I feel exactly like this guy. I have been using our old Pentium Pro 200 with minor upgrades and it still rocks (plays Halflife without a glitch...because of the Voodoo2 card). I'm of course not a hardcore gamer and I don't mind the low FPS rates as long as it looks okay.
I do an occasional Raytrace, but really...waiting 20 minutes longer is not an issue. For the rest all my processorpower is donated to Seti@Home.
A long time ago, I was always willing to put down a lot of cash for the latest, newest, fastest and even professional hardware. The motto was, "if the stores have 8Meg RAM standard, I will need 16 or 32", oh, and not to forget the biggest harddisk (in SCSI of course) and the biggest and meanest CPU. But now look: under my desk stands a stock consumer PC, staight from a computer super store. I don't need more...in fact the screen was more expensive than the computer itself. There are two possibilities:
We need a real killer-ap to kill off al PC's that are older than 3 years or
I'm getting old, and the magic has disappeared for me.
Whatever it is....if I need a new computer, it will be because of some stupid outage. (Yes, the PPro is dying: the alimentation is getting old, and just try to find an AT alimentation these days)
Now, sorry to burst your bubble...but banks are the most conservative in the IT world. A lot of banks still work with old IBM mainframes like the IBM AS/400. I've also seen HP and Sun unices, but I don't know for sure they are for core functionality (often running Oracle or Sybase databases that support the core) I've *never* seen a core functionality of a bank running on anything else. M$ is okay for desktop and fileserver/printserver eventually. Oh, and a lot of banks use SAMBA (yes that is OpenSource) to communicate between the NT (secured) desktops and the Unix servers. Linux/*BSD is rarely seen in banks.
I know, I worked for a lot of banks (as IT consultant).
With the possible exception of Joe Bob's account
No, even that is no exception...Think of it: Joe Bob puts it on his saving account and the bank will use it to invest (=go back into economy) so that it can pay Bob's low interest plus make some profit. Of course if Joe Bob keeps his savings in a sock, then my argument is null and void.:-)
Yes, and as most people know it covers a big deal of the production costs...so that your fancy magazine only costs about 3$ instead of 6$. So Yorrike was right stating that he wants the price down then.
Whether the average Joe would actually run these services on his home PC is a totally different matter.
Don't get me wrong, but just bundle such services with the latest version of Windows and turn them "on" by default. That's how a lot of things considered "standard on a PC" became "standard". The Joe User won't even notice. Actually, be honest: Linux distribs do this all the time too, I yet have to see a Linux distribution that doesn't come with a webserver enabled by default (Even the small 150 Meg distrib I use has one in it, which I disabled of course).
Actually you shoudn't complain too hard. Your high school day were way more computer tolerant than mine. In 1994 a computer was already an accepted "must-have" for any household. People didn't look weird when you said you liked to play computer games, but told you about that great Playstation game they saw. In 1994, the internet was just before it's explosion which is actually due to the high saturation of PC's in households.
I just started my Computer Science study back in that time, and I can assure you that when I was 13 (that's 1989) the reaction to computer-savvy people at high school was just downright hostile. You just did "weird" things that nobody understood and you were hated for it. Try to get socially accepted if you're hated... Now, don't get me wrong: I talk about my peers at that time, not about the teachers who were generally understanding and wanted to *learn* (Imagine that!) Guess I was just lucky.
Now back to today, the situation for people like us has changed even more drastically. Note that I only know high school life trought the things my sister told me. It seems that computer-savvy people are now accepted and respected. There is much less fear of "the unknown" because a computer is "not so unknown" anymore. Just try to imagine a high school *without* a computer lab. It's even hard to imagine it without internet connection! I don't know why exactly "knowing about computers" has become accepted, it may be due to media coverage, it may be due to the fact everyone seems to have one, it may because certain software has become easy-to-use, or just because computer knowlegde means future wealth, it may be due to anything...
Please, don't flame me because you think I'm wrong, but feel free to give me different facts. I just tried to present the facts I know about my European situation (in a county considered wealthy). Of course I realise this might be localised and that schools over at the US, Pakistan and Zimbabwe may be completely different.
Yes, people want archives of the "great stories of mankind", but don't you think that writing is not needed for this. Don't forget that many popular tales and myths were propagated through the centuries (and altered, I agree) merely by verbal communication.
