I can't speak for most, but I live in a high-pop area (phoenix) and I can only pick up 2-3 channels and those come in badly. It's not like I'm on the edge of the city or something. my guess is the walls are too insulated (to keep out heat) for a good signal to get though, no idea. At any rate I can't get real OTA programming, tried multiple TVs and antennas including powered and passive.
I played FFXI for 3 years on and off. The lawsuit is probably about the horrible way they do billing if you cancel and resubscribe.
Billing (at least for me) was always on the first of the month.
If you canceled on the 20th of January, and decide to resubscribe the 23rd of March you wouldn't actually be billed until the 1st of April at which point they charge you for a full month of March and for the month of April despite only using it for 8 days of March.
In other words they don't prorate. It's a really archaic way of handling a MMO subscription. I'm not sure if this is listed in the ToS if it's not then there might be grounds for a lawsuit. $5M is still way to excessive for what should be in small claims court for $30
After how badly Vista Basic failed I find it odd that MS would try again, and even more odd that they would make an even more basic version of it. (yes I know starter has been around sense xp, but they are trying to sell it worldwide now)
I predict that it will follow the same path as Vista Basic
A few companies will try selling it with cheep entry level systems for 400. No one will buy them, and those that do will complain about how much Win7 sucks. In the end the companies will be forced to put home premium in order to sell them.
If starter was free to download and basic was less then $30 (retail) I could see some value in them for home builders and people who want to upgrade and want a low cost and legit version of 7
Largest OS vendor interested in improving compatibility with the largest(?) web server software. How dare they!
I fail to see how this is some evil plot to crush Apache/FSF/GPL/LGPL/Linux/whatever. At most its a MSJAVA like thing, but thats pushing it do to apache being way more popular on Linux/BSD then windows
I think the point, if there is one, is they wanted the rockets to have a payload and not just be a cylinder filled with rocket fuel. As for the size, I'm assuming its low to not only make it easier to achieve but to avoid people being accused of making missiles. Governments have a tendency to take notice when people build rockets large enough to carry explosives
You can't really regulate quality with something like TV. Frankly not everything needs to be in uncompressed 1080p. Not only is there a large range of shows recorded in 480i, but many shows still being recorded have no business wasting that kind of bandwith. I don't think cartoon network needs full bandwith just so it can show powerpuff girls in full 1080p
You'll be hard pressed to find another subnotebook that has better specs that is cheaper, new or used. They can even run some games that are a few years old (with the windows verity)
in terms of "classic" subnotebooks that are x86 that you still might be able to find is the toshiba libretto line. I think they ranged from 90Mhz to 133 and ran win95. But you'll be hard pressed to find one that the battery still works. Thats really the problem with old laptops is they tend to be broken in someway normally the batteries
Does this meen that the keys are analong and can be programed that way? or is it just another button that clicks halfway down?
The idea of having analog 'WASD' sounds real nice for pc games. Still 150 is too much when better supported gaming keyboards are on the market for less then 100
If you compare The Lord of the Rings movies movies with other fantasy movies (book based or not), it is extremely well done with a minimal amount of cheese-ness that you expect from a fantasy movie.
People think that because LOTR movies were well done and was based on a Tolkein work that another movie based on what he has done will also be well done.
This, of corse, isn't likely, but that isn't going to stop someone from trying to make money on the idea
Dell and the like could just keep shipping systems that they know can't run aero with windows XP and don't use the Vista capable stickers on them?
This is the part that bugs me about this. It might be true that MS considers vista without aero to be fine when they shouldn't. However no one is forcing dell to use the stickers, Dell and the like used them on computers they knew couldn't run vista fully. They do it because they knew people would buy the computer thinking it would run vista.
When it turned out vista was crippled on the machine insted of Dell going "Ooops sorry, heres some store credit" (or whatever) they went "Don't look at us, MS made us do it! blame them!" As if MS was the one who built the computer.
Thats the easy part. Take 10 chickens raise them all the same way. Then cook them all the same leaving out parts that you wouldn't cook anyway (like the head)
out of thoes 10 pick the one that tastes the best and clone it from the cells of the parts that you didn't cook.
