Microsoft does do one thing correct - games. I'm sure there are some stinkers, but for the most part, MS gives their developers the time and resources to put out top-quality games.
I would prefer to keep biblical teachings out of school only for the fact that if you start teaching my beliefs, what's to stop you from teaching my child any other belief?
What I would like to see, though, is a good presentation of both sides of evolution. Teach the scientific points that supports the theory, but give equal time to the holes in the theory, too. Don't just give lip service to the shakey parts (or not mention them at all).
Every Slashdot poster should be required to visit the D-Day museum in New Orleans -- especially the Pacific's exhibit. After seeing that, I have no qualms about decisions made by the US to try to end the war.
Heck, had they not dropped the bombs, my grandfather would not likely be here right now (and subsequently me either), since he was a Marine scheduled to make that invasion of Japan.
I didn't find the "NO" disturbing. He has just been told that he had killed the woman he had done all this to save, and he reacted. It's not like he was 15 years removed from the Anakin of about 15 movie minutes earlier. He was still the same kid, just in the cool-ass Darth Vader suit we have come to know and love.
I figure that in 20 years, a lot of growing up was done - just with an evil, power hungry bent. Heaven knows what most 40 year olds would think if directly compared to their 20 year old self.
Seeing how PC games are one of the major reasons I still use MS Windows, if they eliminate the PC as a platform for gaming, I'll have almost no need for day-to-day use of MS Windows.
Therefore, I predict MS will always prop-up the PC platform for gaming. They'll keep the Ensemble style games around for that purpose alone. Those games don't translate well to console controllers anyway.
NFL, NHL (when it is around, college football, and soon, NASCAR. When sports hounds realize what will become available to them, it'll become the service of choice.
Plus with NPR, the sports fan can tell their non-sports loving significant other: "You get to listen to fresh air on the weekdays."
All other things being equal, I don't see why anyone would choose XM over Sirius. The music, otherwise, is no different.
That show sucked. I can definitely say that I am not their target audience. I did not see anything during the 2 minutes of actual footage that made me think that this was hundreds of dollars better than what currently exists with the XBox.
- Photorealism combined more and more with the massively multiplayer experience. Worlds more vibrant and entertaining than the any movie ever dreamed.
- AI's becoming indistinguishable from human players. Single player games where playing through a second time yields an entirely new gaming experience just because the AI decided to do something different.
- Physics systems (add-in card maybe?) that will literally rock your world.
- More unique interface with the games. Joysticks, mice, and keyboards? One day we may laugh at such primative devices.
Photorealism isn't the end-all be-all in gaming. Once that hurdle has been cleared, and less time is spent on making games look better, it could be the beginning of the next gaming revolution.
No. See, they're going to bridge the gap between PC and console. They'll release a console RTS game and then "not port" it over to the PC. The "not ported" PC version will have been maticulously crafted so that the game feels like a PC game, despite the fact that the only controls you have are jump, roll, shoot, and pause -- all to be activated by pressing the spacebar.
Boy, this is a throw-back to the good ole days. Excluding all the great work done in the Linux community, this is the best free software package (that's great for just fooling around with) I can remember being released for Windows based PC's in a long time.
Whatever God wants it to mean? I sure wouldn't put it past God to know that what happens on Earth is for the inhabitants of Earth and Earth alone. Why would God have any need to confuse the issue (for us) by bringing in all other worlds he created (if there are any)?
Maybe God has had unfathonable numbers of civilizations throughout history. Maybe there is just one at a time. Maybe there are 60 more out there or 60,0000. Maybe God knows that no matter what, each one of them isn't going to find the other because of the huge distances and the cataclysmic end in store for each one of them (before such technologies that would allow them to find each other).
No where in the Bible does it state that "all secrets are revealed here." Maybe the wording used to describe Christ is formulated in a way that we can understand it, because the true relationship (father-son) is completely incomprehensable to human brains.
Maybe it's what faith is all about.
(Not trying to be rude - just tossing out thoughts that crossed my mind. It's like trying to figure out where the dinosaurs fit in. If God had really worried about us knowing that, I figure he would have mentioned it. Otherwise, it is really unimportant in the discussion of salvation.)
You pay the monthly fee and don't actually play the game?
Could I send you my home address and have you (and thousands of others just like you) mail me $15 a month? In return I promise to bore you just as well as Star Wars Galaxies! Really!
Games are complex. Under the current system, I believe there is a limit to the complexity of a console game -- at least while the console makers allow no recourse for patching.
Besides the typical genre specific advantage the PC has over consoles, the PC holds two other distinct advantages:
1. Fan mods - this alone can make a PC game last 2+ years. If the game industry taps into this through some type of digital distribution (aka the method BioWare is considering for NWN) and provide content cheap ($5-20), standard PC games could provide nice sources of continuous income.
2. Patches - I realize this is a positive and a negative when you accept the fact that most games come out of the gate with bugs, but as games get more and more complex, what recourse do console gamers have? KotOR had some fairly troublesome bugs pop up in the XBox version. What if some of them had been serious show-stoppers? Is the complexity of story that is provided in KotOR the limit to which developers can realistically provide? Is open ended/multi-path gaming a true console possibility? Based on current play-testing records, I have to wonder if games can continue to expand on the console beyond the complexity of todays games (graphically, obviously yes), or will new stories have to be told using the relatively linear methods currently used?
