Put a shelf above the game cube in your rack... Since it's front loading, it won't cause a problem (unlike the Nintendo model, which is a top loader), and allows some room for you to stick your games nearby... Unless you have no rack to speak of (even rudimentary), then it should be easy to work around...
Yeah yeah, different platforms altogether, but so are iMacs and PC's with iMac *like* cases (some of which were sued for only having an all in one form factor, not any translucent plastic, just looking like a monitor with a build in computer)...
I mean to an opportunistic lawyer, it could appear to look like a G4 Cube, and Apple could use the potential billions won in a lawsuit with Nintendo... Sure it sounds crazy, but it's happened before...
Consider that the Gamecube from Nintendo only runs their 3" DVD media, it's more of an argument of the PS2 VS DVD player debate... If you look at it as *purely* a game system, or *purely* a DVD player, sure it looks overpriced... But if you consider the value of each component, the average name brand DVD costing $150-$200 USD, and the average price of a next gen video game system at $100-$150 USD, doing the math, it's an appropriate price between $250 and $350...
In the case of a DVD drive in a PC, unless you have a monitor the size of a 25"+ display, the effect is largely lost... Especially if you were one of those unfortunate enough to buy that Powerpuff Girls DVD with added virus "bonus"... It comes in handy for a *few* things, ripping videos, watching movies on your PC when you don't care about the screen size, but frankly with so little in the way of games in DVD format, the drive's value is largely wasted... Only in matters of building a home theater/game system is a PC DVD ROM drive of any value...
Some thin layers of neoprene rubber should work well for dampening sound/vibration inside the case, provided your ventilation is sufficient to compensate for the marginal amount of heat insulation they'll also create...
No medium is forever, this is an established fact... Photos can be burned, negatives can fade,CD-R's can degrade with UV light/scratches, and all storage mediums eventually go to waste...
On a similar tangent, I recall an episode of Cowboy Bebop where Valentine recieves a betamax tape that was archived for her before she 'died', to help her remember her past... Only problem was, it was a format that went obsolete almost a century prior... So Spike and crew went on a quest to find a shop where they could view the ancient tape, which eventually they found, and after paying a hefty chunk of change, they were able to view said tape...
Also recall how many photo shops out there offer photo to CD transfers... They see the potential to offer forward compatability, and while business is slow to grow, they do make sufficient profits, at least, to continue such activities...
So collect those old and obsolete technologies, I say, and learn to maintain them (oft times even a 30+ year old VTR can be used indefinately, so long as a motor or head servo doesn't burn out)... You may be able to profit from the nearly annual obsolescence of existing technology...
What is it that allowed Windows to win the mainstream? What is it that allowed Apple to win the mainstream? A concept known as killer apps... Essentially, a program that allows the platform of choice to perform a duty and function that is NOT available/possible on other systems...
Linux is good for server applications, but *really*, what can it do that Windows/Mac cannot do, other than not crash as often? Very little... Why is this? Between platforms, Linux does little more than ape most of what anyone running Windows/Mac can already do, and far FAR simpler... Can Linux be used optimally for graphic design and video production without any hassles of hopping between CLI and GUI? Nope... Can Linux be used for mainstream business applications and gaming without doing the same, or relying on emulation? Nope... Face it, Linux relies on a few adequate programmers attempting to reinvent the wheel, or emulating an OS that already exists with far less BS to fight through to get the job done...
THIS is why Linux fails... This is why Linux isn't replacing 100% of Windows desktops...
This is not a flame, this is constructive cricism... The problem with Linux is that there are plenty of people willing to rally around the banner, but very few willing (and able) to actually go to war for it... Linux, in order to fight against the two big shots, is to make some applications that are COMPLETELY unlike what is already on the market, and unique in what it can provide... Make something, ANYTHING, that can either (a) supplant existing applications (make a graphic editor far superior to what can be found on Windows or Mac platforms, with a GUI to allow you to use it, artists traditionally don't LIKE to have to haggle with CLI's just to draw, I'm an artist, I KNOW this), and (b) provide a program that is completely unique, anything that the existing Windows/Mac scene has completely overlooked... Use your imaginations, you want the OS to succeed, then FIGHT so it can, instead of pretending that just being crashproof is the lone cause for it's acceptance...
What good does a bulletproof jacket do you in a world where everyone fights with rocket launchers?
AND of course there's those who snagged a copy of WinXP Pro Build 2600 (ironic, yes?), which for the most part is free... $99 for an upgrade is cheap, but eh, I am apprehensive, despite having a copy, and having a friend who designed the starscream 68x emulated CPU telling me that it's incredibly good... I dunno, took me 6 months past the date that Win2K was released til I felt confident enough to play with it...
