Duke Nukem was a great game - many hours played over the phone lines and single player. One fond memory I have is tinkering with the Duke Nukem game settings file. IIRC you change all sorts of things like bullet damage, explosion radius, health, etc.. I once set the radius high enough that you could kill all the enemies in the level with one RPG round aimed at the floor. Then walk around and witness the carnage.;)
Yeah, I looked at my in-laws new truck loaded with seat warmers, large touch-screen interface, maps, voice activation, backup camera, etc. etc. and my first thought was: nice, but this will be damn expensive to repair with so much electronics to go wrong. That would actually shy me away from buying one.
Fair points - the usability experience from Microsoft hasn't been great in many areas. A lot of people do like Windows 7's UI. On the other hand, the Office Ribbon is a horrible abomination. Perhaps they are more of a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde in the UI department.:)
I will rephrase my original statement: with the amount of experience Microsoft has designing user interfaces, I would expect better from them.
The XBox 360 interface isn't any worse than PS3 or Wii, but yes it does need work. Certainly, I'd expect more from a company whose core business is user interfaces. The UI is also too sluggish.
While I like the Kinect, those games should offer the ability to move through menus with the controller as well as with hand gestures. What takes me 20 or 30 seconds to do with hand gestures could be done in 5 seconds with a controller. This isn't rocket science - I'm not sure why nobody's made that happen or that it's not part of the XBox UI guidelines.
I can't say anything good about the durability of the XBox 360. My old XBox original is still alive and kicking, yet I'm on my 3rd XBox 360. My Wii and PS3 are still running fine, too.
The XBox 360 is still my favourite console, but I hope some/all of these issues are addressed in the next generation console.
With a proper hosting company you should have better hardware redundancy than you would get with a home setup. More than one network link, for example, and redundant switching hardware.
You'd also have staff monitoring network status and responding to DOS attacks. I'm not sure how you'd handle a DOS against a home server.
Another thing is security - if you've got your tax returns and other personal documents accessible on your home network - the same one the minecraft server is running on - you may be putting those at risk to a security breach.
So yeah, it's cheaper to run at home, but you're not getting all the extras that a VPS has, either. That said, starting with a server at home is a good test to see if you want to trade up to a more expensive, hosted setup later on (when you have a user base and cash donations start coming in).
I've given up sugary drinks and diet drinks. Neither are good for you. Carbonated water (and optionally a bit of fruit juice for flavouring) satisfies my bubbly drink cravings these days.
Microsoft really needs to improve their XBox UI, in particular the online store UI, if they want this to do really well. For instance, make it more responsive, give me better filtering options, let me remove items so I don't keep scrolling through the same stuff that I'm not interested in.
I've bought a bunch of games online and, while I hate to not have the ability to sell a game after I've played it, realistically the resale value (of the types of games I buy) is pitiful. I'm more happy not to have to switch disks all the time. That being said, the price of XBox hard disks needs to come down, too. Ideally, let the user plug in their own USB3 hard disk or perform some other upgrade on their own.
I recently bought a new Asus desktop for just under $1k including tax and shipping from a big box store. 16GB RAM, quad core i7 3.4GHz, 2TB hard disk, decent sound and video. A Mac with those specs would be eye-popping expensive. Though, to be fair, it's hard to find those specs in a non-Mac PC for that price, too. Of course, it depends on what you want to do with the machine and there are other factors to consider.
I base it on the proliferation and popularity of mp3 sharing sites (Napster, etc.). You didn't see.wav (or any other audio format) sharing sites before mp3 came around even though.wav files were around for as long as Windows was, and other formats before it. Hardly 'baseless' as you say.
I'm not saying I agree with how the mp3 format was licensed, but it is indeed a technology worthy of mention in a discussion about software patents.
I'm surprised that Windows 8 didn't make the list, too. When you have store clerks swaying customers towards Windows 7 equipped laptops to avoid the Windows 8 "experiment", that's got to indicate some sort of major failure.
