"Second, most people outside games dont have a "favorite" software. they use what does the task and what they are used to."
Not so sure about that. I love Photoshop, sure partially because of familiarity but I really do feel it's better than Gimp. It certainly is for use in professional printing.
Why should a version of Adobe Pagemaker for Windows work any better or worse than a version for OS X?
In all honestly this is an industry thing. The professional print industry runs almost exlusively on Macs. As a result things like color management and accuracy are much better going from a properly setup Mac. Large scale press operators are also more familiar with Macs and you generally will run into less issues moving data around. Now if you know what you are doing, nothing says you can't do this on Windows. You can and I have - but it's much simpler to just pass a PDF to the printer at that point than deal with any possible cross platform issues. When I started doing graphic design for Web in the mid '90s I switched to Photoshop on Windows NT because the performance was better (the OS multitasked better than Mac OS 7 and 8). Also I would see a lot of Mac designers creating pages that looked terrible on Windows browsers due to the difference in standard monitor gamma on Macs vs Windows. I designed for web on Windows and then tested on both Mac and Windows.
"The Windows version runs like a dream, because Windows will devote nearly 99% of the CPU to it when it's a foreground process. Linux will not, and even if it did, it would have to share the CPU with X Window which does all the drawing."
Uh you do know that Windows applications have priority levels right? So I can run a video encoder and it doesn't kill my system by sucking 100% of the CPU if something else is going on. As it runs in lower priority it scales back CPU usage if another task with higher priority needs it. Regarding the video process, the crispness probably comes from how 2D Windows drawing functions are hardware accelerated under Windows (GDI or DirectDraw).
Didn't Triton go out of business? That's one of the fears I have with online activation systems. If the company goes under do you just get stuck with an unplayable game? If the company gets liquidated and the intellectual property goes to multiple other companies will they feel any obligation to allow you to activate your purchase?
"With the resource overhead I've seen in the beta version of Vista "hardcore gamers" would have to be retarded to make the switch. It'll only decrease the performance of your games, and all games for the next 3-4 years at least will keep running on XP."
Well, if you buy into the hype, the new video driver architecture and Direct X 10 will increase performance, particularly with shaders. Direct X 10 will be Vista only. So your games may not require DX10, but some features are sure to be DX10 only (same as games that currently have multiple render paths for DX7, 8 and 9). Of course we'll have to see DX10 vid cards and DX 10 support in games first, but I don't think you are looking at 3-4 years, more like 1-2 before it's commonplace. The hardcore gamers are the ones likely to upgrade to get these benefits. I'm sure there are plenty of more casual gamers with DX8 level video cards that couldn't care less about DX9 features. We'll have to wait until Vista is out and DX 10 cards hit the market before we can pass judgement on whether it lives up to the hype.
Of course, Valve might decide that I've done something wrong and disable my account, taking away over 300 dollars in videogames from me.
Yeah the "watchdog" potential for things like Steam is definately a bit worrying. Of course in the event that they did ban my account, I would never again spend any more money with Valve.
Until authorities actually go after people pirating software
They have and they do. The difference is that federal crackdowns on piracy of software have at this point targetted either large distribution points (whether it's CD duplication or FTP hubs) or the crackers themselved. Many groups over the years have had members arrested but someone else always steps up to fill in the gaps. The other area where crackdowns occur is in large scale business software piracy. Compare this to the RIAA and MPAA actions which have included targetting the individual downloader.
How about digital distribution like Steam or Direct2Drive? I recently bought Civ 4: Warlords off Direct2Drive because it was on sale. I really like not having to put the CD in to play the game. I used to use a miniso with my Civ 4 to play, but now I don't have to bother with mounting that and running the SDkiller app.
If you play and finish a game before buying it - why would you buy it? Now this mostly goes for single player games that have a finite length. Multiplayer games aren't as affected by this but they also tend to use online serial checks which means they are better protected against piracy (to some degree). Whereas with a music album, you are likely to listen to it many times. I'm not completely disagreeing with you - I have done the same thing. I've paid for games I felt were worth it after playing a pirated copy. I generally try to use demos but sometimes publishers are ridiculously stingy. No, I can't tell if I'm going to like the game with a demo that quits in 10 minutes or only offers 10 minutes of content.
