You're probably thinking of Big Finish Productions (http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/), who have done a ton of Audio Dramas, most newly written for them, typically by the original writers and starring the original cast members. Well worth the effort to get, especially if you spend any time in a car.
Alternatively - look around, there's already a ton of audio dramas, most done decades ago. It's called OTR - Old Time Radio. Suspense did "The Dunwich Horror", Lux Radio Theater did a ton of movies (most with the original cast - it was a way to advertise the movie), X-1 did stories by Sturgeon, Heinlein, etc. And frequently the collectors own the original tape, and have cleaned it up before posting mp3s.
Alt.binaries.sounds.radio.oldtime is a good term to google on (most people who do it are OTR geeks), or a good newsgroup to look at.
I understand about part of it... yes, I haven't seen someone moving 3x too fast. However, one thing they failed to address was stuff like inertia and kinetic mass. Think how Spidey stuck to something. He'd almost make a tip-toe landing, he'd stick it perfectly. Now think about how much kinetic energy he'd built up. I could understand it if he slowed himself down at the last minute or something, but he'd just stick to the wall like nothing had happened.
Now think back to The Matrix, where they dissipate their landing energy one of two ways - converting it to forward momentum (Trinity's over-the-street leap, where she rolled on the landing and kept moving) or "sunk" it into the landing (Morpheus's landing during the jump program, where the concrete cracked and broke around him). Both were more realistic-seeming than the 10-point olympic landing from 300 feet.
Of course, the alternative is not to make it look how it really would, but for it to look "right" to the audience. Yes, it's not perfectly realistic, but this is a movie about a guy who got bit by a gengineered spider - that's not realistic either.
3. Actually, most people I know with a mac don't want a Personal Computer and all that entails. They have stuff they want to do and do it. Just because they don't want to have to reinstall drivers or edit a Registry key doesn't make them pathetic or "cyber-squirrel"s.
But unfortunately, it would be the death of music. I buy a license. (Call it a "LP") Now a better version comes out "cassette". Since I already have the license, I can mail in my Proof-of-Purchase and get a new one. Now a new one comes out "CD". I take my "cassette" proof of purchase. My "CD" rots. I send them a POP and get a new one.
Anyone dumb enough to think that would happen if they "licensed" music?
There are chips out that come close. The new C3 processors (VIA) run at 1 gigahertz. They also use 15 volts of power and dissipate under 10 watts of heat. And then there's VIAs Eden, which is an embedded processor platform (yes, it will run linux) that runs up to 1 gigahertz, IIRC. And according to them, it uses up to 1.2 volts and dissipates up to 6 watts of heat. And that's less than 1/10th.
And it's not only about power consumption. A lot of people have gotten sick of machines that sound like lawnmowers, and are going to the quiet side. Quiet is the new Overclock. You now can have a 2 gigahertz machine that only puts out 20 decibels of noise at 1 foot.
I recently got a console also, and while I see your point, I also strenuously disagree. Why? The gameplay.
I've found that on my console, I can turn it on, wait for it to boot for a minute or two (while staring at a giant X), and then play games for a couple of hours. Or half an hour. Or 5 minutes. Light, meaningless fun. I race my car around or shoot things, and then I try and find a waypoint, save, and turn it off.
On the computer, I boot it up. (about the same amount of time, except it doesn't have the cool X this time). I start Neverwinter (or Thief 2 or Deus Ex or Pro Pinball or even Freedom Force) and play that for several hours. I sunk probably 80 hours in NWN, just on the main campaign, and probably another 10 on modules. Deep, deep, game. Immersive as heck, and I can't see it being done on a console. Any console.
Light, quick fun? Sure, console. Need to kill 5 minutes before I have to leave the house? Console. I may even give Deus Ex 2 a shot on the console. But if the Splinter Cell demo is any indication, it's not the same. Each has their place. And, of course, there's the matter of games. How many of my fave games are on the console? Damnably few.
In that case, why do all the live albums I've ever heard sound pretty damn good? I doubt they're using the 3000$ mics at the bar where Band X recorded their live album.
