I disagree. Annakin is in no way grey. He is a child and he continues to act like one. He doesn't even pretend to have anyone's interests but his own and the 2 loves of his life (mother and princess).
Unless ep3 changes things he is going to go from "I'm a Jedi because that's who clothed and fed me but boy do they annoy me" to "Ooooh, I'm a Sith now and I get to do whatever I want so *nyah*".
It's a shame since he should have been the epitome of a tortured / conflicted character... but so far there has been very little turmoil. The sandpeople attack? Pretty black&white writing (we didn't see him struggle at all with his decision, he just killed). Is he upset? Maybe, but only in a pouty "I'm good at fixing things" way.
Besides, if you listened to ep4 through ep6 it was pretty clear that Annakin was a Jedi that got turned to the Dark early on and before that was considered good. Doesn't seem to have been much struggle.
Your character is not defined ("grey", "light" or "dark") until you are enough of an adult to take responsibility for yourself and he hasn't gotten there as of ep2 and apparently about the time he gets to be a full adult he very definitely becomes "dark". There is a reason he is still an apprentice by ep2... until his personality is known (and I think it just got decided in ep2) Obi-Wan has to take responsibility for fixing anything he might do.
Even in episode 6 when Darth becomes Annakin again he is never "grey" unless you assume that for all the time prior he has been planning to overthrow the Senator/Emporer. You could make that argument but I disagree. I don't believe he came back to the "good" until he discovered his love for Luke at the very end and his switch was immediate and definite. No extended psychological torture or soul searching. And he only did it when he -knew- that he and Luke could beat the Emporer (that is Annakins consistent weakness... he is internally very lacking in confidence despite his bravado).
As for Palpatine... no grey at all... from a plot standpoint perhaps since you don't see everything at first but unless you're lacking in voice recognition skills (you don't need to see his face to know it is at least the same actor) you pretty well know what is going on. Hell even in his "Senator" role he is pretty doggone slimy. Besides, you don't need to be a geek to remember the Emperor from ep6 and put two and two together. Of course I'm not a SW geek and don't know any details about the "metamorphosis" (no spoilers please, I don't like to have bits of even bad cinema ruined) you mention, so perhaps I'm off here but based on 5 movies so far the dude looks pretty dark to me.
I will say that I think perhaps Jengo was a bit grey, but he never got the chance to show too much of it. And Jimmy Smitts looks conflicted (or is it constipated) enough in his minor shots to perhaps be such, but his part is too small to have a clue.
I've got the extended editions of LOTR1 and LOTR2 and I found them worth it... I skipped the initial theatrical release DVDs. I will be skipping the "all 3 in 1 box with more extras" for now. However, I probably WILL buy it if it ever gets mastered onto a high-def DVD after the HD-DVD standards get flushed out (read: at least 5 years). Then I'll donate my extended regular DVDs to my father or the local library.
There aren't very many movies I'd shell out for twice just to get HD but this would be one of them. Generally speaking any movie that wasn't stored digitally to begin with does not appear to get any benefits from the HD formats since they already have very visible film artifacts in the regular DVD format.
Speaking of which, I need to call Best Buy... mod off topic as you will if this tangent pollutes the post, but I just want to say DO NOT pay for the extended warranty from Best Buy if the component is relatively advanced and you don't live near a major service center... they farm it out to the locals and in the case of my 3 year old TV the locals said "oooooo... we haven't seen an HD capable TV before". They have had it since February 14th (happy valentines day to me!) and while typing this I got the call I'll finally get it tomorrow (4/20... also our anniversary which means we will be out of the house and won't get it until 4/21:). Ahhh, feels good to vent.
Ok so let us magnify the scale here just a bit and see if the point becomes evident:
If Hamlet had killed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after they had made an attack on him, rather than killing them because he knew that someone (Claudius) had told them to kill him then Hamlet would have been the righteous hero who prevailed in an upfront manner and there would have been no questions about it.
Instead he killed them through trickery and without -direct- evidence of their plans. Doing so made him the dark hero who was able to strike first when in jeopardy and left questions going long afterwards about whether he was "right" or whether he was presumptuous.
