Inline view any of the online-available movie trailers in my browser
::jaw drops to the floor:: HEATHEN! Video is meant to be played on the Player, as God intended! Browser inlining is work of Satan! =) (As is, in my opinion, quite a bit of Mac UI, but I'm not going to argue here... I'll just say that I far more prefer Window Maker over any other UI. Unlike many UIs out there, this thing was meant for work.)
Finally, I won't step back because I just enjoy typing this on the sexiest computer I ever owned (I also own an Acorn RiscPC, a NeXTstation, a Bebox, a P4 PC, a Zaurus and a Sinclair ZX81).
*snort* In order, the sexiest computers in the universe: NeXT Cube, Apple cube, and Commodore 64 model G (which is only one of the three that I own - anyone got the other two, really really cheap?)
7 years later, Debian still doesn't have a graphical installer.
Installer? Oh, you mean the program I ran once in, like, 1997 or something? My God, has it really been that long already since I installed this thing? I've changed hard drives four times and the whole machine once, but it's still the same system... =)
I've had to do two other installations since, I have to say things have changed for better. Debian's installer may not be graphical, but to say it hasn't improved at all over time is a lie.
Phffff. Linux doesn't need a BBedit clone - there are too damn many editors already for *NIX.
Contrarily, MacOSX needs to ship with a copy of XEmacs (which is the One True Editor) that runs right away when the user gives even the slightest hint to edit text. (And for that matter, so does Windows =)
Not sure of that, but I'm certain all video card manufacturers tend to lie in benchmarks. ATI was caught messing with Quake3 (the drivers switched to lower quality rendering when running timedemos, speeding it up - someone renamed the executable to "quack3" and suddenly the framerate went down). NVIDIA was caught messing around with 3DMark 2003 (likewise, but shortened the rendering range - moving around the viewpoint in tests made the image look strange...)
Me, I download the benchmarks just for cool graphics and stuff, I don't care about results =)
...however, I just believe that all you need is that you have played a broad selection of good games. Lists like this help, but I don't think they should be set in stone.
Also, the only true test of How Good Gamer You Are is this: Have you beaten Nethack? If not, you're not a Really Respected Gamer. (But don't be disappointed if you haven't - been playing it for a really long time and I'm still not finished...)
Running Internet Explorer on Linux?
That's pretty impressive/terrifying indeed.
Indeed. IE runs (or at least used to run, can't seem to run it with current build) rather effortlessly with WINE.
I couldn't believe my eyes first. I asked it to run iexplore.exe and the damn thing did just that. The only problem was that it always complained about content ratings when starting up (Nothing serious), some toolbar buttons were all black outlines, and the managed window didn't have minimize button, which looked pretty ridiculous. But it worked otherwise just fine!
This was IE 5.something and IE 6, from Windows 98SE. I guess MS has funny ideas of "tight OS integration" =)
The Quake Done Quick videos, especially the edited versions with plot stuff and narration (Scourge Done Slick and Quake Done Quicker). Funny commentary and totally skillful Quake playing, what could be better. =)
Also, the intro of Team Fortress rules - but it won't count because it's an actual game intro demo...
Why does Linux dev-community reluctantly ignore Commodore 64s???
Because GCC (the compiler of choice) requires at least 16 bits. The ports for 8-bit platforms have Sucked.
Besides, the Linux kernel was made with the assumption that it runs on "modern" hardware (that is, Amiga or whatever); you're better of finding an operating system that was specifically written to meet the needs of Commodore 64 (which is to say, small memory consumption and heavy optimizations).
I still run Mini Office II and GEOS 1.2. I've got to try this Contiki thing soon.
The file name extension isn't relevant, the Content-Type HTTP header is. (Or, in case of Internet Explorer, the file contents, which is Wrong and Comdemnable!) My browser can read dynamic web pages just fine even when it sees odd file extensions like.pl or.php or.cgi or.aspx, or, as I prefer my own mod_perl apps, no file name extension at all.
MS is constantly saying that Windows is not stable. They call every current-minus-one release the worst POS on the planet when they come out with the current release.