As for the input method: it's all a matter of training. This weekend I had the occasion of trying a pen as input device (my uncle is an artist and well, you know Mac + Pen-Input is his thing). Honestly: he had to explain it to me how to use it (the pad is the monitor...), I still wanted to use it as a mouse. For me it was very difficult....I still did the movements I was used from using a mouse which is clearly not the idea.
Oh, and to end in beauty with a quote (contradicting yours, sorry):
"For millions of years mankind lived just like animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. -- Pink Floyd / Division Bell / Keep Talking
Actually I knew it was a reference to a text adventure, but I do not know which one. I didn't have the occasion playing it. Your post fitted very well with the description of the souls and fractals thing in the article and that's what it made funny. Too bad the moderators didn't agree, it has cost me some karma, but what the heck...it was worth it:-)
Tough I love my father and mother, we don't celebrate Mothers or Fathers day. Actually I don't even know what day of the year it is. Even worse, as far as I can recall the exact day is different according to the country. I'm a Belgian living in Luxembourg and I can assure you that fathers day is not on the same day in those two countries. I think in Belgium it is on St. Joseph and in Luxembourg it is not (or inversely).
Oh, and if you didn't know, consider Labour Day. It is different according to the country you live...here it is 1st May, while in the US it is not. (Forgot the actual date).
Really, you need some better argumentation to convince me....but then you're an AC, so why do I care (...yes, I'm bored right now, that's probably the cause)
Forced obsolence of older programs sucks! M$ pulls this crap with DirectX as well.
Luckily I'm not a big gamer, but last time I played a game it had DirectX bundeled on the CD. Don't they do that anymore? Besides, it's not only Microsoft that is guilty on those stubs-installers: you get them about everywhere now (Netscape, Quicktime,...) with no alternative or a hard to find alternative. I still do not understand why anyone would prefer to install directly from the internet. I have FTP to download, and then I install. I guess I'm just too old for those new fancy 'stub' thingies;-)
I install programs onto drive P:, my data on Drive D:, cdrom R: cd-burner W:, virtual cdrom V:. When I get a system crash, I only need to restore drive D, since the rest can be restored via installs.
Well not exactly in that drive order, but technically I do the same. You learn such things pretty fast if you had some nice data-losses due to system crashes. And with hacking the registry, it is very easy to move those annoying things like "My Documents" to an better suited drive. (It isn't even called "My Documents" anymore on my systems) Actually I use C: for "operating-system-only", that is: WinNT + drivers. I alread had it crash upon me and except other microsoft products, most applics on my applic disk still worked after a clean install. (Eudora, Netscape, Halflife, Unreal and others) I had just to create the shortcut in the start-menu/desktop.
Feel free to give me a link where I can download IE4 (and or IE5). I don't use IE (except at work...company policy), but it could be usefull for helping other people. (Think older machine with 95 + IE 4 and/or IE 5 )
Of course you can find 99b....it's just getting harder and harder each day. I think it is worth the trouble because I don't want to deal with 2000b. Call me conservative/retro if you want.
And the contraditory thing was a joke: It's my job, I'm a Java/C++ programmer myself, but not fresh out college anymore. I try to deliver quality products but as soon as you get crappy analysis, time-limitations, marketing-people and/or users on your back the probability that you deliver "real" quality gets stunningly low.
If you want, I'll be happy to give you a copy of the old "99b". I could put it up to my xdrive if you want. Just drop me a email. Of course you are right that they should continue providing quality software, but hey... nowadays quality and software are two contradictory terms. Besides, I agree we need a open standard for instant messaging....making one is easy (well...) but the problem is converting the existing userbase.
For the NAT part you are completely right: I have a small network at home (5 computers) with a NAT server. About 9/10 times file transfers fail. I don't really care, because mostly it's for pics and I really do not need to know how random people look like;-) Besides, they should just make a homepage, it's not that hard. Sometimes it helps to turn of the firewall part in my NAT, but that's more the exception than the rule. Hey, if anyone knows a fix to the NAT trouble feel free to post it!
I don't know why, but I can tell you that I don't like it and refuse to comply. I think that one of the causes it that many many multinational companies have their origin in the United States and that of course the board of directors are Americans and have American views on "how things should be". You know a buzzword of some years ago was "globalization", I think Europe is victim of "globalized marketing".