If you've seen the play (or Star Wars) more than once, then your questions are answered at the end. But for the first time viewer it lets you question for awhile the real motives behind the protagonist (and let's face it, Solo was at LEAST as much of a protagonist as Skywalker if you use the definition of change as the bases for a protagonist). It gives a much darker sheen to the movie.
It is specifically that darkness in the first three movies that have been obliterated so far in ep1 and ep2. There is no questioning of loyalties... we KNOW who the bad guys are and who the good guys have been up through ep2. There is no "grey side" so far unless you count adolescent puberty... which seems funny but is really sad because it shows that Lucas has, if not sold out, at least decided that his audience can't handle moral questions. Or theological ones... midichlorians [sp?]? Bah. I am perfectly capable of deciding that Solo (or Hamlet) are in the end "good guys" without forcing them into the mold of the prototypical hero.
Do I equate Lucas and Shakespeare? No. But Star Wars has probably had a much more profound affect on most people today than Hamlet and if you disregard the endings of the 2 characters (actually you shouldn't, since all of Lucas' characters seem to get just deserts at the end except for Anakin's mother and a few extras... he can't handle true tragedy) the situations are -very- similar.
Unfortunately you are stuck in that stupid catch-22 of the doctor not wanting to treat you without permission because if he -does- diagnose as a WC claim your insurance will refuse to pay for the diagnostic visit. My doctors have been the same way for years and after I had back surgery for a congenital problem my insurance company -still- paid a 3rd party not once but twice to make sure they were not paying for a WC or auto-related claim. Yet in the end my doctors and health insurance both are of high quality. My point is simply that I believe this is pretty much the standard today.
There should be no stigma on your part... as in you feeling bad for filing the claim (if you mean you are worried about your company HR attaching the stigma to you, that also -should- not happen but I don't know your company).
Your company is required to have workman's comp for a reason... people get hurt on the job. There should be no more stigma on your part for filing a WC claim than a normal insurance claim. Carpal tunnel is by no means the most expensive type of WC claim and it should not significantly raise your company's rates... which means they are already paying for the policy and you should be able to avail yourself of it if you have an honest claim (not saying you don't)... otherwise their money into the insurance is wasted.
If they refuse, then the answer is you appeal with whatever state agency oversees WC insurance in your area. You could need to sue, but if you do then you're working at the wrong company and they will probably end up paying up.
In alot of cases you can get a lawyer to work for you for a part of the settlement, meaning you shouldn't have much upfront cost.
BTW, I have known a few people with carpal tunnel and generally speaking unless it is -severe- the treatment is maybe a very minor surgery followed by physical therapy. Not trying to discourage you, only pointing out that the recovery can take a long time and you have to continue taking care of it for as long as you use a keyboard.
Agreed. For the last 3 years I've used HRblock.com's online preparation services and e-filed through them.
It doesn't save any money over using the software locally that I've found so far but it has 3 distinct advantages:
1) Runs Mozilla (though you need to turn on pop-ups for that site since the entire application is in a pop-up)
2) Access from anywhere... twice I've needed to refer to my past year's taxes while out of the house and HRBlock keeps up to 3 years online at a time in PDF format
3) I don't have to worry about trashing my drive without a backup of the data
And yes, it does contain some sensitive info but I don't have anything in my taxes that I really care if anyone sees beyond my SS# and HRblock.com seems to be no worse at security than anyone else. The only people I wish didn't have access to my tax info is the IRS and I don't get a choice there:)
If you want they will provide all the same analyses of your taxes as going into their office and they have online support (all for a fee of course), but I've found the information in the program enough to get my taxes done and itemize my mortgage, home office, etc.
No no no, he is better off selling them on Ebay since alot of times people need to replace these screens and can't get them from the manufacturer. Then take the money and buy the cheap LCDs.
1) The people most likely to search for "web browser" or anything related to IE's homepage are most likely looking at alternatives. Most folks looking for IE know that the first thing to do is type "www.microsoft.com" and go from there.
2) Not very many people look for IE online in general... it is "just there" and is updated through Windows Update. Related to #1, if they are having to research IE they are probably doing so in some form of technical aspect.