A problem I find is that my muscle memory is tied to typing computer terms, so I often misspell ordinary words as a similar, computing-related word. I've never progressed past 106wpm (probably not that fast anymore as I've gotten a little sloppy). I can't really imaging 'scaling up' to 160 wpm without making a personal breakthrough on typing efficiency.
The point is there needs to be a legal framework in place so such expenditures are protected.
I suggest that for starters treating all space bodies as public domain is the best way to go.
Otherwise, how do you separate people with plans in motion to go there from those who are merely being 'patent trolls' by claiming something and doing nothing with it? Or claiming something with the specific purpose of making sure someone else can't make use of it?
Having ownership in space seems destined to create an 'artificial scarcity'. Maybe I'm wrong, but an ownership based framework seems ripe for greedy people to abuse.
They're not alone. I sent a family member an email with a link and they said the link didn't work. I tried it again myself and it did, in fact, work. Turns out the email client they were using didn't hilight the URL as a clickable link. You think people would know how to copy/paste that sort of thing these days but that's not the case.
In his reply, Jono claims that Stallman's views on privacy do not align with Canonical's, that some of his statements are worded in order to 'generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Ubuntu'
I think RMS' views generated more awareness than FUD. Honestly, I'm not satisfied by Jono Bacon's rebuttal. He says:
Today it is not perfect – we need to improve the accuracy of the results, present the data more effectively, and continue to expand the coverage and capabilities of the data in dash searches.
No mention of enhancing privacy?
Naturally, privacy is critically important to us in doing this work. In the eight year history of Ubuntu and Canonical we have always put privacy forward as a high priority across the many, many different websites, services, and software that forms the Ubuntu platform and community.
Why do local searches send search queries over the web without the user's knowledge or consent?
We want Ubuntu to be a safe, predictable, and pleasurable platform for everyone, irrespective of their personal views on privacy, but we also respect that there will be some folks who don’t feel we are doing enough to represent their particular personal privacy needs.
When I use a web browser, I assume everything I do is sent over the web. When I do a local search on my computer, I don't expect any information about my search to hit the web. How is sending local search data over the web safe or predictable?
The challenge of course is that privacy is a deeply personal thing and the way in which you define your privacy expectations will likely radically differ from each of your friends, and vice-versa.
So inform the user of what is about to happen and allow them to proceed or opt out, and remember that setting. Everybody's happy.
Slashdot Mirror
This tech would work great with the MacBook Wheel. I see you rolling your eyes there - exactly.
Duke Nukem was a great game - many hours played over the phone lines and single player. One fond memory I have is tinkering with the Duke Nukem game settings file. IIRC you change all sorts of things like bullet damage, explosion radius, health, etc.. I once set the radius high enough that you could kill all the enemies in the level with one RPG round aimed at the floor. Then walk around and witness the carnage. ;)
I've never been a fan of MSIE, but to say "most" would cheer for its demise seems a little gratuitous. Competition is good.
Yeah, I looked at my in-laws new truck loaded with seat warmers, large touch-screen interface, maps, voice activation, backup camera, etc. etc. and my first thought was: nice, but this will be damn expensive to repair with so much electronics to go wrong. That would actually shy me away from buying one.
Fair points - the usability experience from Microsoft hasn't been great in many areas. A lot of people do like Windows 7's UI. On the other hand, the Office Ribbon is a horrible abomination. Perhaps they are more of a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde in the UI department. :)
I will rephrase my original statement: with the amount of experience Microsoft has designing user interfaces, I would expect better from them.
While I like the Kinect, those games should offer the ability to move through menus with the controller as well as with hand gestures. What takes me 20 or 30 seconds to do with hand gestures could be done in 5 seconds with a controller. This isn't rocket science - I'm not sure why nobody's made that happen or that it's not part of the XBox UI guidelines.
I can't say anything good about the durability of the XBox 360. My old XBox original is still alive and kicking, yet I'm on my 3rd XBox 360. My Wii and PS3 are still running fine, too.
The XBox 360 is still my favourite console, but I hope some/all of these issues are addressed in the next generation console.
