We all get hung up on nostalgia, but lots of good cartoons are perfectly accessible via Netflix, Amazon on Demand, and PBS on Demand. I think that's the problem. It's just a sign of people moving away from network TV and soon cable as well. The Saturday morning cartoon is gone because all of the content has moved away from network TV to on-demand services.
We dumped our DirecTV after a 2 year contract last year. We use a Roku and have a Netflix and Hulu Plus account. I also had an Amazon Prime account so that automatically gives us the free streaming that was added last year. But the content is largely the same as Netflix so we only really use Amazon when we actually want to buy something. We also subscribe to Mog for music.
That's about $22 per month and we can watch or listen to as much as we like. That's about $100 less than I used to pay for a premium satellite package. When we want something random, I play music with the Pandora / Slacker / or Shoutcast channels. When I want news, I just put on Democracy Now.
But it isn't all perfect. You need to be willing to give up some of the benefits of cable / satellite and really learn how to make the most of the Roku. There will be shows that you might want to watch that (legally) will not be available for another year or so. There are a lot of streaming channels that you can't even use yet without a cable subscription (like HBO Go). Amid the myriad of crap that is on TV, there are a handful of shows that you might miss. Ultimately, they make it to Netflix or Hulu but you just have to wait it out.
That said, if you can dig through these streaming services, you will find things that you like. Many things that you might wonder why you hadn't seen them when they'd aired on TV. There is a lot of value in the current streaming offerings but there are still a lot of things that are missing. It will be a few years before streaming TV becomes the norm and people forget about cable completely.
If you can learn to live and watch TV in a different way that you have, then Roku (or similar) can be a great alternative to traditional cable or satellite. If you rely heavily on TV then you may be really disappointed. I've considered the cord-cutting experience to be somewhat life changing. We don't spend much time in front of the TV anymore. But we still generally find quality material to whatch when we do. It can take some adjustment and experiementation, but can be worthwhile and a substantial money-saver.
I tend to agree. Wasn't it painfully obvious to everyone that the Playstation 2, which was "15 times more powerful than any other console" was actually less powerful than the Dreamcast (from 1998)? What about the X-Box? It's arguably no more powerful than the Gamecube, except for the fact that it has a distinct advantage when it comes to x86 ports (Splinter Cell and Halo come to mind).
People need to get off of this habit of being wowed by imaginary numbers before they even see the hardware. I'll bet that Nintendo's hardware will easily be as powerful as Microsoft's or Sony's - in spite of their conservative estimates.
Microsoft and Sony are just playing on all of you again... And wow, how you are all easily played.
I'll also pipe up for TaxAct. I've been using their web service for 4-5 years now (ever since it was formerly GoDaddy's Itax). Works like a charm in Firefox (or Epiphany for that matter). You can even import the previous year's settings.
By the way... To adisakp - Thanks for mentioning that they do "Free File" for federal returns. Had I known this last week, I could have saved $7.
One could say that it is underpowered, considering that it was largely eclipsed (in most respects) by the fantastic Dreamcast system. Though it was two years older, it was still probably the more powerful of the two. It wasn't uncommon for multiplatform games to look and play better on the Dreamcast when it was around.
I'm of the opinion that the PS2 was a dated and design from the day it was released. It does, however, have a lot of fantastuc games that never made it to the Dreamcast (or Gamecube for that matter), so it's probably a moot point.
One's definitition of "underpowered" will differ from another person's. I've never seen an inferior port of a DC game to the Gamecube or XBox. PS2 ports are largely pretty bad. It just doesn't have the muscle to handle many games that were designed for a system that was even two years its senior.
I must say that I had an issue with a pretty major credit card company a few years ago. Their site was changed and it broke with Opera (would attempt to disallow me to login with it), even when trying to "fake" Opera as being another browser.
I wrote the website support and they sent me a response, and even fixed the website for me.
I think that most sites would like you to access their services (only idiots design a site for one browser). Sometimes you just need to politely mention it to them.
I seem to recall that the PSX didn't have analog for several years. Their controller also didn't have rumble features until after their dual analog was even released. The N64, however, always had analog, and had a rumble pack very early in the console's life. I know that when I purchased my PSX, the standard dpad controllers were all that was available (back when Symphony of the Night and FF7 were release), and PSM was running artlicles about the "Dual Analog" controller that wouldn't be released in the USA... The "Dual Shock" later arrived instead.
OpenOffice 2.0 is supposed to not require X11, but it's looking like development is pretty slow. Last I read, they didn't have enough developers. Pretty disappointing.