3) Microsoft doesn't market IE as a "web browser" online, it is a Windows component and as such would have far different content indexed than that of any of the listed browsers.
4) The search results you mention appear in almost the same order if you search for "web browser" on Google. Is that Fishy to you, too?
5) There ARE things about A9 that seem fishy... I agree with other posters who think storing search history is not something I want to see done... but I don't think the results you mention are.
No, but they do sound related... did yours go through his age 30 pre-mid-life crisis while you were there, getting an ear ring and occasionally looking VERY hungover on a schoolday?
The problem is that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro are too anal retentive in what they are willing to license.
The ruleset could be adapted for online play, but WotC spends so much time micromanaging it that the groups like BioWare can get bogged down for months (closer to a year in the case of some of the Neverwinter stuff) just making the WotC IP folks happy.
I will agree that D&D is not the best system to adapt to electronic form (though the number crunching issue should be a non-issue for that, if anything electronic gaming makes that bit better for the player) but the D20 system helped that somewhat and they still have a large chest of source material to pull from.
Not to mention mindshare, which is huge in video gaming.
Sorry, you missed out on what I think would be your #0...
0.) Driver support from the vendor side
Even if we had directX compatibility we would still be missing video drivers, storage drivers, etc. All of those items, to be a sustainable resource, have to come from the horses mouth (as in I can get my Radeon working with the Open driver, but to get 3D acceleration I need the binary driver from ATI... and you know what, as long as they support it I don't even care that I don't have the source to the ATI driver).
XBox and PS2 may have decent, if different, online gaming architecture but neither has enough games for online play to make me remotely interested in paying the extra.
There is a LONG way to go in the online console world... Nintendo still has plenty of time to work out their strategy.
Set up a daily scheduled event (yes, Windows can do that) that runs a batch file that:
dir/s:
for each drive and then export a copy of the registry (I believe the Windows registry tools will export from a command-line, if not Perl could do so easily).
Keep 2 days of files, the current day and the previous day. At the end of the batch run a diff (I think DOS had a diff utility under a different name, if not get one of the ported versions of the real diff) and just store the diffs of the 2 days long term.
Perhaps once per month keep 1 full copy of the dir and registry results, cleaning them up on a yearly basis perhaps, just as a referrence in case you need to shuffle through the diff'ed results.
As pointed out by others, this is almost surely not a reality yet.
And no, it's not going to use a real GPS transmitter.
But the implications of this even as a thought (and while not real I bet it -has- been proposed to government folks as a concept) strike right back at the heart of the RFID debate.
While RFID may not be strong enough via commercial application to track this more than a few dozen feet, I am sure that with the right amount of money a much more sensitive receptor could be engineered. Even if not, having many very inexpensive receptors in various locations could form a detection mesh.
I sort of think that if anyone shot an RFID tag into me at high velocity I would probably be aware of it, but there are plenty of other ways to tag a person or item without them necessarily detecting it (anyone here ever slip a library anti-theft tag into someone's backpack?).
Since it comes down to the same ideas as gun control (ie, the criminals can always get the guns even if it is illegal just like the government can always aquire RFID trackers even if they legislate them out of the public sector), we're back to the same idea of needing to find ways to destroy and/or shield RFIDs.
My wireless ISP antenna is a point-to-point antenna pointing at a location about 1.2 miles away.
Unfortunately there are 4 restaurants -directly- in a 2D line (slightly lower than the AP in a 3D line, but close enough). Interference skyrockets from 11:30am - 2:30pm and 5pm - 8pm... prime food times.
Because of this, the ISP connection can only successfully use a couple of the frequencies that are not as badly hit by the microwaves.
Since this is a point-to-point reception issue, and not a broadcast style reception problem, the amount of interference from a commercial microwave doesn't have to be nearly so much as it would to inject trouble as a wide signal.
In and of itself, not a big problem for me, just one of the issues that combine to make 802.11b verrrrry crowded up here.
The fact that there are 2 competitors to my ISP also in a direct line for my antenna doesn't help, but they tend to use different parts of the 11 channel spectrum so as long as no one pops up yet another AP I'm ok there.