Especially Michael Jackson, D.A.R.E. was his brainchild y'know... That's why in the early 90's, they had parody bumper stickers that said 'D.A.R.E.: To Keep Childred Away From Michael Jackson!'
Ohhh the ironyyyyy...
And Michael Jackson had a 3D show at Disneyland/world for a few years to boot...
Unfortunately here in the states, they (the phone company) sell their combined residential phone directories to telemarketers... For a small (feh, right) fee, the phone company will issue a block against selling your numbers to telemarketing agencies...
Whoops, we knocked out their electricity... Okay, we bombed them back into the stone age, time to go home... Oh, wait, they're in the Amish age... Keep pounding away!
Remember about 15 years ago folks, when a little company designed an OS that copied the Mac interface? You know it well, 75% of the gripes issued on Slashdot are in regards to it... Windows...
Remember when Apple took Microsoft to court over it? They were hosed, big time... And judging from their current degree of veracity in the courts, I'd say they learned from their experiences... I imagine when XP starts getting around and people start issuing themes that resemble Aqua for that, then we'll see a new onslaught of lawsuits against the creators *and* MS...
Don't like it? Create a GUI that is completely unique, make it such that it can be patented, then charge both software makers a mint to incorporate it into their OS... On the flip side, make it open source for nonprofit OS's and/or theme makers, but put in a stipulation that when the GUI is incorporated directly into the OS with the purpose of profit...
Which reminds me, wouldn't the transporter systems need to be newer than 300yrs for Bones to always be worked up about the 'newfangled gadgets'? If something's been around for that long, I don't think someone would have that sort of reaction.
Actually, 100 years past their inception, some old folks think that CARS are still a 'Newfangled Gadget'...
The type of industrial (not consumer)laserdisc player used in the arcade systems incorporated a RS-232 port so the game hardware could control the LD player... Keep an eye out at Goodwill, they occasionally get industrial LD players in stock whenever a company decides they no longer require one
Specifically, the model used in Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, was the Pioneer PR-7820, a real antique...
http://www.blamld.com/DiscoVision/PR-7820.htm
There are probably several others that could be used, but I'm unsure of if there was a 'approved player' list of compatible manufacturers and models...
No laserdisc mpegs, available from alt.binaries.emulators.misc... Since Dragon's Lair 1&2 and Space Ace are available as DVD titles, would that be more economical, both as source footage, and for those of us who would rather play them at optimized speeds instead of emulated?
i fnd ths t eb a hge dawbak to my abilty t o ty p o AOL, and tis rluing has prvetned em frm mlaing imllions ni a calss atcion awlsut agnst AOL, sppuirt me yoo fag0ts!!!
There are a few mysteries that have been solved at least in theory... Approximately 4,000,000,000 million years ago, Venus was hit by a cataclysmic event that reduced it's surface to molten and caused it to recycle it's entire crust, whereas the Earth, when impacted by an unknown planetoid, 400,000,000 years ago, had it's crust reduced to a semi molten state, sufficient to release the lunar material... In either case though, rotation and gravity resulted in them having a spherical shape...
In the case of Mars, topographical evidence shows it may have had a large body impact it's surface, or even one sufficient to cleave away a good chunk of it's surface, such that it's actually slightly lopsided by the amount of missing landmass, to the point where it's obvious it could have happened far more recently...
It's actually older than that, dating to the late 1980's, Omni magazine IIRC... Damascus blades have been available from knife shops for almost 10 years now to boot...
I was thinking, what if identical twins were misidentified, if one of the twins was a convicted felon (twin A), and the other a upstanding citizen (twin B)... If twin A performed a criminal act with an APB for being armed and dangerous, and twin B was unfortunate enough to be seen by the cameras, what would be the excuses given by the cops if they tackle twin B on the street, or gun him down outright?
OTOH, I see a future burgeoning business in Hollywood style do it yourself facial appliances and makeup kits... You won't just see Klingons marching down the streets at sci-fi conventions anymore...
Slashdot Mirror
/me suddenly shifts into Ballmer mode,
"Developers developers developers developers!!!"
Put a shelf above the game cube in your rack... Since it's front loading, it won't cause a problem (unlike the Nintendo model, which is a top loader), and allows some room for you to stick your games nearby... Unless you have no rack to speak of (even rudimentary), then it should be easy to work around...
Yeah yeah, different platforms altogether, but so are iMacs and PC's with iMac *like* cases (some of which were sued for only having an all in one form factor, not any translucent plastic, just looking like a monitor with a build in computer)...