It's basically how farm animals were bread for the past few thousand years, only before they would have to wait for the animal to mate before cooking and hope that the tasty traits got pasted on
Assuming they mean 1/2/3 and nothing that happened in 4/5/6 Everything about the character from his age to the plot around him was so convoluted you couldn't care less what happened to him.
When they first find him hes about 8 yet hes too old to train and have no problems entering him in a life or death race
He falls in love with a 14 y/o princess who apparently loves him back
He saves the day by randomly pushing buttons in a star fighter he can't even see or even knows that the buttons do defeating the whole "he can drive a race pod so surly he can fly a spaceship"
In Ep2
Hes now 18-20and the princess is around 16 *blink* he kills off that village in revenge and no one seems to care, yea they were bad guys but shouldn't of doing that turned him to the dark side
In Ep3 Hes still 18-20ish and now the princess is 18-20ish *blink* He turns to the dark side over a dream of losing the princess and not even a full detailed dream just one ware she is sick. And apparently trusts that a sith lord knows how to cure it. his first assignment as vader is to kill off a bunch of kids and he has no problems doing it they could of at least worked his way into the evil role a bit first
In a nutshell you can only send so much data over cable lines. splitting the band-with of the lines will eventually end up in a situation ware you are forced to subscribe to two companies to get all the channels you want. as we move more and more to high-def the less and less band-with (i.e. channels available to each service) will be available
I agree, the most notable thing is very few talk about the hardware and instead go on and on about how great Linux is. The reviews that do talk about the hardware give it lower scores. While the C7s are fast enough to get things done unless you are going from a sub 1ghz to it, it will seem slow even under Linux.
Star trek time travel plots have always been inconsistent and many times lame but this just takes the cake. Ohh-noes someones going back in time to kill the hero when he was a kid we better go save him.
It might also go hand in hand about the rumored series reboot with a new show (the idea of a new star trek show ware none of the events of the previous shows happened so they didn't have to worry about breaking the time line or plots of tos/tng like voyager and enterprise did)
With all trek rumors this smells more of fan fiction then real
Sadly Hollywood and TV make it look like Alzheimer's is nothing more then memory loss.
I live with my parents now to take care of my dad who has early onset late stage Alzheimer's. he most def knows something is wrong with him. He is unable to speak and it frustrates him to no end. He can't find the bathroom and we (me and my mom) have to figure out that he needs it and lead him to it. Even the most basic things like putting on his pants is a nightmarish exp for him.
Its not the watching some one fade away that makes things hard on the family. Its watching someone exp hell on earth and not being able to do a damn thing about it
I admit some games thats all its used for (I'm lookig at you paper mario and Prince of Persia)
However the setup allows for the benefits of a game controller (comfortable to hold and use for long periods of time) with near the accuracy of a mouse. (you can actualy aim with it at a speed matching a mouse then the old whatever speed the analog stick can with classic controllers)
It can do far more then just replace a button with a wiggle
I'd like to think of myself as a hardcore gamer. My first thought of the Wii-mote was that it was a gimmick, however after using it I can see a lot of potential in it. My problem with the Wii at this point is the lack of RPGs and online games. A lot of people complain about how too many of the games are ps2/gcn ports that doesnt bother me as I was heavy into MMOs and missed many of them when they first came out.
The complete lack of online play is whats bothering me the most. Don't get me wrong I enjoy a good single player game, like zelda, super paper mario ect. However after I beat the games they go back on the shelf and collect dust as have little reason to play them again. When looking for a Wii game that can hold my attention past the first runthru of single player they are no ware to be found. Nintendo doesn't seem to be doing anything about it they cut online out of the new metroid and flat out ignore questions about downloadable content for any games. 3d party games seem to be waiting for nintendo to setup a xbox live or playstation network type system before making any online games. Its not like online is some new gimmick function of the xbox its been around sense dreamcast on consoles and PCs well before that
I suppose its a matter of opion. I personaly cant stand the spot the analog stick is, I find it hard to hold my thumb that far down for long periods of time esp after using a 360 or even gamecube controller. If the analog stick was ware the d-pad is and vice versa I would like it alot more. The dual shock was pritty much a hack to add analog sticks to the original ps1 controller w/o changing the button layout for older games.
