I challenge the notion that the mouse is the end-all, be-all of FPS control.
Moving an arbitrary object a precise amount to control a character on screen with no real relation to the mouse is terrrible, from an intuitive point of view. Moving this little thing around a tiny space, and having to fine-tune just how little i move it, is a pain in the ass to learn.
Someone will come up with a better controller...the mouse is just too inconvenient.
Lots of people are bitching about this being pretty much a total rumor, and/. reporting it anyways.
What's wrong with reporting rumors, as long as they are clearly marked as such? Many of us (myself included) like to hear about these "wouldn't it be cool if..." types of stories, and Slashdot clearly explained this is a rumor.
Especially with the PS2, since it is a very radical change in the way most games run. Whether this helps or hurts it in the long run remains to be seen.
What did you mean here? I'm not sure how PS2 games are radically different in the way they run....
The DC launched with a modem. Why couldn't the PS2? Here's an instance where the lead time doesn't matter. In fact, it would have given the PS2 an edge, since they could implement a modem better than the DC did. But they didn't.
Last night I was playing Ridge Racer V. My roommate had some cars he unlocked on his memory card, and we wanted to use those in a 2 player race. He loaded the car from his memory card, but the game wouldn't let me load a car from his. So we had to manually swap the memory cards, load from his, and then swap back. On a DC game, you just pick which VMU you want to load from. The controllers are usually A, B, C, and D, and each has 2 slots. Thus, you pick Load from A1, or Load from B2, or D1, etc... Very convenient.
As for the Pocketstation, it not being available in the USA certainly doesn't help USA gamers, now does it.
The point of my comment was that, DC seems to be a much better platform right now. And I don't think there is any excuse for that, other than Sony is just complacent, and people are stupid enough to believe what they say.
My roommates have a PS2 and a Dreamcast, and I've played both a lot.
My impression is that the PS2 is not a bad system, but there is this feeling of something being missing when I play it, compared to the Dreamcast.
I definitely get the feeling that the machine is very "complacent." I just think to myself, this machine is very behind in some respects. For example, only 2 controller ports are included on the unit? That's a braindead move, ensuring that fewer games will be made to use more than 2 controllers. Lack of modem/ethernet? All the new online games coming out for DC this holiday season are impressive. PS2 owners won't get that anytime soon. DC's use of a VMU for memory and the presentation of additional game content is wonderful, and far superior to the antiquated memory cards sold for PS2, ESPECIALLY since many games don't let players load from an arbitrary memory card, in the same way anyone can load anything from any VMU in most DC games. Additionally, the lack of FSAA really hurts on a TV screen. DC games look crisp and clear, while the PS2 games I've played are full of jagged edges.
What does all this add up to? A disappointing experience for players that believed all the hype (and continue to believe the hype). The PS2 isn't bad, but in many ways, I find the DC a superior console.
Too many companies are afraid of telecommuting. At mine, they say things like "on a case-by-case basis, where it makes sense." I can think of perhaps 8 people in my 70 person department that really should be in the office all the time, but how many have telecommuted? Zero. Why the fear? There are lots and lots of days where I feel like crap, and can't go to the office, but if I could just work at home, things would be great. WHY does a simple coder like me, who hardly interfaces with others anyways, need to go in more than once a week for meetings and general hob-nobbing?
I'm not voting in this year's presedential election because I don't think any of the candidates are worth my vote. I don't like any of them, and I just can't pledge my support for someone I dislike.
I see announcements like this, and GNOME Office using GnomeBASIC for the application automation, and I can't help but wonder, why not use Perl?
Perl is already a successful open-source scripting language, and there are loads and loads of modules built to do nearly anything most users would ever want to accomplish, or at least get you most of the way there. So why go a build a whole new langauge, when extremely competent ones already exist? I hate learning new languages all the time; some convergence could go a long way, I think.
AMEN! I plan to get a mobile phone eventually, but it will also be off almost all the time. When I go out, I just don't want people to bug me - that's most of the reason for going out! It will be nice for emergencies and the like, but all the time chatting is annoying - not to mention rude. Don't you just HATE it when someone gets a call when you are out to dinner, and they don't bother to excuse themselves from the table?
