla is because of the differences in marketing decisions.
The Mozilla team is similar to most companies nowadays, in that they'll make a point of advertising every minor advancement made on the road to the final product. This is because every little minor advancement is a big deal. Either design wasn't precise enough, the language doesn't lend itself well to the project, or maybe the design team's too large. In any event, you _have_ to hype the little things, because otherwise the morale of the development team'll drop too low.
(And heaven forbid someone mentioning the project's dead, or that something went wrong.. Same case; you don't want to spook your programmers!)
Now with the Konquerer team, on the other hand, you have a completely different development model. Marketing only comes into play whenever a major change occurs. Minor details needn't be hyped, because there isn't as much worry of morale dropping. (Probably a symptom of good design, which means that the job's more manageable, and likewise, you don't have as many people who're indisposable.) Developers aren't making things more difficult than they need to be, and everyone's speaking on the same wavelength. And more time is spent designing code than fixing bugs, in the long run.
Personally, I can tell you which of the two will get the more press when they're finally released. (Mozilla) And likewise, I can tell you which of the two'll have the better design. (Konquerer) Not because of development time, size of team, or any of the other reasons I've listed. Rather, because if I look at the source code, I can understand the language of Konquerer. I understand where all of the paradigms come into play, how the code fits together, and how it's designed.
Mozilla, with all of it's bizarre module names, disjointed designs, and the total lack of even an elementary level UML diagram of how the whole bloody kitten kaboodle fits together, looks to me like open source software's new Moby Dick. I hope it finds a nice home alongside the Emacs before it.
I propose something else; allowing whomever posts an article to do a "first comment." That way we kill two birds with one stone; First Posts and biased personal-opinion reporting.
Or just leave it the way it is. Heaven knows that people don't come to Slashdot for an unbiased look at things.:)
Carbon nanotubes are tubes, so they can be thought of as having only two directions; flowing down the tube, or flowing up the tube. If you think about it this way, then yes, they're right in saying that it's essentially a one-dimensional direction.
You're right, though; a group of them would require modelling in at least three directions.
Well, it looks like The Onion got the scoop on the government's response before any of the others.... kinda scary, actually...
(For those of you too lazy to go look for yourselves, the headline reads "Federal Judge Rules Parker Brothers Holds Monopoly Monopoly"--Parker Brothers did the computer game in conjunction with Hasbro.)
There might be another reason why those linux games are on the store shelves; remember that there's a lot of warez circulating around there. A lot of Windows users couldn't care less about copying a game from a friend, or downloading a warezed version.
Linux users are a little bit more knowledgeable in the licencing department, as a lot of them are GPL advocates. The ideal of "all of the software installed on my computer is completely legal!" is a worthwhile goal for them, and they don't mind going out and purchasing a copy of a game in the store; they're helping the industry, they're encouraging growth, plus they know that if something breaks, the company'll actually be good to their customers.
Um... and then there's the fact that linux game warez is extremely rare...
But I prefer it's a knowledge/advocacy issue; I trust us Linux gamers like that.;)
I should point out that while Battle Athletes is cool, Battle Athletes Victory kicks ass! *_*
Other animes I'd recommend:
Revolutionary Girl Utena - this series is MESSED UP, but it's MESSED UP GOOD. I highly recommend this series; you'll hate it at first, but eventually, you'll love the twisted storylines... [eg]
Neon Genesis Evangelion - a classic; man versus the angels, lotsa biblical stuff, really really cool mechs, etc.
Escaflowne - girl gets tossed into a dimension of fantasy and wishes.
Magic Knights Rayearth - Three girls get tossed into a mythical land, supposedly chosen as the magic knights. A cult favorite.
Rurouni Kenshin - If you like swordfight-type shows, this is a goodie; it's about a swordsman back in the meiji era of Japan who's trying to get away from the killing that plagued his earlier life as one of the greatest killers of his time.
Oh! My Goddess - Another classic about a boy who accidentally dials-a-goddess....
Those are some of the first ones I saw when I was getting into anime. Now that I've been around for a while, I prefer the mahou shoujo shows, (magical girl shows, aimed at little girls but still watched by lotsa other age groups..) but I've also got a few shounen (boy) shows in my collection.