The same thing is happening to sony that happened to nintendo during the N64 generation. Both companies had 2 generations of market dominance (nes.snes, ps1,ps2). Then they got cocky and thought the fan base would overlook obvious flaws, with nintendo it was carts on the N64 and sony its the price tag, lack of innovation in the controller (really now how long is sony going to hang on to the dual shock disgn) and lack of any major exclusive games at launch.
The last time I had to replace a drive (in my own system) was 3 years ago. Not sure what happened, just came home one day and my computer wouldn't even post with that drive installed. Was a 60 gig Maxtor that was still under warranty, they replaced it with a newer model. I still use that drive to this date along with a 120 gig thats about 2 years old and a 300 gig sata drive I got last month.
From what I've seen harddrives have a very good life expectancy for electronics with moving parts. I know people still using 8 gig drives that don't show any signs of failure. I even have a very old laptop with a 800meg drive that still boots and doesn't have bad sectors.
What I do in cases of a used drives is check for signs of failure, bad sectors, file system corruption ect. As well as cycling the system to a full power down ware the drive stops spinning a good 5-6 times in a row. (being the local computer hobbiest I get asked to fix or build computers for people that don't have the money for new)
I grew up as an army brat, and as such I've been to a lot of schools. Everything from military driven in overseas army stations to ghetto to upper class. The schools in upper class areas have almost always been better then the ones in ghetto areas (Better teachers, newer books).
One school I went to was both privatively funded and government funded as it was the only school in the county. Being that it was classified as a private school it was free to teach whatever it wanted and spend money on whatever. Since it was also government funded its only restriction was that it had to take everyone. How much you had to pay to go was based on how much money you had. If your family was at the poverty line you didn't have to pay anything. Now this sounds great in theory, in practice it was a different story. It was by far the worst school I've been to. Because the owners were trying to make money off it I got to see such wonderful things like the firing of 2 of the 3 science teachers in order to buy a new scoreboard and equipment for the sports teams. The text books ranged from 1972-1982 (this was in 1990). Our computer labs were made of original IBM XTs with 64k of ram, the books for the class were made for the old CP/M systems with the 8(?) inch floppy from the 70s.
All sorts of shady things went on, such wealthy students (i.e. people who paid more) getting higher grades regardless of how well they did in class. Jocks getting higher grades and kick-backs if they did well in the season (The school took sponsorships from nike and the like)
My point is that private industry, like it or not, are naturally more interested in making a profit then education. That's not to say government funded doesn't have its share of problems, but handing it over to people who want to make money isn't the solution
What killed the dreamcast wasn't the PS2 directly. What killed it was Segas poor reputation with its past systems. The Sega Saturns 3d support was very poor compared to PS1 and N64,and died off rather quickly. Segas Add-ons for the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, 32x-CD, Sold moderitly well, but had poor games, and killed of right away when Saturn came out.
So when Sega rushed the dreamcast out to be the first of the new generation systems, people were hesitant about buying another sega product. Some people only used the Saturn as a stop-gap till the PS2 came out. The hype of the PS2 helped kill the dreamcast but it wasn't the only factor.
This time around PS3 is competing with Xbox360. Unlike Saturn the Xbox has proven itself as a strong system, and in many ways better then PS2.
Is there someone out there going "Hmm, I don't know how I stand on software patents. I know I'll buy a book on why they are bad and one on why they are good!"
Chances are someone who hates patents knows why they hate them, and doesn't need a book to tell them why. Someone who likes patents isn't going to buy it thats for sure. People that don't care ether way will probably find better things to read.
When people advertise they don't expect, well shouldn't expect, people to rush to the website/ place of bussness and buy what they are selling.
For example when McDonalds shows a TV ad they don't expect people to drop whatever they are doing and rush to buy a Bigmac. What they are aiming for is people to think about McDonalds when they are actualy shoping for fastfood.
The same is true if web ads, for example the dice.com ad at the top of this page isn't hoping that when people see the ad that they quit their jobs and search dice.com for a new one.
Companies relying on automated tracking scripts to show ware to spend advertising dollers are just asking for problems.
