Slashdot Mirror


User: retinaburn

retinaburn's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
196
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 196

  1. Numbers on Some Back Compat Problems For PS3 · · Score: 1
    I believe there are still far more PS2 games playable on the PS3 than there are Xbox games playable on the 360.

    There are also a lot more ps2 games than original Xbox games. It would be interesting to see a % comparison.

    I think its just different views of the companies that drove their backcompat efforts. Microsoft with only their second console wants to make sure that every game they port works, while Sony knows economically thats not possible with the large title library, so they say 'here ya go, if it works good for us. if not, suck it up'.

  2. Re:Whilst I understand.... on DARPA Grand Challenge 3 · · Score: 1
    You can build the safest car in the world but there is always a need to be able to take a very quick decision to avoid some other idiot who might be breaking the rules of the road and not be in an automated car... still, if we all had them...


    I would argue that most people on the road are not able to do this while they drive. Whether they are actually capable if they are concentrating or anticipating is another matter.

    If it were easy with would neither be a challenge, nor be grand.

    Oh and don't worry human, you own the roads ...for now!
  3. New Fancy Medium, Same Crappy Business Model on ABC To Offer Full Shows Online · · Score: 1

    As I see it there are a few problems with standard tv:
    1. Dictated when you watch it
    You can of course solve this with a PVR, VCR, DVR, Download, etc.
    2. Commercials
    This is solved in some respects with the above solutions but each have their own problems. Which I am sure you can figure out on your own.

    They have solved the first part of the problem, sort of. You can now watch it from any computer (that has the needed software installed, if any) at your convenience.

    However they totally missed the boat on number 2.

    Why not put the ads on the page itself? You will get more people watching the shows more often if the video doesn't have commercials. Plus you get the ads on the page for the entire duration of the video, or cycle them at will. You can also target ads based on ip, or registration information (since there will certainly be something to track users). Even better you could set up certain ads to show at certain times of the videos. Let the user click on the ad and open a window in the background for when they are done watching the video.

    While I didn't try it out, I know that March Madness this year was broadcast with ads on the page, and the ability to view both live streaming and highlights, etc.

    That being said the network isn't going to want to cause waves with their advertisers by trying to get them to think too hard which is probably why the offering is designed the way it is.

  4. Fleury's Response on The Story Behind JBoss's Boss · · Score: 4, Informative
  5. LibraryThing on Solving the Home Library Problem? · · Score: 1

    I use LibraryThing alot. I have indexed almost all of the books in my apartment through it. Give it a try, the subscriptions are pretty cheap and you can have up to 100 books I think for free to try it out. When adding books you can search a ton of different libraries, including Amazon.com or the localized versions. When searching Amazon it will pull in all the information including the book cover picture.

    You can import text files if you have your library in some format already, or export the data once you catalog all your books.

    It also has a social tagging aspect, and the ability to share your library or keep it private.

    I am in no way affiliated with LibraryThing, just a fan.

  6. Reversed traditional use of sandbox on Spore Is EA's New Ace · · Score: 1

    The most interesting aspect I saw during the video was Wright's comment on the fact that traditionally in games you start off with a sandbox mode, or trial run through, which are used to learn the rules, and develop some strategies. In Spore though you work through the creature creation mode, then once you at the city and world management, the building and vehicle modes. Then finally after you have conquered your little world. You can use other planets in your solar system and then galaxy as your sandbox to try out new designs and just test what works, or as Wright shows take revenge on all those pesky critters that pissed you off in your early years. Its a family friendly version of Bully ;)

  7. Re:Cheat codes? on Spore Is EA's New Ace · · Score: 0

    Maybe cheat codes like Flying Spaghetti Monster and Pastafarian ? ;)

  8. Re:Educate your users on What Corporate Email Limits Do You Have? · · Score: 1
    Sure, it costs a bit more for a bigger mail server, but that's ok as long as that's what everyone wants.

    Especially when it's not your department that has to pay for it. Believe me, if your department had to start paying for every meg of data that they stored you would start caring really fast. But as long as it is part of someone elses budget, that they have to fight for on a yearly basis why should you and your kind be responsible.

    It has been said before, and it will be said again. Email is not a file system. It is not a backup system. That is what your machine is for. Your company should of course be providing you with alternatives. Networked storage, backup of local machines to a remote system automatically, christ even making sure users can burn cd/dvd to backup old projects.

  9. Re:Easy to say, hard to do. on Doctorow on DRM and Activism · · Score: 1

    I am currently listening to a podcast available through Cory's feed, in which he says that as it stands it is too expensive for the BBC to track down every single rights holder for a particular item. When the item is say an audio file, it can be a legal nightmare, and extremely expensive to do due dilligence. And then if BBC makes a mistake, they can be sued for large sums of money.

    The BBC has said, and I agree with them, that it is not their place to act as an agent of change in copy reform. They can have a voice, and inform others of the issues, but they are a public broadcaster. In the past they refused to have their satellite content scrambled, I think they should do the same thing with the media they are able to release, be it via television, on the internet, or on dvd.

    There is nothing stopping the BBC from selling the programs abroad, and releasing them at the same time on the net for free. Or say selling them for 5-10 years, and then releasing them for free on the net.

    It is a sticky problem, and requires some thought, and they have put forth some interesting experiements for remixing of materials. At least they are looking at the future, lets just hope they don't make too many missteps.

  10. Re:Cory is something of a Hypocrite on Doctorow on DRM and Activism · · Score: 1

    Some quick links I dug up, several of his talks available on his podcast will bring up itunes as well.

    http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/11/itunes_update _spies_.html

    http://www.craphound.com/msftdrm.txt

  11. Re:Cory is something of a Hypocrite on Doctorow on DRM and Activism · · Score: 1

    You may have just missed when he said it, I have heard him talk negativly on several occasions about iTunes, regarding the DRM, and the diminishing of rights with each subsequent 'update' of iTunes.