You just forgot to mention that if someone mentions that they're having problems with the current release, they say that this next release, which is already beta by the way, is going to fix that.
Of course, the advertising reflects both of these things too. Windows 98 advertisements had tubes of painkillers labelled "Windows 98" (which would imply there's something seriously frustrating in Windows 95).
(Though, I still fail to see what the tractor that got stuck in the mud when trying to bulldoze a rotten shed was supposed to symbolize in Windows 2000 TV commercials. Maybe they were trying to be honest or something.)
Wouldn't count on that age - CD-Rs are supposed to last only 50-70 years, pressed CDs will last longer but I'm fairly certain it's well below 1000 years...
Besides, every time the CD burner gives me a coaster (not that it'd happen every day, of course), it's just as useless now as it is in 1000 years.
When I got Q3A, I picked Hunter. Two reasons: 1) Cool name. I mean, very cool name. 2) Hey, a cool helmet or, um... whatever that thing is.
Took me several moments to realize the character was actually female. Not that it actually matters - my characters in online games can be of either gender because I'm equally braindead. Anyway, this was the first time I could honestly claim the choice was completely due to irrelevant, unrelated factors. =)
The GIF and TIFF plugin binaries are separate downloads, at least on Windows and Debian. This was because of the LZW patents. I'm not sure how future releases handle them.
Regarding GIMP's crashiness - Linux 1.2.x version is rock solid and not even the mightiest powers known to humankind could shake its foundations, but Windows version is slightly unstable. (Not much - one or two crashes in a week, and it's usually only happening when I'm running out of disk space...)
What the heck to Gimp and Sodipodi mean to the user anyway?
Or Excel? (what's this, Good Stuff???) or Access? (um, it lets you use stuff? It's a thing that, like, connects to the other thing, Right?) or Powerpoint? (Wait, I know! it's explained in Psionics Handbook!)
But you already explained Gimp - Sodipodi is easy, it's Monk Latin for "feet of soda", except that it's incorrect because you can't pluralize uncountable nouns (a famous example: plural of "virus" isn't "viri" or anything, since the word means "poison").
Let's face it, the whole industry sucks at naming. The difference is that in most OSS projects, the developers get to name the stuff, and in commercial projects (free or not), it's done by marketroids. Both suck at naming, but at least they suck differently.
1) The game music often comes with the game. Sometimes it's in some obscure file format, but these days many games (especially the moddable ones) have music in some standard format (many use MP3 - well, Operation Flashpoint used Ogg Vorbis...) Back in the day, many CD-ROM games also had soundtrack on the CD as redbook tracks. There's no point in selling soundtrack - you can get it from the game itself.
2) Even if games don't have rippable files, they often have "music test" mode. (Goes especially well for older console games etc).
3) If everything else fails and the music is reasonable excellent, there are a lot of folks who remaster or remix the music. Most of my Ultima stuff is in form of MIDI files sequenced by the fans. There's also sites like Overclocked Remix and RKO that have excellent, often delightfully creative remixes.
And I really don't think the game music soundtrack CDs would actually benefit anyone. In my opinion, the games these days are already the Ultimate Music Distribution Channel. I'm a game music fan and I prefer to get the music from the very source itself. I believe the separate soundtracks are just the kind of rubbish that can be expected from these people that Slashbots like to call "representatives of old-fashioned, outdated, dying music distribution models". I personally demand better game music, and I want it to come with the games themselves, or at least available without extra charges!
Commodore 64 is easily the most fun computer system I've ever had. That's why I have two of them. =) The games were great, some of the apps bended the boundaries of the hardware, and the SID music is still the best thing imaginable.
Well, in retrospect, I have to say C64 programming - in BASIC, that is - wasn't as much fun as modern languages. In definite contrast, I bet 64 assembler coding is a lot of fun though, even on this day and age.
Sure, it was fun back in the day when I didn't know much of the possibilities. What they say about BASIC rotting the brain is true - When I finally used PCs all day long, I had some trouble adjusting to TurboPascal and C, but all that I ultimately needed was a single zen moment...
I never made that complex programs because the BASIC thing is actually quite limited.