I've got a few other links hidden on my own webpage, too, and a few other series mentioned there, in case anyone's interested in those shoujo shows I was talking about...
"We are locutus of borg. Prepare to be assimilated."
"Um... yeah, sure... but first, I have a question to ask you. You all have embedded microprocessors in your bodies, right? So my question is, which type of microprocessor is best?"
You know, I think we're missing the point, here. People are talking about duplication in effort, and all, but I think there's a deeper problem here.
If you look at any of the audio projects that are out there, they all have basically gotten to the same point; the basic interface is there, the plugin APIs are there, they have some nice mixing capabilities---and then the whole project kinda just loses steam.
Why? Because people aren't writing plugins. Why? Because the people who would be writing them don't know what people want..!! Seriously, writing plugins for some of these editing systems looks like the nicest thing in the world; these guys really put a lot of work into their programs. (ex; Gmurf, Electric Ears, etc.) it's just that once they were done the basics.. they went back to the drawing board, and decided to improve upon the basic functionality and stability, instead of adding those extras.
We, as a community, have to be the ones to MAKE those extras; if we want a certain type of plugin, we have to ask for it! Being able to mix samples together, and apply fadein/fadeout is all well and good, but how about a decent resample effect? Speed/pitch plugin? Resample to max volume?
There are a lot of plugins that still need to be made; this is what's really holding back the audio programs.
Also, while I'm at it, I should point out that while the Gimp is good at editing still images, we need either an extension to the Gimp or another piece of software altogether to be able to handle animation. I think extending the gimp would be the best idea; thus far, all we've seen are hacks, as far as making animations, or applying effects across image sequences. I want to be able to apply a ripple across an animation; be able to gradually move one layer from one side of an image to the other using keyframing; have access to a DECENT timeline editor.
http://www.retas.com
Lipsyncing to an audio track would be neat too, but you get the general idea. We have the hardware support; has anyone looked into this kind of project..?
My guess is that everything's going to be run from either a CL interface, or a linear-framebuffer-based graphical interface, with X only being loaded after you decide what you want to do. This would cut down on the memory needed, addressing one of the problems you mentioned. (no WM unless you selected Gnome/Mozilla/internet stuff)
Another idea would be to use a kernel patch for ext3 or some other journalling file system, to keep things stable whenever people just turn the box off instead of shutting down like they're supposed to.
As far as booting from CD is concerned, I don't think that's as big of a deal as you might think. There might be some customization where you could have a login logo for the system be loaded off of the CD whenever you boot up, and have the bash login script check if there's a disc in and autoplay it when you log in... other than that, I think that'd work perfectly, and quite efficiently.
As for your concerns about processor speeds, a lot of that can be off-loaded onto dedicated hardware (ie; 3D -> accelerated video, Audio -> hardware mixing/effects) Heck, if they go with something like SCSI for the hard drive and DVD, we could get some real nice performance here..
Yeah, I realize all of these pieces of hardware are danged expensive, but they don't need to use versions that have ALL of the extras. A stripped down SCSI-like setup'd be nice; ditto the audio.
Either way, I sure hope they give their SDK all of the attention it deserves; in all honesty, I think that's what'll really make or break the system. Playstation 2 gives their developers access to EVERYTHING. When you write code for a PS2, it's as close to hardware level as you can get. What'd be really nice would be if they picked hardware solutions for video and audio that matched up perfectly featurewise with OpenGL and OpenAL, so that they could have the best of both worlds..
Slashdot Mirror
The biggest problem with their approach is that you can't lightmap stuff that's been destroyed. In fact, if you watch the preview movie, you'll notice this right away. There's a scene where they blow up a tower. Watch as the lightmapping disappears just before it drops.
Problem isn't that creating dynamic worlds is hard; it's that lightmapping it is killer. Until we get processors capable of real-time dynamic lighting with hundreds of lights, or some other method of mimicking the effect on the fly, games are going to have the same visual flaws that you see here.
James
Abortion isn't the answer you stupid piece of ...
With all due respect, sir, it's people like you who give pro-life (or anti-choice, whichever one prefers) advocates a bad name. Please show a little restraint in the future. As any advocate will tell you, a convincing argument will get a lot better response than a flame any day.