As a small example: Halloween... Now, as a kid I didn't know it at all. Pumkins? That's good to make soup. Last autumn however (and slightly less the year before that) the shops displayed pumpkins, skeletons, witches and the like. Halloween parties were all over the place. Luckly we don't have the trick 'n treaters yet. (Actually in my country they do something alike on the 2nd february.)
To me this halloween crap sound exactly like the commercial pushing of Chrismas and Valentine's Day....nothing more nothing less.
I tell you, the day they introduce Thanksgiving around here, I'll be glad to volonteer as the turkey.... Moderators, this has become (Offtopic,-1) moderate as such.
I don't know which version of ICQ you use, but I have been sticking to version 99b since, well, since it came out. It is lightweight enough to be easily run on a P120-32RAM, a machine, which I often use for chatting. The version name doesn't imply it won't work on W2K or so, it works very fine. Yes, I know that ICQ99b still uses the old protocol and not the one used by AIM (OSCAR?)...but it still works.
I checked out version 2000 and dismissed it at once because of the bloat. I keep all programs I find usefull on a Archive CD: the day my PC goes down I only need an afternoon to have a fully usable/surfable computer with all my settings. ICQ 99b is part of that collection. The annoying thing with this approach is that more and more software comes out with those stupid stub-installers... I once wanted to installe IE4 for the Active Desktop (a client of me wanted it) and heck, no way to install it using the stubs...no more servers had it. *sigh*
Sorry for the rant....
Just because you're not getting paid to hype a product doesn't mean you aren't marketing it.:)
So, in a sense, we all here are marketing Linux? I mean, most of us praise the benefits of Linux but we don't get paid for doing that. The core difference between marketing people and fans is that marketing people coudn't care less for the quality of the product they sell. Fans on the other hand are convinced of the "quality" of the pruducts they praise. (Note with products I mean anything: an actor/actress can be a product too) I marked quality between quotes, because that is (just like beauty) in the eye of the beholder...otherwhise, please explain me all those Britney Spears fansites! Oh, they just might be fake of course;-)
Actually I think there are several types of Sim-players. They are not nessecary gender-based. I have the game installed on 3 out of 4 of our computers and me and my siblings all have their own village. I don't say we are the typical players, but judge for yourself:
My brother: he likes to model his Sims after himself. He cheats all the time and I think he kicks on some of the characters. I think he loves the control over these "virtual people". He only has two families. Oh, yes...he loved to make them suffer too. (Type I: control obsessive)
My sister: She tries to explore the different careers and lifestyles. Cheating is occasional, and only done to reach situations that would not be possible without temendous effort. Interestingly, her houses are all nicely designed... (Type II: Creative and explorative)
I don't play often myself...but I do not cheat and I try to manage several families in parallel. Needless to say that my village is quite poor. I love to fiddle with the social parts of the games, like starting fights, jealousy, love, and alternate relationships (lesbian/gay/groups of adults) etc... I really would like to understand the internal rules it follows. (Type III: Social experimenattion)
I am sure that my family does not cover all the type of players, but you can play The Sims in so many different way, with so many philosophical standpoints that it appeals to a broad public.
Small businesses and individuals are going to have to get used to hiring professional support to maintain their computers.
Well put! Why do people go to garages to maintain their cars, but don't ever hire someone to maintain their computer?
Laugh at me: but I helped tons of people by administering their machines....for the little price of 4 six-packs per consultation. I would have done it for free, but most people want to give you something for your trouble.
Actually, where I live I have seen computer-troubleshooting companies for the case individuals have got problems with their computer. (Actually I think it is too late by then...a properly maintained computer has no problems.) I don't know what they are worth, but it seems to be working out quite well since they still are in bussiness. Not everyone seems to know a nerd to help them, it seems.
Besides, I think that using a computer is like driving a car...you need a minimal training to know what you are doing. (Don't flame me about people-safety: I know that badly using a computer can't hurt people, but badly using a car can...) Training complete newbies is very hard: I started to teach my mother, who never touched a computer in the past 50 years, to email with Eudora. Working with the mouse/keyboard all together causes great problems to her. I can imagine she is not the only one out there.
You scared me there! Really you did! I know you meant it funny, but your expression "Your Honor, we were just trying to innovate Linux" is pretty insightful. Everybody can change and fit Linux to his needs, everybody...including Microsoft. I don't mean it in the typical "MS Linux Distribution" sense. As history have shown, their power is large enough to corrupt anything they touch. Now imagine their hypothetical.NET implementation would require some weird configuration file that introduce something like the registry into Linux. (For example a close-source deamon that provides registry services). They would quicky make any Linux distribution nearly dependent on that fact because their software woudn't run on a Linux distribution without it.
