If you ask me, for something like this using the decimal units is the only way to go. The decimal units are more easily human readable. Using the binary units, most users would not be sure how many more bytes they have until they reach the cap. Even people familiar with the binary units would have to do a little mental calculation to figure out exactly how much they have left.
While the binary measurements can be more convenient for a programmer they really only hinder common users. The computer should be designed to accomodate the users rather than forcing the users to accomodate the computer.
The bit about melting steel is a response to the fact that the conspiracy theorists often cite quotes from people saying that they saw pools of "molten steel" or "molten metal" among the rubble after the towers collapsed. The conspiracy theorists say that since jet fuel (kerosene) doesn't burn hot enough to melt steel (a claim which can be disputed), something else must have melted the steel.
Of course, the so-called "pools of molten steel" could also have been pools of other metals and most people wouldn't know the difference.
As far as I can tell, the only demographics that are willing to pay that much for it are wealthy families with spoiled children and single adults with moderately high paying jobs. Their price pretty much cuts middle class families out of the loop and I just don't see how they can make enough sales without them.
Currently, it's extremely unlikely a game coul be a hit if it isn't on store shelves. While online retailers do get their share of sales and online distribution mechanisms such as Steam have some promise, brick and mortar retailers are still responsible for the majority of a game's sales.
The fact that a game is banned may increase its desirability among a certain segment of the population but most of them will still have difficulty obtaining it if stores aren't carrying it.
Now if you said that banning the game would greatly increase the number of people pirating it, I'd have to agree with you.
Well he's getting 3 months (probably in a minimum security prison) followed by 3 months home confinement. Plus he owes $25000 for a fine and restitution. I'd say that seems reasonable.
He can use his 6 months off to figure out what he's going to do when he gets out.
It's not going to happen. This is from Wikipedia and it pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject:
It is unclear whether the hypothetical molecular nanotechnology, if ever realized, would be capable of creating grey goo at all. Among other common refutations, theorists suggest that the very size of nanoparticles inhibits them from moving very quickly. While the biological matter that composes life releases significant amounts of energy when oxidised, and other sources of energy such as sunlight are available, this energy might not be sufficient for the putative nanorobots to out-compete existing organic life that already uses those resources, especially considering how much energy nanorobots would use for locomotion. If the nanomachine was itself composed of organic molecules, then it might even find itself being preyed upon by preexisting bacteria and other natural life forms. One convenient analogy for the grey goo problem is to consider bacteria as the most perfect example of biological nanotechnology; as they have not reduced the world to grey goo, it is unlikely that some artificial construct will manage to do so.
If nanorobots were built of inorganic compounds or made much use of elements that are not generally found in living matter, then they would need to use much of their metabolic output for fighting entropy as they purified (reduce sand to silicon, for instance) and synthesized the necessary building blocks. There would be little chemical energy available from inorganic matter such as rocks because, aside from a few exceptions (coal, for example) it's mostly well-oxidized and sitting in a free-energy minimum.
French sci-fi actually. It was written and directed by Luc Besson, the designs for the future technology were made by Jean Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, and it was made by a French production company (although it was filmed in England).
I'm guessing that they filmed in English and used a largely American/British cast in order to reach a larger market.
It was straightforward enough for me. Just push the stick in the direction you want to go and if the camera changes change the direction you're pushing. Of course I still needed to change camera modes to cross narrow paths.
The way I would do it is that you would control movement with the analog stick in your left hand. Normally the motion sensitive control would just change the direction that Link turns his head. However, when you target an enemy by holding a trigger button it switches control schemes. The analog stick would let you strafe around the enemy as in other 3D Zelda games and the motion sensitive control would control the sword. You could make stabbing motions for thrusting attacks and swipe it for slashing attacks (this could be more interesting if the sword on screen slashes in the same direction as you do). This still leaves a lot of gestures for other actions. You could pull the controller back to jump backwards. You could point the controller up to defend with your shield. You could hold the controller sideways to parry attacks.
This control scheme leaves lots of buttons free for assigning items to and for various special abilities. The motion sensitive controller could also be used with your items. You could swipe the controller across the screen to specify the path that the boomerang flies across. In past games it took time to aim the hookshot, but you could do it instantly by just pointing it at an object.
It seems to me like the new controller is ideally suited for Zelda type games. How well all of these ideas will actually work remains to be seen though.
This is the Bush administration we're talking about. They all use HTML mail with lots of attached graphics. On top of that, many messages get forwarded hundreds of times.
As I recall, the first chain chomps were in Super Mario Bros. 3. The only Zelda games that predate SMB3 were the first and second Zelda games and neither of them had chain chomps in them.
The writer was using a voice recognition system and he has a lisp. While the voice recognition system managed to correct the other S's based on context, unsinkable was replaced with unthinkable.
Michael Pachter is seemingly unsinkable. His body is divided into sixteen compartments that can be sealed off so that even if some of them are breached the others will remain watertight.