As for IM, setting yourself as N/A or some equivalent works well for me. I never turn my machine off, so when I go to work or class, I just set ICQ N/A and lock my workstation. If I am doing something important, I usually do the same. Many of my friends leave their IM clients on permanent N/A, and just periodically check the messages for important ones.
BTW these days good cordless phones include belt-clips and hands-free kits. I wear mine around the house all the time, so I never have to stop and run to find the phone.
DirectX is winning lots of developers because MS actually implements new features and concepts ina standardized way in the API. All you get with GL is a bunch of vendor-supplied extensions. The paradigm for development hasn't changed at all for GL, whereas DX has moved along with the times.
That said, I think GL has a superior implementation. It's just a shame that GL is withering away in the face of new feature developments, losing to the MS machine.
What ever happened to the new 3D API, called Farenheit, that was to be co-developed by MS and SGI? I remember it was announced not long after the GL vs. DX wars went into full swing, about 3 years ago. Where did that go?
They ARE making a network countroller and a sound chip for the X-Box. Their chip is supposed to be used as an ultra-high-end DSP to generate all the neato surround sound effects, as well be a "broadband" gateway, effectively turning the X-Box into a 'residential gateway' for everything hooked up to it.
Its as if, because Apple used XML, their configuration files are somehow superior? Oh yeah, I just love typing this crap all day long:
....
Damn, I got tired of it anyways. Yes there are config tools, but that just makes it a pain in the ass to manually configure stuff if the tools fail or are unavailable.
My point is, XML is being horribly abused right now. It's really quite sickening the amount of wasted storage space being used for tags, when a few extra lines of code to parse a simple configuration file would do.
XML makes a lot of sense for passing data between apps that were developed independently, or are hosted on heterogenous systems and networks. But the use of XML as a config file grammar is just OVERKILL.
Yeah I'm a little disappointed with the stuff that isn't in 7.0. Looking through the Beta Announcement article posted on/. at the end of July, I read some comments by Bero on why things weren't included. It makes sense, but mostly from a business perspective. I guess the product shipment just can't wait indefinitely for kernel 2.4 and gcc 3.0, etc... to be ready.
Still, I'll upgrade. I like RedHat's product and their commitment to support it is solid.
I think a lot of the people posting to this article missed the point of the RedHat Network.
Big businesses like subscription models, for a number of reasons. Pay-as-you-go, and pay-as-much-as-you-use-it allow them to tailor the pricing to their needs. And the subscription-style updates frees them from having to worry so much about the OS changing. Having updates and new releases automatically shipped to you vastly simplifies the whole process. If you read the article, you'd note that the subscription will delivered on CD as well as electronic distribution.
Its true that the updates were available from their site, and with up2date. But this is going beyond simple OS updates. Read the article and you'll see how.
I'm a big fan of mainstream alternative/rock/punk. I'm wondering where I can find information on what label a given band is signed with? I used My.Mp3.Com a lot, and I really miss the service. I wonder how many bands (from Universal) I won't be able to stream? Anyone know how to help me find out?
Read the article, and you'll find out that the lawyer is being paid on contigency. He spins it by saying "What an opportunity, I wanted to be right there from the beginning."
What isn't being said, is that GOOD patent lawyers likely ignored the potential to work with Mr. Pool, since they understood the dubious nature of the patent.
This lawyer is just like Mr. Pool - trying to make a buck without working. Unfortunately, he should have realized he's just wasting his time - as the other lawyers surely did.
It's true that Cathedral gets the product out the door often times, but I think the real fundamental difference in Cathedral vs Bazaar is that 'getting it out the door' is not the focus in the Bazaar - quality is.
Commercial development says you pick some features, set a time-frame, and come hell or high water, you will make that release (you can miss, but only with grave consequences.)
OSS development says pikc some features, come up with a ballpark as to when each feature might be done, and start working. Gradually make release as features are implemented, allowing time for the system to evolve and improve. New features migh creep in because of consequences of the development, but eventually you have a 'stable release'.