Alternately, it shouldn't take too long for MPlayer to support the TiVo codec. From there, it's just a matter of "mplayer -vo yuv4mpeg -ao pcm YourFavoriteTVShowHere.tvo" to a fifo and encode to your favorite "open" format. Looks like it uses a simple MPEG2 codec (without any DRM?), so it very well could very well already work with ffmpeg/libavcodec. Probably doesn't even need to be transcoded.
That's not the point. You claim that OO.o dopesn't have a database. I'm saying that it does (regardless of when the PR was released), and it's been there for a while now, in the development tree.
If it's such a big deal that it's only in testing, then download Sun's version with Adabas D included.
Main Entry: gallon Pronunciation: 'gal-&n Function: noun 1 : a U.S. unit of liquid capacity equal to four quarts or 231 cubic inches or 3.785 liters 2 : a British unit of liquid and dry capacity equal to four quarts or 277.42 cubic inches or 4.544 liters called also imperial gallon
Weird. I could play back most WMV movies on a PC with a P3 450, through MPlayer or Totem, without too much of a problem. The key is to have MPlayer set up with a graphics card that can use XV overlay support.
It's actually faster than it is on Windows, even with Windows DLLs on Linux.
Hmm. Might that be why I have problems connecting to Windows 2003 shares, where I previously had no problems a few years ago (with Samba)? I've run mount smbfs through the ringer a million times, where it used to be pretty simple, and now get all sorts of weird errors from the servers that carry the shares.
That is why you compile your program against static libraries instead of shared libraries. This is what companies that provide binary-only software tend to to at times (for example, id software game like Doom 3, or a binary version of StarOffice/OpenOffice).
Technically, your software should run on any Linux machne just fine, without any recompiling.
Hmm... I've never had problems with my "inferior" VIA chipsets. I was running a KT600 almost right after it was released, with both ATI and nVidia graphics cards. Benchmarks of the KT600 were practically the same of as a comparable nForce 2 at the time... And EVERYTHING worked with kernel-level drivers.
I think that Epiphany is a good browser. Sure, it lacks the feature-set of Firefox, but the most important stuff is there. It's fast (is a genuine Gnome/GTK application), has tabs (which handle better than Firefox, in my opinion), and uses the same renderer. Drawbacks are that it is a bit unstable with some Mozilla plugins and can't use many of those great Mozilla extensions. As a browser though, it's simple and operates well with other Gnome apps and handlers.
You MUST have the lock-on to use visors, switch weapons, fire, and jump at a moment's notice. You just can't do all of that on a pad with "Halo's" dual-stick console FPS scheme.
Prime's design is totally based around the visor system. Several fights require that you switch within a split-second in order to battle effectively. Try doing all of that with two thumbs and two forefingers with a dual-analog configuration. You can't do it.
Notice that none of Metroid's battles require mouse/keyboard meneuvers than can only be closely duplicated by dual analog. What's there to complain about? You're just an FPS player that's looking for an FPS game's controls in a game that doesn't require it. And, frankly, the Gamecube controller design (which I tend to really like) wouldn't be able to support such play while keeping features intact since it has fewer shoulder buttons (not counting that Z-Trigger) than a PS2 controller. And for the X-Box, it doesn't matter in Halo because you only need two buttons to do anything; jump and fire.
An, um... You can look down in Prime. And up for that matter.
One more thing... Metroid Prime 2 has implemented a screw attack. I assume that the lock-on will be required for that attack to hit the target worth a damn. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Everything that was done in Prime's control scheme was done to keep it as feature-rich while preserving Metroid's classic play during the transition to 3D. Cry all you like about how it doesn't play like every generic FPS game out there, but you can't change the fact that it never aspired to be a 3D FPS. It's Metroid in 3D.
This is not true. I used ATI's fglrx driver on a Slackware machine with a recent X.org until I upgraded to a GeForce FX 5900 XT recently. ATI's drivers worked just fine with X.org.
I had no problems with installation or the stability of the driver. The performance, however, left a LOT to be desired. Switching from ATI to nVidia on Linux is like going from a Hyundai to a Porsche. I like ATI's hardware, but their Linux drivers have TERRIBLE performance - and they seem to be doing little about it.
Slashdot Mirror
We all get hung up on nostalgia, but lots of good cartoons are perfectly accessible via Netflix, Amazon on Demand, and PBS on Demand. I think that's the problem. It's just a sign of people moving away from network TV and soon cable as well. The Saturday morning cartoon is gone because all of the content has moved away from network TV to on-demand services.
We dumped our DirecTV after a 2 year contract last year. We use a Roku and have a Netflix and Hulu Plus account. I also had an Amazon Prime account so that automatically gives us the free streaming that was added last year. But the content is largely the same as Netflix so we only really use Amazon when we actually want to buy something. We also subscribe to Mog for music.