As the other person said (and I was unaware of), there are video cards that are supported by the BTAudio module. I was personally planning on buying an additional sound card, so each tuner would have its own sound card. Another option would be to build multiple machines, and let MythTV handle the "clustering". I'll have to check into the BTAudio trick.
Version.8 will allow you to have several machines, each taping its own channel(s), controlled by any of the machines in the network. The goal is to allow you to have one gigantic server in the basement, and 1 fan-less machine in the living room.
Far more interesting is what ramifications (if any) are there to having 2/3/4 tuner cards in one PC. After all, each tuner card probably needs its own sound card... what else is involved?
I'm 30 and have been reading sci-fi since 13, and so here are the authors I've picked up lately - I grew up on the masters, from Heinlein to Chalker to Asimov to Foster
Simon R. Green. Not new per se, but I hadn't heard of him prior to the Deathstalker series. Modern space opera.
Ken MacLeod - Stone Canal, Star Faction, Sky Road, etc. Great Libertarian/Communist sci-fi, where he manages to tie two disparate stories together.
James Alan Gardner - the "one word title" author. Start with Expendable. Great sci-fi, where you know what's happening - and 20 pages from the end, he tilts everything you know about the story by 90 degrees. Amazing.
L.E. Modesitt Jr. Writes both Sci-fi and Fantasy, written from the perspective of a former industrial economist. Everything he's written is great.
Authors I never seem to hear mentioned: Allan Cole & Chris Bunch - the Sten series. Despite what the later books look like (aka "A new Sten adventure"), it's one gigantic story, based on the precept "Absolute Power corrups absolutely". It's something like 7 or 8 books. First one is simply called Sten.
Paul Cook - Alejandro Variations, Fortress on the Sun, Duende Meadow.
John Varley - originally hyped as The Next Heinlein, his early stuff took some of the Heinleinian ideas and mixed them with a hit of LSD. His past couple of books, though infrequent, are really good (Steel Beach, The Golden Globe)
(Vernor Vinge should be mentioned, in case you've somehow missed him. Same with Neil Stephenson, Jack L. Chalker, James P. Hogan, Spider Robinson, Bruce Sterling. Oh, skip Iain Banks - way overhyped. Two of us read a couple of his books twice... they were that bad. The second time was because _obviously_ we were missing something, since everyone else hypes the fsck out oh him. Nope. Still sucks.)
Hope these help.
And I'll toss in one oldie that no one ever knows of - Eric Frank Russell. Get anything of his but "The Mindwarpers". Three To Conquer is cool, The Space Willies is great, and WASP is probably his crowning achievement. I'll echo Chalker's words - if he'd written it as a straight-ahead WWII novel, he'd still be well-known and regarded today.
Actually, I heard him say on a recording that he was pissed about it, and mentioned how a guy came up to have him sign a CD, that turned out to be a burned copy. Don't remember which recording, unfortunately.
Thanks for the hints - haven't been to Cedar Point yet (yeah, I know, take away my rollercoaster badge).
But to be honest, this does amazingly little for me. At 6 Flags Over Texas, we have two coasters that are similar to this thing: Mr. Freeze and Titan. Mr. Freeze uses linear induction, and shoots you up to 80 miles an hour in 3-4 seconds. You then shoot outside (the actual "catapult" is done in a tunnel), have long enough to see what's coming, then you go into a top hat, hit a big curve coming around, straight up for a while (frickin' scary - depending on where you sit, you can actually pass the magnets that stop you at the top), then you fall backwards, through the whole thing. Ride lasts something like 30-45 seconds. A blast if you like linear accelerators.
Then there's Titan. A hypercoaster (300+ feet). Nice long drop, but then an actual ride. Again, a blast. http://www.rcdb.com/full/six-flags-over-te xas/tita n2.jpg
This new one almost sounds like Superman (6 Flags Magic Mountain) - cool concept, but almost a tech demo. (IMHO, Mr. Freeze actually turned the linear induction idea into a real ride.) Cool, and more power to them, but barely a coaster.