I, personally, cannot offer any argument that would be likely to convince the general populace around here. And I doubt many posters would be interested in it after this.
In case any moderators are curious as to why I'm utilizing my +1 bonus on this post, it's to counterbalance another +1 response to this message, where the poster rightly discredited the original poster. I'd like people to believe that, even though our views may be different, there are some of us pro-lifers (or anti-choicers) who can at least be civil in a public forum.
James
You're not the only person who seems to think so. Check out this arti cle that was in the Ottawa Citizen.
Hey now.. that's only in British Columbia. :)
Not quite. Berlin is currently using Mesa, yes, but not for what you might think. It's using it as a drawingkit. (I think that's the correct terminology.)
There're other drawing kits available too. It's not the only one.
And as far as X compatibility is concerned, that's already there. There's support, already, for getting a GGI context, from which you can run XGGI on top of it. (XGGI is an X server that runs on a GGI context.) The other method, integration of X into GGI, is something I have no clue as to what's being done. (I'm on the mailing list, but I haven't heard much talk about this at all, so.. *shrug*)
James
Just thought I'd point out that one of the main limiting factors of 3Dwm, Berlin, and similar projects becoming more than just toys is that the hardware support just isn't there. (Yes it is, if you're running under X, but that's kind of defeating the purpose, now, isn't it..?) We need a lower-level hardware acceleration protocol. DRI is nice and all, but it's X-only. Unless people start pulling X and it's drivers apart, the ball's never going to get rolling, and we're going to end up with a lot of projects that started off great, but never really went anywhere because normal everyday users couldn't use 'em.
... Well, I'm guessing you can. I still haven't found one, myself.
Several attempts have been made already to rectify this, but it doesn't look like there's been anything major really accomplished. DRI is still where all of the manpower goes, even though projects like GGI/KGI exist.
Hopefully, someone will come out with a standard soon, and we can eliminate this kind of waste of effort. (Well, it's not likely, but we can hope, right..?)
Preferably, such a spec would allow for:
- kernel-level drivers that just pass along commands
- a library where all of the actual code exists, to keep the junk out of the kernel.
Actually, this is what KGI and GGI are.. but you can read about the XFree86 peoples' reasons for not going with their way of doing things for yourself.
(Incidentally, can anyone think of any reasons why this sort of thing ISN'T a good idea..?? I still haven't figured out myself why the XFree86 people are so hesitant to split X like this. Granted, it's an extra pipeline, but then again, that's pretty much what DRI is, too. And considering the added safety of not having a root application playing with kernel registers..)
James
Obviously, if Rambus goes bust, then the patents will be sold to whomever when Rambus' creditors put the company's assets on the auction block. Just because the company goes under doesn't mean the patent disappears.
James
Your judges are coming up for re-election this year. Wouldn't it be nice if the EFF or some other group got together and did a little research on how many computer-related warrants they've issued that've come up with nil..?
On the flip side, you might want to do a little research yourself, as to what each of these judges thinks, and how bright they are whenever it comes to internet matters.
Yes, ATi tends to have some really cruddy drivers, but their hardware's some of the best. If you're looking for decent linux drivers for ATi products, take a look at the utah-glx project, where you can get an OpenGL GLX module for 3.3.6 of X. (Supposedly, the DRI module's in the works, but since it's being done by just one guy, and only in his spare time while he's working on the Radeon driver...) Also, if you're interested in video capture, that too appears to be a bit iffy, but you can find the GATOS project online which provides at least a tv-viewing app, and the beginnings of an xv module.
..but this time, I'm waiting for the drivers before I make my purchase.
The preminary work on these two projects has been done, so if people really wanted to start making kernel modules or whatever, it could be done. It's just that no one apparently has the time, and since the cards are pretty old anyways, I think everyone pretty much considers them obsolete.
Personally, I know several people who've said that they'll never buy ATi again, because (a) they can't make windows drivers, and (b) they pointedly ignored linux for yeaaaaaaars, when the Rage Pro was the big thing.
Me, I'm still undecided.
James
Carleton University allows remote access, but it's a joke, really.