FWIW, I've found that my Siemens 8825 doesn't give significant 802.11b interference, but my old Panasonic phone would completely destroy channel 1.
Also FWIW, while my very new microwave doesn't interfere with my 802.11b, it does cause crackles on my Siemens phone if I am standing with the microwave between me and the base station, assuming I am at least 40' from the station.
Point? Not much this far down, just posting it in case someone finds it as a search I guess.
I already have only -2- channels that I can reliably use in my house without interference. Every other channel is in use for ISP access in our community or gets interference from cordless phones and microwaves.
If you want more throughput, use different frequencies. Even if they are close to 802.11b/g that is better than going into the already established spectrum.
Yes, I know that this is not mandated or regulated space, so there is not much I can do to enforce my needs. However unregulated waves only work if people make an effort to play well together.
It's/.... sometimes they don't get that they are creating innuendo. The title doesn't -say- that the 3300 employees have anything to do with the USV halt, it just allows for the connection to be made.
Sad thing is, the 3,300 layoffs were announced at the same time as the Microsoft deal last week and the MS deal just took the lion's share of the press.
While Linux has advanced in many places, most people who were interested in it on mainframes quickly realized that it didn't fit so good there.
Major differences were required in the kernel to support a scalable Linux at that level which meant source code compatibility wasn't always reliable. This meant that even though it was Linux, you still had to have a core team trained up on the intricacies of the mainframe system and programming and so it is still costly (you may need 5 people to maintain the same # of machines that a mainframe can handle with just 1 operator, but the cost of salary for that 1 mainframe specialist may be close to 5 times the cost of the average web farm maintainer which is often just a kid in college happy to make triple minimum wage).
Additionally many of the early Linux mainframe deals were for hosting services where the mainframe functioned as a place to store many many many Linux virtual machines, the end effect of that being that it didn't reduce over all system maintenance much except on the hardware level. The markets where many many many linux virtual machines are needed are often served fine by smaller hardware in bulk that can be updated regularly over time.
It's not dead, but it definitely didn't live up to expectations that IBM set.
Linux is still better suited for the mid-size and smaller hardware world. May change but IBM expected it to change very fast. Plus, 15% of new mainframes is not that large of a number. Most mainframe sales now are into existing mainframe users, it is not a growth market.
I think I saw it but I remembered it as not having a tremendous affect on the overall direction of the show. My memory is faulty though:)
The better question is, who remembers the X-Files crossover with Strange Luck? I thought that show had serious potential and I could see a movie or mini-series coming out of it to finish it up since it died the quiet middle-of-the-season death.
And they finally figured it out and killed it even though the ratings were still acceptable to keep a show on the air.
The problem with M*A*S*H* was it was a comedy for awhile, then a comedic drama, then a drama with some comedy. I agree with you on that. However, I think the latter show could have stood on its own if they would have acknowledged the change. As a drama it still had some very good episodes... it just wasn't M*A*S*H* anymore.
Look back at any media: TV/movie, music or print, and you'll most likely find 10 (at a minimum) "ripoffs" for every truly original idea.
In fact, I can already think of at least one prior art to this concept in the Batman episode (Batman was a year or two before ST) where the U.N. Security Council (I think) was dehydrated into dust and reconstituted after their containers were mixed, causing personalities to appear in the wrong bodies.
I strongly doubt that Batman's writers were the first with the idea... and yet you still found ST's version interesting enough to call something that is only -possibly- derivative a "ripoff".
Sometimes the 2nd time -is- better (like the Matrix versus so many previous attempts at an artificial electronic noncorporeal ecosystem)... not always and often it is worse (as in every show that has mimic'ed the already way overused "holodeck") but nothing will change the fact that original concepts are quite rare.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. Annakin is in no way grey. He is a child and he continues to act like one. He doesn't even pretend to have anyone's interests but his own and the 2 loves of his life (mother and princess).
... but so far there has been very little turmoil. The sandpeople attack? Pretty black&white writing (we didn't see him struggle at all with his decision, he just killed). Is he upset? Maybe, but only in a pouty "I'm good at fixing things" way.