Pretty much what Steam does. You can activate your Steam account on any computer and download the games you own but you can't play them on multiple computers at the same time.
In addition to the bridgeboard you could also run Mac OS (I think up to 6) with a product called A-Max. This wasn't an emulator since the Amiga used the same 68000 series processors as the Mac. When I was just starting out in graphic design I used an Amiga with '030 card at home to run Mac OS for use with QuarkXpress and Illustrator. At the time Macs were typically priced higher than I could afford. The Mac IIx I had at work cost over $7,000.
Was the Amiga a hyped fanbody system in 'the old days' like this current marketing boilerplate makes it sound that it is today?
No. The Amiga was a very powerful computer for its time and was also very affordable (in comparison with Macs at the time).
It had true preemptive multitasking from the time it launched in 1985. In comparison Mac OS didn't gain cooperative multitasking until 1988 with the introduction of Multifinder. Much like todays computers have dedicated sound and video hardware, the Amiga had a custom set of chips to offload all video, animation and sound processing. In 1985 it had the best color graphics available. I wasn't until 8bit color boards came out in 1987 that the still screen color capabilities of the Amiga were exceeded. Even then, the cost for a Macintosh 2 with color display in 1987 cost over 4 times what a single Amiga did. The Amiga was still superior in animation fluidity as well. When most computers were making beeps and boops, the Amiga had 4 channel stereo sound that used 8 bit digital samples. Because of the Amiga chipsets origins as a proposed game console, it was designed to display to a TV using standard NTSC and PAL signals. This gave rise to the use Amiga's in television stations as video hardware such as genlocks were inexepnsive. The release of the Video Toaster for Amiga brought huge television capabilities to the platform, once again at an price that was incredibly low at the time. The Amiga was also a hotbed of 3D animation software. Several 3D applications were born on the Amiga, the most popular being Lightwave which has long since been ported to other platforms. Amiga had an excellent shell and many applications were fully scriptable via a port of the REXX language. I went from Amiga to using UNIX systems and the time I spent learning AmigaDOS was a huge help. So why did it die such a miserable death? Part of the blame is on the marketing efforts of Commodore which were simply terrible. But another key point is that the technology that made Amiga so great, the custom chips and preemptive operating system also held it back. The chips were not easily swapped out and too many programs (most notably games) made direct calls to the hardware. Even when they did update the chipset it broke a lot of older software for just this reason. Color Macs and PCs with cheap VGA cards were also coming down in price, making the Amiga look less attractive. The operating system was also hindered by the inability to implement things like memory protection, meaning the Amiga was prone to crashes that took the whole system down (much like Mac OS and Windows before Windows 2000 and Mac OS X). There was no easy way to build memory protection in without breaking old software - the same issue that led to Mac OS X supplanting the early Mac OS. In a nutshell, there was a time in computing history when the Amiga was without a doubt the most powerful personal computer you could get for a reasonable cost and had features which simply were not available on any other platform for years to come.
As soon as the boy got hit with the poison yes. Before that I knew that there would be a reason for the asthma, a meaning to the wife's dying words, a reason for the water etc - but not the specifics of how it would play out. Just the whole angle of each character's flaw having a reason to exist (God works in mysterious) being the crux of Mel Gibson's character's story arch. I'll admit I'm not predisposed to enjoying "return to faith" story lines and the whole concept just turned the movie into a bit of a groaner for me. I think the best part was a home movie shown on the news where you get your first glimpse of the aliens. That was pretty cool, like something you'd see on "In Search Of".
"Um...maybe it's just me, but please name a recent blockbuster that wasn't predictable"
Fair enough. How about the Sixth Sense? You go to see an M. Knight Shamalayamanansaanan (whatever) film because it is supposed to have a twist that is hard to predict. I'm not saying they aren't predictable, just that he has a reputation for creating twists. I enjoyed the first 30 mins or so of Signs. After that it became way to transparent. I will agree that the acting was well done.