I mean to an opportunistic lawyer, it could appear to look like a G4 Cube, and Apple could use the potential billions won in a lawsuit with Nintendo... Sure it sounds crazy, but it's happened before...
Uhhh, I just wanna know why my posts get a 2 all the time now, even though I don't have the 'no score +1' box checkmarked...
Consider that the Gamecube from Nintendo only runs their 3" DVD media, it's more of an argument of the PS2 VS DVD player debate... If you look at it as *purely* a game system, or *purely* a DVD player, sure it looks overpriced... But if you consider the value of each component, the average name brand DVD costing $150-$200 USD, and the average price of a next gen video game system at $100-$150 USD, doing the math, it's an appropriate price between $250 and $350...
In the case of a DVD drive in a PC, unless you have a monitor the size of a 25"+ display, the effect is largely lost... Especially if you were one of those unfortunate enough to buy that Powerpuff Girls DVD with added virus "bonus"... It comes in handy for a *few* things, ripping videos, watching movies on your PC when you don't care about the screen size, but frankly with so little in the way of games in DVD format, the drive's value is largely wasted... Only in matters of building a home theater/game system is a PC DVD ROM drive of any value...
In theory yes, since it sets a precedent... However, 2600 will have to go to court to make it official...
Some thin layers of neoprene rubber should work well for dampening sound/vibration inside the case, provided your ventilation is sufficient to compensate for the marginal amount of heat insulation they'll also create...
No medium is forever, this is an established fact... Photos can be burned, negatives can fade,CD-R's can degrade with UV light/scratches, and all storage mediums eventually go to waste...
On a similar tangent, I recall an episode of Cowboy Bebop where Valentine recieves a betamax tape that was archived for her before she 'died', to help her remember her past... Only problem was, it was a format that went obsolete almost a century prior... So Spike and crew went on a quest to find a shop where they could view the ancient tape, which eventually they found, and after paying a hefty chunk of change, they were able to view said tape...
Also recall how many photo shops out there offer photo to CD transfers... They see the potential to offer forward compatability, and while business is slow to grow, they do make sufficient profits, at least, to continue such activities...
So collect those old and obsolete technologies, I say, and learn to maintain them (oft times even a 30+ year old VTR can be used indefinately, so long as a motor or head servo doesn't burn out)... You may be able to profit from the nearly annual obsolescence of existing technology...
What is it that allowed Windows to win the mainstream? What is it that allowed Apple to win the mainstream? A concept known as killer apps... Essentially, a program that allows the platform of choice to perform a duty and function that is NOT available/possible on other systems...
Linux is good for server applications, but *really*, what can it do that Windows/Mac cannot do, other than not crash as often? Very little... Why is this? Between platforms, Linux does little more than ape most of what anyone running Windows/Mac can already do, and far FAR simpler... Can Linux be used optimally for graphic design and video production without any hassles of hopping between CLI and GUI? Nope... Can Linux be used for mainstream business applications and gaming without doing the same, or relying on emulation? Nope... Face it, Linux relies on a few adequate programmers attempting to reinvent the wheel, or emulating an OS that already exists with far less BS to fight through to get the job done...
THIS is why Linux fails... This is why Linux isn't replacing 100% of Windows desktops...
This is not a flame, this is constructive cricism... The problem with Linux is that there are plenty of people willing to rally around the banner, but very few willing (and able) to actually go to war for it... Linux, in order to fight against the two big shots, is to make some applications that are COMPLETELY unlike what is already on the market, and unique in what it can provide... Make something, ANYTHING, that can either (a) supplant existing applications (make a graphic editor far superior to what can be found on Windows or Mac platforms, with a GUI to allow you to use it, artists traditionally don't LIKE to have to haggle with CLI's just to draw, I'm an artist, I KNOW this), and (b) provide a program that is completely unique, anything that the existing Windows/Mac scene has completely overlooked... Use your imaginations, you want the OS to succeed, then FIGHT so it can, instead of pretending that just being crashproof is the lone cause for it's acceptance...
What good does a bulletproof jacket do you in a world where everyone fights with rocket launchers?
AND of course there's those who snagged a copy of WinXP Pro Build 2600 (ironic, yes?), which for the most part is free... $99 for an upgrade is cheap, but eh, I am apprehensive, despite having a copy, and having a friend who designed the starscream 68x emulated CPU telling me that it's incredibly good... I dunno, took me 6 months past the date that Win2K was released til I felt confident enough to play with it...
Especially Michael Jackson, D.A.R.E. was his brainchild y'know... That's why in the early 90's, they had parody bumper stickers that said 'D.A.R.E.: To Keep Childred Away From Michael Jackson!'