... until his personality is known (and I think it just got decided in ep2) Obi-Wan has to take responsibility for fixing anything he might do.
... he is internally very lacking in confidence despite his bravado).
... no grey at all ... from a plot standpoint perhaps since you don't see everything at first but unless you're lacking in voice recognition skills (you don't need to see his face to know it is at least the same actor) you pretty well know what is going on. Hell even in his "Senator" role he is pretty doggone slimy. Besides, you don't need to be a geek to remember the Emperor from ep6 and put two and two together. Of course I'm not a SW geek and don't know any details about the "metamorphosis" (no spoilers please, I don't like to have bits of even bad cinema ruined) you mention, so perhaps I'm off here but based on 5 movies so far the dude looks pretty dark to me.
Unless ep3 changes things he is going to go from "I'm a Jedi because that's who clothed and fed me but boy do they annoy me" to "Ooooh, I'm a Sith now and I get to do whatever I want so *nyah*".
It's a shame since he should have been the epitome of a tortured / conflicted character
Besides, if you listened to ep4 through ep6 it was pretty clear that Annakin was a Jedi that got turned to the Dark early on and before that was considered good. Doesn't seem to have been much struggle.
Your character is not defined ("grey", "light" or "dark") until you are enough of an adult to take responsibility for yourself and he hasn't gotten there as of ep2 and apparently about the time he gets to be a full adult he very definitely becomes "dark". There is a reason he is still an apprentice by ep2
Even in episode 6 when Darth becomes Annakin again he is never "grey" unless you assume that for all the time prior he has been planning to overthrow the Senator/Emporer. You could make that argument but I disagree. I don't believe he came back to the "good" until he discovered his love for Luke at the very end and his switch was immediate and definite. No extended psychological torture or soul searching. And he only did it when he -knew- that he and Luke could beat the Emporer (that is Annakins consistent weakness
As for Palpatine
I will say that I think perhaps Jengo was a bit grey, but he never got the chance to show too much of it. And Jimmy Smitts looks conflicted (or is it constipated) enough in his minor shots to perhaps be such, but his part is too small to have a clue.
Easy answer: just don't buy it.
... I skipped the initial theatrical release DVDs. I will be skipping the "all 3 in 1 box with more extras" for now. However, I probably WILL buy it if it ever gets mastered onto a high-def DVD after the HD-DVD standards get flushed out (read: at least 5 years). Then I'll donate my extended regular DVDs to my father or the local library.
... mod off topic as you will if this tangent pollutes the post, but I just want to say DO NOT pay for the extended warranty from Best Buy if the component is relatively advanced and you don't live near a major service center ... they farm it out to the locals and in the case of my 3 year old TV the locals said "oooooo ... we haven't seen an HD capable TV before". They have had it since February 14th (happy valentines day to me!) and while typing this I got the call I'll finally get it tomorrow (4/20 ... also our anniversary which means we will be out of the house and won't get it until 4/21 :). Ahhh, feels good to vent.
I've got the extended editions of LOTR1 and LOTR2 and I found them worth it
There aren't very many movies I'd shell out for twice just to get HD but this would be one of them. Generally speaking any movie that wasn't stored digitally to begin with does not appear to get any benefits from the HD formats since they already have very visible film artifacts in the regular DVD format.
Speaking of which, I need to call Best Buy
From the point of plot, I say yes.
... we KNOW who the bad guys are and who the good guys have been up through ep2. There is no "grey side" so far unless you count adolescent puberty ... which seems funny but is really sad because it shows that Lucas has, if not sold out, at least decided that his audience can't handle moral questions. Or theological ones ... midichlorians [sp?]? Bah. I am perfectly capable of deciding that Solo (or Hamlet) are in the end "good guys" without forcing them into the mold of the prototypical hero.
... he can't handle true tragedy) the situations are -very- similar.
Ok so let us magnify the scale here just a bit and see if the point becomes evident:
If Hamlet had killed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after they had made an attack on him, rather than killing them because he knew that someone (Claudius) had told them to kill him then Hamlet would have been the righteous hero who prevailed in an upfront manner and there would have been no questions about it.
