we've had this at RIT for a long time. The teachers coded it. It's really really tricky. Basically they have the attitude of, if you can get by the cheating program, then you know what you're doing and deserve the grade you get.
but not the XBox, it doesn't solve any size problems. I like the idea that I don't have to open the computer to change cards. But I would also like to not have to fiddle with ribbon cables. I want all my drives 5.25 and 3.5 to be hot swap. Just slide in and out while the computer is on, and they get auto configured like USB. Also nix the PS/2, serial, and paralell ports. I want like 8 USBs instead of 2. And on RAID boards with 4 IDE plugs put them all next to each other. Not two in the normal spot and two over by the PCI slots.
Putting stuff on the other side of the board has advantages and disadvantages, but however you do it a shrink in board size will rock. You will no longer need a full tower case to get a bunch of drives in. Mid tower cases will be able to hold as many drives as full towers do now if you shrink the board.
As for cooling, look at other small computers, like console systems. Especially the GameCube. It has one fant blowing air in on one side, out on the other. Because of it's small size, it becomes easier to cool, not harder. You have less fans, moving more air.
I been thinking, you can buy a hardware decoder for DVDs. But you have to use software decoding for all of the other digital video formats. If I could get a decoder that did mpg, avi, quicktime, real, windows media, and divx. That would kick ass. I wouldn't have to have 100 different media players either. All I would need is a tiny little program that takes the output from the decoder card and puts it up full screen. It would let me actually use my computer while watching videos too!
At the Rochester Institute of Technology (www.rit.edu) where I am a current student we have a very nice LDAP directory. It contains info on all the people here. I use it all the time when people give me their e-mail addresses in order to find their phone numbers. It's extremely handy. I don't know how they set it up or what they use, but it has a web interface.
analog sticks are better because if you move them a little bit you move a little bit on screen. If you move them all the way to the edge you move a lot on screen. So if you are controlling a character who walks around you can make it tiptoe, sneak, walk, run, and go into a mad dash by moving the stick more. with a digital pad you are either going or not going in one of 8 directions. analog allows pretty much 360 degrees of movement.
you're right GT3 kicks ass. But I'm not gonna buy a system for one game. GameCube has like so many, and it goes with my GBA too, which has a huge pile of awesome games.
The PS2 controller is good. Except I don't like the L3 and R3 buttons, I think that's a poor implementation because they can be accidentally pressed while using the analog stick. Also the buttons are analog so the more you press the faster you go.
The XBox controller IS bulky and overdone. You can't reach all the buttons. However, the GameCube is just Nintendo's style. It's not bulky, just looks that way. The Z button is poorly placed some day, but you never need it the same time you need the R button, so it doesn't matter. It's design makes it look very uncomfortable as well, just like the 64 controller. But when you hold it, it's fine. The best part is that the L and R buttons are analog, and you know how hard you are pressing them because they go up and down more than a millimeter. And you know when you've reached max because they click. On the PS2 controller you always push harder, just in case it might get you that extra bit of speed, because there is no indication of when you've reached the maximum that the analog buttons allow.
PS2 controller = good, Gamecube = slightly better, XBox = ow, my hands hurt.
The only one that makes me need a PS2 there, is GT 3. MGS2 and FFX will eventually come out for PC. MSG1 and FF 7 and 8 did. 9 will, I hear. I don't like ICO or frequency that much. And as for GT3 that's 1 game. And it's not worth the 300$ system.
After the new console war I just don't see a real reason to buy an XBox or a PS2. I mean, if you don't have a DVD player, and you have lots of PS1 games, A PS2 is sweet. But there aren't any PS2 games that aren't available elsewhere that make the PS2 a must buy.
The XBox, if you take into account only the games available for it and not the defects and stupid gamepads and large size, etc. Has about ZERO games that make me want to rush out and buy it.
The GameCube, however, has. Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Brothers, Metroid, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. All of these games make me want to rush out and buy a GameCube.
The PS2 and the XBox have good games. I mean Devil May Cry, GTA 3, Halo, are some damn nice stuffs. But Devil May Cry has the stupid ending. GTA 3 will eventually be available on PC. And I can't play an FPS without a keyboard and a mouse.
Many people have referred to open source at being communist. Well, I don't think it is, but the communists seem to like it a lot. Sure, it may just be because of the easter eggs in chinese win95. However, China being communist and all, doesn't have as many extremely wealthy people, as the US. What it does have is a billion not extremely rich people. The government of these people have most likely chosen *nix as their operating system of choice. The os of choice in china will most likely be linux in the coming years. Someone has to put out a good chinese linux distribution, and write linux software in chinese, etc. We need more people to use linux and not windows. Well, here is a billion of them.
has a nice boxed set of DVDs out. It's got every episode of Flying Circus ever. EVER. We wont be watching it marathon style on New Years, or maybe ever. But it's good to have.