In order to get into the file servers, you have to gain access through a portal server. To do this, you need to use ssh. After gaining access with ssh, you have to then telnet into the correct server, and from there, transfer your files. To further terrorize the select few who attempt this, they've disabled zmodem protocols, so the only way you can transfer files is to open an X FTP client, and transfer files backwards, pulling files off of your own computer remotely.
The addition of one-time-passwords into the mix makes it nearly impossible for someone like myself to remember my passwords from week to week. I shudder to think what would happen if they attempted to teach people new to computers all of the things that are required to gain access remotely to our network..
Honestly, if you're looking to maintain a high-level of security, you're not going to be able to attempt any of what you're suggesting. Sysadmins are paranoid about their systems, and universities love to keep things locked up tight. Carleton sure is...
All will continue as before. It has already been arranged. The Quake lovers will continue to moan about the graphics in Quake, while playing it only occasionally. The UT lovers will continue to be unable to find the time to do anything else with their lives, rather than play UT.
;)
;)
(My theory is that, while UT fans are out playing the game in their spare time, the only people who have the time to post here on Slashdot are Q3 players, whose attention spans have been shortened to such a degree by the quick and repetative gameplay of Q3 that they're no longer able to maintain interest in playing the game again long enough to actually get the CD loaded in the drive.
Incidentally, I still don't see why some people still consider Quake III to be better than Unreal Tournament. True, the technology used in Quake III sounds cooler, and the game looks a tad cooler, but when it comes to actual gameplay, UT's got the last say.
Example: Dual fire adds an element of strategy that you won't find anywhere in Q3. The shock rifle has an amazing amount of thought behind it, in that the secondary blast can be shot by the primary blast, and caused to discharge in midair, causing a spherical explosion. That's true innovation in the FPS market, my friend.
So which one do I own? Neither. I can't afford them, as a starving student, nor can I afford the new videocard that would be required to play them on my computer. But when I get the moola, you can bet that I'll be playing me some Loki UT on my new Radeon.
(And for those of you who're wondering if this really leaves me with any actual experience with either game to form an actual opinion of 'em, I've test-driven 'em both at work, okay?
Still don't see how useful a FPS is gonna be on one of them thar consoles, though...
...
Egad, man, you ARE asking for a lot. ;-)
James
Ever heard of Use Case Maps? They're what our prof's teaching in our (Carleton University) Object-Oriented Software Engineering class.
There's a UCM tool there, too, that's available for linux. It's still a mite buggy, but it really simplifies making the UCMs themselves.
James
I'm just curious where you got your information. Most things I've read about the durability of CD-R's put their lifespan 10-20 years.
These figures are the results of simulated tests on the technology whenever it first came out. Simulated means that no one really knows for sure.
Besides, I suspect that, like all products' breakdown cycles, the amount it breaks down is represented logarithmically. Since CD-Rs need practically every bit of information, a CD-R will only last as long as it's weakest link. Which, of course, can easily be found out by looking at the specs. I can't remember off of the top of my head, but I suspect that they were factoring in the error correction as well, so your product will probably start to go bad before those 10-20 years are up.
Additionally, you have to ask yourself how many people out there will purchase brand-name CD-Rs? Personally, I've been going with bulk CD-Rs for a while now. Which means that I expect to have a high faulty-CD-R turnover rate. Your mileage will probably be different.
Besides 5 years down the road(or less), Hard Drives will reaching the TB range and DVD-Burners are going as cheap as CD-Burners. CD-R's will be phased out by new technology long before they degrade to the point where they are unreadable.
True. But whenever that time comes, I doubt a lot of people will remember to move forward to a new format. Since DVD-ROM technology's backwards compatible with CD-ROM technology, I suspect a lot of regular users won't figure it out until it's too late.
James
I'm sorry to inform you of this, but CD-Rs weren't made for this sort of use. While the data can be stored temporarily, you're going to have a horrendous amount of trouble in 5+ years, whenever your CD-Rs become unreadable.
CD-Rs are made using an organic dye that will degrade after a certain period of time. This makes your CD-Rs a rather poor choice as a backup medium, considering that it has a short lifetime. And as far as storing Babylon 5 and Sliders episodes, I suspect that it won't work so well for that either, considering how often you'll probably wish to watch an episode.