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I can't speak for most, but I live in a high-pop area (phoenix) and I can only pick up 2-3 channels and those come in badly. It's not like I'm on the edge of the city or something. my guess is the walls are too insulated (to keep out heat) for a good signal to get though, no idea. At any rate I can't get real OTA programming, tried multiple TVs and antennas including powered and passive.
I played FFXI for 3 years on and off. The lawsuit is probably about the horrible way they do billing if you cancel and resubscribe.
Billing (at least for me) was always on the first of the month.
If you canceled on the 20th of January, and decide to resubscribe the 23rd of March you wouldn't actually be billed until the 1st of April at which point they charge you for a full month of March and for the month of April despite only using it for 8 days of March.
In other words they don't prorate. It's a really archaic way of handling a MMO subscription. I'm not sure if this is listed in the ToS if it's not then there might be grounds for a lawsuit. $5M is still way to excessive for what should be in small claims court for $30
After how badly Vista Basic failed I find it odd that MS would try again, and even more odd that they would make an even more basic version of it. (yes I know starter has been around sense xp, but they are trying to sell it worldwide now)
I predict that it will follow the same path as Vista Basic
A few companies will try selling it with cheep entry level systems for 400. No one will buy them, and those that do will complain about how much Win7 sucks. In the end the companies will be forced to put home premium in order to sell them.
If starter was free to download and basic was less then $30 (retail) I could see some value in them for home builders and people who want to upgrade and want a low cost and legit version of 7
Largest OS vendor interested in improving compatibility with the largest(?) web server software. How dare they!
I fail to see how this is some evil plot to crush Apache/FSF/GPL/LGPL/Linux/whatever. At most its a MSJAVA like thing, but thats pushing it do to apache being way more popular on Linux/BSD then windows
I think the point, if there is one, is they wanted the rockets to have a payload and not just be a cylinder filled with rocket fuel. As for the size, I'm assuming its low to not only make it easier to achieve but to avoid people being accused of making missiles. Governments have a tendency to take notice when people build rockets large enough to carry explosives
You can't really regulate quality with something like TV. Frankly not everything needs to be in uncompressed 1080p. Not only is there a large range of shows recorded in 480i, but many shows still being recorded have no business wasting that kind of bandwith. I don't think cartoon network needs full bandwith just so it can show powerpuff girls in full 1080p
You'll be hard pressed to find another subnotebook that has better specs that is cheaper, new or used. They can even run some games that are a few years old (with the windows verity)
in terms of "classic" subnotebooks that are x86 that you still might be able to find is the toshiba libretto line. I think they ranged from 90Mhz to 133 and ran win95. But you'll be hard pressed to find one that the battery still works. Thats really the problem with old laptops is they tend to be broken in someway normally the batteries
"catering to gamers by registering half presses"
Does this meen that the keys are analong and can be programed that way? or is it just another button that clicks halfway down?
The idea of having analog 'WASD' sounds real nice for pc games. Still 150 is too much when better supported gaming keyboards are on the market for less then 100
If you compare The Lord of the Rings movies movies with other fantasy movies (book based or not), it is extremely well done with a minimal amount of cheese-ness that you expect from a fantasy movie.
People think that because LOTR movies were well done and was based on a Tolkein work that another movie based on what he has done will also be well done.
This, of corse, isn't likely, but that isn't going to stop someone from trying to make money on the idea
Dell and the like could just keep shipping systems that they know can't run aero with windows XP and don't use the Vista capable stickers on them?
This is the part that bugs me about this. It might be true that MS considers vista without aero to be fine when they shouldn't. However no one is forcing dell to use the stickers, Dell and the like used them on computers they knew couldn't run vista fully. They do it because they knew people would buy the computer thinking it would run vista.
When it turned out vista was crippled on the machine insted of Dell going "Ooops sorry, heres some store credit" (or whatever) they went "Don't look at us, MS made us do it! blame them!" As if MS was the one who built the computer.
Thats the easy part. Take 10 chickens raise them all the same way. Then cook them all the same leaving out parts that you wouldn't cook anyway (like the head)
out of thoes 10 pick the one that tastes the best and clone it from the cells of the parts that you didn't cook.