The difference is that Sky Captain didn't take itself seriously. It was campy. Not played off as comedy but it was obvious it was supposed to be stylized and not taken 100% seriously. The same goes for the Flash Gordon movie from the '80s. Without the camp factor it would have just been stupid but it ends up being a lot of fun. It's a reflection on the early serials not a copy of them. There are times when the prequels attempt this (i.e. Anakin and Obi Wans banter at the start of episode 3) but somehow it comes off flat. Although in all honesty compared to Lucas' inspirations - even the prequels are good. Try reading the Lensman series of books (source of many Star Wars ideas), holy crap are they dated and poorly written. I do kind of wish swooning women would make a come back. Every time a villain gets near a female in that series she immediately faints. Lensman, the original Flash Gordon and similar examples of pulp sci-fi are historically interesting and important but I don't think they serve as a great basis for modern sci-fi. I don't think the prequels are equivalent to the original Star Wars films. I agree that yes the original ones shouldn't be put up on a pedestal - they are essentially very goofy space opera flicks. The original three were much better paced than the prequels. They don't get bogged down in details (or politics) for any length of time and they paint the good guys and bad guys with broad strokes. The plots are simplistic (more so than the prequels) but that's what we expect from this sort of silly space operas. After all they are simply thinly disguised fantasy stories with castles, princesses, swords and even the ominous black night (hell, Anakin and Luke are like the Mordred/Arthur story in reverse). Lucas was also extremely lucky to get Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing in Star Wars. The level of acting they show simply blows away anyone else in the entire series and gave a sense of credibility to the movie. You believe in the Force because you believe in Obi Wan's convictions. James Earl Jones voice as Darth Vader was also just an amazing choice. The rest of the actors in the original trilogy are pretty goofy but they aren't wooden. If anything they are almost constantly overacting. What I do really think about the prequels is that Lucas could have used a hand in the screenplay writing and maybe the directing. I don't know whether it was the all CGI sets, the bad dialogue or Lucas directing that caused the acting to be so wooden - hell maybe it was all three. I think Lucas had too much control and is blind to his own faults. He frequently comes across as arrogant in interviews so that doesn't surprise me. He needed someone with the power to say "George, this line about Padme's skin not being like sand - it's shit. You can't write romance, get someone to work over this scene who can."
I thought Signs was extremely predictable. I could see the whole "return to faith" thing coming a mile away. The water thing was easy to guess once you started to see the inevitable wrap up coming.
"I got the impression that they fly everyone out to the islands for a week at a time for ALL filming."
Uh, at least during filming the principal actors live out here in Hawaii. They're regularly seen out at the local clubs and of course being busted for DUI. You see them on location shoots sometime as well. They shot part of an episode across the street from where I work.
"Look at Sky Captain, its one of my favorites just based on content but I will readily admit that the acting is total camp"
Given the pulp genre it is based on, the acting pretty much had to be camp. It wasn't the camp that bothered me, I thought it was a little flat too. Still loved it though.
"I haven't seen the old movies since I was a kid. Maybe they were just as bad, but I was too young to notice."
No not AS bad by a long shot. They are however, damn goofy. The acting isn't very good either (Harrison Ford should been named Ham Solo). BUT the characters have a lot more life, the plot pacing is excellent and the music scoring is much better than the prequels. I really think the original Star Wars would have been in trouble were it not for three actors:
Alec Guinness Peter Cushing James Earl Jones' voice
They are so excellent in comparison to the rest if the cast. It helps you suspend disbelief because you totally believe Obi Wan's conviction, Tarkin's nazi-esque evil and Darth Vader as the ultimate gestapo leader.
So can you explain to me exactly why they had that stupid timed shield/door thing that prevented Obi Wan from entering the room? It pretty much ruined the whole scene for me. Oooooh arbitrary plot device thrown in to create dramatic showdown.
They get 2-4 hour repair service, warranty replacement and no hassle spares. (if you deal with HP that is.. experience with dell may vary haha)
So long as you are going with the business systems and business support plans you get pretty much the same with Dell. Typical plans are 4 hour onsite or next-day. For about $100/year (depends on the system) you get onsite hardware support and unlimited software phone support.
No. GCC can be used to compile a proprietary app for example. It doesn't become "tainted" by the GPL. Now you can't modify the source of GCC and sell that without releasing the changes as open source under the GPL.
Slashdot Mirror
"Second, most people outside games dont have a "favorite" software. they use what does the task and what they are used to."
Not so sure about that. I love Photoshop, sure partially because of familiarity but I really do feel it's better than Gimp. It certainly is for use in professional printing.