Now I know most of you say: I don't care, I won't use it. That is not the point, the people above you will tell you: Look, you always spoke for Linux, now we - because Microsoft is into it too - will use it. Here you go, your beloved Linux will be where you want it to be, but will be controlled by the goodwill of Microsoft. ...the worst part is, they could call it 'innovate' and get away with it. Besides, who is going to defend Linux in a court? RedHat? SuSE? VA, the Free Software Foundation? An association of the whole bunch? (sounds like a cartel then) Even if there are people who will stand up to Microsoft, the few funds that they can raise compared to the cash Microsoft can burn will be gone as fast as my Karma for stating this.
Now, I know the original poster meant hybrid cars and even then, we should compare the usage in power consumption, since you can convert the power usage of a fuel car into kWh. (1 kW = 0.75533 HP if I recall well)
A lesser known point is that electric cars do use fuel for the heating system. Why? Because the strain of the heating would drain the batteries in no time. The Peugeot 106 Electrique does at least, tough it is not mentioned in the datasheet (I tried to link it directly, but it didn't work). I don't know for sure for other electric cars.
it starts with an "age verification" quiz
Pinks away tear... Oh, I fondly remember that one when I was 12 and tried to pass it! I didn't understand (my english wasn't very good at that age) most of the questions and wrote them down as they passe, together with the answer I gave. I think I passed more than 4 hours before getting through it. Later somebody told me about Alt-X which skips the quizzie.
Years later, I tried the game again and I also played the quiz again: I knew most of the answers. More mature? Better understanding of the language? Go figure...but it still stays fun.
You don't need to buy one...look around!
on
Leisure Suit Unix
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· Score: 1
Hey, you don't need to buy one, just be sure to look around carefully. This weekend a friend of my sister was cleaning his basement and he found an old C64...He was going to *throw it away*, geez! For most people such old hardware has no value, not even historical one. Now I own my very own C64 with tapedrive and diskettedrive!
Yes, I should get a life instead of getting all excited about old machines. I own a Sinclair QL too, and an Atari Portfolio (granddad of all palmtops, it's display is broken tough).
Heck you are right, I spoiled hours and hours of my time on Railroad Tycoon, as well as on Civilisation (the original one)...I sometimes play them if nostalgy befalls upon me. The high-res version of RT just plain sucked. There is another older game you ought to play if you liked Railroad Tycoon: Transportation Tycoon (Also from MPS). It's cool, nice graphics, lot's of posibilities.
Go to their website, they have patches available to make it run on NT (I tried, it works). If you don't find them: email me, I'll send them to you (I have them archived somewhere). Of course, you figured out that my domain name is reversed.
Ehm, well I must be part of the 1% you mention then. The day I got my first laptop with TFT (must be about 8 years ago, not sure) I always have sworn by TFT. Now that I became more "sedentary", I bought a nice 15" flatscreen for my desktop. Agreed, it costed more than the box itself but I do care about my eyes.
At work I have one of those nice 19" aquariums to develop on... If I look around me: heck, I see 7 developers here that have such a screen. I saw dozens of flatscreens here in the company, on places where no customer should ever come. Guess they care about our health around here.;-)
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I do an occasional Raytrace, but really...waiting 20 minutes longer is not an issue. For the rest all my processorpower is donated to Seti@Home.
A long time ago, I was always willing to put down a lot of cash for the latest, newest, fastest and even professional hardware. The motto was, "if the stores have 8Meg RAM standard, I will need 16 or 32", oh, and not to forget the biggest harddisk (in SCSI of course) and the biggest and meanest CPU. But now look: under my desk stands a stock consumer PC, staight from a computer super store. I don't need more...in fact the screen was more expensive than the computer itself. There are two possibilities:
- We need a real killer-ap to kill off al PC's that are older than 3 years or
- I'm getting old, and the magic has disappeared for me.
