I completely agree, Of course the first "128-bit" system was also the neo geo... (was a sweet system though)
btw, Dreamcast was pulled more because of piracy, not because it was a failed system, from what I saw of it, it's a decent system.
And it's iffy if Gensis is a 32 bit as someone else meantioned. Technically it was similar to the "cell" system where it had multiple systems. (or was that the saturn who had like two Gensis cores in it?)
Anyways I agree it's going to hurt MS more then help them by being first but this list at least meantions a few things that will give them a boost and if they get good retro game emulation I might pick up one so I can go back and get forza and Ninja Gaiden and the other 2-3 games that really interested me on the system for pennies.
Actually I'm suprised, a great list of 20 things about the XBOX 360 that needs to be considered. I personally considered getting a XBox 360 but for the legacy Xbox games formost.
The biggest hurdle is Xbox 360 is American. Japan isn't fooled by a "we are coming out first". It might be good for a little time but Xbox and Gamecube both came out at the same time.
PS2 was going to be the clear cut winner when the PS2 was announced as it had the gamers and games lined up. Final Fantasy started the attention but GTA and Xenosaga and such nailed it into the ground.
The Xbox 360 has a few games that are similar to great PS2 games, and it can beat it, but we'll talk about N3 now, but what will DW6 bring out? I'm sure a more coherent and polished games then N3? Why because they have learned that from the past, DW2 was hardly a block buster right out of the gate.
Xbox 360 likely will pass the tests and get a decent following and Nintendo has a lot riding on Reveloution but Sony is not becoming laxed liked Nintendo was in the late 90s and it'll be impossible to beat them, I'll be suprised if Sony drop below 50 percent of the market. We'll see more when we get closer to PS3, but anyone considering buying a XBox 360 should consider this. It's VERY likely we'll see a price drop when the PS3 comes out as a quick "win" and that'll be the smartest move if PS3 comes at 400+
So hold off for now and wait til a little more is revealed if you want to back a winner.
I don't think I ever said it was right, I just said it's how America works. The parent of my post sounded shocked and amazed that someone would do that. *shrugs*
Yes It's all my fault because they all do it. Just so you know I'm a moral person, I hate when people do that to me, but because it happens everywhere, it's accepted in america. If you don't want to do it fine, but complaining that they are "ethically challenged" only shows that your trying to be better then them. The fact is it'll keep happing no matter what you think about it.
Then you add me into that group you hate so much? Doesn't seem like you like anyone who considers this almost normal.
And thanks for calling me names that really screams that you had a point worth talking about.
Here's the problem, a patent is NOT a product, it's an idea.
So if Microsoft proves that it had the idea first, they can win. However they obviously they didn't I'm suprised that Apple hasn't destroyed their patent yet.
And taking part of a statement and twisting it's intentions around is part of how American works, check the media as well as the politicians lately? And we'll not talk about the media reporting on politicians.
Basically C++ would be the best bet in my mind. Granted it's potentially the worst language to use, but it's best to start on a moderate difficulty language then a worthless language.
While VB is a good language to start with at times, the Basic part of the language makes it ultra simple. I know it's a well built language which can go the distance and graphically if done right it can be beautiful but it makes people shy away from it, I have a semester of it and it's great for quick and dirty interfaces but I find when I need a solid system I would need much more training and it doesn't have the applicability that that C++ does.
PHP on the other hand is more server oriented then front end. Personally I deplore doing webpages but that's me, but I don't think PHP or emerging technologies should be "first languages"
I personally started my life as a programmer when I was around 8 and my mom and I typed in programs for basic that would take 3-4 hours to type in and be fun but wouldn't do much, and I messed with the variables, and bitched when the failed. However this was when I was 8 and had no skills. I did some work with qbasic, but my first true language was C++ And I've used it since as a primary language.
