I've already read several of J.A. Konrath's books on my Kindle. He is a great writer and I'm sure this new book is worth more than $2.99. I just went to Amazon and pre-ordered it.
Re:Really not that bad
on
Lair Review
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· Score: 0
I wondered the same thing. The controls worked fine for me.
Maybe a lot of people got defective controllers.
Another possibility is that you aren't controlling the dragon directly. You are giving commands to the dragon rider who then gives commands to the dragon so there is a slight delay. Horse riding in "Two Worlds" on the 360 works the same way and a lot of people complained about that.
I purchased the component cable for the Wii at the same time I got the Wii. I never even tried it with the cable included with the Wii. I set the Wii to 480p output. Like I said, compared to the 360 and the PS3, the Wii graphics look like crap. A last gen system.
The HD-TV is a Samsung 56 inch 1080p DLP, model HL-T5676S. I have the Wii, a 360 purchased in December 2005 that is still working great and the 60 GB model of the PS3.
The 360 is connected with a VGA cable and the PS3 with an HDMI cable. Both are set to 1080p output.
The Wii has an interesting controller that was fun for several days, but since then I haven't even turned it on.
The Wii controller was a good idea, not supporting HD-TV was a bad idea.
The Wii graphics in "The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess" and "Resident Evil 4" look like crap on a 56 inch HD-TV. The novelty of the controller is not enough to overcome the ugly graphics so I won't be buying any more games for it.
If Nintendo wants to sell me any more games, they need to release a Wii that supports HD-TV. I got spoiled by the great graphics from the 360 and the PS3.
Maybe this idea came from a Linux "sleeper agent" inside Microsoft?
What better way to piss off your customers than forcing them to view adds from the OS? This will be great "advertising" for Linux if they are dumb enough to implement it.
What is going to hurt is when I need to find information about a problem with a Firebird database server at one of my customer sites and Google returns 20,000 hits about web browser issues.
The Mozilla team is polluting the GoogleSpace by choosing a name used by another open source software project.
Any reasonably skilled programmer needing to solve the same problem that is covered by a patent is likely to come up with a very similar algorithm to solve the same problem without ever having seen or heard about the patented algorithm.
Just because one person encountered the problem first should not entitle them to prevent others from solving the same problem in a similar fashion.
"Oh wait... I forgot, they don't make anything anymore..."
NCR makes proof machines, reader/sorter systems and imaging cameras that process all of the checks and deposits for a lot of banks. They also make some good solid UNIX boxes. I have always thought they were a good company.
This patent stunt has changed my mind.
I'll call all the NCR people I know tomorrow and tell them their company sucks now.
"Unfortunately, I believe my Win98 box with Zonealarm is probably more secure then my linux box at the moment."
If you want to keep everyone out, create a text file called fwscript with the following lines:
iptables -F
iptables -A INPUT -i ppp0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -j DROP
If you don't know how to add it to rc.local, when you boot your machine, log in as root and type sh fwscript. Or do a chmod +x on the file and you can leave out the sh.
The -F command flushes everything. The next line says to drop all new or invalid connections coming in over your ppp0. If you don't have a dial up, change the ppp0 to eth0 or whatever you are connecting to the internet with.
"The band gets cues off of each other when they are playing live. When you separate them out, the body-language cues are gone, the band looses the "vibe" and "energy" they get when they are playing live"
That is the reason for recording the reference track. If they can't play without the others, let them all listen on headphones and play along with the recorded reference track. Turn off the inputs for everyone except the one you are recording.
"That does not give you the mass necessary to actually block outside sounds. Much of the new home studio equipment is 24bit/96khz with a dynamic range. What you propose might work fine for recording a punk band that is not using the lower end of the dynamic range possible."
You are right. If you are in the middle of a big noisy city, it won't do the trick for keeping outside sounds out. I live out in the country and there aren't any outside sounds to block. The styrofoam and carpet is to make it possible to get decent sound when recording drums. I should have been more specific.
"About the only thing with all-accoustic recording @home (even if you have great resonance in the room being used) is that it can still have difficulties in the mixdown -- instruments will tend to cross over from one mic to the next ("Drum microphones record everything""
To get the best quality, you just record one instrument or vocal part at a time. First record the whole group on one track. That is your reference track. Then have each person play their part alone (while listening to the reference track through headphones) and put that on a track by itself. For mixdown you discard the reference track and have complete control over each track with no crossover.
"Windows doesn't need me to tell it how many megs of RAM my video card has, or how many lines of resolution my monitor has (vertical and horizontal) in order to run."