Whatever it is....if I need a new computer, it will be because of some stupid outage. (Yes, the PPro is dying: the alimentation is getting old, and just try to find an AT alimentation these days)Now, sorry to burst your bubble...but banks are the most conservative in the IT world. A lot of banks still work with old IBM mainframes like the IBM AS/400. I've also seen HP and Sun unices, but I don't know for sure they are for core functionality (often running Oracle or Sybase databases that support the core) I've *never* seen a core functionality of a bank running on anything else. M$ is okay for desktop and fileserver/printserver eventually. Oh, and a lot of banks use SAMBA (yes that is OpenSource) to communicate between the NT (secured) desktops and the Unix servers. Linux/*BSD is rarely seen in banks.
I know, I worked for a lot of banks (as IT consultant).
With the possible exception of Joe Bob's account :-)
No, even that is no exception...Think of it: Joe Bob puts it on his saving account and the bank will use it to invest (=go back into economy) so that it can pay Bob's low interest plus make some profit.
Of course if Joe Bob keeps his savings in a sock, then my argument is null and void.
Yes, and as most people know it covers a big deal of the production costs...so that your fancy magazine only costs about 3$ instead of 6$.
So Yorrike was right stating that he wants the price down then.
Don't get me wrong, but just bundle such services with the latest version of Windows and turn them "on" by default. That's how a lot of things considered "standard on a PC" became "standard". The Joe User won't even notice.
Actually, be honest: Linux distribs do this all the time too, I yet have to see a Linux distribution that doesn't come with a webserver enabled by default (Even the small 150 Meg distrib I use has one in it, which I disabled of course).
I just started my Computer Science study back in that time, and I can assure you that when I was 13 (that's 1989) the reaction to computer-savvy people at high school was just downright hostile. You just did "weird" things that nobody understood and you were hated for it. Try to get socially accepted if you're hated... Now, don't get me wrong: I talk about my peers at that time, not about the teachers who were generally understanding and wanted to *learn* (Imagine that!) Guess I was just lucky.
Now back to today, the situation for people like us has changed even more drastically. Note that I only know high school life trought the things my sister told me. It seems that computer-savvy people are now accepted and respected. There is much less fear of "the unknown" because a computer is "not so unknown" anymore. Just try to imagine a high school *without* a computer lab. It's even hard to imagine it without internet connection! I don't know why exactly "knowing about computers" has become accepted, it may be due to media coverage, it may be due to the fact everyone seems to have one, it may because certain software has become easy-to-use, or just because computer knowlegde means future wealth, it may be due to anything...
Please, don't flame me because you think I'm wrong, but feel free to give me different facts. I just tried to present the facts I know about my European situation (in a county considered wealthy). Of course I realise this might be localised and that schools over at the US, Pakistan and Zimbabwe may be completely different.
As for the input method: it's all a matter of training. This weekend I had the occasion of trying a pen as input device (my uncle is an artist and well, you know Mac + Pen-Input is his thing). Honestly: he had to explain it to me how to use it (the pad is the monitor...), I still wanted to use it as a mouse. For me it was very difficult....I still did the movements I was used from using a mouse which is clearly not the idea.
Oh, and to end in beauty with a quote (contradicting yours, sorry):
"For millions of years mankind lived just like animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. -- Pink Floyd / Division Bell / Keep Talking
Actually I knew it was a reference to a text adventure, but I do not know which one. I didn't have the occasion playing it. Your post fitted very well with the description of the souls and fractals thing in the article and that's what it made funny. Too bad the moderators didn't agree, it has cost me some karma, but what the heck...it was worth it :-)
Actually I don't even know what day of the year it is. Even worse, as far as I can recall the exact day is different according to the country. I'm a Belgian living in Luxembourg and I can assure you that fathers day is not on the same day in those two countries. I think in Belgium it is on St. Joseph and in Luxembourg it is not (or inversely).
Oh, and if you didn't know, consider Labour Day. It is different according to the country you live...here it is 1st May, while in the US it is not. (Forgot the actual date).
Really, you need some better argumentation to convince me....but then you're an AC, so why do I care (...yes, I'm bored right now, that's probably the cause)
Luckily I'm not a big gamer, but last time I played a game it had DirectX bundeled on the CD. Don't they do that anymore? Besides, it's not only Microsoft that is guilty on those stubs-installers: you get them about everywhere now (Netscape, Quicktime,...) with no alternative or a hard to find alternative. ;-)
I still do not understand why anyone would prefer to install directly from the internet. I have FTP to download, and then I install. I guess I'm just too old for those new fancy 'stub' thingies
I install programs onto drive P:, my data on Drive D:, cdrom R: cd-burner W:, virtual cdrom V:. When I get a system crash, I only need to restore drive D, since the rest can be restored via installs.