Instead he killed them through trickery and without -direct- evidence of their plans. Doing so made him the dark hero who was able to strike first when in jeopardy and left questions going long afterwards about whether he was "right" or whether he was presumptuous.
If you've seen the play (or Star Wars) more than once, then your questions are answered at the end. But for the first time viewer it lets you question for awhile the real motives behind the protagonist (and let's face it, Solo was at LEAST as much of a protagonist as Skywalker if you use the definition of change as the bases for a protagonist). It gives a much darker sheen to the movie.
It is specifically that darkness in the first three movies that have been obliterated so far in ep1 and ep2. There is no questioning of loyalties
Do I equate Lucas and Shakespeare? No. But Star Wars has probably had a much more profound affect on most people today than Hamlet and if you disregard the endings of the 2 characters (actually you shouldn't, since all of Lucas' characters seem to get just deserts at the end except for Anakin's mother and a few extras
After ep1 and ep2 I think that picture is probably EXACTLY what I think of when I imagine a Sith Lord.
Unfortunately you are stuck in that stupid catch-22 of the doctor not wanting to treat you without permission because if he -does- diagnose as a WC claim your insurance will refuse to pay for the diagnostic visit. My doctors have been the same way for years and after I had back surgery for a congenital problem my insurance company -still- paid a 3rd party not once but twice to make sure they were not paying for a WC or auto-related claim. Yet in the end my doctors and health insurance both are of high quality. My point is simply that I believe this is pretty much the standard today.
... as in you feeling bad for filing the claim (if you mean you are worried about your company HR attaching the stigma to you, that also -should- not happen but I don't know your company).
... people get hurt on the job. There should be no more stigma on your part for filing a WC claim than a normal insurance claim. Carpal tunnel is by no means the most expensive type of WC claim and it should not significantly raise your company's rates ... which means they are already paying for the policy and you should be able to avail yourself of it if you have an honest claim (not saying you don't) ... otherwise their money into the insurance is wasted.
There should be no stigma on your part
Your company is required to have workman's comp for a reason
If they refuse, then the answer is you appeal with whatever state agency oversees WC insurance in your area. You could need to sue, but if you do then you're working at the wrong company and they will probably end up paying up.
In alot of cases you can get a lawyer to work for you for a part of the settlement, meaning you shouldn't have much upfront cost.
BTW, I have known a few people with carpal tunnel and generally speaking unless it is -severe- the treatment is maybe a very minor surgery followed by physical therapy. Not trying to discourage you, only pointing out that the recovery can take a long time and you have to continue taking care of it for as long as you use a keyboard.
Agreed. For the last 3 years I've used HRblock.com's online preparation services and e-filed through them.
... twice I've needed to refer to my past year's taxes while out of the house and HRBlock keeps up to 3 years online at a time in PDF format
:)
It doesn't save any money over using the software locally that I've found so far but it has 3 distinct advantages:
1) Runs Mozilla (though you need to turn on pop-ups for that site since the entire application is in a pop-up)
2) Access from anywhere
3) I don't have to worry about trashing my drive without a backup of the data
And yes, it does contain some sensitive info but I don't have anything in my taxes that I really care if anyone sees beyond my SS# and HRblock.com seems to be no worse at security than anyone else. The only people I wish didn't have access to my tax info is the IRS and I don't get a choice there
If you want they will provide all the same analyses of your taxes as going into their office and they have online support (all for a fee of course), but I've found the information in the program enough to get my taxes done and itemize my mortgage, home office, etc.
If you want more fun, microwave it ... just don't do it for very long at a time.
Actually I think I would have liked "Firefly" better than "Firefox" and it would have good SciFi geek traction (for what that is worth :)
No no no, he is better off selling them on Ebay since alot of times people need to replace these screens and can't get them from the manufacturer. Then take the money and buy the cheap LCDs.
Not really at all.
... it is "just there" and is updated through Windows Update. Related to #1, if they are having to research IE they are probably doing so in some form of technical aspect.
... I agree with other posters who think storing search history is not something I want to see done ... but I don't think the results you mention are.