It's basically how farm animals were bread for the past few thousand years, only before they would have to wait for the animal to mate before cooking and hope that the tasty traits got pasted on
Assuming they mean 1/2/3 and nothing that happened in 4/5/6 Everything about the character from his age to the plot around him was so convoluted you couldn't care less what happened to him.
When they first find him hes about 8 yet hes too old to train and have no problems entering him in a life or death race
He falls in love with a 14 y/o princess who apparently loves him back
He saves the day by randomly pushing buttons in a star fighter he can't even see or even knows that the buttons do defeating the whole "he can drive a race pod so surly he can fly a spaceship"
In Ep2
Hes now 18-20and the princess is around 16 *blink*
he kills off that village in revenge and no one seems to care, yea they were bad guys but shouldn't of doing that turned him to the dark side
In Ep3
Hes still 18-20ish and now the princess is 18-20ish *blink*
He turns to the dark side over a dream of losing the princess and not even a full detailed dream just one ware she is sick. And apparently trusts that a sith lord knows how to cure it.
his first assignment as vader is to kill off a bunch of kids and he has no problems doing it they could of at least worked his way into the evil role a bit first
In a nutshell you can only send so much data over cable lines. splitting the band-with of the lines will eventually end up in a situation ware you are forced to subscribe to two companies to get all the channels you want. as we move more and more to high-def the less and less band-with (i.e. channels available to each service) will be available
I agree, the most notable thing is very few talk about the hardware and instead go on and on about how great Linux is. The reviews that do talk about the hardware give it lower scores. While the C7s are fast enough to get things done unless you are going from a sub 1ghz to it, it will seem slow even under Linux.
Star trek time travel plots have always been inconsistent and many times lame but this just takes the cake. Ohh-noes someones going back in time to kill the hero when he was a kid we better go save him.
It might also go hand in hand about the rumored series reboot with a new show (the idea of a new star trek show ware none of the events of the previous shows happened so they didn't have to worry about breaking the time line or plots of tos/tng like voyager and enterprise did)
With all trek rumors this smells more of fan fiction then real
Sadly Hollywood and TV make it look like Alzheimer's is nothing more then memory loss.
I live with my parents now to take care of my dad who has early onset late stage Alzheimer's. he most def knows something is wrong with him. He is unable to speak and it frustrates him to no end. He can't find the bathroom and we (me and my mom) have to figure out that he needs it and lead him to it. Even the most basic things like putting on his pants is a nightmarish exp for him.
Its not the watching some one fade away that makes things hard on the family. Its watching someone exp hell on earth and not being able to do a damn thing about it
I admit some games thats all its used for (I'm lookig at you paper mario and Prince of Persia)
However the setup allows for the benefits of a game controller (comfortable to hold and use for long periods of time) with near the accuracy of a mouse. (you can actualy aim with it at a speed matching a mouse then the old whatever speed the analog stick can with classic controllers)
It can do far more then just replace a button with a wiggle
I'd like to think of myself as a hardcore gamer. My first thought of the Wii-mote was that it was a gimmick, however after using it I can see a lot of potential in it. My problem with the Wii at this point is the lack of RPGs and online games. A lot of people complain about how too many of the games are ps2/gcn ports that doesnt bother me as I was heavy into MMOs and missed many of them when they first came out.
The complete lack of online play is whats bothering me the most. Don't get me wrong I enjoy a good single player game, like zelda, super paper mario ect. However after I beat the games they go back on the shelf and collect dust as have little reason to play them again. When looking for a Wii game that can hold my attention past the first runthru of single player they are no ware to be found. Nintendo doesn't seem to be doing anything about it they cut online out of the new metroid and flat out ignore questions about downloadable content for any games. 3d party games seem to be waiting for nintendo to setup a xbox live or playstation network type system before making any online games. Its not like online is some new gimmick function of the xbox its been around sense dreamcast on consoles and PCs well before that
I suppose its a matter of opion. I personaly cant stand the spot the analog stick is, I find it hard to hold my thumb that far down for long periods of time esp after using a 360 or even gamecube controller. If the analog stick was ware the d-pad is and vice versa I would like it alot more. The dual shock was pritty much a hack to add analog sticks to the original ps1 controller w/o changing the button layout for older games.