Well not exactly in that drive order, but technically I do the same. You learn such things pretty fast if you had some nice data-losses due to system crashes. And with hacking the registry, it is very easy to move those annoying things like "My Documents" to an better suited drive. (It isn't even called "My Documents" anymore on my systems) Actually I use C: for "operating-system-only", that is: WinNT + drivers. I alread had it crash upon me and except other microsoft products, most applics on my applic disk still worked after a clean install. (Eudora, Netscape, Halflife, Unreal and others) I had just to create the shortcut in the start-menu/desktop.
Feel free to give me a link where I can download IE4 (and or IE5). I don't use IE (except at work...company policy), but it could be usefull for helping other people. (Think older machine with 95 + IE 4 and/or IE 5 )
Of course you can find 99b....it's just getting harder and harder each day. I think it is worth the trouble because I don't want to deal with 2000b. Call me conservative/retro if you want.
And the contraditory thing was a joke: It's my job, I'm a Java/C++ programmer myself, but not fresh out college anymore. I try to deliver quality products but as soon as you get crappy analysis, time-limitations, marketing-people and/or users on your back the probability that you deliver "real" quality gets stunningly low.
For the NAT part you are completely right: I have a small network at home (5 computers) with a NAT server. About 9/10 times file transfers fail. I don't really care, because mostly it's for pics and I really do not need to know how random people look like ;-) Besides, they should just make a homepage, it's not that hard.
Sometimes it helps to turn of the firewall part in my NAT, but that's more the exception than the rule. Hey, if anyone knows a fix to the NAT trouble feel free to post it!
I think that one of the causes it that many many multinational companies have their origin in the United States and that of course the board of directors are Americans and have American views on "how things should be". You know a buzzword of some years ago was "globalization", I think Europe is victim of "globalized marketing".
As a small example: Halloween... Now, as a kid I didn't know it at all. Pumkins? That's good to make soup. Last autumn however (and slightly less the year before that) the shops displayed pumpkins, skeletons, witches and the like. Halloween parties were all over the place. Luckly we don't have the trick 'n treaters yet. (Actually in my country they do something alike on the 2nd february.)
To me this halloween crap sound exactly like the commercial pushing of Chrismas and Valentine's Day....nothing more nothing less.
I tell you, the day they introduce Thanksgiving around here, I'll be glad to volonteer as the turkey....
Moderators, this has become (Offtopic,-1) moderate as such.
I checked out version 2000 and dismissed it at once because of the bloat. I keep all programs I find usefull on a Archive CD: the day my PC goes down I only need an afternoon to have a fully usable/surfable computer with all my settings. ICQ 99b is part of that collection. The annoying thing with this approach is that more and more software comes out with those stupid stub-installers... I once wanted to installe IE4 for the Active Desktop (a client of me wanted it) and heck, no way to install it using the stubs...no more servers had it. *sigh*
Sorry for the rant....
Has already been done: covered on /. ...Okay, I admit it: it's not a keg.
So, in a sense, we all here are marketing Linux? I mean, most of us praise the benefits of Linux but we don't get paid for doing that. ;-)
The core difference between marketing people and fans is that marketing people coudn't care less for the quality of the product they sell. Fans on the other hand are convinced of the "quality" of the pruducts they praise. (Note with products I mean anything: an actor/actress can be a product too) I marked quality between quotes, because that is (just like beauty) in the eye of the beholder...otherwhise, please explain me all those Britney Spears fansites! Oh, they just might be fake of course
- My brother: he likes to model his Sims after himself. He cheats all the time and I think he kicks on some of the characters. I think he loves the control over these "virtual people". He only has two families. Oh, yes...he loved to make them suffer too. (Type I: control obsessive)
- My sister: She tries to explore the different careers and lifestyles. Cheating is occasional, and only done to reach situations that would not be possible without temendous effort. Interestingly, her houses are all nicely designed... (Type II: Creative and explorative)
- I don't play often myself...but I do not cheat and I try to manage several families in parallel. Needless to say that my village is quite poor. I love to fiddle with the social parts of the games, like starting fights, jealousy, love, and alternate relationships (lesbian/gay/groups of adults) etc... I really would like to understand the internal rules it follows. (Type III: Social experimenattion)
I am sure that my family does not cover all the type of players, but you can play The Sims in so many different way, with so many philosophical standpoints that it appeals to a broad public.Well put! Why do people go to garages to maintain their cars, but don't ever hire someone to maintain their computer?