I've used Java (good if you have a good teacher, better if you know WHY it's different/better then C++), Prolog (almost useless unless doing logic based systems, your not) Lisp (see prolog) Assembly (yeah that's a beginner language for masochists)
Basically my advice is if you want something anyone can learn and use well Visual Basic. If you want something to teach a true programmer but anyone can try to learn, use C++. If you want to show a second language to compare to these two, Java is great for that. If you want something with less functionality, well look around there's a reason why these languages have risen to the top, and that's because ease of use or functionality if not both.
Fortran, Cobol and other older languages are outdated but could work for beginners.
I think the most important thing is that you have a teacher who while might know a few thing are willing to let the students learn a lot, my Highschool C++ classes was teached by a moderate user (not even a programmer) but the kids in the class had a great time with the language, me and another were the "masters" and we constantly learned off each other as well as helped other students, I constantly refined my code to show off a couple cool tricks we could do. It was great and that's why I think it was better then all my more structured classes in college.
I am not saying revise it my way, I'm saying revise it in SOME way, I mean I understand that you need time for systems, but if you go to court, and your system isn't ready and won't be for ten years or just completely didn't work, and Apple made a slightly similar system you can technically sue them.
And it does in ways deal with ownership and credit. However it's through protection. (protection from competition can only works if there is ownership of the idea)
However I don't think many of these ideas are truely unique I think for the most part that the owners were the first idiot who thought "I should patent that" It's like those stupid commericials telling you that if you have an idea patent it now. That's not the real idea of the patent, the patent is for small companies working to compete with a big corporation, not a way for a large corporation to own every idea they can come up with during a weekend.
The other problem is that it's not just software, you can do this for any sort of stupid patent, there has to be a clear and obvious version of stuff. Otherwise you have idiots trying to say They came up with the Hyperlink X years after it was first implemented.
I mean the stuff that you can patent now is getting really ridiculous and you know who gets hurt? The small guy? Microsoft can make a million patents and then ride off the tithes from them, and an independant person will have to dodge through a mine field of patents to make a product.
I'm all for the Office of Patents, which was an idea to show who was the first with the idea, granted there's some flaws, (Bell is created with created the phone while there's a good amount of evidence where he's not the originator)
But the original idea was for people to get credit for their ideas, and be able to own them.
However The Corporate world we live in today, has made patenting a game almost. You can patent any abstract idea, and even if your version completely fails and you couldn't program for crap, you can sue anyone else who succeeds at your worthless attempt even if it takes them 10 years, because you own the patent?
I think we need to revise the patent system to at least show that head way is made or such and if the system never gets implemented, the patent is worthless.
America actually. Which is still quite pricy but considered almost 50 bucks for an anime dvd compared to about 30 here. But we also can consider that they do have anime on the tv, so they don't have to buy it to see it how they want (America can't get it subbed except very few series on Anime Network shown 2 hours a week, which is Eva right now, oh joy.
But compared to america they do pay even more for most of their things with the exception of Videogames most of the times.
I'm sorry the Microsoft stories both are hearsay, it's good to show both sides in their light, but I expect you ask Google for an opinion on the start page if you can. (and was Yahoo before both or what?, or who had the first discussion of it)
In addition the story on the Recycle Bin sounds like an attempt to get suspicious news out to the public to poison the pool of jurors or such, However it's nontheless interesting, but again I'm waiting to hear the other side of the story.
However this is nice, because it gives recaps to EVERY story I really was interested in this time.
But I still think the best is the English to german to english to./ish.:) Kudos to him for a great explination.
Consider that he reversed the object to the original components, heavy duty cardboard. Then used it for a purpose not specifically stated in the Licensing agreement (sitting on it).
Well if the MPAA ever had a case, FedEx probably does too.. that's not to say the MPAA had a case though no matter what the courts said.
Recently even before MP3s CDs never made artists rich, it's not piracy, but the greed of the studio executives. Touring has always been a primary source of income.