That's about $22 per month and we can watch or listen to as much as we like. That's about $100 less than I used to pay for a premium satellite package. When we want something random, I play music with the Pandora / Slacker / or Shoutcast channels. When I want news, I just put on Democracy Now.
But it isn't all perfect. You need to be willing to give up some of the benefits of cable / satellite and really learn how to make the most of the Roku. There will be shows that you might want to watch that (legally) will not be available for another year or so. There are a lot of streaming channels that you can't even use yet without a cable subscription (like HBO Go). Amid the myriad of crap that is on TV, there are a handful of shows that you might miss. Ultimately, they make it to Netflix or Hulu but you just have to wait it out.
That said, if you can dig through these streaming services, you will find things that you like. Many things that you might wonder why you hadn't seen them when they'd aired on TV. There is a lot of value in the current streaming offerings but there are still a lot of things that are missing. It will be a few years before streaming TV becomes the norm and people forget about cable completely.
If you can learn to live and watch TV in a different way that you have, then Roku (or similar) can be a great alternative to traditional cable or satellite. If you rely heavily on TV then you may be really disappointed. I've considered the cord-cutting experience to be somewhat life changing. We don't spend much time in front of the TV anymore. But we still generally find quality material to whatch when we do. It can take some adjustment and experiementation, but can be worthwhile and a substantial money-saver.
I tend to agree. Wasn't it painfully obvious to everyone that the Playstation 2, which was "15 times more powerful than any other console" was actually less powerful than the Dreamcast (from 1998)? What about the X-Box? It's arguably no more powerful than the Gamecube, except for the fact that it has a distinct advantage when it comes to x86 ports (Splinter Cell and Halo come to mind).
People need to get off of this habit of being wowed by imaginary numbers before they even see the hardware. I'll bet that Nintendo's hardware will easily be as powerful as Microsoft's or Sony's - in spite of their conservative estimates.
Microsoft and Sony are just playing on all of you again... And wow, how you are all easily played.
I'll also pipe up for TaxAct. I've been using their web service for 4-5 years now (ever since it was formerly GoDaddy's Itax). Works like a charm in Firefox (or Epiphany for that matter). You can even import the previous year's settings.
By the way... To adisakp - Thanks for mentioning that they do "Free File" for federal returns. Had I known this last week, I could have saved $7.
One could say that it is underpowered, considering that it was largely eclipsed (in most respects) by the fantastic Dreamcast system. Though it was two years older, it was still probably the more powerful of the two. It wasn't uncommon for multiplatform games to look and play better on the Dreamcast when it was around.
I'm of the opinion that the PS2 was a dated and design from the day it was released. It does, however, have a lot of fantastuc games that never made it to the Dreamcast (or Gamecube for that matter), so it's probably a moot point.
One's definitition of "underpowered" will differ from another person's. I've never seen an inferior port of a DC game to the Gamecube or XBox. PS2 ports are largely pretty bad. It just doesn't have the muscle to handle many games that were designed for a system that was even two years its senior.
That's what Epiphany is for.
I must say that I had an issue with a pretty major credit card company a few years ago. Their site was changed and it broke with Opera (would attempt to disallow me to login with it), even when trying to "fake" Opera as being another browser.
I wrote the website support and they sent me a response, and even fixed the website for me.
I think that most sites would like you to access their services (only idiots design a site for one browser). Sometimes you just need to politely mention it to them.
From Urban Dictionary:
a ss hat
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=
1. asshat
One who has their head up their ass. Thus wearing their ass as a hat. Asshat
I seem to recall that the PSX didn't have analog for several years. Their controller also didn't have rumble features until after their dual analog was even released. The N64, however, always had analog, and had a rumble pack very early in the console's life. I know that when I purchased my PSX, the standard dpad controllers were all that was available (back when Symphony of the Night and FF7 were release), and PSM was running artlicles about the "Dual Analog" controller that wouldn't be released in the USA... The "Dual Shock" later arrived instead.
OpenOffice 2.0 is supposed to not require X11, but it's looking like development is pretty slow. Last I read, they didn't have enough developers. Pretty disappointing.
Alternately, it shouldn't take too long for MPlayer to support the TiVo codec. From there, it's just a matter of "mplayer -vo yuv4mpeg -ao pcm YourFavoriteTVShowHere.tvo" to a fifo and encode to your favorite "open" format. Looks like it uses a simple MPEG2 codec (without any DRM?), so it very well could very well already work with ffmpeg/libavcodec. Probably doesn't even need to be transcoded.