It sounds like it has been a while since you tried installing a version of Linux. Either that or you have some really unusual hardware.
"... only Mandrake would run X-windows on my system. Even then it is clunky in its feel compared to MS."
I use Win2K for work now. I will agree that it is the best version of windows. I also use Linux mainly with KDE 2. I would really like to know what you consider to be clunky about X-windows on Linux. Have you looked at it in the last year or so?
"TCP/IP being the only new technology added to the kernel. The average Linux/*BSD hacker would feel at home on a box running V7 UNIX."
What new technology do you think should have been added that hasn't? I assume you are saying that a Linux/*BSD hacker being at home with V7 UNIX is necessarily a bad thing. I don't understand where you get that idea.
If something is not broken, there is no need to fix it. We have nice new GUI's to run on top of Linux / *BSD now. That does not mean that the underlying OS is bad simply because it was designed several years back.
"We've heard a lot in the media the past couple weeks about how voting should be like an ATM machine.
But is this the case. Do you trust technology enough to have a paperless system?"
In case you didn't know it, there is a paper trail on all ATM transactions. There is a printer either inside the ATM or inside the closest bank branch that records every transaction. Also the ATM prints a receipt for the user.
The same type setup could be used to record votes. Mail every registered voter an ATM style card that can only be used once and then captured by the machine. It would be very easy to program ATM's for this behavior.
"Either way, I'm seriously thinking of emigrating from America; this place is going fascist."
I've been thinking the same thing. The question is where to go? What countries have low taxes and don't try to interfere with every aspect of citizens' lives?
Slashdot Mirror
I live in a small town. Population around 2,800. We have 25mb DSL here that works very well.
Delphi. There is still nothing better.
Delphi and C# both have variable types for handling financial calculations. Delphi uses the "currency" type and C# uses the "decimal" type.
I've already read several of J.A. Konrath's books on my Kindle. He is a great writer and I'm sure this new book is worth more than $2.99. I just went to Amazon and pre-ordered it.
I wondered the same thing. The controls worked fine for me.
Maybe a lot of people got defective controllers.
Another possibility is that you aren't controlling the dragon directly. You are giving commands to the dragon rider who then gives commands to the dragon so there is a slight delay. Horse riding in "Two Worlds" on the 360 works the same way and a lot of people complained about that.
I purchased the component cable for the Wii at the same time I got the Wii. I never even tried it with the cable included with the Wii. I set the Wii to 480p output. Like I said, compared to the 360 and the PS3, the Wii graphics look like crap. A last gen system.
The HD-TV is a Samsung 56 inch 1080p DLP, model HL-T5676S. I have the Wii, a 360 purchased in December 2005 that is still working great and the 60 GB model of the PS3.
The 360 is connected with a VGA cable and the PS3 with an HDMI cable. Both are set to 1080p output.
The Wii has an interesting controller that was fun for several days, but since then I haven't even turned it on.
The Wii controller was a good idea, not supporting HD-TV was a bad idea.
The Wii graphics in "The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess" and "Resident Evil 4" look like crap on a 56 inch HD-TV. The novelty of the controller is not enough to overcome the ugly graphics so I won't be buying any more games for it.
If Nintendo wants to sell me any more games, they need to release a Wii that supports HD-TV. I got spoiled by the great graphics from the 360 and the PS3.
Libertarian: Keep the democrats out of our pockets and the republicans out of our bedrooms
Maybe this idea came from a Linux "sleeper agent" inside Microsoft?
What better way to piss off your customers than forcing them to view adds from the OS? This will be great "advertising" for Linux if they are dumb enough to implement it.
Go for it Microsoft.
Can't forget about COBOL's version:
GOTO PROC1, PROC2, PROC3 DEPENDING ON VAL1.
Or writing statements like:
INSPECT LINEIN REPLACING GARBAGE BY VALID-DATA.
(I hate COBOL)
"Then my buddy makes me chase the OTHER mole around for 30 minutes instead of killing it so he could "score some pussy"."
That is sad.
Tell him human females are much better. A mole would be too small anyway.
"On the flipside, what's good for catching moles? I tried cheese and peanut butter and a few leafy greens, no luck."
For gophers and moles you have to use dynamite.
What is going to hurt is when I need to find information about a problem with a Firebird database server at one of my customer sites and Google returns 20,000 hits about web browser issues.
The Mozilla team is polluting the GoogleSpace by choosing a name used by another open source software project.
"As to attesting to spending money, I have probably put in close to 45k into my system."