However at the same time the studio executives will tell you they pay money to start the tour and help out the band, however I still believe that the quater or nickle (depending on the report you read from) that the band gets from every cd, still is the artists getting ripped off.
Personally I'd love to see the Studios abolished, they have been ripping the artists off since the 50s if not before it in some way or other (The jewish "promoting" the blacks and taking huge credits and money for it.. Payola, and as well as other various illegalities (let's remember execs were getting cocaine and other drugs for artists for decades and only now act as if they are completely "innocent"))
I'd rather here pure music and pay bands what I think, rather then have these executives taking their huge cuts first and choosing who to promote. Seriously after the boy band crap of the late 90s and the pop crap of the early 2000s I can't believe anyone actually thinks the execs have done their "job".
Everything is more expensive in Japan, even Videos and Cds, but it's nice to see Apple realizes it doesn't have to be that much more, and is showing it by undercutting the cost of the service.
It's the freaking internet, all they pay for is bandwidth and the music. Good to see that some companies remember that and are trying to avoid gouging. I just hope apple continues that path.
Sony was making their ps2 memory cards, and if you notice almost no one else made them? why there when the flood of 3rd party parts for the PSX? complete loss in sales. So Sony used a special encryption, and became basically the only maker of the Memory cards.
However it was a pretty much exclusive deal, they did their own thing. they didn't tell people to buy into their product. Microsoft is getting into the area Nintendo was in with the "seal of approval" that they had back on the NES days. And btw those who don't know? there was counterfiet seals back then and Nintendo tried to prosecute (Don't know the end results)
Microsoft is just getting into dirty water, where if they actually try to learn from the past they'd know it's not the type of think that they should get into.
There was that talk of the three versions of Xbox360 (one with out a hard drive, one with, and one with the Media Center (internet and everything else)
It's a degergation of the videogame console idea, when you have different versions of your Xbox, honestly Microsoft better home Japan accepts this one because otherwise they'll just loose a ton of their money.
Just one more step on the Console PC. (and while Linux Xboxs are cool, notice it's not the official console)
Imagine if it's only a Rate Gyro Unit. They could have launched and their rate gyro might have been off.
Thank god to that engineer who figured out "let's have a Redundant Rate Gyro Unit".
The thing I don't understand is as long as it gets to outer space on the right course isn't that good enough? They arn't recovering the shuttle as this is going off into the far ether (well Mars far)
Anyone else need the feeling of the page?
on
Textbooks With EULAs
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I got a COMPLETE copy of Mad Magazine once, and as I looked through it I laughed and, I showed my dad, who got me the gift, now he was a Mad fan from LONG ago before the magazine started going down hill (this was before they added needless color)
Anyways my dad said to me, that's nice you can see it all, but it doesn't have the same feeling. I of course laughed at it, but he continued about how he can't feel the page as you flip through it, everything is automated and so on.
Now my dad is a pretty technical guy, he loves his computer, he used to be a stock trader, this is a guy who is no computer newbie. However he was rejecting the format. And a couple weeks later I realized the same thing.
It's really the same with manga and e-books, I can read Dante's inferno on a computer, but with out holding a book in my hand it feels unreal, and phony, I don't feel the same. It is cheaper to make an E-book but it just doesn't work in the same way as a real book, where you're careful with the pages, you can feel the weight, and each word feels tailored to you.
This might work for the cheapest of all parents or for a class where you really don't need the book, but personally I'm glad I have the source material for my entire life for some of my C++ classes,and wish I had the Java source book we had (I didn't need it really, everything for java was on the web)
Personally I'll take a real book EVERY time, I don't care what people think.
If we look at a dog in the first year of his life, we see fast growth. That's what we have here. Using the same math, you'll have a 50 foot dog in about 10 years, depending on breeds.
