When I talked to AT&T about their 3G service they stated that current data plans cover 3G access where available or Edge where it isn't. So no 3G will not cost more as a data plan, at least from AT&T.
Well two years later came the Amiga with a decent gui, nice shell (something Macs would not get until OS X), preemptive multitasking (also not on Mac until OS X) and color (not on Mac until 1987 at a HUGE cost) at a lower cost. I'm glad I couldn't afford a Mac (well I wouldn't have bought one because of it's bland, tiny black and white display anyway). I learned so many things on the Amiga that made using UNIX and Linux systems way easier. You probably think I'm a Mac hater, but I've got a Macbook Pro, a Mac Pro and an iMac here on my office desk. I've used Macs professionally since 1990. I also use Windows, FreeBSD and Linux. In terms of bringing the GUI to the masses, as a kid learning about computers I had a Commodore 64 instead of an Apple 2 and an Amiga instead of a Mac for the simple reason that they were less expensive and had better features.
At least where I live free wifi access points are becoming fewer. Most restaurants, coffee shops etc now have a policy of giving you a limited usage access key with a purchase. There are a couple of services offering wifi throughout some of the city but they cost close to a normal DSL line and would be an additional expense beyond the required data plan the iphone needs.
Thrill Kill was never released. EA canceled it shortly before the release date. It was leaked and bootleg versions can be downloaded but it was never sold in stores.
I understand what you are saying but there is a one time registration and configuration step for Tivo. It also takes awhile to pull down the initial channel listings. So it's not exactly a 5 minute install and you are ready to record.
Well 5 years late if you are talking the Commodore 64. We had a Commodore PET I first learned BASIC on back in 1980.
We had Apple IIs at school and I used them constantly. I was so familiar with them that I could truly appreciate the improvements the Commodore 64 brought over Apple's design, especially as I enjoyed programming graphics and sound.
OK this is a joke right? I can't believe how lousy LOTRO looks when I play it on my MacBook Pro. I had to seriously turn down graphics options in order to get it reasonably playable at native LCD resolution. I've played on a PC with a 7900GT and a PC with a 8800GTS video card and it looks SOOOOOOOOOO much better on either setup.
Let's not forget about those 30+ year old geeks that had Commodore 64s which were much less expensive. I had Apple IIs at school and learned some stuff on them but most of my early computing was done on Commodores.
It was extremely easy on my Core 2 Duo 6600. Of course I have an Asus board that has proper settings for easy overclocking. All I needed to do was boost the FSB to get to 3.0GHz, 100% stable on stock air cooling. But then maybe I got lucky with my chip.
Accolades are different from the virtues you get in LOTR. There aren't a lot of accolades, they are generally muti-step requirements to get one and they don't need to be slotted. A better way to think of virtues is that they are closer to WoW's talents but you gain them via a mechanism similar to COH's badges. Also you have a limited number of slots to put the virtues in which is closer to COH's enhancements than badges. So yes the mechanism of killing X to get a badge or discovering location or whatever is the same as COH what you get isn't quite. I agree with you on the deeds that grant titles being pretty much identical to normal badges but virtues don't work like accolades.
"between the low framerate for the buttons and the ever persistant lag (I've yet to have smooth gameplay for more than half a minute)"
You might need to lower your graphic settings or resolution for your system. The only times I get bad lag are when entering a heavily populated area (like entering the auction house in bree). I'm also on Brandywine which is one of the more populated servers.
"I just can not play a game on someone else's schedule and I enjoy soloing."
To be fair to WoW you don't have to that much in the 1-55 range at least. Heavy instance running doesn't come into the game until later. You can easily do the early instances in a pickup group if you want, or don't bother with them at all. It won't really impact your leveling too much. EQ2 and WOW are similar in the lower levels and both require more grouping at the higher levels. Although I haven't played EQ2 since before the latest expansion so maybe that has changed. For LOTRO I find that while you can solo for the majority of play, you will end up with a bunch of quests you cannot complete without a group (unless you way out level them). A lot of the best quest rewards come from these quests. I live in an odd time zone so sometimes finding a group is difficult. I should note that quest XP rewards in LOTR are critical as trying to level just by killing monsters would simply take forever (monster xp rewards are fairly small).
Only superficially. Deeds completed earn either titles (badges) or virtues and virtue upgrades. Accolades in COH are typically very difficult to acquire and give you some unique bonus (ala the crey pistol or other powers). Virtues in LOTR are closer to enhancements in COH. Slotting them buffs your abilities or attacks - although some types of deeds can add totally new powers. Virtues have levels that increase as you do the appropriate deeds. So they become more powerful. I think virtues can be considered somewhere between enhancements in COH and talents in WoW although you gain them in a manner similar to badges in COH.
