I was wondering what the point of setting up a character was if you never got out of your ship, so I figured at some point you got to level up far enough to meet people on their ships or something... but I should have expected that wouldn't happen. I got involved briefly in a space MUD, many years ago, and discovered that it was divided into people who flew around in their ship and did space stuff so they never got into the same room as anyone else and only talked with anyone in IM, and people who didn't have anything to do with the ship stuff and were getting run out of the game because they were wasting server time. Seeing as I'm a pretty dedicated interact with people type, as opposed to an arms length IM type, I didn't hang around to get run out...
So I guess they skipped the whole interacting bit... yes no?
It's a bit shocking that Apple gets to keep 88% of the sale price.
ORLY? Where do you get that number? Did you make it up? You didn't RTFA, that's for sure...
Apple pays an estimated 70% of digital music revenue to record companies which in turn pass on a percentage to artists. It is that percentage that is expected to be changed on Thursday.
Apple pays an estimated 70 cents of every dollar it collects per song to the record companies responsible for each track. The record companies turn over nine cents to the music publishers who control the copyrights to these tunes.
That sounds like the old manual-based copy protection.
So, after one Christmas, I had a really full backpack, and a bunch of computer games in big boxes, so I pulled out the diskettes and manuals and left the boxes with the wrapping paper.
Get home, and boot up a game, and it asks "What's the third word on page 15 of the manual"... "red". Good...
Next game, "What color are the balls on the left side of the back of the box"... "well, ^%$@^%@&^".
The labels get the majority of the 99c you pay for a song. This is Apple talking tough to get the labels to accept taking most of this increased royalty out of their 70c instead of Apple's 29c.
Essentially, I'm guessing the RIAA will pressure Apple into releasing or updating their client software to not decrypt the DRM'd songs (non iTunes Plus tracks) until the user coughs up the additional six cents.
Why on earth would this apply to songs you've already bought? This is an additional royalty for new songs, making them cost 1.05 or making Apple push back on the labels to take the extra royalty out of their share...
Yes, you definitely need to turn "Rip Mix Burn" around to "Mix Burn Rip" and get CDR backups of all your iTunes music ANYWAY.
But at least iTunes DRM is "honor system" level... I mean, really, it gets downloaded unencrypted and the DRM is applied by the local client. And they haven't made any attempt to close the digital hole. Imagine how much it would suck if the labels had gotten everything they wanted from Apple like they have from Microsoft?
This seems more like Sim Second Life. Instead of actually learning to code and create stuff, you'll be building up your coding "telemorphic capacity" so you can "craft" stuff.
My point wasn't "Palm and Windows Mobile are the bomb", it's that "we've had smartphones for years, iPhone and Android aren't the market".
I mean, Jesus Bloody Christ On A Rusted Out Harley, I already mentioned Nokia and RIM, and the site I pointed you at (Handango) sells Nokia and RIM downloads. If you're gonna change what you're arguing about every damn message then argue with someone else.
Palm and Pocket PC have had a pretty thriving casual gaming market for some time. The lack of processer power, and particularly the lack of graphics acceleration, have limited them to casual gaming... but there's no reason that a decent "power user" PDA couldn't blow the market open the way you're thinking.
I used to really be into Armagetron, until I realized that... speed or not... the people who were winning all the time were doing it with keyboard macros to make those tight boxing turns repeatedly.
You're telling me that in 2006 and 2007 that the same people who would buy an iPod went out and bought WinMo and Treos?
No, they probably bought RAZRs. And most of them are still buying something like RAZRs. The market for smartphones (even if we include the iPhone) is tiny.
In 2007 when the iPhone was only available for half a year and only in the US, it was the number 2 handset!
In 2000 when the iPaq was only available for half a year, it brought the Windows Mobile share of the PDA market from single digits to maybe 15%... but for the next four years until Palm decided to self-destruct by ostentatiously dissing PalmOS in favor of the yet to be released (and now apparently never to be released) BeOS based OS... Windows Mobile didn't break 20% of the market.
And the iPhone wasn't the #2 handset in 2007, it was #2 smartphone. This August it was... hmm, #2. And #1 was... Blackberry? Not Nokia? Well, with a tiny market like that, a single device can create a sudden surge, and Blackberry's new touch screen device is apparently selling really well. I guess all those app developers need to switch from iPhone to Blackberry.
It sounds like a game about Second Life, where you get to play being Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra, for people who don't have enough skill... I mean telemorphic ability... to be Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra.