I look at my 10 year old "puppy" (shih Tzu) and I see while the growth continued though decreasing in speed, for the second year, it plateaued there, That's the same as every single real dog (they reach full height in 2 years which is why some rules for dog's age call them 25 after 2 years (15 after the first because they are sexually ready to make babies) and then add 5 years for every year after the second year)
Now this is the type of math that reality uses, however every time I hear a "study" I hear someone studying something for X years,and using that data for two times the study length. THat'd work if we lived in a test tube but if anyone notices stuff is NOT in a vacuum, fads change, there's been a plethora of MMORPGs recently. I believe we'll see at least a slow down in growth soon.
I just wanted to meantion the fact that "predictions" such as these, don't have any basis in fact most of the time. I'm sure this guy might be knowledgable but there's a limit to growth and a limit to trends.
So class: I watched my soda recently, and noticed I drank half of the can in 10 minutes, and another half in 10 more minutes. By this trend how much will I have drank in 1 hour? (Answer: I already drank the rest of my soda while asking this:P)
All someone has to do is say "China is building space weapons" and we'll make it a priority.. The one thing in the arms race is that you don't want the other guy to get something you don't have.
However the actual use of a space weapon shouldn't be what most people think. A space weapon aimed at earth would be aweful, and devistating, however what if that same weapon instead is ready for stuff from outer space, not necessarily alien life, but other objects.
No one can deny there's asteroids out there, and no one can deny that Earth will never be hit by a single asteroid but the question is how much damage will they do, most do none, but consider how long it's taking SETI to search the skies WITH HELP! Notice how often the views of the immediate area of our universe has changed.
Now the question is this, how do we know there's no possibility that there's an asteroid aimed at earth. The bigger question is how long will we have from discovery to impact. The answer is not long. I'd guess in the neighborhood of a month if we're unlucky. A weapon will need to be tested, we can't just send up 100 shuttles, we've seen that the shuttles aren't ready for a launch at a moment. This one was pretty dangerous.
So I say we need a weapon capable of defending earth from what ever comes at us from the cosmos, but what's important here is it's Earth's weapon, like the ISS we need to work together to get it ready and active. We'll need a small test and if possible a large test, but if we act like we won't need it, when we need it, it'll be too late.
What are they going to do next? I mean android girl, (well the upper half of her) Robot who catches balls. When are they going to get around to the serious matters?
And by that I mean anti Godzilla measures? Seriously they can't afford to rebuild Tokyo every time a Sci Fi Director gets a whim to redo Godzilla can they? I say NAY! We must stop the green lizard as soon as possible, and his friend Monthra, let's see some Mecha people.
I personally can't take this article seriously but it's because I'm a thinking man.
The biggest problem is that to the Muslims who run al Qaeda (notice no u, just meantioning) America is "evil" and "the devil". Why would they run laptops with what? linux? or Windows on it? I have to say something is odd here, either they don't use computers (yeah right, in this world?) or they don't believe what they speak (almost definatly.)
I admit that it belongs here. But there's one other problem. This is NOT new news. They meantion it in 2001 I remember stories in late 2001 after the attacks about how they were on the internet and stuff, it's good a new story came out, but let's realize that this isn't a unique story that JUST came out. The fact that The Washington Post just came out with it, might say more for the quality of their news papers then anything.
Consider OpenGL is an open format, that anyone can use, why would Microsoft allow a "lowly" format to compete and get the same or better results with it's DirectX? I mean they invested millions into it.
It's just another way Microsoft will continue to play "fairly" ("oh we'll let IE7 conform to standards sure they will... but it won't conform to acid test or that like")
Honestly it's just another step in distancing Windows from the rest of the OSes, so Microsoft can get monopolies everywhere, or have their own propietary software for everything.
Even something like the Intel DRM chips are making Microsoft get a chance to have their own computers somewhere down the lines, who knows what they will do next, because they just seem to want to forge their own pathes.
Slashdot Mirror
I completely agree, Of course the first "128-bit" system was also the neo geo... (was a sweet system though)
btw, Dreamcast was pulled more because of piracy, not because it was a failed system, from what I saw of it, it's a decent system.