All I can say is SWEET!
Doom 3 performance is now about the same as that of Windows, since nVidia improved their drivers and id released a patch for Doom 3.
After the initial release, however, performance was abysmal. Things have certainly improved.
That's not the point. You claim that OO.o dopesn't have a database. I'm saying that it does (regardless of when the PR was released), and it's been there for a while now, in the development tree.
If it's such a big deal that it's only in testing, then download Sun's version with Adabas D included.
It is?
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20293
Hint: "Base". Download the 2.0 PR.
Main Entry: gallon
Pronunciation: 'gal-&n
Function: noun
1 : a U.S. unit of liquid capacity equal to four quarts or 231 cubic inches or 3.785 liters
2 : a British unit of liquid and dry capacity equal to four quarts or 277.42 cubic inches or 4.544 liters called also imperial gallon
Buggy drivers? Hardly. Incomplete drivers, at times, yes... But hardly "buggy".
And yes. There's only so much that you can get out of a consumer-grade scanner, bo matter how much you' like to blame the OS.
Weird. I could play back most WMV movies on a PC with a P3 450, through MPlayer or Totem, without too much of a problem. The key is to have MPlayer set up with a graphics card that can use XV overlay support.
It's actually faster than it is on Windows, even with Windows DLLs on Linux.
Hmm. Might that be why I have problems connecting to Windows 2003 shares, where I previously had no problems a few years ago (with Samba)? I've run mount smbfs through the ringer a million times, where it used to be pretty simple, and now get all sorts of weird errors from the servers that carry the shares.
The difference is that this is a POTENTIAL exploit. Not something that's been known for a long time but ignored to the point of mass-exploitation.
[sarcasm]
Really, so I can take something compiled for a Window XP machine and it will run on a box still running Windows 3.11?
Are you sure?
[/sarcasm]
Yes. You are essentially comparing the same sort of thing.
That is why you compile your program against static libraries instead of shared libraries. This is what companies that provide binary-only software tend to to at times (for example, id software game like Doom 3, or a binary version of StarOffice/OpenOffice).
Technically, your software should run on any Linux machne just fine, without any recompiling.
It is your in-house designer's fault.
Hmm... I've never had problems with my "inferior" VIA chipsets. I was running a KT600 almost right after it was released, with both ATI and nVidia graphics cards. Benchmarks of the KT600 were practically the same of as a comparable nForce 2 at the time... And EVERYTHING worked with kernel-level drivers.
I think that Epiphany is a good browser. Sure, it lacks the feature-set of Firefox, but the most important stuff is there. It's fast (is a genuine Gnome/GTK application), has tabs (which handle better than Firefox, in my opinion), and uses the same renderer. Drawbacks are that it is a bit unstable with some Mozilla plugins and can't use many of those great Mozilla extensions. As a browser though, it's simple and operates well with other Gnome apps and handlers.
You MUST have the lock-on to use visors, switch weapons, fire, and jump at a moment's notice. You just can't do all of that on a pad with "Halo's" dual-stick console FPS scheme.
Prime's design is totally based around the visor system. Several fights require that you switch within a split-second in order to battle effectively. Try doing all of that with two thumbs and two forefingers with a dual-analog configuration. You can't do it.
Notice that none of Metroid's battles require mouse/keyboard meneuvers than can only be closely duplicated by dual analog. What's there to complain about? You're just an FPS player that's looking for an FPS game's controls in a game that doesn't require it. And, frankly, the Gamecube controller design (which I tend to really like) wouldn't be able to support such play while keeping features intact since it has fewer shoulder buttons (not counting that Z-Trigger) than a PS2 controller. And for the X-Box, it doesn't matter in Halo because you only need two buttons to do anything; jump and fire.
An, um... You can look down in Prime. And up for that matter.
One more thing... Metroid Prime 2 has implemented a screw attack. I assume that the lock-on will be required for that attack to hit the target worth a damn. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Everything that was done in Prime's control scheme was done to keep it as feature-rich while preserving Metroid's classic play during the transition to 3D. Cry all you like about how it doesn't play like every generic FPS game out there, but you can't change the fact that it never aspired to be a 3D FPS. It's Metroid in 3D.
This is not true. I used ATI's fglrx driver on a Slackware machine with a recent X.org until I upgraded to a GeForce FX 5900 XT recently. ATI's drivers worked just fine with X.org.
I had no problems with installation or the stability of the driver. The performance, however, left a LOT to be desired. Switching from ATI to nVidia on Linux is like going from a Hyundai to a Porsche. I like ATI's hardware, but their Linux drivers have TERRIBLE performance - and they seem to be doing little about it.