Now all this being said, I want to go ride it. Once.
And I was just thinking that this is probably the harshest winter we've had for a while, here in Texas. (It sounds like I'm joking, but I'm deadly serious). I've had to scrape my car several times this past week, more than any other winter. It was actually cold at Thanksgiving (we even had a weeklong freeze then!), and while it's 70 today, it'll be in the 40s and 50s for the next week. I was going to complain about the New Ice Age coming.
Yup, and I actually think this idea might be patent-worthy: it's obvious once you hear about it, and frickin' useful to boot. Even if it's just one color at a time (as opposed to a iLavaLamp), that's still a whole lot of uses. Someone on Ars suggested having it flash when people are in Rendezvous range, but I like your suggestion for signal strength, or how the CPU is doing (works its way from blue to red or white)
once Live gets established whole heartedly, MS will probably kill those "alternative" methods.
Ought to be interesting to see how they do that - MS needs LAN parties/"system link"ing to continue for the Xbox, and that's the mechanism that XBconnect uses. Only way I can see them stopping it is via the DMCA...
I'll briefly mention Windows NT SP 6, which broke Lotus Notes. I don't remember the specifics, but SP6 broke Notes' TCP/IP stack, while Outlook was unaffected. Microsoft replaced it a week or so later with SP6a, and IIRC never really mentioned why the 6a - they just pulled 6, and unless you were affected you'd never know. We got bit.
If you haven't seen Equilibrium yet (or have no idea what I'm talking about), do yourself a favor and go take a look.
Reason I mention it in this thread is that some of the influences are the same, most people who liked The Matrix will like this, and it's too good a movie to die this quickly. I saw it last Thursday, and was astounded by it. Sure, there are a lot of cool fight scenes, but it's also a good movie, doing certain things you didn't expect (several bits of foreshadowing are slick), has an actual story, good acting, good dialog, makes you think, and overall is a great movie.
Nope, one's free speech, the other's free beer. I'm a cheap bastard, and would take a free one in a minute. The replay/tivo is interesting too, but I don't know as I'm willing to pony up 150$ a year + an initial outlay for the box.
I think most people would agree, and take the freebie. The downside is that the idea of "sweeps week" goes away, which is a POS concept anyhow. Why can they set their rates for the year based on a couple of weeks of programming that don't reflect their normal programming?
I'm surprised that no-one's gone this way with it: make a PVR. All the cool functionality, but VERY limited fastforward/rewind. Make it so you can't skip commercials if you're watching the show. Then, put 2-3 tuners in it, and advertise the hell out of it. Charge people $5 a month for it. More TV watched, and more ads watched. I'm surprised the networks haven't done this - yes, it ends prime time and nielsens, but you can easily watch anything on the big 4 ("they still call Fox a network?") at anytime, making it easier than cable.
Realistically, I imagine I'll have to wait until Doom III, maybe 5 or 6 months more, before I can actually play a game which will take advantage of a non-trivial part of my new GPU's power.
So? Now the question is, how long before most gamers realize this? Right now, he's correct, and it's probably Doom III (or some unknown game) will make this thing a requirement. But, it'll still need to play on older hardware. And either way, by the time that the game comes out, your Geforce will have dropped $100. I'll wait, personally.
I suggest that some game publisher consider developing a game at the $199 or $249 price point which will really take advantage of these cards.
Please. Just. Don't. Go. There.
However, here's a cool idea - pay one of the current "hot" developers to make a small game, something not too terribly difficult, not too terribly deep, but terribly pretty, and bundle it with the card. Make a version available online so people can play and see what their current system shows, along with pics from the Geforce X version. Big potential here, as well as a big potential for cheating - let's make every other non-NV card render it slow. But it could be cool, especially if it's a cool game.
Slashdot Mirror
You're probably thinking of Big Finish Productions (http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/), who have done a ton of Audio Dramas, most newly written for them, typically by the original writers and starring the original cast members. Well worth the effort to get, especially if you spend any time in a car.