Why should a version of Adobe Pagemaker for Windows work any better or worse than a version for OS X?
In all honestly this is an industry thing. The professional print industry runs almost exlusively on Macs. As a result things like color management and accuracy are much better going from a properly setup Mac. Large scale press operators are also more familiar with Macs and you generally will run into less issues moving data around.
Now if you know what you are doing, nothing says you can't do this on Windows. You can and I have - but it's much simpler to just pass a PDF to the printer at that point than deal with any possible cross platform issues.
When I started doing graphic design for Web in the mid '90s I switched to Photoshop on Windows NT because the performance was better (the OS multitasked better than Mac OS 7 and 8). Also I would see a lot of Mac designers creating pages that looked terrible on Windows browsers due to the difference in standard monitor gamma on Macs vs Windows. I designed for web on Windows and then tested on both Mac and Windows.
"The Windows version runs like a dream, because Windows will devote nearly 99% of the CPU to it when it's a foreground process. Linux will not, and even if it did, it would have to share the CPU with X Window which does all the drawing."
Uh you do know that Windows applications have priority levels right? So I can run a video encoder and it doesn't kill my system by sucking 100% of the CPU if something else is going on. As it runs in lower priority it scales back CPU usage if another task with higher priority needs it.
Regarding the video process, the crispness probably comes from how 2D Windows drawing functions are hardware accelerated under Windows (GDI or DirectDraw).
Didn't Triton go out of business? That's one of the fears I have with online activation systems. If the company goes under do you just get stuck with an unplayable game? If the company gets liquidated and the intellectual property goes to multiple other companies will they feel any obligation to allow you to activate your purchase?
"With the resource overhead I've seen in the beta version of Vista "hardcore gamers" would have to be retarded to make the switch. It'll only decrease the performance of your games, and all games for the next 3-4 years at least will keep running on XP."
Well, if you buy into the hype, the new video driver architecture and Direct X 10 will increase performance, particularly with shaders. Direct X 10 will be Vista only. So your games may not require DX10, but some features are sure to be DX10 only (same as games that currently have multiple render paths for DX7, 8 and 9).
Of course we'll have to see DX10 vid cards and DX 10 support in games first, but I don't think you are looking at 3-4 years, more like 1-2 before it's commonplace.
The hardcore gamers are the ones likely to upgrade to get these benefits. I'm sure there are plenty of more casual gamers with DX8 level video cards that couldn't care less about DX9 features.
We'll have to wait until Vista is out and DX 10 cards hit the market before we can pass judgement on whether it lives up to the hype.
Of course, Valve might decide that I've done something wrong and disable my account, taking away over 300 dollars in videogames from me.
Yeah the "watchdog" potential for things like Steam is definately a bit worrying. Of course in the event that they did ban my account, I would never again spend any more money with Valve.
Until authorities actually go after people pirating software
They have and they do. The difference is that federal crackdowns on piracy of software have at this point targetted either large distribution points (whether it's CD duplication or FTP hubs) or the crackers themselved. Many groups over the years have had members arrested but someone else always steps up to fill in the gaps.
The other area where crackdowns occur is in large scale business software piracy.
Compare this to the RIAA and MPAA actions which have included targetting the individual downloader.
How about digital distribution like Steam or Direct2Drive?
I recently bought Civ 4: Warlords off Direct2Drive because it was on sale. I really like not having to put the CD in to play the game. I used to use a miniso with my Civ 4 to play, but now I don't have to bother with mounting that and running the SDkiller app.
Any bugfixes have already been released, so I'm not stuck with an unplayable game.
If only this were true of all games. Battlefield 2 I'm looking at you!
If you play and finish a game before buying it - why would you buy it? Now this mostly goes for single player games that have a finite length. Multiplayer games aren't as affected by this but they also tend to use online serial checks which means they are better protected against piracy (to some degree).
Whereas with a music album, you are likely to listen to it many times.
I'm not completely disagreeing with you - I have done the same thing. I've paid for games I felt were worth it after playing a pirated copy. I generally try to use demos but sometimes publishers are ridiculously stingy. No, I can't tell if I'm going to like the game with a demo that quits in 10 minutes or only offers 10 minutes of content.