Re:Oh, well, that explains everything...
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C# In-Depth
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Terak.
Also, UCSD Pascal on the Apple II.
"Daddy's playing Pascal. That's where he tries to get as many dots on the screen as he can before he starts swearing."
I would hazzard they would probably return to SL after seeing the cartoon-ish system that Lively is).
That already happened. When Lively started up, there were so many people they needed multiple overflow rooms for the "Google Room" and even for the "Second Life in Lively" room. The last couple of times I visited, there weren't enough *occipued* rooms in all of Lively to fill the first page of the room list.
Lively has basically imploded, which is why they're trying to reposition it as a game platform... but they're not talking about implementing any kind of programmability inside the virtual world itself, they're talking about taking 2d Google gadgets and putting them in frames, like they do with YouTube already.
The technology has a lot of potential, but they need to pull their thumbs out on user-created content to get anywhere.
Re:But does it look like Photoshop yet?
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GIMP 2.6 Released
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· Score: 1
Windows folks won't tolerate anything other than MDI here
You're still using MDI in a way I don't recognize or understand.
If we want to be specific/pedantic, we're talking about consumer oriented smartphones, and for the majority no Palm or Windows device qualified.
I disagree emphatically. Unless you want to argue that Windows itself is not a "consumer oriented home computer" or something silly like that, both Palm and Windows handhelds are "consumer oriented smartphones".
If a developer could "simply" switch from the iPhone to a WinMo, Palm, or Symbian phone, then the iPhone wouldn't even need to exist in the first place.
A developer can no more "simply" switch from the iPhone to Android than "simply" switch from the iPhone to any other programmable handset. Different languages, different APIs, different developer platforms.
But setting that aside, the point is really... the iPhone is a competitor to existing smartphone platforms. The question a year ago was "should developers start developing applications for the iPhone as well as PalmOS, Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile?". Obviously the answer has turned out to be "yes", but it was never a given that it would succeed if you couldn't see iPhone as an option on sites like Handango, and there really was some question as to whether it would take off.
But that's how the market works. Not because there's a "need" for any specific new competing platform, but because competition drives improvement. Just because the iPhone is flavor of the week doesn't mean that there's no competition for it.
When are people going to start bitching about Apple providing an email application in their phone, and then locking others out (as was discussed here earlier).
When Apple is a monopoly with 90% or more of any market?
If I had to buy an iPhone or put up with not being able to call some people on the phone at all, then it might matter that the iPhone is a closed platform under the control of a single company. Actually, I have a better smartphone (since it's actually a smartphone, and can run any damn software without having to let Apple or T-Mobile or anyone certify it) than the iPhone and I don't even bother to use it because, well, I don't even need a smartphone (let alone an iPhone).
Contrast that with Windows. Even with a Mac I *have to* keep a virtual machine running Windows so that I can run software that I need to do my work. That's the difference.
Apple: 5-20% of the home computer market, depending on who you ask, and a negligible part of the phone market.
Microsoft: Phenomenal Monopoly Power (teeny weeny breathing space).
Re:But does it look like Photoshop yet?
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GIMP 2.6 Released
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· Score: 1
Guess what Alt+Tab does in Linux? It attempts an expansion of previously entered tokens in your terminal session history.
Never done that for me. I guess I'm not using the same shell as you.
I don't know what you're going on about MDI for, though. Gimp doesn't shove all your windows inside a big common window containing all your documents, or is there some other expansion of "MDI" than "Multiple Document Interface" that I'm not aware of?
What about non-destructive text manipulation?
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GIMP 2.6 Released
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The thing that causes me problems in the Gimp is that text is rasterized as soon as it's scaled or otherwise manipulated by any means other than changing the point size in the text dialog. This means that if I have a block of text that I've resized by drag handles, or if I've rescaled the image, as soon as I edit the text content it reverts to the original point size.
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I was wondering what the point of setting up a character was if you never got out of your ship, so I figured at some point you got to level up far enough to meet people on their ships or something... but I should have expected that wouldn't happen. I got involved briefly in a space MUD, many years ago, and discovered that it was divided into people who flew around in their ship and did space stuff so they never got into the same room as anyone else and only talked with anyone in IM, and people who didn't have anything to do with the ship stuff and were getting run out of the game because they were wasting server time. Seeing as I'm a pretty dedicated interact with people type, as opposed to an arms length IM type, I didn't hang around to get run out...