  12. Re:Topic: My Barber, Sal, on Nuclear Proliferation on Doctorow on DRM and Activism · · Score: 1

    Of course it matters if has been 'DRM'd up the yin-yang'. A post on boing-boing will get you a link to the material, but it does not guarentee a download or a view. No matter how popular you are, if people find they can't use the content you link too. they are less likely to care next time you link to something.

    Besides some of us actually converse with other people to find out about new artists instead of relying solely on /.

  13. Obscurity on Doctorow on DRM and Activism · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I recently listened to a talk Cory gave. He discussed that the reason he started releasing his books via CreativeCommons was because of the whole Digial-Book fiasco. Where authors were attacking fans of their work who were either hacking the digital version to use in other means, or digitally copying the books.

    He sums up his p.o.v., which I think every artist, be it writer or musician, or Spam carver should listen to before using DRM in their content. His greatest problem as an artist is not piracy, it's obscurity. 99.5% of all the people who never buy his books are doing so because they don't know about his work. The other .5% are people downloading his books, and not paying for them.

    The important step is forming a relationship with your readers, then they are more likely to follow your work, and more likely to purchase your products.

    It might have been Tim O'Reilly who had said the obscurity quote, but regardless of who says it, more people need to hear it.

  14. What about NetBeans on Java Development: Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA? · · Score: 1, Redundant

    To throw another IDE in the mix, try out Netbeans. Last I checked 5.0 is in RC1. I have used it for a few pet projects, and find it quite useful. Especially for GUI development, they use a new component called matisse.

  15. Time on Advice on Running a Successful Videogame Store? · · Score: 5, Informative

    What you need is time to get game buyers to use your store, and start telling their friends.

    If you can have better customer service, and provide better monetary value (be it trade-ins, slightly lower price than the local chain store, etc) the numbers should increase over time.

    Have a local staff that is knowledgable about games. They should be able to tell a prospective buyer the good and the bad about a particular game, and how it compares to other games in the genre.

    Perhaps post ratings from various game sites, so buyers can see the ratings and the reviews about various games in your store.

    One thing a local mom-pop shop does is have a little event when a huge game is released. They will have pop and some snacks leading up to when they are allowed to sell the game, may even have it playable on a few systems so people can get their fix before they can take it home. They did this for Halo2, and I am sure other games. They also let you return a game within the first week or so if you don't like it, or you finish it for a full store credit. You get a brand-new hot title back, and can put it back on the shelf at a slightly lower price (providing the condition is good), and make two customers happy in the process.

    You can also run contests, etc to get people into the store. Buy X new games, get a free used title. My advice, don't pressure then to buy. Provide an environment that provides the service, but do perks, make it a good place to hang out.

  16. Re:Why not prove it? on Help crack the Java 1.6 Classfile Verifier · · Score: 1

    I don't see why you have a problem with this, it is exactly what they are doing. They are saying 'help us test it out so we know it doesnt have any major flaws.' They are in fact proving that it works, many hands make light work.

  17. For the most part on Building a Massive Single Volume Storage Solution? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the reason you can't find a cheap way to do this is because it just isn't cheap.

    I would look at some lessons learned from Google. If you decide to go with some sort of homebrew solution based on a bunch of standard consumer disks you will run into other problems besides money. The more disks you have running, the more failures you will encounter. So any system you setup has to be able to have drives fail all day, and not require human intervention to stay up and running(unless you can get humans for cheap too).

  18. Re:I don't suppose on Australian Science Makes the Regenerating Mouse · · Score: 1

    When questioned about the results the german scientist muttered 'No No must not get angry, can't let him loose, not now'.

  19. Re:Using competitors names on Google Loses AdWords Case · · Score: 1

    I have a feeling the reason for not naming a competitor is two-fold. One the statements they make are generally not exactly true, thus the tiny white print at the bottom that more explicitly describes the test. Second even if the statement were true at the time of the commercial, the advertiser might have to pull the commercial when it turns out to be no longer true.

    I have a feeling they can get around this by being a little vague 'other leading competitors', etc.

  20. Not suprising on Internet and Merchandising Good For Indie Media · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am not sure why this is news. It never really affected me in a big way until I started listening to the cbc radio3 podcast. It's a weekly podcast that features indie (for the most part) canadian music, featuring songs off of newmusiccanada. I have bought three cds from india artists in the last week, and each was about 10 bucks Canadian. It's a great way to bring together an indie audience and indie artists.

  21. Re:According to his calculation... on Pentium 4 Overclocked to 7.1GHz, Sets World Record · · Score: 1

    Of course if you go far enough you can see D U P ! 3 1 4 1 5 9

  22. Re:finally... on Typewriter As Keyboard Mod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was thinking the same thing. I recently liberated two (one for my brother and one for myself) and pulled out an old ps2-usb converted I got with a keyboard, which let me use it on my new pcs.

    On the downside of the Model M, my brothers old roommates gf had a nervous breakdown because of the late night coding/IRC he used to do causing a significant lack of sleep for her.

    For most /.'rs this won't be a problem ;)

  23. Re:Stop on Drawing Minorities Into Gaming · · Score: 1

    Mario and Luigi were soooo gay. They were new generation of Bert and Ernie. Millions of children brainwashed into being gay, by those wiley character designers. ;)

  24. Re:Submarine Patent : The board game on Epicrealm Uses Vague Patents to sue Web Sites · · Score: 1

    Hey! Patent Pending.

  25. Re:Christ, stop complaining about the PDF on Why I Hate the Apache Web Server · · Score: 1

    You think thats bad, you should see the stats on acne outbreaks.