Alternatively - look around, there's already a ton of audio dramas, most done decades ago. It's called OTR - Old Time Radio. Suspense did "The Dunwich Horror", Lux Radio Theater did a ton of movies (most with the original cast - it was a way to advertise the movie), X-1 did stories by Sturgeon, Heinlein, etc. And frequently the collectors own the original tape, and have cleaned it up before posting mp3s.
Alt.binaries.sounds.radio.oldtime is a good term to google on (most people who do it are OTR geeks), or a good newsgroup to look at.
I understand about part of it... yes, I haven't seen someone moving 3x too fast. However, one thing they failed to address was stuff like inertia and kinetic mass. Think how Spidey stuck to something. He'd almost make a tip-toe landing, he'd stick it perfectly. Now think about how much kinetic energy he'd built up. I could understand it if he slowed himself down at the last minute or something, but he'd just stick to the wall like nothing had happened.
Now think back to The Matrix, where they dissipate their landing energy one of two ways - converting it to forward momentum (Trinity's over-the-street leap, where she rolled on the landing and kept moving) or "sunk" it into the landing (Morpheus's landing during the jump program, where the concrete cracked and broke around him). Both were more realistic-seeming than the 10-point olympic landing from 300 feet.
Of course, the alternative is not to make it look how it really would, but for it to look "right" to the audience. Yes, it's not perfectly realistic, but this is a movie about a guy who got bit by a gengineered spider - that's not realistic either.
How did you quiet it down - I heard the PSU was fairly loud, and I'm trying to make a quiet (30 db) system.
3. Actually, most people I know with a mac don't want a Personal Computer and all that entails. They have stuff they want to do and do it. Just because they don't want to have to reinstall drivers or edit a Registry key doesn't make them pathetic or "cyber-squirrel"s.
I'm personally wondering when he'll be making a personal visit to Japan.
But unfortunately, it would be the death of music. I buy a license. (Call it a "LP") Now a better version comes out "cassette". Since I already have the license, I can mail in my Proof-of-Purchase and get a new one. Now a new one comes out "CD". I take my "cassette" proof of purchase. My "CD" rots. I send them a POP and get a new one.
Anyone dumb enough to think that would happen if they "licensed" music?
There are chips out that come close. The new C3 processors (VIA) run at 1 gigahertz. They also use 15 volts of power and dissipate under 10 watts of heat. And then there's VIAs Eden, which is an embedded processor platform (yes, it will run linux) that runs up to 1 gigahertz, IIRC. And according to them, it uses up to 1.2 volts and dissipates up to 6 watts of heat. And that's less than 1/10th.
And it's not only about power consumption. A lot of people have gotten sick of machines that sound like lawnmowers, and are going to the quiet side. Quiet is the new Overclock. You now can have a 2 gigahertz machine that only puts out 20 decibels of noise at 1 foot.
Hmmmm... holes exist because it's a pain to install the patch. Insecurity through Obscurity, anyone?
(and yes, it can be a royal pain)
I recently got a console also, and while I see your point, I also strenuously disagree. Why? The gameplay.
I've found that on my console, I can turn it on, wait for it to boot for a minute or two (while staring at a giant X), and then play games for a couple of hours. Or half an hour. Or 5 minutes. Light, meaningless fun. I race my car around or shoot things, and then I try and find a waypoint, save, and turn it off.
On the computer, I boot it up. (about the same amount of time, except it doesn't have the cool X this time). I start Neverwinter (or Thief 2 or Deus Ex or Pro Pinball or even Freedom Force) and play that for several hours. I sunk probably 80 hours in NWN, just on the main campaign, and probably another 10 on modules. Deep, deep, game. Immersive as heck, and I can't see it being done on a console. Any console.
Light, quick fun? Sure, console. Need to kill 5 minutes before I have to leave the house? Console. I may even give Deus Ex 2 a shot on the console. But if the Splinter Cell demo is any indication, it's not the same. Each has their place. And, of course, there's the matter of games. How many of my fave games are on the console? Damnably few.
In that case, why do all the live albums I've ever heard sound pretty damn good? I doubt they're using the 3000$ mics at the bar where Band X recorded their live album.