I see nothing wrong with the GBA screen other than the dependency on lighting. Which I'm willing to accept because it means highly increased battery life. Other than that it's a vast improvement on past gameboys.
As for this internet connection thing. It's pretty cool and all. But I'm so not buying into it. First of all, it's not an officially licensed Nintendo product. 3rd party hardware and peripherals suck. Also, if I'm going to play a game online, why would I sit next to a computer with a little GBA and a USB cable? I have a COMPUTER, I'll play me some (insert 3d online multiplayer game). Now what would be amazing would be if I could be driving in my car and playing against a kid in his car in California, with absolutely no wires attatched to my GBA. That I would buy no matter who made it.
The only reason the GameCube hasn't sold more than the PS2 is because the PS2 has been out longer. Around here in Rochester, and at home in Connecticut, you're lucky if you find a GameCube in store. PS2s are a plenty because Sony's been making them for a long time, and there are lots of game choices. The PS2 is good, I'm not putting it down. But look where the PS2 is now, then see where the GameCube is in how many months.
Tribe 2 has the best game physics ever in my opinion. It's a shame that there arne't people playing it anymore. The only reason it went down the tubes is because there aren't enough non-mod servers. Just about every server runs some variant on the game. As soon as I get a new computer I'm setting up a non-mod Tribes 2 server and me and my friends will rock the house again.
My Live! Value is good enough. The only difference between the AWE64 and AWE32 and the SB16 was channels and processing power. The SBLive! added EAX, soundfonts, and dolby digital stuff. Audigy. Just an SBLive! with more power. Doesn't sound different. Just supports a few more features that you really don't need. Heck, if you're not a crazy audio guy just get a PCI512. It's cheap. It works with everything. And it has EAX so you can get 3d sound in all the cool games. What else do you need?
Wow, just apply this same technology to other areas and you've got a winner. Let's say I've got a wearable computer, monitor inside sunglasses, everything else in a Palm sized thing in my pocket. My eyes are the mouse. Now I walk down the street in New York. I pass a restaurant. When I look at the restaurant I see a blinking light on it, it's really a link to a web page, which then appears on screen. Now get this. I walk into Times Square. I look up at the buildings and see ads. Each ad has a link just like the restaurant. Let's take this a step further.
I take my glasses off. I look at a building with nothing on it's sides. I put glasses on, all of a sudden there's a large ad covering the side of the building.
We've all seen movies where there are very large holographic advertisements all over a city. We can't seem to do that in the physical world yet, so put it in the digital world.
I just had an even better idea. I place one of these things on myself. So when you look at me through your glasses you see someone else. Take them off and see the real me. You can also go to my web page by "clicking" my link.
The real bonus with this is that any time you don't want to see the stuff, just take your wearable pc off. And you no longer have to sit at home in front of a computer to browse the web. You get up and go outside. Geeks will be going outdoors on a more than regular basis.
Here we go. The Killer App. Walk down the street. Spot a hot girl. Check if she's single or not, check to see what you have in common. Search a database for the best pick up line. Get constant advice through IRC on what to say and what to do.
A database of Audio Visual pages and their real world location on GPS. Visualized through wirelessly net connected wearable computers. You would see the net as a holographic overlay on the real world. It's now possible.
Microwave
on
Lunar Lasers
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Exactly how does microwaving electricity work? I mean You have a powerplant on the moon. That powerplant zaps a zillion microwaves that the earth. What is exactly involved in catching them and turning them into electricity? Don't tell me they boil water and spin turbines. And what if they miss, like in sim city 2000. Big boom!
There is only one way this is going to work. Nix the subscription costs. Make it a standard in all new home stereo systems and car stereos. Make sure to broadcast all normal radio stations over it as well. Nobody is going to pay extra money to listen to the radio in their car, something which is free. And they're especially not going to if they don't get Don Imus, Howard Stern, and other popular radio programs. People also aren't going to go out and buy a new car stereo to switch. They're must be no effort involved. There also needs to be a standard. People will wait until one of these companies wins over the other one before they buy in.
$299 is not cheap. It's cheap compared to other 3d software sure. But it's still not cheap. I myself am not willing to pay more than 50$ for any single piece of software.
the easiest way to rip mp3s I've seen is a program called cdex. you insert cd, you wait for cddb. you click on button, you wait, the whole cd is now mp3s.
These guys keep trying to think up better ways of advertising on the web. First it was banners, popups, whatever. They could be better spending their time thinking of something to do on the web besides advertise.
The real problem here is that the web is the number one application on the internet. We need to replace the web with a better internet application. Only, I can't think of anything else. Can you?