I never heard much regarding Morrowind on the XBox, but did that turn out okay? It seemed to fall off the discussion boards quickly, but I do still see it discussed for the PC occassionally.
KotOR is a very good game (playing through it for the first time now), but it DEFINITELY has console written all over it. The control menus are horribly implemented (for a PC game - I'm sure it's decent for a console). Baldur's Gate (which is now, what, 6 years old?) has a much more user friendly control system for inventory than KotOR. Not being able to control movement with the mouse is another annoyance.
The game is great. I certainly hope that it's success, on both platforms, enable BioWare to continue making great games long in the future. Which includes the PC-specific Dragon Age.
I'm still waiting for KotOR's price drop for the PC. Not only did we have to wait, but now we get to see the XBox version drop to below $30 while the PC version hangs on at $49.99.
I'd probably already picked up one of the two services if the pay plan allowed you to purchase a subscription that works on receivers in the car and in the house. Radio is too portable to be tied to a single receiver, and for the monthly fee (plus maybe a dollar for each additional unit), I should be able to listen in the car while my wife listens at home. For now, though, the only way to do that is with two full subscriptions.
That, surprisingly, sounds like a wonderful idea. The only problem I see is what would happen when you're online and the other person isn't? Would half of you be asleep?
What truly functional advancement has Microsoft made to Excel in recent years? It seems that they make a few bug fixes, slap the newest Office look on it, and push it out the door. The advancements in spreadsheet functionality were made by other companies, which MS copied into Excel (pivot tables is an example). The one real exception to this is the VBA macro system. I find it useful for data reduction, and it remains the one reason I will not switch to other spreadsheets.
I just wish some other company would make inroads in spreadsheet design and either push Excel to improve or topple it from its current perch.
I know many people that can't afford the top-of-the-line medical care in the U.S. Fortunately, the not-quite-top-of-the-line is also pretty much instant on-demand available here too!
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft does do one thing correct - games. I'm sure there are some stinkers, but for the most part, MS gives their developers the time and resources to put out top-quality games.
For that, I am grateful to them.
I would prefer to keep biblical teachings out of school only for the fact that if you start teaching my beliefs, what's to stop you from teaching my child any other belief?
What I would like to see, though, is a good presentation of both sides of evolution. Teach the scientific points that supports the theory, but give equal time to the holes in the theory, too. Don't just give lip service to the shakey parts (or not mention them at all).
So why does the darn thing tell me that I need Firefox 1.0 or greater to install? Last time I checked, 1.0.4 was greated than 1.0.
Somehow I logged in as BobWeiner and posted exactly what I do with my audio and video. Even down to sending prints to my parents and sister.
Every Slashdot poster should be required to visit the D-Day museum in New Orleans -- especially the Pacific's exhibit. After seeing that, I have no qualms about decisions made by the US to try to end the war.
Heck, had they not dropped the bombs, my grandfather would not likely be here right now (and subsequently me either), since he was a Marine scheduled to make that invasion of Japan.
I didn't find the "NO" disturbing. He has just been told that he had killed the woman he had done all this to save, and he reacted. It's not like he was 15 years removed from the Anakin of about 15 movie minutes earlier. He was still the same kid, just in the cool-ass Darth Vader suit we have come to know and love.
I figure that in 20 years, a lot of growing up was done - just with an evil, power hungry bent. Heaven knows what most 40 year olds would think if directly compared to their 20 year old self.
Seeing how PC games are one of the major reasons I still use MS Windows, if they eliminate the PC as a platform for gaming, I'll have almost no need for day-to-day use of MS Windows.
Therefore, I predict MS will always prop-up the PC platform for gaming. They'll keep the Ensemble style games around for that purpose alone. Those games don't translate well to console controllers anyway.
NFL, NHL (when it is around, college football, and soon, NASCAR. When sports hounds realize what will become available to them, it'll become the service of choice.
Plus with NPR, the sports fan can tell their non-sports loving significant other: "You get to listen to fresh air on the weekdays."
All other things being equal, I don't see why anyone would choose XM over Sirius. The music, otherwise, is no different.
That show sucked. I can definitely say that I am not their target audience. I did not see anything during the 2 minutes of actual footage that made me think that this was hundreds of dollars better than what currently exists with the XBox.
What is beyond photorealism?
- Photorealism combined more and more with the massively multiplayer experience. Worlds more vibrant and entertaining than the any movie ever dreamed.
- AI's becoming indistinguishable from human players. Single player games where playing through a second time yields an entirely new gaming experience just because the AI decided to do something different.
- Physics systems (add-in card maybe?) that will literally rock your world.
- More unique interface with the games. Joysticks, mice, and keyboards? One day we may laugh at such primative devices.
Photorealism isn't the end-all be-all in gaming. Once that hurdle has been cleared, and less time is spent on making games look better, it could be the beginning of the next gaming revolution.