As the other person said (and I was unaware of), there are video cards that are supported by the BTAudio module. I was personally planning on buying an additional sound card, so each tuner would have its own sound card. Another option would be to build multiple machines, and let MythTV handle the "clustering". I'll have to check into the BTAudio trick.
Version .8 will allow you to have several machines, each taping its own channel(s), controlled by any of the machines in the network. The goal is to allow you to have one gigantic server in the basement, and 1 fan-less machine in the living room.
Far more interesting is what ramifications (if any) are there to having 2/3/4 tuner cards in one PC. After all, each tuner card probably needs its own sound card... what else is involved?
March delivery, eh? Maybe it'll slip to, say, April 1?
I'm 30 and have been reading sci-fi since 13, and so here are the authors I've picked up lately - I grew up on the masters, from Heinlein to Chalker to Asimov to Foster
Simon R. Green. Not new per se, but I hadn't heard of him prior to the Deathstalker series. Modern space opera.
Ken MacLeod - Stone Canal, Star Faction, Sky Road, etc. Great Libertarian/Communist sci-fi, where he manages to tie two disparate stories together.
James Alan Gardner - the "one word title" author. Start with Expendable. Great sci-fi, where you know what's happening - and 20 pages from the end, he tilts everything you know about the story by 90 degrees. Amazing.
L.E. Modesitt Jr. Writes both Sci-fi and Fantasy, written from the perspective of a former industrial economist. Everything he's written is great.
Authors I never seem to hear mentioned:
Allan Cole & Chris Bunch - the Sten series. Despite what the later books look like (aka "A new Sten adventure"), it's one gigantic story, based on the precept "Absolute Power corrups absolutely". It's something like 7 or 8 books. First one is simply called Sten.
Paul Cook - Alejandro Variations, Fortress on the Sun, Duende Meadow.
John Varley - originally hyped as The Next Heinlein, his early stuff took some of the Heinleinian ideas and mixed them with a hit of LSD. His past couple of books, though infrequent, are really good (Steel Beach, The Golden Globe)
(Vernor Vinge should be mentioned, in case you've somehow missed him. Same with Neil Stephenson, Jack L. Chalker, James P. Hogan, Spider Robinson, Bruce Sterling. Oh, skip Iain Banks - way overhyped. Two of us read a couple of his books twice... they were that bad. The second time was because _obviously_ we were missing something, since everyone else hypes the fsck out oh him. Nope. Still sucks.)
Hope these help.
And I'll toss in one oldie that no one ever knows of - Eric Frank Russell. Get anything of his but "The Mindwarpers". Three To Conquer is cool, The Space Willies is great, and WASP is probably his crowning achievement. I'll echo Chalker's words - if he'd written it as a straight-ahead WWII novel, he'd still be well-known and regarded today.
Actually, I heard him say on a recording that he was pissed about it, and mentioned how a guy came up to have him sign a CD, that turned out to be a burned copy. Don't remember which recording, unfortunately.
Thanks for the hints - haven't been to Cedar Point yet (yeah, I know, take away my rollercoaster badge).
0 1s.jpg
e xas/tita n2.jpg
But to be honest, this does amazingly little for me. At 6 Flags Over Texas, we have two coasters that are similar to this thing: Mr. Freeze and Titan. Mr. Freeze uses linear induction, and shoots you up to 80 miles an hour in 3-4 seconds. You then shoot outside (the actual "catapult" is done in a tunnel), have long enough to see what's coming, then you go into a top hat, hit a big curve coming around, straight up for a while (frickin' scary - depending on where you sit, you can actually pass the magnets that stop you at the top), then you fall backwards, through the whole thing. Ride lasts something like 30-45 seconds. A blast if you like linear accelerators.
Picture: http://www.vicbilson.com/coasters/graphics/freeze
Then there's Titan. A hypercoaster (300+ feet). Nice long drop, but then an actual ride. Again, a blast.
http://www.rcdb.com/full/six-flags-over-t
This new one almost sounds like Superman (6 Flags Magic Mountain) - cool concept, but almost a tech demo. (IMHO, Mr. Freeze actually turned the linear induction idea into a real ride.) Cool, and more power to them, but barely a coaster.