Laugh at me: but I helped tons of people by administering their machines....for the little price of 4 six-packs per consultation. I would have done it for free, but most people want to give you something for your trouble.
Actually, where I live I have seen computer-troubleshooting companies for the case individuals have got problems with their computer. (Actually I think it is too late by then...a properly maintained computer has no problems.) I don't know what they are worth, but it seems to be working out quite well since they still are in bussiness. Not everyone seems to know a nerd to help them, it seems.
Besides, I think that using a computer is like driving a car...you need a minimal training to know what you are doing. (Don't flame me about people-safety: I know that badly using a computer can't hurt people, but badly using a car can...) Training complete newbies is very hard: I started to teach my mother, who never touched a computer in the past 50 years, to email with Eudora. Working with the mouse/keyboard all together causes great problems to her. I can imagine she is not the only one out there.
You scared me there! Really you did! I know you meant it funny, but your expression "Your Honor, we were just trying to innovate Linux" is pretty insightful. Everybody can change and fit Linux to his needs, everybody...including Microsoft. I don't mean it in the typical "MS Linux Distribution" sense. As history have shown, their power is large enough to corrupt anything they touch. Now imagine their hypothetical .NET implementation would require some weird configuration file that introduce something like the registry into Linux. (For example a close-source deamon that provides registry services). They would quicky make any Linux distribution nearly dependent on that fact because their software woudn't run on a Linux distribution without it.
...the worst part is, they could call it 'innovate' and get away with it. Besides, who is going to defend Linux in a court? RedHat? SuSE? VA, the Free Software Foundation? An association of the whole bunch? (sounds like a cartel then) Even if there are people who will stand up to Microsoft, the few funds that they can raise compared to the cash Microsoft can burn will be gone as fast as my Karma for stating this.
Now I know most of you say: I don't care, I won't use it. That is not the point, the people above you will tell you: Look, you always spoke for Linux, now we - because Microsoft is into it too - will use it. Here you go, your beloved Linux will be where you want it to be, but will be controlled by the goodwill of Microsoft.
Now, I know the original poster meant hybrid cars and even then, we should compare the usage in power consumption, since you can convert the power usage of a fuel car into kWh. (1 kW = 0.75533 HP if I recall well)
A lesser known point is that electric cars do use fuel for the heating system. Why? Because the strain of the heating would drain the batteries in no time. The Peugeot 106 Electrique does at least, tough it is not mentioned in the datasheet (I tried to link it directly, but it didn't work). I don't know for sure for other electric cars.
it starts with an "age verification" quiz
Pinks away tear... Oh, I fondly remember that one when I was 12 and tried to pass it! I didn't understand (my english wasn't very good at that age) most of the questions and wrote them down as they passe, together with the answer I gave. I think I passed more than 4 hours before getting through it. Later somebody told me about Alt-X which skips the quizzie.
Years later, I tried the game again and I also played the quiz again: I knew most of the answers. More mature? Better understanding of the language? Go figure...but it still stays fun.
Hey, you don't need to buy one, just be sure to look around carefully. This weekend a friend of my sister was cleaning his basement and he found an old C64...He was going to *throw it away*, geez! For most people such old hardware has no value, not even historical one. Now I own my very own C64 with tapedrive and diskettedrive!
Yes, I should get a life instead of getting all excited about old machines. I own a Sinclair QL too, and an Atari Portfolio (granddad of all palmtops, it's display is broken tough).
Heck you are right, I spoiled hours and hours of my time on Railroad Tycoon, as well as on Civilisation (the original one)...I sometimes play them if nostalgy befalls upon me.
The high-res version of RT just plain sucked. There is another older game you ought to play if you liked Railroad Tycoon: Transportation Tycoon (Also from MPS). It's cool, nice graphics, lot's of posibilities.
Go to their website, they have patches available to make it run on NT (I tried, it works). If you don't find them: email me, I'll send them to you (I have them archived somewhere). Of course, you figured out that my domain name is reversed.
At work I have one of those nice 19" aquariums to develop on... If I look around me: heck, I see 7 developers here that have such a screen. I saw dozens of flatscreens here in the company, on places where no customer should ever come. Guess they care about our health around here. ;-)