And it's iffy if Gensis is a 32 bit as someone else meantioned. Technically it was similar to the "cell" system where it had multiple systems. (or was that the saturn who had like two Gensis cores in it?)
Anyways I agree it's going to hurt MS more then help them by being first but this list at least meantions a few things that will give them a boost and if they get good retro game emulation I might pick up one so I can go back and get forza and Ninja Gaiden and the other 2-3 games that really interested me on the system for pennies.
Actually I'm suprised, a great list of 20 things about the XBOX 360 that needs to be considered. I personally considered getting a XBox 360 but for the legacy Xbox games formost.
The biggest hurdle is Xbox 360 is American. Japan isn't fooled by a "we are coming out first". It might be good for a little time but Xbox and Gamecube both came out at the same time.
PS2 was going to be the clear cut winner when the PS2 was announced as it had the gamers and games lined up. Final Fantasy started the attention but GTA and Xenosaga and such nailed it into the ground.
The Xbox 360 has a few games that are similar to great PS2 games, and it can beat it, but we'll talk about N3 now, but what will DW6 bring out? I'm sure a more coherent and polished games then N3? Why because they have learned that from the past, DW2 was hardly a block buster right out of the gate.
Xbox 360 likely will pass the tests and get a decent following and Nintendo has a lot riding on Reveloution but Sony is not becoming laxed liked Nintendo was in the late 90s and it'll be impossible to beat them, I'll be suprised if Sony drop below 50 percent of the market. We'll see more when we get closer to PS3, but anyone considering buying a XBox 360 should consider this. It's VERY likely we'll see a price drop when the PS3 comes out as a quick "win" and that'll be the smartest move if PS3 comes at 400+
So hold off for now and wait til a little more is revealed if you want to back a winner.
I don't think I ever said it was right, I just said it's how America works. The parent of my post sounded shocked and amazed that someone would do that. *shrugs*
Yes It's all my fault because they all do it. Just so you know I'm a moral person, I hate when people do that to me, but because it happens everywhere, it's accepted in america. If you don't want to do it fine, but complaining that they are "ethically challenged" only shows that your trying to be better then them. The fact is it'll keep happing no matter what you think about it.
Then you add me into that group you hate so much? Doesn't seem like you like anyone who considers this almost normal.
And thanks for calling me names that really screams that you had a point worth talking about.
Here's the problem, a patent is NOT a product, it's an idea.
So if Microsoft proves that it had the idea first, they can win. However they obviously they didn't I'm suprised that Apple hasn't destroyed their patent yet.
And taking part of a statement and twisting it's intentions around is part of how American works, check the media as well as the politicians lately? And we'll not talk about the media reporting on politicians.
Basically C++ would be the best bet in my mind. Granted it's potentially the worst language to use, but it's best to start on a moderate difficulty language then a worthless language.
While VB is a good language to start with at times, the Basic part of the language makes it ultra simple. I know it's a well built language which can go the distance and graphically if done right it can be beautiful but it makes people shy away from it, I have a semester of it and it's great for quick and dirty interfaces but I find when I need a solid system I would need much more training and it doesn't have the applicability that that C++ does.
PHP on the other hand is more server oriented then front end. Personally I deplore doing webpages but that's me, but I don't think PHP or emerging technologies should be "first languages"
I personally started my life as a programmer when I was around 8 and my mom and I typed in programs for basic that would take 3-4 hours to type in and be fun but wouldn't do much, and I messed with the variables, and bitched when the failed. However this was when I was 8 and had no skills. I did some work with qbasic, but my first true language was C++ And I've used it since as a primary language.