Now what's the difference? Besides the quality of the implementation, which OSS has proven can be quite high in comparison to Commercial software, the real difference is release schedules and targets.
Commercial development has a single goal: The Release. OSS development has multiple goals: getting features to work well. Release early and release often means that you don't really have The Release. You just release 'snapshots' as the code evolves. One reason it works because by the time you get to The Release, you have committed to a number of architecture and design decisions that might interfere with implementation down the road. However, frequent, incremental releases allow the code to mature faster, because things are fine grained.
Thus, it's true that the Cathedral gets something out the door, and its often of lower quality, because that is the goal - getting it out the door. But the OSS world is different - The Release is really a concept that doesn't exist; the focus is just on getting features correct and then making a release.
Half-Life had the alien planet, yes, and it sucked royally.
Too much console-style gameplay (jumping puzzles abounded) and it was just dumb.
The vast, vast majority of people I know either hated or stopped playing HL when they got to the alien planet. It was just that bad to lots and lots of people.
I was always of the opinion that they should have come up with another few areas of the complex to explore, or some underground, or something. ANYTHING but the crappy alien world.
I think this is probably NOT the real title, but it is pretty close.
Look for this film to be dark - Lucas said years ago, when he was announcing that work was to begin on the prequels, that he intends the 1st to be kind of light harted and ending up-beat (TPM was just that, as was A New Hope). The second would be dark and end sort of down, just like Empire Strikes Back was. And then, in the 3rd, the good would win out and have a major victory.
Look for the empire to grow in episode 2, and for Anakin to fall to the dark side. Thus, the title makes sense, even if it isn't the absolute final title.
20 crashes of pre-release software is hardly out of the ordinary - I've been developing a computer game over the past year, and it has crashed about as much. Ditto for nearly ANY windows app I've written, of any appreciable size.
I found Mozilla to be a high quality implementation of a web browser - that's why I liked it.
Slashdot Mirror
I challenge the notion that the mouse is the end-all, be-all of FPS control.
Moving an arbitrary object a precise amount to control a character on screen with no real relation to the mouse is terrrible, from an intuitive point of view. Moving this little thing around a tiny space, and having to fine-tune just how little i move it, is a pain in the ass to learn.
Someone will come up with a better controller...the mouse is just too inconvenient.
Lots of people are bitching about this being pretty much a total rumor, and /. reporting it anyways.
What's wrong with reporting rumors, as long as they are clearly marked as such? Many of us (myself included) like to hear about these "wouldn't it be cool if..." types of stories, and Slashdot clearly explained this is a rumor.
What's the problem?
What did you mean here? I'm not sure how PS2 games are radically different in the way they run....
The DC launched with a modem. Why couldn't the PS2? Here's an instance where the lead time doesn't matter. In fact, it would have given the PS2 an edge, since they could implement a modem better than the DC did. But they didn't.
Last night I was playing Ridge Racer V. My roommate had some cars he unlocked on his memory card, and we wanted to use those in a 2 player race. He loaded the car from his memory card, but the game wouldn't let me load a car from his. So we had to manually swap the memory cards, load from his, and then swap back. On a DC game, you just pick which VMU you want to load from. The controllers are usually A, B, C, and D, and each has 2 slots. Thus, you pick Load from A1, or Load from B2, or D1, etc... Very convenient.
As for the Pocketstation, it not being available in the USA certainly doesn't help USA gamers, now does it.
The point of my comment was that, DC seems to be a much better platform right now. And I don't think there is any excuse for that, other than Sony is just complacent, and people are stupid enough to believe what they say.
My roommates have a PS2 and a Dreamcast, and I've played both a lot.
My impression is that the PS2 is not a bad system, but there is this feeling of something being missing when I play it, compared to the Dreamcast.