The same thing is happening to sony that happened to nintendo during the N64 generation. Both companies had 2 generations of market dominance (nes.snes, ps1,ps2). Then they got cocky and thought the fan base would overlook obvious flaws, with nintendo it was carts on the N64 and sony its the price tag, lack of innovation in the controller (really now how long is sony going to hang on to the dual shock disgn) and lack of any major exclusive games at launch.
The last time I had to replace a drive (in my own system) was 3 years ago. Not sure what happened, just came home one day and my computer wouldn't even post with that drive installed. Was a 60 gig Maxtor that was still under warranty, they replaced it with a newer model. I still use that drive to this date along with a 120 gig thats about 2 years old and a 300 gig sata drive I got last month.
From what I've seen harddrives have a very good life expectancy for electronics with moving parts. I know people still using 8 gig drives that don't show any signs of failure. I even have a very old laptop with a 800meg drive that still boots and doesn't have bad sectors.
What I do in cases of a used drives is check for signs of failure, bad sectors, file system corruption ect. As well as cycling the system to a full power down ware the drive stops spinning a good 5-6 times in a row. (being the local computer hobbiest I get asked to fix or build computers for people that don't have the money for new)
I grew up as an army brat, and as such I've been to a lot of schools. Everything from military driven in overseas army stations to ghetto to upper class. The schools in upper class areas have almost always been better then the ones in ghetto areas (Better teachers, newer books).
One school I went to was both privatively funded and government funded as it was the only school in the county. Being that it was classified as a private school it was free to teach whatever it wanted and spend money on whatever. Since it was also government funded its only restriction was that it had to take everyone. How much you had to pay to go was based on how much money you had. If your family was at the poverty line you didn't have to pay anything. Now this sounds great in theory, in practice it was a different story. It was by far the worst school I've been to. Because the owners were trying to make money off it I got to see such wonderful things like the firing of 2 of the 3 science teachers in order to buy a new scoreboard and equipment for the sports teams. The text books ranged from 1972-1982 (this was in 1990). Our computer labs were made of original IBM XTs with 64k of ram, the books for the class were made for the old CP/M systems with the 8(?) inch floppy from the 70s.
All sorts of shady things went on, such wealthy students (i.e. people who paid more) getting higher grades regardless of how well they did in class. Jocks getting higher grades and kick-backs if they did well in the season (The school took sponsorships from nike and the like)
My point is that private industry, like it or not, are naturally more interested in making a profit then education. That's not to say government funded doesn't have its share of problems, but handing it over to people who want to make money isn't the solution
What killed the dreamcast wasn't the PS2 directly. What killed it was Segas poor reputation with its past systems. The Sega Saturns 3d support was very poor compared to PS1 and N64,and died off rather quickly. Segas Add-ons for the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, 32x-CD, Sold moderitly well, but had poor games, and killed of right away when Saturn came out.
So when Sega rushed the dreamcast out to be the first of the new generation systems, people were hesitant about buying another sega product. Some people only used the Saturn as a stop-gap till the PS2 came out. The hype of the PS2 helped kill the dreamcast but it wasn't the only factor.
This time around PS3 is competing with Xbox360. Unlike Saturn the Xbox has proven itself as a strong system, and in many ways better then PS2.
Is there someone out there going "Hmm, I don't know how I stand on software patents. I know I'll buy a book on why they are bad and one on why they are good!"
Chances are someone who hates patents knows why they hate them, and doesn't need a book to tell them why. Someone who likes patents isn't going to buy it thats for sure. People that don't care ether way will probably find better things to read.
When people advertise they don't expect, well shouldn't expect, people to rush to the website/ place of bussness and buy what they are selling.
For example when McDonalds shows a TV ad they don't expect people to drop whatever they are doing and rush to buy a Bigmac. What they are aiming for is people to think about McDonalds when they are actualy shoping for fastfood.
The same is true if web ads, for example the dice.com ad at the top of this page isn't hoping that when people see the ad that they quit their jobs and search dice.com for a new one.
Companies relying on automated tracking scripts to show ware to spend advertising dollers are just asking for problems.