Ohhh the ironyyyyy...
And Michael Jackson had a 3D show at Disneyland/world for a few years to boot...
Does it include a robotic arm in the rear window to flip off tailgaters?
Does it change it's appearance to resemble a 1982 Yugo when it senses a car thief intending to make off with an incredibly expensive car?
Does it include a breathalyzer so that it can look drunk to the police after one martini lunch too many?
When playing Rammstein, can it be set to lip sync?
When driven by a smoker, will it hack up huge loogies for them?
Does it include the inflatable Otto Pilot from the legendary movie 'Airplane!'?
Will it be banned by the RIAA for it's drivers trading MP3's while driving down the freeway?
Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Unfortunately here in the states, they (the phone company) sell their combined residential phone directories to telemarketers... For a small (feh, right) fee, the phone company will issue a block against selling your numbers to telemarketing agencies...
Whoops, we knocked out their electricity... Okay, we bombed them back into the stone age, time to go home... Oh, wait, they're in the Amish age... Keep pounding away!
Remember about 15 years ago folks, when a little company designed an OS that copied the Mac interface? You know it well, 75% of the gripes issued on Slashdot are in regards to it... Windows...
Remember when Apple took Microsoft to court over it? They were hosed, big time... And judging from their current degree of veracity in the courts, I'd say they learned from their experiences... I imagine when XP starts getting around and people start issuing themes that resemble Aqua for that, then we'll see a new onslaught of lawsuits against the creators *and* MS...
Don't like it? Create a GUI that is completely unique, make it such that it can be patented, then charge both software makers a mint to incorporate it into their OS... On the flip side, make it open source for nonprofit OS's and/or theme makers, but put in a stipulation that when the GUI is incorporated directly into the OS with the purpose of profit...
Which reminds me, wouldn't the transporter systems need to be newer than 300yrs for Bones to always be worked up about the 'newfangled gadgets'? If something's been around for that long, I don't think someone would have that sort of reaction.
Actually, 100 years past their inception, some old folks think that CARS are still a 'Newfangled Gadget'...
The type of industrial (not consumer)laserdisc player used in the arcade systems incorporated a RS-232 port so the game hardware could control the LD player... Keep an eye out at Goodwill, they occasionally get industrial LD players in stock whenever a company decides they no longer require one
Specifically, the model used in Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, was the Pioneer PR-7820, a real antique...
http://www.blamld.com/DiscoVision/PR-7820.htm
There are probably several others that could be used, but I'm unsure of if there was a 'approved player' list of compatible manufacturers and models...
No laserdisc mpegs, available from alt.binaries.emulators.misc ... Since Dragon's Lair 1&2 and Space Ace are available as DVD titles, would that be more economical, both as source footage, and for those of us who would rather play them at optimized speeds instead of emulated?
Now I can just pop a pill and all that wasted gold from Goldschlager can be ejected as a nifty keen solid gold nugget!
Tuned the telescope to the satellite and am currently hand tracking as I speak...
I...
C...
U...
P...
What the?!?
He turned my PC into a newt!
i fnd ths t eb a hge dawbak to my abilty t o ty p o AOL, and tis rluing has prvetned em frm mlaing imllions ni a calss atcion awlsut agnst AOL, sppuirt me yoo fag0ts!!!
There are a few mysteries that have been solved at least in theory... Approximately 4,000,000,000 million years ago, Venus was hit by a cataclysmic event that reduced it's surface to molten and caused it to recycle it's entire crust, whereas the Earth, when impacted by an unknown planetoid, 400,000,000 years ago, had it's crust reduced to a semi molten state, sufficient to release the lunar material... In either case though, rotation and gravity resulted in them having a spherical shape...
In the case of Mars, topographical evidence shows it may have had a large body impact it's surface, or even one sufficient to cleave away a good chunk of it's surface, such that it's actually slightly lopsided by the amount of missing landmass, to the point where it's obvious it could have happened far more recently...
It's actually older than that, dating to the late 1980's, Omni magazine IIRC... Damascus blades have been available from knife shops for almost 10 years now to boot...
I was thinking, what if identical twins were misidentified, if one of the twins was a convicted felon (twin A), and the other a upstanding citizen (twin B)... If twin A performed a criminal act with an APB for being armed and dangerous, and twin B was unfortunate enough to be seen by the cameras, what would be the excuses given by the cops if they tackle twin B on the street, or gun him down outright?
OTOH, I see a future burgeoning business in Hollywood style do it yourself facial appliances and makeup kits... You won't just see Klingons marching down the streets at sci-fi conventions anymore...