I've got a feeling that while the Revolution may allow precise controls, what it will be better for is broad, sweeping movements. I've never played a game that reproduced what it's like to hit a very small, fast target with a shot gun. In real life that kind of shooting is much more fun than trying to hold steady to hit a stationary or slow moving target.
I'm hoping that they'll try to produce some games that are much different from a traditional FPS. They have the opportunity to do things that can't be done with a mouse.
I wouldn't discount point 10 so readily. Petty internal squabbles can prevent companies from making ideal decisions. Despite the fact that the gaming division is Sony's most successful division, it's entirely possible that the electronics division could have more influence on Sony's executives.
An idea I had for a ranking system would be to adapt a method used to determine the most influential person in a social network.
You just put all of the records of how many times each player has killed every other player in a big matrix and compute the eigenvector with the largest positive real eigenvalue. The larger a player's entry is in this eigenvector, the more skilled they are. This method takes into consideration both how many people a player has killed and how many kills those people have and how many kills the people they've killed have and so on. Using this method you can also develop methods for estimating the probability that one player will defeat another particular player.
The matrix can be viewed as the adjacency matrix of a multigraph. The skill level of a player is determined by the number paths starting at that player's vertex. If computing the eigenvector is too difficult you can come up with a reasonable approximation of the players' skill levels by only considering paths up to a certain length.
I have a better idea. I call it Knifeocracy. The idea is that instead of elections, you have knife fights. If you can beat a member of congress in a knife fight you can take his or her seat (although you would have to go through a series of preliminary matches before facing the incumbent otherwise all of their time would be taken up by knife fights). Incumbents cannot resign and their term in office ends only once they die.
This wouldn't really choose better leaders, but then again our current system doesn't seem to pick anyone of any value whatsoever so we might as well create a system that's more entertaining than the current one. What redeems Knifeocracy is that it incorporates a principle that is sadly missing from all of the forms of government humanity has ever tried. That principle is that a society's leaders should be made to suffer for the entertainment of the people they govern. And as an added bonus we can sell tickets to the knife fights and televise them to fund the government.
With this form of government, no matter how bad a leader is you can take comfort in the fact that he or she will never get out of their office alive. That's good enough for me.
Slashdot Mirror
If you ask me, for something like this using the decimal units is the only way to go. The decimal units are more easily human readable. Using the binary units, most users would not be sure how many more bytes they have until they reach the cap. Even people familiar with the binary units would have to do a little mental calculation to figure out exactly how much they have left.
While the binary measurements can be more convenient for a programmer they really only hinder common users. The computer should be designed to accomodate the users rather than forcing the users to accomodate the computer.
I think he's talking about the so called "make my day" laws in some states.
A Blu-Ray player is completely worthless until there is content for it to play.
The bit about melting steel is a response to the fact that the conspiracy theorists often cite quotes from people saying that they saw pools of "molten steel" or "molten metal" among the rubble after the towers collapsed. The conspiracy theorists say that since jet fuel (kerosene) doesn't burn hot enough to melt steel (a claim which can be disputed), something else must have melted the steel.
Of course, the so-called "pools of molten steel" could also have been pools of other metals and most people wouldn't know the difference.
What percentage of parents are willing and able to spend $600 (or even $500) on a single Christmas present?
So who are they going to sell the thing to?
As far as I can tell, the only demographics that are willing to pay that much for it are wealthy families with spoiled children and single adults with moderately high paying jobs. Their price pretty much cuts middle class families out of the loop and I just don't see how they can make enough sales without them.
These days Windows is stable enough with the right device drivers. If they put the system through enough testing then I'm fine with it.
Overrated
Currently, it's extremely unlikely a game coul be a hit if it isn't on store shelves. While online retailers do get their share of sales and online distribution mechanisms such as Steam have some promise, brick and mortar retailers are still responsible for the majority of a game's sales.
The fact that a game is banned may increase its desirability among a certain segment of the population but most of them will still have difficulty obtaining it if stores aren't carrying it.
Now if you said that banning the game would greatly increase the number of people pirating it, I'd have to agree with you.
Well he's getting 3 months (probably in a minimum security prison) followed by 3 months home confinement. Plus he owes $25000 for a fine and restitution. I'd say that seems reasonable.
He can use his 6 months off to figure out what he's going to do when he gets out.
It's not going to happen. This is from Wikipedia and it pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject:
It is unclear whether the hypothetical molecular nanotechnology, if ever realized, would be capable of creating grey goo at all. Among other common refutations, theorists suggest that the very size of nanoparticles inhibits them from moving very quickly. While the biological matter that composes life releases significant amounts of energy when oxidised, and other sources of energy such as sunlight are available, this energy might not be sufficient for the putative nanorobots to out-compete existing organic life that already uses those resources, especially considering how much energy nanorobots would use for locomotion. If the nanomachine was itself composed of organic molecules, then it might even find itself being preyed upon by preexisting bacteria and other natural life forms. One convenient analogy for the grey goo problem is to consider bacteria as the most perfect example of biological nanotechnology; as they have not reduced the world to grey goo, it is unlikely that some artificial construct will manage to do so.