Slashdot Mirror
we've had this at RIT for a long time. The teachers coded it. It's really really tricky. Basically they have the attitude of, if you can get by the cheating program, then you know what you're doing and deserve the grade you get.
but not the XBox, it doesn't solve any size problems. I like the idea that I don't have to open the computer to change cards. But I would also like to not have to fiddle with ribbon cables. I want all my drives 5.25 and 3.5 to be hot swap. Just slide in and out while the computer is on, and they get auto configured like USB. Also nix the PS/2, serial, and paralell ports. I want like 8 USBs instead of 2. And on RAID boards with 4 IDE plugs put them all next to each other. Not two in the normal spot and two over by the PCI slots.
Putting stuff on the other side of the board has advantages and disadvantages, but however you do it a shrink in board size will rock. You will no longer need a full tower case to get a bunch of drives in. Mid tower cases will be able to hold as many drives as full towers do now if you shrink the board.
As for cooling, look at other small computers, like console systems. Especially the GameCube. It has one fant blowing air in on one side, out on the other. Because of it's small size, it becomes easier to cool, not harder. You have less fans, moving more air.
or slippy or sqlippy or just combine the words database and dolphin in some manner
I been thinking, you can buy a hardware decoder for DVDs. But you have to use software decoding for all of the other digital video formats. If I could get a decoder that did mpg, avi, quicktime, real, windows media, and divx. That would kick ass. I wouldn't have to have 100 different media players either. All I would need is a tiny little program that takes the output from the decoder card and puts it up full screen. It would let me actually use my computer while watching videos too!
At the Rochester Institute of Technology (www.rit.edu) where I am a current student we have a very nice LDAP directory. It contains info on all the people here. I use it all the time when people give me their e-mail addresses in order to find their phone numbers. It's extremely handy. I don't know how they set it up or what they use, but it has a web interface.
analog sticks are better because if you move them a little bit you move a little bit on screen. If you move them all the way to the edge you move a lot on screen. So if you are controlling a character who walks around you can make it tiptoe, sneak, walk, run, and go into a mad dash by moving the stick more. with a digital pad you are either going or not going in one of 8 directions. analog allows pretty much 360 degrees of movement.
you're right GT3 kicks ass. But I'm not gonna buy a system for one game. GameCube has like so many, and it goes with my GBA too, which has a huge pile of awesome games.
The PS2 controller is good. Except I don't like the L3 and R3 buttons, I think that's a poor implementation because they can be accidentally pressed while using the analog stick. Also the buttons are analog so the more you press the faster you go.
The XBox controller IS bulky and overdone. You can't reach all the buttons. However, the GameCube is just Nintendo's style. It's not bulky, just looks that way. The Z button is poorly placed some day, but you never need it the same time you need the R button, so it doesn't matter. It's design makes it look very uncomfortable as well, just like the 64 controller. But when you hold it, it's fine. The best part is that the L and R buttons are analog, and you know how hard you are pressing them because they go up and down more than a millimeter. And you know when you've reached max because they click. On the PS2 controller you always push harder, just in case it might get you that extra bit of speed, because there is no indication of when you've reached the maximum that the analog buttons allow.
PS2 controller = good, Gamecube = slightly better, XBox = ow, my hands hurt.
The only one that makes me need a PS2 there, is GT 3. MGS2 and FFX will eventually come out for PC. MSG1 and FF 7 and 8 did. 9 will, I hear. I don't like ICO or frequency that much. And as for GT3 that's 1 game. And it's not worth the 300$ system.
After the new console war I just don't see a real reason to buy an XBox or a PS2. I mean, if you don't have a DVD player, and you have lots of PS1 games, A PS2 is sweet. But there aren't any PS2 games that aren't available elsewhere that make the PS2 a must buy.
The XBox, if you take into account only the games available for it and not the defects and stupid gamepads and large size, etc. Has about ZERO games that make me want to rush out and buy it.
The GameCube, however, has. Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Brothers, Metroid, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. All of these games make me want to rush out and buy a GameCube.
The PS2 and the XBox have good games. I mean Devil May Cry, GTA 3, Halo, are some damn nice stuffs. But Devil May Cry has the stupid ending. GTA 3 will eventually be available on PC. And I can't play an FPS without a keyboard and a mouse.
If you can cure blindness, then start working on growing ears. We can cure deafness too.
Many people have referred to open source at being communist. Well, I don't think it is, but the communists seem to like it a lot. Sure, it may just be because of the easter eggs in chinese win95. However, China being communist and all, doesn't have as many extremely wealthy people, as the US. What it does have is a billion not extremely rich people. The government of these people have most likely chosen *nix as their operating system of choice. The os of choice in china will most likely be linux in the coming years. Someone has to put out a good chinese linux distribution, and write linux software in chinese, etc. We need more people to use linux and not windows. Well, here is a billion of them.
has a nice boxed set of DVDs out. It's got every episode of Flying Circus ever. EVER. We wont be watching it marathon style on New Years, or maybe ever. But it's good to have.