I've used Java (good if you have a good teacher, better if you know WHY it's different/better then C++), Prolog (almost useless unless doing logic based systems, your not) Lisp (see prolog) Assembly (yeah that's a beginner language for masochists)
Basically my advice is if you want something anyone can learn and use well Visual Basic. If you want something to teach a true programmer but anyone can try to learn, use C++. If you want to show a second language to compare to these two, Java is great for that. If you want something with less functionality, well look around there's a reason why these languages have risen to the top, and that's because ease of use or functionality if not both.
Fortran, Cobol and other older languages are outdated but could work for beginners.
I think the most important thing is that you have a teacher who while might know a few thing are willing to let the students learn a lot, my Highschool C++ classes was teached by a moderate user (not even a programmer) but the kids in the class had a great time with the language, me and another were the "masters" and we constantly learned off each other as well as helped other students, I constantly refined my code to show off a couple cool tricks we could do. It was great and that's why I think it was better then all my more structured classes in college.
I am not saying revise it my way, I'm saying revise it in SOME way, I mean I understand that you need time for systems, but if you go to court, and your system isn't ready and won't be for ten years or just completely didn't work, and Apple made a slightly similar system you can technically sue them.
And it does in ways deal with ownership and credit. However it's through protection. (protection from competition can only works if there is ownership of the idea)
However I don't think many of these ideas are truely unique I think for the most part that the owners were the first idiot who thought "I should patent that" It's like those stupid commericials telling you that if you have an idea patent it now. That's not the real idea of the patent, the patent is for small companies working to compete with a big corporation, not a way for a large corporation to own every idea they can come up with during a weekend.
The other problem is that it's not just software, you can do this for any sort of stupid patent, there has to be a clear and obvious version of stuff. Otherwise you have idiots trying to say They came up with the Hyperlink X years after it was first implemented.
I mean the stuff that you can patent now is getting really ridiculous and you know who gets hurt? The small guy? Microsoft can make a million patents and then ride off the tithes from them, and an independant person will have to dodge through a mine field of patents to make a product.
I'm all for the Office of Patents, which was an idea to show who was the first with the idea, granted there's some flaws, (Bell is created with created the phone while there's a good amount of evidence where he's not the originator)
But the original idea was for people to get credit for their ideas, and be able to own them.
However The Corporate world we live in today, has made patenting a game almost. You can patent any abstract idea, and even if your version completely fails and you couldn't program for crap, you can sue anyone else who succeeds at your worthless attempt even if it takes them 10 years, because you own the patent?
I think we need to revise the patent system to at least show that head way is made or such and if the system never gets implemented, the patent is worthless.
America actually. Which is still quite pricy but considered almost 50 bucks for an anime dvd compared to about 30 here. But we also can consider that they do have anime on the tv, so they don't have to buy it to see it how they want (America can't get it subbed except very few series on Anime Network shown 2 hours a week, which is Eva right now, oh joy.
But compared to america they do pay even more for most of their things with the exception of Videogames most of the times.
I'm sorry the Microsoft stories both are hearsay, it's good to show both sides in their light, but I expect you ask Google for an opinion on the start page if you can. (and was Yahoo before both or what?, or who had the first discussion of it)
./ish. :) Kudos to him for a great explination.
In addition the story on the Recycle Bin sounds like an attempt to get suspicious news out to the public to poison the pool of jurors or such, However it's nontheless interesting, but again I'm waiting to hear the other side of the story.
However this is nice, because it gives recaps to EVERY story I really was interested in this time.
But I still think the best is the English to german to english to
Consider that he reversed the object to the original components, heavy duty cardboard. Then used it for a purpose not specifically stated in the Licensing agreement (sitting on it).
Well if the MPAA ever had a case, FedEx probably does too.. that's not to say the MPAA had a case though no matter what the courts said.
Recently even before MP3s CDs never made artists rich, it's not piracy, but the greed of the studio executives. Touring has always been a primary source of income.
However at the same time the studio executives will tell you they pay money to start the tour and help out the band, however I still believe that the quater or nickle (depending on the report you read from) that the band gets from every cd, still is the artists getting ripped off.