The most complex thing I ever did was a multi-user operating system / bulletin board thing I made in early 90s. All in BASIC. Never had multitasking or dial-in system, though. Pretty frosty in retrospect, I suppose.
This year, I tried coding something real, but all this modern stuff - like getting used to function arguments - made me write some pretty hideous code. Ugh. Not to even mention that the slowness of the language started to become a problem. I think I'll do my law-mandated Tetris clone on PC in C++ instead of completing my DogSlowTris on C64 BASIC!
More recently, I've tried to learn 6502 assembler - it definitely seems far more fun way to program that thing. Especially with a cross compiler and emulator.
Heh. I got Deus Ex some time ago. Out of Some Experience with 3D Shooters, I automatically picked OpenGL and played through a few missions. Then I noted how wonky some things actually looked. I switched to Direct3D and noted that no, everyone is not wearing pink glasses and guns don't have targeting rectangles. =)
I wish Loki would have lived through the Deus Ex Linux port, maybe that would have meant some strategic fixes to the OpenGL side...
Automagical rejection is cool, yeah... except that they return 404 Not Found instead of returning... well, something that might indicate a temporary server failure. ("502 Server Temporarily Overloaded" isn't offical, I think? 500 Internal Error?)
Such error would indicate that the resource is only temporarily unavailable. Now, people visiting think the page is actually deleted or moved without appropriate redirection. My first reaction was "Oh my God, they fired dmr and nuked his web page!"
Except I can't see how SVG is any faster, unless the X protocol makes vector operations much more efficient than just slapping bitmaps about.
I constantly use Lush SVG theme for GTK+/GNOME (using rSVG), and I have to say it's not at all slower than any bitmap-based theme. It's quite surprising, really. I wouldn't even be surprised if it turned out to be faster than bitmap themes, especially if it'll one day use the X11 vector extensions.
Yeah, I too believed bitmaps were automatically faster. But then again, I still have a Commodore64 mind =)
Slashdot Mirror
Xine is actually best run from a file manager or command line to directly launch the file.
I just double-click the file in Nautilus and it plays. Simple. =)
(Not intended as a flame =)
::jaw drops to the floor:: HEATHEN! Video is meant to be played on the Player, as God intended! Browser inlining is work of Satan! =) (As is, in my opinion, quite a bit of Mac UI, but I'm not going to argue here... I'll just say that I far more prefer Window Maker over any other UI. Unlike many UIs out there, this thing was meant for work.)
*snort* In order, the sexiest computers in the universe: NeXT Cube, Apple cube, and Commodore 64 model G (which is only one of the three that I own - anyone got the other two, really really cheap?)
Installer? Oh, you mean the program I ran once in, like, 1997 or something? My God, has it really been that long already since I installed this thing? I've changed hard drives four times and the whole machine once, but it's still the same system... =)
I've had to do two other installations since, I have to say things have changed for better. Debian's installer may not be graphical, but to say it hasn't improved at all over time is a lie.
Phffff. Linux doesn't need a BBedit clone - there are too damn many editors already for *NIX.
Contrarily, MacOSX needs to ship with a copy of XEmacs (which is the One True Editor) that runs right away when the user gives even the slightest hint to edit text. (And for that matter, so does Windows =)
IBM sits quietly for quite a while.
Then, they'll finally speak.
And then, there will be quite a few comments SCO needs to respond to, such as:
At this point, SCO will probably realize challenging IBM was a mistake.
For once upon time there was a time when horror had a face, and that face was - paradoxically enough - the facelessness of IBM's legal department.
Not sure of that, but I'm certain all video card manufacturers tend to lie in benchmarks. ATI was caught messing with Quake3 (the drivers switched to lower quality rendering when running timedemos, speeding it up - someone renamed the executable to "quack3" and suddenly the framerate went down). NVIDIA was caught messing around with 3DMark 2003 (likewise, but shortened the rendering range - moving around the viewpoint in tests made the image look strange...)
Me, I download the benchmarks just for cool graphics and stuff, I don't care about results =)
...however, I just believe that all you need is that you have played a broad selection of good games. Lists like this help, but I don't think they should be set in stone.