Are you crazy? Do you realize how much computer equipment you could have bought for that?
Oh well, I bet your mp3's sound pretty good on it.
Any reasonably skilled programmer needing to solve the same problem that is covered by a patent is likely to come up with a very similar algorithm to solve the same problem without ever having seen or heard about the patented algorithm.
Just because one person encountered the problem first should not entitle them to prevent others from solving the same problem in a similar fashion.
"Oh wait... I forgot, they don't make anything anymore..."
NCR makes proof machines, reader/sorter systems and imaging cameras that process all of the checks and deposits for a lot of banks. They also make some good solid UNIX boxes. I have always thought they were a good company.
This patent stunt has changed my mind.
I'll call all the NCR people I know tomorrow and tell them their company sucks now.
"Unfortunately, I believe my Win98 box with Zonealarm is probably more secure then my linux box at the moment."
If you want to keep everyone out, create a text file called fwscript with the following lines:
iptables -F
iptables -A INPUT -i ppp0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -j DROP
If you don't know how to add it to rc.local, when you boot your machine, log in as root and type sh fwscript. Or do a chmod +x on the file and you can leave out the sh.
The -F command flushes everything. The next line says to drop all new or invalid connections coming in over your ppp0. If you don't have a dial up, change the ppp0 to eth0 or whatever you are connecting to the internet with.
"The band gets cues off of each other when they are playing live. When you separate them out, the body-language cues are gone, the band looses the "vibe" and "energy" they get when they are playing live"
That is the reason for recording the reference track. If they can't play without the others, let them all listen on headphones and play along with the recorded reference track. Turn off the inputs for everyone except the one you are recording.
"That does not give you the mass necessary to actually block outside sounds. Much of the new home studio equipment is 24bit/96khz with a dynamic range. What you propose might work fine for recording a punk band that is not using the lower end of the dynamic range possible."
You are right. If you are in the middle of a big noisy city, it won't do the trick for keeping outside sounds out. I live out in the country and there aren't any outside sounds to block. The styrofoam and carpet is to make it possible to get decent sound when recording drums. I should have been more specific.
"About the only thing with all-accoustic recording @home (even if you have great resonance in the room being used) is that it can still have difficulties in the mixdown -- instruments will tend to cross over from one mic to the next ("Drum microphones record everything""
To get the best quality, you just record one instrument or vocal part at a time. First record the whole group on one track. That is your reference track. Then have each person play their part alone (while listening to the reference track through headphones) and put that on a track by itself. For mixdown you discard the reference track and have complete control over each track with no crossover.
"The most expensive part of a recording studio is a good sounding room...And don't even think of recording drums in most rooms."
This is not that expensive. Put 1/2" styrofoam on the walls and then cover that with carpet scraps.
"Windows doesn't need me to tell it how many megs of RAM my video card has, or how many lines of resolution my monitor has (vertical and horizontal) in order to run."
It sounds like it has been a while since you tried installing a version of Linux. Either that or you have some really unusual hardware.
"... only Mandrake would run X-windows on my system. Even then it is clunky in its feel compared to MS."
I use Win2K for work now. I will agree that it is the best version of windows. I also use Linux mainly with KDE 2. I would really like to know what you consider to be clunky about X-windows on Linux. Have you looked at it in the last year or so?
"UNIX sucks."
In what way do you think UNIX sucks?
"TCP/IP being the only new technology added to the kernel. The average Linux/*BSD hacker would feel at home on a box running V7 UNIX."
What new technology do you think should have been added that hasn't? I assume you are saying that a Linux/*BSD hacker being at home with V7 UNIX is necessarily a bad thing. I don't understand where you get that idea.
If something is not broken, there is no need to fix it. We have nice new GUI's to run on top of Linux / *BSD now. That does not mean that the underlying OS is bad simply because it was designed several years back.
"We've heard a lot in the media the past couple weeks about how voting should be like an ATM machine.
But is this the case. Do you trust technology enough to have a paperless system?"
In case you didn't know it, there is a paper trail on all ATM transactions. There is a printer either inside the ATM or inside the closest bank branch that records every transaction. Also the ATM prints a receipt for the user.
The same type setup could be used to record votes. Mail every registered voter an ATM style card that can only be used once and then captured by the machine. It would be very easy to program ATM's for this behavior.
"Either way, I'm seriously thinking of emigrating from America; this place is going fascist."
I've been thinking the same thing. The question is where to go? What countries have low taxes and don't try to interfere with every aspect of citizens' lives?
Like the U.S. used to be.