Personally I'd love to see the Studios abolished, they have been ripping the artists off since the 50s if not before it in some way or other (The jewish "promoting" the blacks and taking huge credits and money for it.. Payola, and as well as other various illegalities (let's remember execs were getting cocaine and other drugs for artists for decades and only now act as if they are completely "innocent"))
I'd rather here pure music and pay bands what I think, rather then have these executives taking their huge cuts first and choosing who to promote. Seriously after the boy band crap of the late 90s and the pop crap of the early 2000s I can't believe anyone actually thinks the execs have done their "job".
Everything is more expensive in Japan, even Videos and Cds, but it's nice to see Apple realizes it doesn't have to be that much more, and is showing it by undercutting the cost of the service.
It's the freaking internet, all they pay for is bandwidth and the music. Good to see that some companies remember that and are trying to avoid gouging. I just hope apple continues that path.
check the dictionary for something called Sarcasm.
Sony was making their ps2 memory cards, and if you notice almost no one else made them? why there when the flood of 3rd party parts for the PSX? complete loss in sales. So Sony used a special encryption, and became basically the only maker of the Memory cards.
However it was a pretty much exclusive deal, they did their own thing. they didn't tell people to buy into their product. Microsoft is getting into the area Nintendo was in with the "seal of approval" that they had back on the NES days. And btw those who don't know? there was counterfiet seals back then and Nintendo tried to prosecute (Don't know the end results)
Microsoft is just getting into dirty water, where if they actually try to learn from the past they'd know it's not the type of think that they should get into.
There was that talk of the three versions of Xbox360 (one with out a hard drive, one with, and one with the Media Center (internet and everything else)
It's a degergation of the videogame console idea, when you have different versions of your Xbox, honestly Microsoft better home Japan accepts this one because otherwise they'll just loose a ton of their money.
Just one more step on the Console PC. (and while Linux Xboxs are cool, notice it's not the official console)
I'm so ordering 100 gross...
Yes, I need that many...
and maybe a Balloon Safe pair of googles, because what happens when my enemies gets your balloon gyros.
Only underwater and in space, is the vacuum of suck, produced by Windows, useable to it's full potential.
Imagine if it's only a Rate Gyro Unit. They could have launched and their rate gyro might have been off.
Thank god to that engineer who figured out "let's have a Redundant Rate Gyro Unit".
The thing I don't understand is as long as it gets to outer space on the right course isn't that good enough? They arn't recovering the shuttle as this is going off into the far ether (well Mars far)
I got a COMPLETE copy of Mad Magazine once, and as I looked through it I laughed and, I showed my dad, who got me the gift, now he was a Mad fan from LONG ago before the magazine started going down hill (this was before they added needless color)
Anyways my dad said to me, that's nice you can see it all, but it doesn't have the same feeling. I of course laughed at it, but he continued about how he can't feel the page as you flip through it, everything is automated and so on.
Now my dad is a pretty technical guy, he loves his computer, he used to be a stock trader, this is a guy who is no computer newbie. However he was rejecting the format. And a couple weeks later I realized the same thing.
It's really the same with manga and e-books, I can read Dante's inferno on a computer, but with out holding a book in my hand it feels unreal, and phony, I don't feel the same. It is cheaper to make an E-book but it just doesn't work in the same way as a real book, where you're careful with the pages, you can feel the weight, and each word feels tailored to you.
This might work for the cheapest of all parents or for a class where you really don't need the book, but personally I'm glad I have the source material for my entire life for some of my C++ classes,and wish I had the Java source book we had (I didn't need it really, everything for java was on the web)
Personally I'll take a real book EVERY time, I don't care what people think.
If we look at a dog in the first year of his life, we see fast growth. That's what we have here. Using the same math, you'll have a 50 foot dog in about 10 years, depending on breeds.