So I guess they skipped the whole interacting bit... yes no?
It's a bit shocking that Apple gets to keep 88% of the sale price.
ORLY? Where do you get that number? Did you make it up? You didn't RTFA, that's for sure...
That sounds like the old manual-based copy protection.
So, after one Christmas, I had a really full backpack, and a bunch of computer games in big boxes, so I pulled out the diskettes and manuals and left the boxes with the wrapping paper.
Get home, and boot up a game, and it asks "What's the third word on page 15 of the manual"... "red". Good...
Next game, "What color are the balls on the left side of the back of the box"... "well, ^%$@^%@&^".
So don't forget to keep the box!
We've had smartphones for years, but they were irrelevant until they were targeting consumers.
Well, setting aside that Palm has always targeted consumers (up until they decided to pull an Osborne with their Vaporware OS).
Do you really mean that nobody but Apple and Google is capable of putting a glossy UI on a smartphone?
I had no idea.
Wait, wait, RIM's doing that too... and they're selling a bunch of them.
And I'm pretty sure I've seen Windows Mobile phones in iPhone style.
Palm? Palm decided on slow suicide four or so years ago.
And Handango... I wasn't familiar with it so I wasn't aware it also sold for Nokia and RIM.
It's right there on the front page. You *did* follow the link to see what I was referring to, right? I mean, that could have been Rick Astley.
I am one of those annoying guys that told everyone he knew to not use the legal music stores
What, even ones like eMusic that don't ship DRMed music and never shipped DRMed music?
That's not just annoying, that's irresponsible.
The labels get the majority of the 99c you pay for a song. This is Apple talking tough to get the labels to accept taking most of this increased royalty out of their 70c instead of Apple's 29c.
Essentially, I'm guessing the RIAA will pressure Apple into releasing or updating their client software to not decrypt the DRM'd songs (non iTunes Plus tracks) until the user coughs up the additional six cents.
Why on earth would this apply to songs you've already bought? This is an additional royalty for new songs, making them cost 1.05 or making Apple push back on the labels to take the extra royalty out of their share...
Yes, you definitely need to turn "Rip Mix Burn" around to "Mix Burn Rip" and get CDR backups of all your iTunes music ANYWAY.
But at least iTunes DRM is "honor system" level... I mean, really, it gets downloaded unencrypted and the DRM is applied by the local client. And they haven't made any attempt to close the digital hole. Imagine how much it would suck if the labels had gotten everything they wanted from Apple like they have from Microsoft?
This seems more like Sim Second Life. Instead of actually learning to code and create stuff, you'll be building up your coding "telemorphic capacity" so you can "craft" stuff.
My point wasn't "Palm and Windows Mobile are the bomb", it's that "we've had smartphones for years, iPhone and Android aren't the market".
I mean, Jesus Bloody Christ On A Rusted Out Harley, I already mentioned Nokia and RIM, and the site I pointed you at (Handango) sells Nokia and RIM downloads. If you're gonna change what you're arguing about every damn message then argue with someone else.
Palm and Pocket PC have had a pretty thriving casual gaming market for some time. The lack of processer power, and particularly the lack of graphics acceleration, have limited them to casual gaming... but there's no reason that a decent "power user" PDA couldn't blow the market open the way you're thinking.
My first thought: happy shiny red rubber artificial noses!
I used to really be into Armagetron, until I realized that... speed or not... the people who were winning all the time were doing it with keyboard macros to make those tight boxing turns repeatedly.
You're telling me that in 2006 and 2007 that the same people who would buy an iPod went out and bought WinMo and Treos?
No, they probably bought RAZRs. And most of them are still buying something like RAZRs. The market for smartphones (even if we include the iPhone) is tiny.
In 2007 when the iPhone was only available for half a year and only in the US, it was the number 2 handset!
In 2000 when the iPaq was only available for half a year, it brought the Windows Mobile share of the PDA market from single digits to maybe 15%... but for the next four years until Palm decided to self-destruct by ostentatiously dissing PalmOS in favor of the yet to be released (and now apparently never to be released) BeOS based OS... Windows Mobile didn't break 20% of the market.
And the iPhone wasn't the #2 handset in 2007, it was #2 smartphone. This August it was... hmm, #2. And #1 was... Blackberry? Not Nokia? Well, with a tiny market like that, a single device can create a sudden surge, and Blackberry's new touch screen device is apparently selling really well. I guess all those app developers need to switch from iPhone to Blackberry.