With a proper hosting company you should have better hardware redundancy than you would get with a home setup. More than one network link, for example, and redundant switching hardware. You'd also have staff monitoring network status and responding to DOS attacks. I'm not sure how you'd handle a DOS against a home server. Another thing is security - if you've got your tax returns and other personal documents accessible on your home network - the same one the minecraft server is running on - you may be putting those at risk to a security breach. So yeah, it's cheaper to run at home, but you're not getting all the extras that a VPS has, either. That said, starting with a server at home is a good test to see if you want to trade up to a more expensive, hosted setup later on (when you have a user base and cash donations start coming in).
I've given up sugary drinks and diet drinks. Neither are good for you. Carbonated water (and optionally a bit of fruit juice for flavouring) satisfies my bubbly drink cravings these days.
Microsoft really needs to improve their XBox UI, in particular the online store UI, if they want this to do really well. For instance, make it more responsive, give me better filtering options, let me remove items so I don't keep scrolling through the same stuff that I'm not interested in. I've bought a bunch of games online and, while I hate to not have the ability to sell a game after I've played it, realistically the resale value (of the types of games I buy) is pitiful. I'm more happy not to have to switch disks all the time. That being said, the price of XBox hard disks needs to come down, too. Ideally, let the user plug in their own USB3 hard disk or perform some other upgrade on their own.
I recently bought a new Asus desktop for just under $1k including tax and shipping from a big box store. 16GB RAM, quad core i7 3.4GHz, 2TB hard disk, decent sound and video. A Mac with those specs would be eye-popping expensive. Though, to be fair, it's hard to find those specs in a non-Mac PC for that price, too. Of course, it depends on what you want to do with the machine and there are other factors to consider.
I'm not saying I agree with how the mp3 format was licensed, but it is indeed a technology worthy of mention in a discussion about software patents.
How about the MP3 audio encoding format? It revolutionized digital music distribution.
I'm surprised that Windows 8 didn't make the list, too. When you have store clerks swaying customers towards Windows 7 equipped laptops to avoid the Windows 8 "experiment", that's got to indicate some sort of major failure.
I just donated $10 via paypal.
A problem I find is that my muscle memory is tied to typing computer terms, so I often misspell ordinary words as a similar, computing-related word. I've never progressed past 106wpm (probably not that fast anymore as I've gotten a little sloppy). I can't really imaging 'scaling up' to 160 wpm without making a personal breakthrough on typing efficiency.
I suggest that for starters treating all space bodies as public domain is the best way to go.
Otherwise, how do you separate people with plans in motion to go there from those who are merely being 'patent trolls' by claiming something and doing nothing with it? Or claiming something with the specific purpose of making sure someone else can't make use of it?
Having ownership in space seems destined to create an 'artificial scarcity'. Maybe I'm wrong, but an ownership based framework seems ripe for greedy people to abuse.
It should at *least* only apply to photos uploaded after the deadline. Applying this new policy retroactively should be illegal, frankly.
If this thrilling flyby is real, their PR department should be fired.
Where are you getting 16 years from? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Temperature_Anomaly_1880-2010_(Fig.A).gif The trend in temperature is clearly 'up' and has been for many years.
I do think it's a good idea to make some effort to preserve the pictures, though, for historical reasons.
They're not alone. I sent a family member an email with a link and they said the link didn't work. I tried it again myself and it did, in fact, work. Turns out the email client they were using didn't hilight the URL as a clickable link. You think people would know how to copy/paste that sort of thing these days but that's not the case.
Weren't there plans to scuttle the ISS at one point?
I think RMS' views generated more awareness than FUD. Honestly, I'm not satisfied by Jono Bacon's rebuttal. He says:
No mention of enhancing privacy?
Why do local searches send search queries over the web without the user's knowledge or consent?
When I use a web browser, I assume everything I do is sent over the web. When I do a local search on my computer, I don't expect any information about my search to hit the web. How is sending local search data over the web safe or predictable?
So inform the user of what is about to happen and allow them to proceed or opt out, and remember that setting. Everybody's happy.