I preordered the game, but the preorder package with what I suppose should be a code never showed up. I hope the game actually shows up.
No. See, they're going to bridge the gap between PC and console. They'll release a console RTS game and then "not port" it over to the PC. The "not ported" PC version will have been maticulously crafted so that the game feels like a PC game, despite the fact that the only controls you have are jump, roll, shoot, and pause -- all to be activated by pressing the spacebar.
Boy, this is a throw-back to the good ole days. Excluding all the great work done in the Linux community, this is the best free software package (that's great for just fooling around with) I can remember being released for Windows based PC's in a long time.
"What does that mean for other worlds?"
Whatever God wants it to mean? I sure wouldn't put it past God to know that what happens on Earth is for the inhabitants of Earth and Earth alone. Why would God have any need to confuse the issue (for us) by bringing in all other worlds he created (if there are any)?
Maybe God has had unfathonable numbers of civilizations throughout history. Maybe there is just one at a time. Maybe there are 60 more out there or 60,0000. Maybe God knows that no matter what, each one of them isn't going to find the other because of the huge distances and the cataclysmic end in store for each one of them (before such technologies that would allow them to find each other).
No where in the Bible does it state that "all secrets are revealed here." Maybe the wording used to describe Christ is formulated in a way that we can understand it, because the true relationship (father-son) is completely incomprehensable to human brains.
Maybe it's what faith is all about.
(Not trying to be rude - just tossing out thoughts that crossed my mind. It's like trying to figure out where the dinosaurs fit in. If God had really worried about us knowing that, I figure he would have mentioned it. Otherwise, it is really unimportant in the discussion of salvation.)
You pay the monthly fee and don't actually play the game?
Could I send you my home address and have you (and thousands of others just like you) mail me $15 a month? In return I promise to bore you just as well as Star Wars Galaxies! Really!
Hey! Perfect example of what I was talking about in the XBox killed the PC thread:
5 &t hreshold=0&commentsort=0&tid=127&tid=186&tid=206&m ode=thread&cid=9357082
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11023
Games are complex. Under the current system, I believe there is a limit to the complexity of a console game -- at least while the console makers allow no recourse for patching.
Besides the typical genre specific advantage the PC has over consoles, the PC holds two other distinct advantages:
1. Fan mods - this alone can make a PC game last 2+ years. If the game industry taps into this through some type of digital distribution (aka the method BioWare is considering for NWN) and provide content cheap ($5-20), standard PC games could provide nice sources of continuous income.
2. Patches - I realize this is a positive and a negative when you accept the fact that most games come out of the gate with bugs, but as games get more and more complex, what recourse do console gamers have? KotOR had some fairly troublesome bugs pop up in the XBox version. What if some of them had been serious show-stoppers? Is the complexity of story that is provided in KotOR the limit to which developers can realistically provide? Is open ended/multi-path gaming a true console possibility? Based on current play-testing records, I have to wonder if games can continue to expand on the console beyond the complexity of todays games (graphically, obviously yes), or will new stories have to be told using the relatively linear methods currently used?
I never heard much regarding Morrowind on the XBox, but did that turn out okay? It seemed to fall off the discussion boards quickly, but I do still see it discussed for the PC occassionally.
KotOR is a very good game (playing through it for the first time now), but it DEFINITELY has console written all over it. The control menus are horribly implemented (for a PC game - I'm sure it's decent for a console). Baldur's Gate (which is now, what, 6 years old?) has a much more user friendly control system for inventory than KotOR. Not being able to control movement with the mouse is another annoyance.
The game is great. I certainly hope that it's success, on both platforms, enable BioWare to continue making great games long in the future. Which includes the PC-specific Dragon Age.
I'm still waiting for KotOR's price drop for the PC. Not only did we have to wait, but now we get to see the XBox version drop to below $30 while the PC version hangs on at $49.99.
I'd probably already picked up one of the two services if the pay plan allowed you to purchase a subscription that works on receivers in the car and in the house. Radio is too portable to be tied to a single receiver, and for the monthly fee (plus maybe a dollar for each additional unit), I should be able to listen in the car while my wife listens at home. For now, though, the only way to do that is with two full subscriptions.
Never mind - I see that it would in fact be asleep.
That, surprisingly, sounds like a wonderful idea. The only problem I see is what would happen when you're online and the other person isn't? Would half of you be asleep?
What truly functional advancement has Microsoft made to Excel in recent years? It seems that they make a few bug fixes, slap the newest Office look on it, and push it out the door. The advancements in spreadsheet functionality were made by other companies, which MS copied into Excel (pivot tables is an example). The one real exception to this is the VBA macro system. I find it useful for data reduction, and it remains the one reason I will not switch to other spreadsheets.
I just wish some other company would make inroads in spreadsheet design and either push Excel to improve or topple it from its current perch.
The first movie was just plain bad.
Boy, it sucks to be you.
I know many people that can't afford the top-of-the-line medical care in the U.S. Fortunately, the not-quite-top-of-the-line is also pretty much instant on-demand available here too!