I know for a fact that it was an issue at least well over a year after launch. Consider that LOTRO has been live for a little over a month. I would be surprised if we don't see UI and functional changes in the game when looked at a year+ past launch.
So you consider the crafting tool issue to be such a big pain? Here's an example of a similar pain in the ass from WoW:
Level based healing spells. Instead of casting the appropriate say "Healing Touch" for the level I'm casting it on, I have to find the appropriate spell to cast on say a lvl 30 player I'm helping with my level 60 druid. So this means setting up a tool bar with level appropriate healing spells every time I want to help out someone lower level than me. Oh of course there's a solution - made by a user mod requiring configuration of macros for each of my spells. Oh and then every freaking patch I have to test and make sure my macros don't break. Enjoyable!
I personally HATE the fact that some basic UI features require a mod in WoW. It boggled my mind that I had to load a UI mod in order to move by bags around. Many other features were not in the WoW UI until after they were in mods (such as additional and movable toolbars, or the adjustments to the flight map). Personally I hate having to update all my mods every time a little patch comes out for WoW. I'd rather have the necessary features built in on Blizzard's side other than having to rely on mods to get features that should be there in the first place.
Yes when you're doing color correction for print (CMYK or other ink makeup reflected pigment color) on a direct light monitor. BUT this isn't about using it for proofing. If the monitor can't display as many colors as it should (say proper 24bit) is isn't going to be as good a display for watching videos, enjoying your digital photos, playing games etc.
In a 24bit color scheme there are shades where your eye can easily detect differences. You may have a 256 color gradient of red, green, blue and grays but you don't for none primary shades. You can still get banding within these areas even with a 24bit display. If the display is using dithering and can't even properly display 24bit color your banding will be worse.
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When I talked to AT&T about their 3G service they stated that current data plans cover 3G access where available or Edge where it isn't. So no 3G will not cost more as a data plan, at least from AT&T.
Here you go:
The Xerox Star 8010
Sold in 1981. Features:
Menu-driven, icons, mouse, high-resolution graphics on a 17 inch monitor, built in and external storage devices, Ethernet
Expensive as all hell at $16,595 but impressive.
So yes you could in fact buy one but no it really wasn't a home computer.
Well two years later came the Amiga with a decent gui, nice shell (something Macs would not get until OS X), preemptive multitasking (also not on Mac until OS X) and color (not on Mac until 1987 at a HUGE cost) at a lower cost.
I'm glad I couldn't afford a Mac (well I wouldn't have bought one because of it's bland, tiny black and white display anyway). I learned so many things on the Amiga that made using UNIX and Linux systems way easier.
You probably think I'm a Mac hater, but I've got a Macbook Pro, a Mac Pro and an iMac here on my office desk. I've used Macs professionally since 1990. I also use Windows, FreeBSD and Linux.
In terms of bringing the GUI to the masses, as a kid learning about computers I had a Commodore 64 instead of an Apple 2 and an Amiga instead of a Mac for the simple reason that they were less expensive and had better features.
At least where I live free wifi access points are becoming fewer. Most restaurants, coffee shops etc now have a policy of giving you a limited usage access key with a purchase.
There are a couple of services offering wifi throughout some of the city but they cost close to a normal DSL line and would be an additional expense beyond the required data plan the iphone needs.
Thrill Kill was never released. EA canceled it shortly before the release date. It was leaked and bootleg versions can be downloaded but it was never sold in stores.
I understand what you are saying but there is a one time registration and configuration step for Tivo. It also takes awhile to pull down the initial channel listings. So it's not exactly a 5 minute install and you are ready to record.
"Does it come with a brown shirt?"
No, but it does come with a black turtleneck.
Just like how Quicktime with iTunes has overtaken Windows Media Player as the player of choice on Windows.
There were tons of good books which showed you how to do it. I never had to randomly poke around (pun understood).
Well 5 years late if you are talking the Commodore 64. We had a Commodore PET I first learned BASIC on back in 1980.
We had Apple IIs at school and I used them constantly. I was so familiar with them that I could truly appreciate the improvements the Commodore 64 brought over Apple's design, especially as I enjoyed programming graphics and sound.
OK this is a joke right? I can't believe how lousy LOTRO looks when I play it on my MacBook Pro. I had to seriously turn down graphics options in order to get it reasonably playable at native LCD resolution. I've played on a PC with a 7900GT and a PC with a 8800GTS video card and it looks SOOOOOOOOOO much better on either setup.