Pretty much what Steam does. You can activate your Steam account on any computer and download the games you own but you can't play them on multiple computers at the same time.
BTW, how's that Blame America First working out?
Aw, c'mon you know it's Blame the GOP First right?
Liberal bastards what with their gay baiting and hating entrapment of Foley.
In addition to the bridgeboard you could also run Mac OS (I think up to 6) with a product called A-Max. This wasn't an emulator since the Amiga used the same 68000 series processors as the Mac. When I was just starting out in graphic design I used an Amiga with '030 card at home to run Mac OS for use with QuarkXpress and Illustrator. At the time Macs were typically priced higher than I could afford. The Mac IIx I had at work cost over $7,000.
Was the Amiga a hyped fanbody system in 'the old days' like this current marketing boilerplate makes it sound that it is today?
No. The Amiga was a very powerful computer for its time and was also very affordable (in comparison with Macs at the time).
It had true preemptive multitasking from the time it launched in 1985. In comparison Mac OS didn't gain cooperative multitasking until 1988 with the introduction of Multifinder.
Much like todays computers have dedicated sound and video hardware, the Amiga had a custom set of chips to offload all video, animation and sound processing.
In 1985 it had the best color graphics available. I wasn't until 8bit color boards came out in 1987 that the still screen color capabilities of the Amiga were exceeded. Even then, the cost for a Macintosh 2 with color display in 1987 cost over 4 times what a single Amiga did. The Amiga was still superior in animation fluidity as well.
When most computers were making beeps and boops, the Amiga had 4 channel stereo sound that used 8 bit digital samples.
Because of the Amiga chipsets origins as a proposed game console, it was designed to display to a TV using standard NTSC and PAL signals. This gave rise to the use Amiga's in television stations as video hardware such as genlocks were inexepnsive. The release of the Video Toaster for Amiga brought huge television capabilities to the platform, once again at an price that was incredibly low at the time.
The Amiga was also a hotbed of 3D animation software. Several 3D applications were born on the Amiga, the most popular being Lightwave which has long since been ported to other platforms.
Amiga had an excellent shell and many applications were fully scriptable via a port of the REXX language. I went from Amiga to using UNIX systems and the time I spent learning AmigaDOS was a huge help.
So why did it die such a miserable death? Part of the blame is on the marketing efforts of Commodore which were simply terrible. But another key point is that the technology that made Amiga so great, the custom chips and preemptive operating system also held it back. The chips were not easily swapped out and too many programs (most notably games) made direct calls to the hardware. Even when they did update the chipset it broke a lot of older software for just this reason. Color Macs and PCs with cheap VGA cards were also coming down in price, making the Amiga look less attractive. The operating system was also hindered by the inability to implement things like memory protection, meaning the Amiga was prone to crashes that took the whole system down (much like Mac OS and Windows before Windows 2000 and Mac OS X). There was no easy way to build memory protection in without breaking old software - the same issue that led to Mac OS X supplanting the early Mac OS.
In a nutshell, there was a time in computing history when the Amiga was without a doubt the most powerful personal computer you could get for a reasonable cost and had features which simply were not available on any other platform for years to come.
Who could forget Doom for the Atari 2600?
As soon as the boy got hit with the poison yes. Before that I knew that there would be a reason for the asthma, a meaning to the wife's dying words, a reason for the water etc - but not the specifics of how it would play out. Just the whole angle of each character's flaw having a reason to exist (God works in mysterious) being the crux of Mel Gibson's character's story arch.
I'll admit I'm not predisposed to enjoying "return to faith" story lines and the whole concept just turned the movie into a bit of a groaner for me.
I think the best part was a home movie shown on the news where you get your first glimpse of the aliens. That was pretty cool, like something you'd see on "In Search Of".
"Um...maybe it's just me, but please name a recent blockbuster that wasn't predictable"
Fair enough. How about the Sixth Sense? You go to see an M. Knight Shamalayamanansaanan (whatever) film because it is supposed to have a twist that is hard to predict. I'm not saying they aren't predictable, just that he has a reputation for creating twists.
I enjoyed the first 30 mins or so of Signs. After that it became way to transparent. I will agree that the acting was well done.
The difference is that Sky Captain didn't take itself seriously. It was campy. Not played off as comedy but it was obvious it was supposed to be stylized and not taken 100% seriously.