I definitely get the feeling that the machine is very "complacent." I just think to myself, this machine is very behind in some respects. For example, only 2 controller ports are included on the unit? That's a braindead move, ensuring that fewer games will be made to use more than 2 controllers. Lack of modem/ethernet? All the new online games coming out for DC this holiday season are impressive. PS2 owners won't get that anytime soon. DC's use of a VMU for memory and the presentation of additional game content is wonderful, and far superior to the antiquated memory cards sold for PS2, ESPECIALLY since many games don't let players load from an arbitrary memory card, in the same way anyone can load anything from any VMU in most DC games. Additionally, the lack of FSAA really hurts on a TV screen. DC games look crisp and clear, while the PS2 games I've played are full of jagged edges.
What does all this add up to? A disappointing experience for players that believed all the hype (and continue to believe the hype). The PS2 isn't bad, but in many ways, I find the DC a superior console.
Too many companies are afraid of telecommuting. At mine, they say things like "on a case-by-case basis, where it makes sense." I can think of perhaps 8 people in my 70 person department that really should be in the office all the time, but how many have telecommuted? Zero. Why the fear? There are lots and lots of days where I feel like crap, and can't go to the office, but if I could just work at home, things would be great. WHY does a simple coder like me, who hardly interfaces with others anyways, need to go in more than once a week for meetings and general hob-nobbing?
I'm not voting in this year's presedential election because I don't think any of the candidates are worth my vote. I don't like any of them, and I just can't pledge my support for someone I dislike.
I'm curious about your comment that BFS is "no longer a true database."
:)
What did you mean by that? How was it a database? Inquiring minds want to know
Does anyone know id KDE2 will run on Solaris 2.6? We use that at work, and I'd love to be free at last of crappy OpenLook.
I see announcements like this, and GNOME Office using GnomeBASIC for the application automation, and I can't help but wonder, why not use Perl?
Perl is already a successful open-source scripting language, and there are loads and loads of modules built to do nearly anything most users would ever want to accomplish, or at least get you most of the way there. So why go a build a whole new langauge, when extremely competent ones already exist? I hate learning new languages all the time; some convergence could go a long way, I think.
AMEN! I plan to get a mobile phone eventually, but it will also be off almost all the time. When I go out, I just don't want people to bug me - that's most of the reason for going out! It will be nice for emergencies and the like, but all the time chatting is annoying - not to mention rude. Don't you just HATE it when someone gets a call when you are out to dinner, and they don't bother to excuse themselves from the table?
As for IM, setting yourself as N/A or some equivalent works well for me. I never turn my machine off, so when I go to work or class, I just set ICQ N/A and lock my workstation. If I am doing something important, I usually do the same. Many of my friends leave their IM clients on permanent N/A, and just periodically check the messages for important ones.
BTW these days good cordless phones include belt-clips and hands-free kits. I wear mine around the house all the time, so I never have to stop and run to find the phone.
DirectX is winning lots of developers because MS actually implements new features and concepts ina standardized way in the API. All you get with GL is a bunch of vendor-supplied extensions. The paradigm for development hasn't changed at all for GL, whereas DX has moved along with the times.
That said, I think GL has a superior implementation. It's just a shame that GL is withering away in the face of new feature developments, losing to the MS machine.
What ever happened to the new 3D API, called Farenheit, that was to be co-developed by MS and SGI? I remember it was announced not long after the GL vs. DX wars went into full swing, about 3 years ago. Where did that go?
They ARE making a network countroller and a sound chip for the X-Box. Their chip is supposed to be used as an ultra-high-end DSP to generate all the neato surround sound effects, as well be a "broadband" gateway, effectively turning the X-Box into a 'residential gateway' for everything hooked up to it.
XML does not a good configuration file make.
Its as if, because Apple used XML, their configuration files are somehow superior? Oh yeah, I just love typing this crap all day long:
....
Damn, I got tired of it anyways. Yes there are config tools, but that just makes it a pain in the ass to manually configure stuff if the tools fail or are unavailable.
My point is, XML is being horribly abused right now. It's really quite sickening the amount of wasted storage space being used for tags, when a few extra lines of code to parse a simple configuration file would do.
XML makes a lot of sense for passing data between apps that were developed independently, or are hosted on heterogenous systems and networks. But the use of XML as a config file grammar is just OVERKILL.