If nanorobots were built of inorganic compounds or made much use of elements that are not generally found in living matter, then they would need to use much of their metabolic output for fighting entropy as they purified (reduce sand to silicon, for instance) and synthesized the necessary building blocks. There would be little chemical energy available from inorganic matter such as rocks because, aside from a few exceptions (coal, for example) it's mostly well-oxidized and sitting in a free-energy minimum.
French sci-fi actually. It was written and directed by Luc Besson, the designs for the future technology were made by Jean Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières, and it was made by a French production company (although it was filmed in England).
I'm guessing that they filmed in English and used a largely American/British cast in order to reach a larger market.
It was straightforward enough for me. Just push the stick in the direction you want to go and if the camera changes change the direction you're pushing. Of course I still needed to change camera modes to cross narrow paths.
I don't see why you would say that.
The way I would do it is that you would control movement with the analog stick in your left hand. Normally the motion sensitive control would just change the direction that Link turns his head. However, when you target an enemy by holding a trigger button it switches control schemes. The analog stick would let you strafe around the enemy as in other 3D Zelda games and the motion sensitive control would control the sword. You could make stabbing motions for thrusting attacks and swipe it for slashing attacks (this could be more interesting if the sword on screen slashes in the same direction as you do). This still leaves a lot of gestures for other actions. You could pull the controller back to jump backwards. You could point the controller up to defend with your shield. You could hold the controller sideways to parry attacks.
This control scheme leaves lots of buttons free for assigning items to and for various special abilities. The motion sensitive controller could also be used with your items. You could swipe the controller across the screen to specify the path that the boomerang flies across. In past games it took time to aim the hookshot, but you could do it instantly by just pointing it at an object.
It seems to me like the new controller is ideally suited for Zelda type games. How well all of these ideas will actually work remains to be seen though.
Damn it, I was really hoping that a wolphin would be a wolf/dolphin hybrid.
This is the Bush administration we're talking about. They all use HTML mail with lots of attached graphics. On top of that, many messages get forwarded hundreds of times.
As I recall, the first chain chomps were in Super Mario Bros. 3. The only Zelda games that predate SMB3 were the first and second Zelda games and neither of them had chain chomps in them.
It would be interesting to have kitchen counters with builtin inductive charging pads and a full set of appliances that use them.
Hint: using ASDF (with F in place of W) is vastly superior to WASD. That is all.
The writer was using a voice recognition system and he has a lisp. While the voice recognition system managed to correct the other S's based on context, unsinkable was replaced with unthinkable.
Michael Pachter is seemingly unsinkable. His body is divided into sixteen compartments that can be sealed off so that even if some of them are breached the others will remain watertight.
I've got a feeling that while the Revolution may allow precise controls, what it will be better for is broad, sweeping movements. I've never played a game that reproduced what it's like to hit a very small, fast target with a shot gun. In real life that kind of shooting is much more fun than trying to hold steady to hit a stationary or slow moving target.
I'm hoping that they'll try to produce some games that are much different from a traditional FPS. They have the opportunity to do things that can't be done with a mouse.
I wouldn't discount point 10 so readily. Petty internal squabbles can prevent companies from making ideal decisions. Despite the fact that the gaming division is Sony's most successful division, it's entirely possible that the electronics division could have more influence on Sony's executives.
Damn it, I was thinking of the same thing.
An idea I had for a ranking system would be to adapt a method used to determine the most influential person in a social network.
You just put all of the records of how many times each player has killed every other player in a big matrix and compute the eigenvector with the largest positive real eigenvalue. The larger a player's entry is in this eigenvector, the more skilled they are. This method takes into consideration both how many people a player has killed and how many kills those people have and how many kills the people they've killed have and so on. Using this method you can also develop methods for estimating the probability that one player will defeat another particular player.
The matrix can be viewed as the adjacency matrix of a multigraph. The skill level of a player is determined by the number paths starting at that player's vertex. If computing the eigenvector is too difficult you can come up with a reasonable approximation of the players' skill levels by only considering paths up to a certain length.
I have a better idea. I call it Knifeocracy. The idea is that instead of elections, you have knife fights. If you can beat a member of congress in a knife fight you can take his or her seat (although you would have to go through a series of preliminary matches before facing the incumbent otherwise all of their time would be taken up by knife fights). Incumbents cannot resign and their term in office ends only once they die.
This wouldn't really choose better leaders, but then again our current system doesn't seem to pick anyone of any value whatsoever so we might as well create a system that's more entertaining than the current one. What redeems Knifeocracy is that it incorporates a principle that is sadly missing from all of the forms of government humanity has ever tried. That principle is that a society's leaders should be made to suffer for the entertainment of the people they govern. And as an added bonus we can sell tickets to the knife fights and televise them to fund the government.
With this form of government, no matter how bad a leader is you can take comfort in the fact that he or she will never get out of their office alive. That's good enough for me.