It sounds like a game about Second Life, where you get to play being Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra, for people who don't have enough skill... I mean telemorphic ability... to be Ordinal Malaprop or Cubey Terra.
Terak.
Also, UCSD Pascal on the Apple II.
"Daddy's playing Pascal. That's where he tries to get as many dots on the screen as he can before he starts swearing."
I would hazzard they would probably return to SL after seeing the cartoon-ish system that Lively is).
That already happened. When Lively started up, there were so many people they needed multiple overflow rooms for the "Google Room" and even for the "Second Life in Lively" room. The last couple of times I visited, there weren't enough *occipued* rooms in all of Lively to fill the first page of the room list.
Lively has basically imploded, which is why they're trying to reposition it as a game platform... but they're not talking about implementing any kind of programmability inside the virtual world itself, they're talking about taking 2d Google gadgets and putting them in frames, like they do with YouTube already.
The technology has a lot of potential, but they need to pull their thumbs out on user-created content to get anywhere.
Windows folks won't tolerate anything other than MDI here
You're still using MDI in a way I don't recognize or understand.
If we want to be specific/pedantic, we're talking about consumer oriented smartphones, and for the majority no Palm or Windows device qualified.
I disagree emphatically. Unless you want to argue that Windows itself is not a "consumer oriented home computer" or something silly like that, both Palm and Windows handhelds are "consumer oriented smartphones".
If a developer could "simply" switch from the iPhone to a WinMo, Palm, or Symbian phone, then the iPhone wouldn't even need to exist in the first place.
A developer can no more "simply" switch from the iPhone to Android than "simply" switch from the iPhone to any other programmable handset. Different languages, different APIs, different developer platforms.
But setting that aside, the point is really... the iPhone is a competitor to existing smartphone platforms. The question a year ago was "should developers start developing applications for the iPhone as well as PalmOS, Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile?". Obviously the answer has turned out to be "yes", but it was never a given that it would succeed if you couldn't see iPhone as an option on sites like Handango, and there really was some question as to whether it would take off.
But that's how the market works. Not because there's a "need" for any specific new competing platform, but because competition drives improvement. Just because the iPhone is flavor of the week doesn't mean that there's no competition for it.
I stand by my comment that Python is the best OOP
There's OO Lisps.
But if you want a good object oriented language, and you aren't interest in Lisp, you're going to have to try pretty damn hard to beat Smalltalk.
Prior to [android], they were pretty much the only game in town, so there wasn't really anywhere for disgruntled developers to flee to.
Damn, you mean I've been hallucinating that Palm, Microsoft, and Nokia have been shipping smartphone software since the '90s?
While you're rewriting history, why don't you take care of that annoying hohocaust thing as well?
All corporations are evil... or at least certifiable sociopaths.
You can only trust a corporation (any corporation) as far as the market will let them go.
Apple is no exception.
When Apple has 90% of the cellphone market, I'll worry about how evil the iPhone is.
When are people going to start bitching about Apple providing an email application in their phone, and then locking others out (as was discussed here earlier).
When Apple is a monopoly with 90% or more of any market?
If I had to buy an iPhone or put up with not being able to call some people on the phone at all, then it might matter that the iPhone is a closed platform under the control of a single company. Actually, I have a better smartphone (since it's actually a smartphone, and can run any damn software without having to let Apple or T-Mobile or anyone certify it) than the iPhone and I don't even bother to use it because, well, I don't even need a smartphone (let alone an iPhone).
Contrast that with Windows. Even with a Mac I *have to* keep a virtual machine running Windows so that I can run software that I need to do my work. That's the difference.
Apple: 5-20% of the home computer market, depending on who you ask, and a negligible part of the phone market.
Microsoft: Phenomenal Monopoly Power (teeny weeny breathing space).
Guess what Alt+Tab does in Linux? It attempts an expansion of previously entered tokens in your terminal session history.
Never done that for me. I guess I'm not using the same shell as you.
I don't know what you're going on about MDI for, though. Gimp doesn't shove all your windows inside a big common window containing all your documents, or is there some other expansion of "MDI" than "Multiple Document Interface" that I'm not aware of?
The thing that causes me problems in the Gimp is that text is rasterized as soon as it's scaled or otherwise manipulated by any means other than changing the point size in the text dialog. This means that if I have a block of text that I've resized by drag handles, or if I've rescaled the image, as soon as I edit the text content it reverts to the original point size.
Has that been fixed in any recent versions?