1) The people most likely to search for "web browser" or anything related to IE's homepage are most likely looking at alternatives. Most folks looking for IE know that the first thing to do is type "www.microsoft.com" and go from there.
2) Not very many people look for IE online in general
3) Microsoft doesn't market IE as a "web browser" online, it is a Windows component and as such would have far different content indexed than that of any of the listed browsers.
4) The search results you mention appear in almost the same order if you search for "web browser" on Google. Is that Fishy to you, too?
5) There ARE things about A9 that seem fishy
No, but they do sound related ... did yours go through his age 30 pre-mid-life crisis while you were there, getting an ear ring and occasionally looking VERY hungover on a schoolday?
The problem is that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro are too anal retentive in what they are willing to license.
The ruleset could be adapted for online play, but WotC spends so much time micromanaging it that the groups like BioWare can get bogged down for months (closer to a year in the case of some of the Neverwinter stuff) just making the WotC IP folks happy.
I will agree that D&D is not the best system to adapt to electronic form (though the number crunching issue should be a non-issue for that, if anything electronic gaming makes that bit better for the player) but the D20 system helped that somewhat and they still have a large chest of source material to pull from.
Not to mention mindshare, which is huge in video gaming.
To paraphrase my H.S. band teacher "I got it, I just didn't want it".
Sorry, you missed out on what I think would be your #0 ...
... and you know what, as long as they support it I don't even care that I don't have the source to the ATI driver).
0.) Driver support from the vendor side
Even if we had directX compatibility we would still be missing video drivers, storage drivers, etc. All of those items, to be a sustainable resource, have to come from the horses mouth (as in I can get my Radeon working with the Open driver, but to get 3D acceleration I need the binary driver from ATI
XBox and PS2 may have decent, if different, online gaming architecture but neither has enough games for online play to make me remotely interested in paying the extra.
... Nintendo still has plenty of time to work out their strategy.
There is a LONG way to go in the online console world
Same old doublespeak. Absolutely nothing not heard before.
Set up a daily scheduled event (yes, Windows can do that) that runs a batch file that:
/s :
dir
for each drive and then export a copy of the registry (I believe the Windows registry tools will export from a command-line, if not Perl could do so easily).
Keep 2 days of files, the current day and the previous day. At the end of the batch run a diff (I think DOS had a diff utility under a different name, if not get one of the ported versions of the real diff) and just store the diffs of the 2 days long term.
Perhaps once per month keep 1 full copy of the dir and registry results, cleaning them up on a yearly basis perhaps, just as a referrence in case you need to shuffle through the diff'ed results.
As pointed out by others, this is almost surely not a reality yet.
And no, it's not going to use a real GPS transmitter.
But the implications of this even as a thought (and while not real I bet it -has- been proposed to government folks as a concept) strike right back at the heart of the RFID debate.
While RFID may not be strong enough via commercial application to track this more than a few dozen feet, I am sure that with the right amount of money a much more sensitive receptor could be engineered. Even if not, having many very inexpensive receptors in various locations could form a detection mesh.
I sort of think that if anyone shot an RFID tag into me at high velocity I would probably be aware of it, but there are plenty of other ways to tag a person or item without them necessarily detecting it (anyone here ever slip a library anti-theft tag into someone's backpack?).
Since it comes down to the same ideas as gun control (ie, the criminals can always get the guns even if it is illegal just like the government can always aquire RFID trackers even if they legislate them out of the public sector), we're back to the same idea of needing to find ways to destroy and/or shield RFIDs.
I can't do much about the microwave interference.
... prime food times.
My wireless ISP antenna is a point-to-point antenna pointing at a location about 1.2 miles away.
Unfortunately there are 4 restaurants -directly- in a 2D line (slightly lower than the AP in a 3D line, but close enough). Interference skyrockets from 11:30am - 2:30pm and 5pm - 8pm
Because of this, the ISP connection can only successfully use a couple of the frequencies that are not as badly hit by the microwaves.
Since this is a point-to-point reception issue, and not a broadcast style reception problem, the amount of interference from a commercial microwave doesn't have to be nearly so much as it would to inject trouble as a wide signal.