:P)
I look at my 10 year old "puppy" (shih Tzu) and I see while the growth continued though decreasing in speed, for the second year, it plateaued there, That's the same as every single real dog (they reach full height in 2 years which is why some rules for dog's age call them 25 after 2 years (15 after the first because they are sexually ready to make babies) and then add 5 years for every year after the second year)
Now this is the type of math that reality uses, however every time I hear a "study" I hear someone studying something for X years,and using that data for two times the study length. THat'd work if we lived in a test tube but if anyone notices stuff is NOT in a vacuum, fads change, there's been a plethora of MMORPGs recently. I believe we'll see at least a slow down in growth soon.
I just wanted to meantion the fact that "predictions" such as these, don't have any basis in fact most of the time. I'm sure this guy might be knowledgable but there's a limit to growth and a limit to trends.
So class: I watched my soda recently, and noticed I drank half of the can in 10 minutes, and another half in 10 more minutes. By this trend how much will I have drank in 1 hour? (Answer: I already drank the rest of my soda while asking this
All someone has to do is say "China is building space weapons" and we'll make it a priority.. The one thing in the arms race is that you don't want the other guy to get something you don't have.
However the actual use of a space weapon shouldn't be what most people think. A space weapon aimed at earth would be aweful, and devistating, however what if that same weapon instead is ready for stuff from outer space, not necessarily alien life, but other objects.
No one can deny there's asteroids out there, and no one can deny that Earth will never be hit by a single asteroid but the question is how much damage will they do, most do none, but consider how long it's taking SETI to search the skies WITH HELP! Notice how often the views of the immediate area of our universe has changed.
Now the question is this, how do we know there's no possibility that there's an asteroid aimed at earth. The bigger question is how long will we have from discovery to impact. The answer is not long. I'd guess in the neighborhood of a month if we're unlucky. A weapon will need to be tested, we can't just send up 100 shuttles, we've seen that the shuttles aren't ready for a launch at a moment. This one was pretty dangerous.
So I say we need a weapon capable of defending earth from what ever comes at us from the cosmos, but what's important here is it's Earth's weapon, like the ISS we need to work together to get it ready and active. We'll need a small test and if possible a large test, but if we act like we won't need it, when we need it, it'll be too late.
What are they going to do next? I mean android girl, (well the upper half of her) Robot who catches balls. When are they going to get around to the serious matters?
And by that I mean anti Godzilla measures? Seriously they can't afford to rebuild Tokyo every time a Sci Fi Director gets a whim to redo Godzilla can they? I say NAY! We must stop the green lizard as soon as possible, and his friend Monthra, let's see some Mecha people.
I personally can't take this article seriously but it's because I'm a thinking man.
The biggest problem is that to the Muslims who run al Qaeda (notice no u, just meantioning) America is "evil" and "the devil". Why would they run laptops with what? linux? or Windows on it? I have to say something is odd here, either they don't use computers (yeah right, in this world?) or they don't believe what they speak (almost definatly.)
I admit that it belongs here. But there's one other problem. This is NOT new news. They meantion it in 2001 I remember stories in late 2001 after the attacks about how they were on the internet and stuff, it's good a new story came out, but let's realize that this isn't a unique story that JUST came out. The fact that The Washington Post just came out with it, might say more for the quality of their news papers then anything.
Consider OpenGL is an open format, that anyone can use, why would Microsoft allow a "lowly" format to compete and get the same or better results with it's DirectX? I mean they invested millions into it.
It's just another way Microsoft will continue to play "fairly" ("oh we'll let IE7 conform to standards sure they will... but it won't conform to acid test or that like")
Honestly it's just another step in distancing Windows from the rest of the OSes, so Microsoft can get monopolies everywhere, or have their own propietary software for everything.
Even something like the Intel DRM chips are making Microsoft get a chance to have their own computers somewhere down the lines, who knows what they will do next, because they just seem to want to forge their own pathes.