I see nothing wrong with the GBA screen other than the dependency on lighting. Which I'm willing to accept because it means highly increased battery life. Other than that it's a vast improvement on past gameboys.
As for this internet connection thing. It's pretty cool and all. But I'm so not buying into it. First of all, it's not an officially licensed Nintendo product. 3rd party hardware and peripherals suck. Also, if I'm going to play a game online, why would I sit next to a computer with a little GBA and a USB cable? I have a COMPUTER, I'll play me some (insert 3d online multiplayer game). Now what would be amazing would be if I could be driving in my car and playing against a kid in his car in California, with absolutely no wires attatched to my GBA. That I would buy no matter who made it.
Powermanga, if only they could make the game full screen and full speed at the same time. It's really not that hard.
Stevie Case
'nuff said
The only reason the GameCube hasn't sold more than the PS2 is because the PS2 has been out longer. Around here in Rochester, and at home in Connecticut, you're lucky if you find a GameCube in store. PS2s are a plenty because Sony's been making them for a long time, and there are lots of game choices. The PS2 is good, I'm not putting it down. But look where the PS2 is now, then see where the GameCube is in how many months.
Reminds me of when Saddam Insane bought all those PS2s.
Tribe 2 has the best game physics ever in my opinion. It's a shame that there arne't people playing it anymore. The only reason it went down the tubes is because there aren't enough non-mod servers. Just about every server runs some variant on the game. As soon as I get a new computer I'm setting up a non-mod Tribes 2 server and me and my friends will rock the house again.
My Live! Value is good enough. The only difference between the AWE64 and AWE32 and the SB16 was channels and processing power. The SBLive! added EAX, soundfonts, and dolby digital stuff. Audigy. Just an SBLive! with more power. Doesn't sound different. Just supports a few more features that you really don't need. Heck, if you're not a crazy audio guy just get a PCI512. It's cheap. It works with everything. And it has EAX so you can get 3d sound in all the cool games. What else do you need?
Wow, just apply this same technology to other areas and you've got a winner. Let's say I've got a wearable computer, monitor inside sunglasses, everything else in a Palm sized thing in my pocket. My eyes are the mouse. Now I walk down the street in New York. I pass a restaurant. When I look at the restaurant I see a blinking light on it, it's really a link to a web page, which then appears on screen. Now get this. I walk into Times Square. I look up at the buildings and see ads. Each ad has a link just like the restaurant. Let's take this a step further.
I take my glasses off. I look at a building with nothing on it's sides. I put glasses on, all of a sudden there's a large ad covering the side of the building.
We've all seen movies where there are very large holographic advertisements all over a city. We can't seem to do that in the physical world yet, so put it in the digital world.
I just had an even better idea. I place one of these things on myself. So when you look at me through your glasses you see someone else. Take them off and see the real me. You can also go to my web page by "clicking" my link.
The real bonus with this is that any time you don't want to see the stuff, just take your wearable pc off. And you no longer have to sit at home in front of a computer to browse the web. You get up and go outside. Geeks will be going outdoors on a more than regular basis.
Here we go. The Killer App. Walk down the street. Spot a hot girl. Check if she's single or not, check to see what you have in common. Search a database for the best pick up line. Get constant advice through IRC on what to say and what to do.
A database of Audio Visual pages and their real world location on GPS. Visualized through wirelessly net connected wearable computers. You would see the net as a holographic overlay on the real world. It's now possible.
Exactly how does microwaving electricity work? I mean You have a powerplant on the moon. That powerplant zaps a zillion microwaves that the earth. What is exactly involved in catching them and turning them into electricity? Don't tell me they boil water and spin turbines. And what if they miss, like in sim city 2000. Big boom!
There is only one way this is going to work. Nix the subscription costs. Make it a standard in all new home stereo systems and car stereos. Make sure to broadcast all normal radio stations over it as well. Nobody is going to pay extra money to listen to the radio in their car, something which is free. And they're especially not going to if they don't get Don Imus, Howard Stern, and other popular radio programs. People also aren't going to go out and buy a new car stereo to switch. They're must be no effort involved. There also needs to be a standard. People will wait until one of these companies wins over the other one before they buy in.
$299 is not cheap. It's cheap compared to other 3d software sure. But it's still not cheap. I myself am not willing to pay more than 50$ for any single piece of software.
the easiest way to rip mp3s I've seen is a program called cdex. you insert cd, you wait for cddb. you click on button, you wait, the whole cd is now mp3s.
These guys keep trying to think up better ways of advertising on the web. First it was banners, popups, whatever. They could be better spending their time thinking of something to do on the web besides advertise.
The real problem here is that the web is the number one application on the internet. We need to replace the web with a better internet application. Only, I can't think of anything else. Can you?