I liked the novels! They were really cliche and dumb and kinda boring at times. Now why did I like them? I'm still not sure!
"Like any geek 30+, I had an AppleII too"
Let's not forget about those 30+ year old geeks that had Commodore 64s which were much less expensive.
I had Apple IIs at school and learned some stuff on them but most of my early computing was done on Commodores.
It was extremely easy on my Core 2 Duo 6600. Of course I have an Asus board that has proper settings for easy overclocking. All I needed to do was boost the FSB to get to 3.0GHz, 100% stable on stock air cooling. But then maybe I got lucky with my chip.
Why even test Quake 4, when a native Mac OS X version already exists?
Accolades are different from the virtues you get in LOTR. There aren't a lot of accolades, they are generally muti-step requirements to get one and they don't need to be slotted.
A better way to think of virtues is that they are closer to WoW's talents but you gain them via a mechanism similar to COH's badges. Also you have a limited number of slots to put the virtues in which is closer to COH's enhancements than badges.
So yes the mechanism of killing X to get a badge or discovering location or whatever is the same as COH what you get isn't quite.
I agree with you on the deeds that grant titles being pretty much identical to normal badges but virtues don't work like accolades.
Softly? I consider it ROCKING them to death.
"between the low framerate for the buttons and the ever persistant lag (I've yet to have smooth gameplay for more than half a minute)"
You might need to lower your graphic settings or resolution for your system. The only times I get bad lag are when entering a heavily populated area (like entering the auction house in bree). I'm also on Brandywine which is one of the more populated servers.
"I just can not play a game on someone else's schedule and I enjoy soloing."
To be fair to WoW you don't have to that much in the 1-55 range at least. Heavy instance running doesn't come into the game until later. You can easily do the early instances in a pickup group if you want, or don't bother with them at all. It won't really impact your leveling too much.
EQ2 and WOW are similar in the lower levels and both require more grouping at the higher levels. Although I haven't played EQ2 since before the latest expansion so maybe that has changed.
For LOTRO I find that while you can solo for the majority of play, you will end up with a bunch of quests you cannot complete without a group (unless you way out level them). A lot of the best quest rewards come from these quests. I live in an odd time zone so sometimes finding a group is difficult. I should note that quest XP rewards in LOTR are critical as trying to level just by killing monsters would simply take forever (monster xp rewards are fairly small).
"Deeds = Badges in CoH, Virtues = Accolades"
Only superficially. Deeds completed earn either titles (badges) or virtues and virtue upgrades. Accolades in COH are typically very difficult to acquire and give you some unique bonus (ala the crey pistol or other powers). Virtues in LOTR are closer to enhancements in COH. Slotting them buffs your abilities or attacks - although some types of deeds can add totally new powers. Virtues have levels that increase as you do the appropriate deeds. So they become more powerful.
I think virtues can be considered somewhere between enhancements in COH and talents in WoW although you gain them in a manner similar to badges in COH.
I know for a fact that it was an issue at least well over a year after launch. Consider that LOTRO has been live for a little over a month. I would be surprised if we don't see UI and functional changes in the game when looked at a year+ past launch.
So you consider the crafting tool issue to be such a big pain? Here's an example of a similar pain in the ass from WoW:
Level based healing spells. Instead of casting the appropriate say "Healing Touch" for the level I'm casting it on, I have to find the appropriate spell to cast on say a lvl 30 player I'm helping with my level 60 druid. So this means setting up a tool bar with level appropriate healing spells every time I want to help out someone lower level than me. Oh of course there's a solution - made by a user mod requiring configuration of macros for each of my spells. Oh and then every freaking patch I have to test and make sure my macros don't break.
Enjoyable!
I personally HATE the fact that some basic UI features require a mod in WoW. It boggled my mind that I had to load a UI mod in order to move by bags around. Many other features were not in the WoW UI until after they were in mods (such as additional and movable toolbars, or the adjustments to the flight map).
Personally I hate having to update all my mods every time a little patch comes out for WoW. I'd rather have the necessary features built in on Blizzard's side other than having to rely on mods to get features that should be there in the first place.
Yes when you're doing color correction for print (CMYK or other ink makeup reflected pigment color) on a direct light monitor. BUT this isn't about using it for proofing. If the monitor can't display as many colors as it should (say proper 24bit) is isn't going to be as good a display for watching videos, enjoying your digital photos, playing games etc.
In a 24bit color scheme there are shades where your eye can easily detect differences. You may have a 256 color gradient of red, green, blue and grays but you don't for none primary shades. You can still get banding within these areas even with a 24bit display. If the display is using dithering and can't even properly display 24bit color your banding will be worse.