In and of itself, not a big problem for me, just one of the issues that combine to make 802.11b verrrrry crowded up here.
The fact that there are 2 competitors to my ISP also in a direct line for my antenna doesn't help, but they tend to use different parts of the 11 channel spectrum so as long as no one pops up yet another AP I'm ok there.
FWIW, I've found that my Siemens 8825 doesn't give significant 802.11b interference, but my old Panasonic phone would completely destroy channel 1.
Also FWIW, while my very new microwave doesn't interfere with my 802.11b, it does cause crackles on my Siemens phone if I am standing with the microwave between me and the base station, assuming I am at least 40' from the station.
Point? Not much this far down, just posting it in case someone finds it as a search I guess.
This will destroy wireless ISP communities.
I already have only -2- channels that I can reliably use in my house without interference. Every other channel is in use for ISP access in our community or gets interference from cordless phones and microwaves.
If you want more throughput, use different frequencies. Even if they are close to 802.11b/g that is better than going into the already established spectrum.
Yes, I know that this is not mandated or regulated space, so there is not much I can do to enforce my needs. However unregulated waves only work if people make an effort to play well together.
It's /. ... sometimes they don't get that they are creating innuendo. The title doesn't -say- that the 3300 employees have anything to do with the USV halt, it just allows for the connection to be made.
Sad thing is, the 3,300 layoffs were announced at the same time as the Microsoft deal last week and the MS deal just took the lion's share of the press.
While Linux has advanced in many places, most people who were interested in it on mainframes quickly realized that it didn't fit so good there.
Major differences were required in the kernel to support a scalable Linux at that level which meant source code compatibility wasn't always reliable. This meant that even though it was Linux, you still had to have a core team trained up on the intricacies of the mainframe system and programming and so it is still costly (you may need 5 people to maintain the same # of machines that a mainframe can handle with just 1 operator, but the cost of salary for that 1 mainframe specialist may be close to 5 times the cost of the average web farm maintainer which is often just a kid in college happy to make triple minimum wage).
Additionally many of the early Linux mainframe deals were for hosting services where the mainframe functioned as a place to store many many many Linux virtual machines, the end effect of that being that it didn't reduce over all system maintenance much except on the hardware level. The markets where many many many linux virtual machines are needed are often served fine by smaller hardware in bulk that can be updated regularly over time.
It's not dead, but it definitely didn't live up to expectations that IBM set.
Linux is still better suited for the mid-size and smaller hardware world. May change but IBM expected it to change very fast. Plus, 15% of new mainframes is not that large of a number. Most mainframe sales now are into existing mainframe users, it is not a growth market.
I think I saw it but I remembered it as not having a tremendous affect on the overall direction of the show. My memory is faulty though :)
The better question is, who remembers the X-Files crossover with Strange Luck? I thought that show had serious potential and I could see a movie or mini-series coming out of it to finish it up since it died the quiet middle-of-the-season death.
And they finally figured it out and killed it even though the ratings were still acceptable to keep a show on the air.
... it just wasn't M*A*S*H* anymore.
The problem with M*A*S*H* was it was a comedy for awhile, then a comedic drama, then a drama with some comedy. I agree with you on that. However, I think the latter show could have stood on its own if they would have acknowledged the change. As a drama it still had some very good episodes
Look back at any media: TV/movie, music or print, and you'll most likely find 10 (at a minimum) "ripoffs" for every truly original idea.
... and yet you still found ST's version interesting enough to call something that is only -possibly- derivative a "ripoff".
... not always and often it is worse (as in every show that has mimic'ed the already way overused "holodeck") but nothing will change the fact that original concepts are quite rare.
In fact, I can already think of at least one prior art to this concept in the Batman episode (Batman was a year or two before ST) where the U.N. Security Council (I think) was dehydrated into dust and reconstituted after their containers were mixed, causing personalities to appear in the wrong bodies.
I strongly doubt that Batman's writers were the first with the idea
Sometimes the 2nd time -is- better (like the Matrix versus so many previous attempts at an artificial electronic noncorporeal ecosystem)