Now all this being said, I want to go ride it. Once.
And I was just thinking that this is probably the harshest winter we've had for a while, here in Texas. (It sounds like I'm joking, but I'm deadly serious). I've had to scrape my car several times this past week, more than any other winter. It was actually cold at Thanksgiving (we even had a weeklong freeze then!), and while it's 70 today, it'll be in the 40s and 50s for the next week. I was going to complain about the New Ice Age coming.
Yup, and I actually think this idea might be patent-worthy: it's obvious once you hear about it, and frickin' useful to boot. Even if it's just one color at a time (as opposed to a iLavaLamp), that's still a whole lot of uses. Someone on Ars suggested having it flash when people are in Rendezvous range, but I like your suggestion for signal strength, or how the CPU is doing (works its way from blue to red or white)
once Live gets established whole heartedly, MS will probably kill those "alternative" methods.
Ought to be interesting to see how they do that - MS needs LAN parties/"system link"ing to continue for the Xbox, and that's the mechanism that XBconnect uses. Only way I can see them stopping it is via the DMCA...
Was it Drew Carey who said: "Free Willy? Sure! *ziiiiipppppp*"
I'll briefly mention Windows NT SP 6, which broke Lotus Notes. I don't remember the specifics, but SP6 broke Notes' TCP/IP stack, while Outlook was unaffected. Microsoft replaced it a week or so later with SP6a, and IIRC never really mentioned why the 6a - they just pulled 6, and unless you were affected you'd never know. We got bit.
If you haven't seen Equilibrium yet (or have no idea what I'm talking about), do yourself a favor and go take a look.
Reason I mention it in this thread is that some of the influences are the same, most people who liked The Matrix will like this, and it's too good a movie to die this quickly. I saw it last Thursday, and was astounded by it. Sure, there are a lot of cool fight scenes, but it's also a good movie, doing certain things you didn't expect (several bits of foreshadowing are slick), has an actual story, good acting, good dialog, makes you think, and overall is a great movie.
Go see it.
Nope, one's free speech, the other's free beer. I'm a cheap bastard, and would take a free one in a minute. The replay/tivo is interesting too, but I don't know as I'm willing to pony up 150$ a year + an initial outlay for the box.
I think most people would agree, and take the freebie. The downside is that the idea of "sweeps week" goes away, which is a POS concept anyhow. Why can they set their rates for the year based on a couple of weeks of programming that don't reflect their normal programming?
I'm surprised that no-one's gone this way with it:
make a PVR. All the cool functionality, but VERY limited fastforward/rewind. Make it so you can't skip commercials if you're watching the show. Then, put 2-3 tuners in it, and advertise the hell out of it. Charge people $5 a month for it. More TV watched, and more ads watched. I'm surprised the networks haven't done this - yes, it ends prime time and nielsens, but you can easily watch anything on the big 4 ("they still call Fox a network?") at anytime, making it easier than cable.
Realistically, I imagine I'll have to wait until Doom III, maybe 5 or 6 months more, before I can actually play a game which will take advantage of a non-trivial part of my new GPU's power.
So? Now the question is, how long before most gamers realize this? Right now, he's correct, and it's probably Doom III (or some unknown game) will make this thing a requirement. But, it'll still need to play on older hardware. And either way, by the time that the game comes out, your Geforce will have dropped $100. I'll wait, personally.
I suggest that some game publisher consider developing a game at the $199 or $249 price point which will really take advantage of these cards.
Please. Just. Don't. Go. There.
However, here's a cool idea - pay one of the current "hot" developers to make a small game, something not too terribly difficult, not too terribly deep, but terribly pretty, and bundle it with the card. Make a version available online so people can play and see what their current system shows, along with pics from the Geforce X version. Big potential here, as well as a big potential for cheating - let's make every other non-NV card render it slow. But it could be cool, especially if it's a cool game.