The same goes for the Flash Gordon movie from the '80s. Without the camp factor it would have just been stupid but it ends up being a lot of fun. It's a reflection on the early serials not a copy of them. There are times when the prequels attempt this (i.e. Anakin and Obi Wans banter at the start of episode 3) but somehow it comes off flat.
Although in all honesty compared to Lucas' inspirations - even the prequels are good. Try reading the Lensman series of books (source of many Star Wars ideas), holy crap are they dated and poorly written. I do kind of wish swooning women would make a come back. Every time a villain gets near a female in that series she immediately faints. Lensman, the original Flash Gordon and similar examples of pulp sci-fi are historically interesting and important but I don't think they serve as a great basis for modern sci-fi.
I don't think the prequels are equivalent to the original Star Wars films. I agree that yes the original ones shouldn't be put up on a pedestal - they are essentially very goofy space opera flicks. The original three were much better paced than the prequels. They don't get bogged down in details (or politics) for any length of time and they paint the good guys and bad guys with broad strokes. The plots are simplistic (more so than the prequels) but that's what we expect from this sort of silly space operas. After all they are simply thinly disguised fantasy stories with castles, princesses, swords and even the ominous black night (hell, Anakin and Luke are like the Mordred/Arthur story in reverse).
Lucas was also extremely lucky to get Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing in Star Wars. The level of acting they show simply blows away anyone else in the entire series and gave a sense of credibility to the movie. You believe in the Force because you believe in Obi Wan's convictions. James Earl Jones voice as Darth Vader was also just an amazing choice. The rest of the actors in the original trilogy are pretty goofy but they aren't wooden. If anything they are almost constantly overacting.
What I do really think about the prequels is that Lucas could have used a hand in the screenplay writing and maybe the directing. I don't know whether it was the all CGI sets, the bad dialogue or Lucas directing that caused the acting to be so wooden - hell maybe it was all three. I think Lucas had too much control and is blind to his own faults. He frequently comes across as arrogant in interviews so that doesn't surprise me. He needed someone with the power to say "George, this line about Padme's skin not being like sand - it's shit. You can't write romance, get someone to work over this scene who can."
I thought Signs was extremely predictable. I could see the whole "return to faith" thing coming a mile away. The water thing was easy to guess once you started to see the inevitable wrap up coming.
"I got the impression that they fly everyone out to the islands for a week at a time for ALL filming."
Uh, at least during filming the principal actors live out here in Hawaii. They're regularly seen out at the local clubs and of course being busted for DUI.
You see them on location shoots sometime as well. They shot part of an episode across the street from where I work.
"Look at Sky Captain, its one of my favorites just based on content but I will readily admit that the acting is total camp"
Given the pulp genre it is based on, the acting pretty much had to be camp. It wasn't the camp that bothered me, I thought it was a little flat too. Still loved it though.
"I haven't seen the old movies since I was a kid. Maybe they were just as bad, but I was too young to notice."
No not AS bad by a long shot. They are however, damn goofy. The acting isn't very good either (Harrison Ford should been named Ham Solo). BUT the characters have a lot more life, the plot pacing is excellent and the music scoring is much better than the prequels.
I really think the original Star Wars would have been in trouble were it not for three actors:
Alec Guinness
Peter Cushing
James Earl Jones' voice
They are so excellent in comparison to the rest if the cast. It helps you suspend disbelief because you totally believe Obi Wan's conviction, Tarkin's nazi-esque evil and Darth Vader as the ultimate gestapo leader.
So can you explain to me exactly why they had that stupid timed shield/door thing that prevented Obi Wan from entering the room?
It pretty much ruined the whole scene for me. Oooooh arbitrary plot device thrown in to create dramatic showdown.
They get 2-4 hour repair service, warranty replacement and no hassle spares. (if you deal with HP that is.. experience with dell may vary haha)
So long as you are going with the business systems and business support plans you get pretty much the same with Dell. Typical plans are 4 hour onsite or next-day.
For about $100/year (depends on the system) you get onsite hardware support and unlimited software phone support.
No. GCC can be used to compile a proprietary app for example. It doesn't become "tainted" by the GPL. Now you can't modify the source of GCC and sell that without releasing the changes as open source under the GPL.