Also, the only true test of How Good Gamer You Are is this: Have you beaten Nethack? If not, you're not a Really Respected Gamer. (But don't be disappointed if you haven't - been playing it for a really long time and I'm still not finished...)
Indeed. IE runs (or at least used to run, can't seem to run it with current build) rather effortlessly with WINE.
I couldn't believe my eyes first. I asked it to run iexplore.exe and the damn thing did just that. The only problem was that it always complained about content ratings when starting up (Nothing serious), some toolbar buttons were all black outlines, and the managed window didn't have minimize button, which looked pretty ridiculous. But it worked otherwise just fine!
This was IE 5.something and IE 6, from Windows 98SE. I guess MS has funny ideas of "tight OS integration" =)
The Quake Done Quick videos, especially the edited versions with plot stuff and narration (Scourge Done Slick and Quake Done Quicker). Funny commentary and totally skillful Quake playing, what could be better. =)
Also, the intro of Team Fortress rules - but it won't count because it's an actual game intro demo...
Because GCC (the compiler of choice) requires at least 16 bits. The ports for 8-bit platforms have Sucked.
Besides, the Linux kernel was made with the assumption that it runs on "modern" hardware (that is, Amiga or whatever); you're better of finding an operating system that was specifically written to meet the needs of Commodore 64 (which is to say, small memory consumption and heavy optimizations).
I still run Mini Office II and GEOS 1.2. I've got to try this Contiki thing soon.
<div style="pedantic: 100%; offtopic: yes;">
The file name extension isn't relevant, the Content-Type HTTP header is. (Or, in case of Internet Explorer, the file contents, which is Wrong and Comdemnable!) My browser can read dynamic web pages just fine even when it sees odd file extensions like .pl or .php or .cgi or .aspx, or, as I prefer my own mod_perl apps, no file name extension at all.
</div<
You just forgot to mention that if someone mentions that they're having problems with the current release, they say that this next release, which is already beta by the way, is going to fix that.
Of course, the advertising reflects both of these things too. Windows 98 advertisements had tubes of painkillers labelled "Windows 98" (which would imply there's something seriously frustrating in Windows 95).
(Though, I still fail to see what the tractor that got stuck in the mud when trying to bulldoze a rotten shed was supposed to symbolize in Windows 2000 TV commercials. Maybe they were trying to be honest or something.)
Wouldn't count on that age - CD-Rs are supposed to last only 50-70 years, pressed CDs will last longer but I'm fairly certain it's well below 1000 years...
Besides, every time the CD burner gives me a coaster (not that it'd happen every day, of course), it's just as useless now as it is in 1000 years.
...then I noted it needs a gigahertz class processor.
Maybe next summer. Or the one after it.
Well, Max Payne was good enough to make me upgrade my video card, maybe this one is good enough to make me get a new proc... =)
When I got Q3A, I picked Hunter. Two reasons: 1) Cool name. I mean, very cool name. 2) Hey, a cool helmet or, um... whatever that thing is.
Took me several moments to realize the character was actually female. Not that it actually matters - my characters in online games can be of either gender because I'm equally braindead. Anyway, this was the first time I could honestly claim the choice was completely due to irrelevant, unrelated factors. =)
The GIF and TIFF plugin binaries are separate downloads, at least on Windows and Debian. This was because of the LZW patents. I'm not sure how future releases handle them.
Regarding GIMP's crashiness - Linux 1.2.x version is rock solid and not even the mightiest powers known to humankind could shake its foundations, but Windows version is slightly unstable. (Not much - one or two crashes in a week, and it's usually only happening when I'm running out of disk space...)
Or Excel? (what's this, Good Stuff???) or Access? (um, it lets you use stuff? It's a thing that, like, connects to the other thing, Right?) or Powerpoint? (Wait, I know! it's explained in Psionics Handbook!)
But you already explained Gimp - Sodipodi is easy, it's Monk Latin for "feet of soda", except that it's incorrect because you can't pluralize uncountable nouns (a famous example: plural of "virus" isn't "viri" or anything, since the word means "poison").