If you're planning on remaking your entire backup library every 5 or so years, then go for it. Otherwise, I suggest using backup tapes or going with a commercial data-backup vendor solution. (Those DO exist, right..?)
James
I would propose a different theory. The reason that you don't hear as much about Konquerer as you do about Mozilla is because of the differences in marketing decisions.
The Mozilla team is similar to most companies nowadays, in that they'll make a point of advertising every minor advancement made on the road to the final product. This is because every little minor advancement is a big deal. Either design wasn't precise enough, the language doesn't lend itself well to the project, or maybe the design team's too large. In any event, you _have_ to hype the little things, because otherwise the morale of the development team'll drop too low.
(And heaven forbid someone mentioning the project's dead, or that something went wrong.. Same case; you don't want to spook your programmers!)
Now with the Konquerer team, on the other hand, you have a completely different development model. Marketing only comes into play whenever a major change occurs. Minor details needn't be hyped, because there isn't as much worry of morale dropping. (Probably a symptom of good design, which means that the job's more manageable, and likewise, you don't have as many people who're indisposable.) Developers aren't making things more difficult than they need to be, and everyone's speaking on the same wavelength. And more time is spent designing code than fixing bugs, in the long run.
Personally, I can tell you which of the two will get the more press when they're finally released. (Mozilla) And likewise, I can tell you which of the two'll have the better design. (Konquerer) Not because of development time, size of team, or any of the other reasons I've listed. Rather, because if I look at the source code, I can understand the language of Konquerer. I understand where all of the paradigms come into play, how the code fits together, and how it's designed.
Mozilla, with all of it's bizarre module names, disjointed designs, and the total lack of even an elementary level UML diagram of how the whole bloody kitten kaboodle fits together, looks to me like open source software's new Moby Dick. I hope it finds a nice home alongside the Emacs before it.
James
--
vi ask?
I propose something else; allowing whomever posts an article to do a "first comment." That way we kill two birds with one stone; First Posts and biased personal-opinion reporting.
:)
Or just leave it the way it is. Heaven knows that people don't come to Slashdot for an unbiased look at things.
James
Carbon nanotubes are tubes, so they can be thought of as having only two directions; flowing down the tube, or flowing up the tube. If you think about it this way, then yes, they're right in saying that it's essentially a one-dimensional direction.
You're right, though; a group of them would require modelling in at least three directions.
Cheers,
James
Oh, there are tons who work from 9am to 5pm.
. . .
..no, wait, are we specifying a time zone, here..?
Well, it looks like The Onion got the scoop on the government's response before any of the others.... kinda scary, actually...
(For those of you too lazy to go look for yourselves, the headline reads "Federal Judge Rules Parker Brothers Holds Monopoly Monopoly"--Parker Brothers did the computer game in conjunction with Hasbro.)
JamesThere might be another reason why those linux games are on the store shelves; remember that there's a lot of warez circulating around there. A lot of Windows users couldn't care less about copying a game from a friend, or downloading a warezed version.
;)
Linux users are a little bit more knowledgeable in the licencing department, as a lot of them are GPL advocates. The ideal of "all of the software installed on my computer is completely legal!" is a worthwhile goal for them, and they don't mind going out and purchasing a copy of a game in the store; they're helping the industry, they're encouraging growth, plus they know that if something breaks, the company'll actually be good to their customers.
Um... and then there's the fact that linux game warez is extremely rare...
But I prefer it's a knowledge/advocacy issue; I trust us Linux gamers like that.
James
I should point out that while Battle Athletes is cool, Battle Athletes Victory kicks ass! *_*
Other animes I'd recommend:
Revolutionary Girl Utena - this series is MESSED UP, but it's MESSED UP GOOD. I highly recommend this series; you'll hate it at first, but eventually, you'll love the twisted storylines... [eg]
Neon Genesis Evangelion - a classic; man versus the angels, lotsa biblical stuff, really really cool mechs, etc.
Escaflowne - girl gets tossed into a dimension of fantasy and wishes.
Magic Knights Rayearth - Three girls get tossed into a mythical land, supposedly chosen as the magic knights. A cult favorite.