Let's face it, the whole industry sucks at naming. The difference is that in most OSS projects, the developers get to name the stuff, and in commercial projects (free or not), it's done by marketroids. Both suck at naming, but at least they suck differently.
1) The game music often comes with the game. Sometimes it's in some obscure file format, but these days many games (especially the moddable ones) have music in some standard format (many use MP3 - well, Operation Flashpoint used Ogg Vorbis...) Back in the day, many CD-ROM games also had soundtrack on the CD as redbook tracks. There's no point in selling soundtrack - you can get it from the game itself.
2) Even if games don't have rippable files, they often have "music test" mode. (Goes especially well for older console games etc).
3) If everything else fails and the music is reasonable excellent, there are a lot of folks who remaster or remix the music. Most of my Ultima stuff is in form of MIDI files sequenced by the fans. There's also sites like Overclocked Remix and RKO that have excellent, often delightfully creative remixes.
And I really don't think the game music soundtrack CDs would actually benefit anyone. In my opinion, the games these days are already the Ultimate Music Distribution Channel. I'm a game music fan and I prefer to get the music from the very source itself. I believe the separate soundtracks are just the kind of rubbish that can be expected from these people that Slashbots like to call "representatives of old-fashioned, outdated, dying music distribution models". I personally demand better game music, and I want it to come with the games themselves, or at least available without extra charges!
Ah, it's quite easy, really: There's PHB and then there's the other PHB - the one that they'll probably put in MM3. You know, al LE and Int 3.
Commodore 64 is easily the most fun computer system I've ever had. That's why I have two of them. =) The games were great, some of the apps bended the boundaries of the hardware, and the SID music is still the best thing imaginable.
Well, in retrospect, I have to say C64 programming - in BASIC, that is - wasn't as much fun as modern languages. In definite contrast, I bet 64 assembler coding is a lot of fun though, even on this day and age.
Sure, it was fun back in the day when I didn't know much of the possibilities. What they say about BASIC rotting the brain is true - When I finally used PCs all day long, I had some trouble adjusting to TurboPascal and C, but all that I ultimately needed was a single zen moment...
I never made that complex programs because the BASIC thing is actually quite limited.
The most complex thing I ever did was a multi-user operating system / bulletin board thing I made in early 90s. All in BASIC. Never had multitasking or dial-in system, though. Pretty frosty in retrospect, I suppose.
This year, I tried coding something real, but all this modern stuff - like getting used to function arguments - made me write some pretty hideous code. Ugh. Not to even mention that the slowness of the language started to become a problem. I think I'll do my law-mandated Tetris clone on PC in C++ instead of completing my DogSlowTris on C64 BASIC!
More recently, I've tried to learn 6502 assembler - it definitely seems far more fun way to program that thing. Especially with a cross compiler and emulator.
Yeah, FLAC and Speex =)
Heh. I got Deus Ex some time ago. Out of Some Experience with 3D Shooters, I automatically picked OpenGL and played through a few missions. Then I noted how wonky some things actually looked. I switched to Direct3D and noted that no, everyone is not wearing pink glasses and guns don't have targeting rectangles. =)
I wish Loki would have lived through the Deus Ex Linux port, maybe that would have meant some strategic fixes to the OpenGL side...
Automagical rejection is cool, yeah... except that they return 404 Not Found instead of returning... well, something that might indicate a temporary server failure. ("502 Server Temporarily Overloaded" isn't offical, I think? 500 Internal Error?)
Such error would indicate that the resource is only temporarily unavailable. Now, people visiting think the page is actually deleted or moved without appropriate redirection. My first reaction was "Oh my God, they fired dmr and nuked his web page!"
I constantly use Lush SVG theme for GTK+/GNOME (using rSVG), and I have to say it's not at all slower than any bitmap-based theme. It's quite surprising, really. I wouldn't even be surprised if it turned out to be faster than bitmap themes, especially if it'll one day use the X11 vector extensions.
Yeah, I too believed bitmaps were automatically faster. But then again, I still have a Commodore64 mind =)
I don't know... Ultima VII the way it was meant to be played...
Nah, I think I'll just use Exult and it's .ogg renditions =)