Rurouni Kenshin - If you like swordfight-type shows, this is a goodie; it's about a swordsman back in the meiji era of Japan who's trying to get away from the killing that plagued his earlier life as one of the greatest killers of his time.
Oh! My Goddess - Another classic about a boy who accidentally dials-a-goddess....
Those are some of the first ones I saw when I was getting into anime. Now that I've been around for a while, I prefer the mahou shoujo shows, (magical girl shows, aimed at little girls but still watched by lotsa other age groups..) but I've also got a few shounen (boy) shows in my collection.
Links I'd recommend people check out: Anipike, and EX Online.
I've got a few other links hidden on my own webpage, too, and a few other series mentioned there, in case anyone's interested in those shoujo shows I was talking about...
James
"We are locutus of borg. Prepare to be assimilated."
"Um... yeah, sure... but first, I have a question to ask you. You all have embedded microprocessors in your bodies, right? So my question is, which type of microprocessor is best?"
"AM--Int--MIP--Alp---ARRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!"
*cube blows up*
You know, I think we're missing the point, here. People are talking about duplication in effort, and all, but I think there's a deeper problem here.
If you look at any of the audio projects that are out there, they all have basically gotten to the same point; the basic interface is there, the plugin APIs are there, they have some nice mixing capabilities---and then the whole project kinda just loses steam.
Why? Because people aren't writing plugins. Why? Because the people who would be writing them don't know what people want..!! Seriously, writing plugins for some of these editing systems looks like the nicest thing in the world; these guys really put a lot of work into their programs. (ex; Gmurf, Electric Ears, etc.) it's just that once they were done the basics.. they went back to the drawing board, and decided to improve upon the basic functionality and stability, instead of adding those extras.
We, as a community, have to be the ones to MAKE those extras; if we want a certain type of plugin, we have to ask for it! Being able to mix samples together, and apply fadein/fadeout is all well and good, but how about a decent resample effect? Speed/pitch plugin? Resample to max volume?
There are a lot of plugins that still need to be made; this is what's really holding back the audio programs.
Also, while I'm at it, I should point out that while the Gimp is good at editing still images, we need either an extension to the Gimp or another piece of software altogether to be able to handle animation. I think extending the gimp would be the best idea; thus far, all we've seen are hacks, as far as making animations, or applying effects across image sequences. I want to be able to apply a ripple across an animation; be able to gradually move one layer from one side of an image to the other using keyframing; have access to a DECENT timeline editor.
http://www.retas.com
Lipsyncing to an audio track would be neat too, but you get the general idea. We have the hardware support; has anyone looked into this kind of project..?
James
My guess is that everything's going to be run from either a CL interface, or a linear-framebuffer-based graphical interface, with X only being loaded after you decide what you want to do. This would cut down on the memory needed, addressing one of the problems you mentioned. (no WM unless you selected Gnome/Mozilla/internet stuff)
;)
Another idea would be to use a kernel patch for ext3 or some other journalling file system, to keep things stable whenever people just turn the box off instead of shutting down like they're supposed to.
As far as booting from CD is concerned, I don't think that's as big of a deal as you might think. There might be some customization where you could have a login logo for the system be loaded off of the CD whenever you boot up, and have the bash login script check if there's a disc in and autoplay it when you log in... other than that, I think that'd work perfectly, and quite efficiently.
As for your concerns about processor speeds, a lot of that can be off-loaded onto dedicated hardware (ie; 3D -> accelerated video, Audio -> hardware mixing/effects) Heck, if they go with something like SCSI for the hard drive and DVD, we could get some real nice performance here..
Yeah, I realize all of these pieces of hardware are danged expensive, but they don't need to use versions that have ALL of the extras. A stripped down SCSI-like setup'd be nice; ditto the audio.
Either way, I sure hope they give their SDK all of the attention it deserves; in all honesty, I think that's what'll really make or break the system. Playstation 2 gives their developers access to EVERYTHING. When you write code for a PS2, it's as close to hardware level as you can get. What'd be really nice would be if they picked hardware solutions for video and audio that matched up perfectly featurewise with OpenGL and OpenAL, so that they could have the best of both worlds..
..they are going to be using OpenAL, right?
James