Yeah I'm a little disappointed with the stuff that isn't in 7.0. Looking through the Beta Announcement article posted on /. at the end of July, I read some comments by Bero on why things weren't included. It makes sense, but mostly from a business perspective. I guess the product shipment just can't wait indefinitely for kernel 2.4 and gcc 3.0, etc... to be ready.
Still, I'll upgrade. I like RedHat's product and their commitment to support it is solid.
Does RedHat 7 include SSH by default, now that the RSA patent expired?
I think a lot of the people posting to this article missed the point of the RedHat Network.
Big businesses like subscription models, for a number of reasons. Pay-as-you-go, and pay-as-much-as-you-use-it allow them to tailor the pricing to their needs. And the subscription-style updates frees them from having to worry so much about the OS changing. Having updates and new releases automatically shipped to you vastly simplifies the whole process. If you read the article, you'd note that the subscription will delivered on CD as well as electronic distribution.
Its true that the updates were available from their site, and with up2date. But this is going beyond simple OS updates. Read the article and you'll see how.
I'm curious why they asked people to use HTTP instead of FTP to download the files. Is HTTP now considered better for file transfer than FTP?
Anyhow, congrats to KDE team for getting one step closer to the release. Your users everywhere thank you for the hard work!
I'm a big fan of mainstream alternative/rock/punk. I'm wondering where I can find information on what label a given band is signed with? I used My.Mp3.Com a lot, and I really miss the service. I wonder how many bands (from Universal) I won't be able to stream? Anyone know how to help me find out?
Read the article, and you'll find out that the lawyer is being paid on contigency. He spins it by saying "What an opportunity, I wanted to be right there from the beginning."
What isn't being said, is that GOOD patent lawyers likely ignored the potential to work with Mr. Pool, since they understood the dubious nature of the patent.
This lawyer is just like Mr. Pool - trying to make a buck without working. Unfortunately, he should have realized he's just wasting his time - as the other lawyers surely did.
It's true that Cathedral gets the product out the door often times, but I think the real fundamental difference in Cathedral vs Bazaar is that 'getting it out the door' is not the focus in the Bazaar - quality is.
Commercial development says you pick some features, set a time-frame, and come hell or high water, you will make that release (you can miss, but only with grave consequences.)
OSS development says pikc some features, come up with a ballpark as to when each feature might be done, and start working. Gradually make release as features are implemented, allowing time for the system to evolve and improve. New features migh creep in because of consequences of the development, but eventually you have a 'stable release'.
Now what's the difference? Besides the quality of the implementation, which OSS has proven can be quite high in comparison to Commercial software, the real difference is release schedules and targets.
Commercial development has a single goal: The Release. OSS development has multiple goals: getting features to work well. Release early and release often means that you don't really have The Release. You just release 'snapshots' as the code evolves. One reason it works because by the time you get to The Release, you have committed to a number of architecture and design decisions that might interfere with implementation down the road. However, frequent, incremental releases allow the code to mature faster, because things are fine grained.
Thus, it's true that the Cathedral gets something out the door, and its often of lower quality, because that is the goal - getting it out the door. But the OSS world is different - The Release is really a concept that doesn't exist; the focus is just on getting features correct and then making a release.
Half-Life had the alien planet, yes, and it sucked royally.
Too much console-style gameplay (jumping puzzles abounded) and it was just dumb.
The vast, vast majority of people I know either hated or stopped playing HL when they got to the alien planet. It was just that bad to lots and lots of people.
I was always of the opinion that they should have come up with another few areas of the complex to explore, or some underground, or something. ANYTHING but the crappy alien world.
I think this is probably NOT the real title, but it is pretty close.
Look for this film to be dark - Lucas said years ago, when he was announcing that work was to begin on the prequels, that he intends the 1st to be kind of light harted and ending up-beat (TPM was just that, as was A New Hope). The second would be dark and end sort of down, just like Empire Strikes Back was. And then, in the 3rd, the good would win out and have a major victory.
Look for the empire to grow in episode 2, and for Anakin to fall to the dark side. Thus, the title makes sense, even if it isn't the absolute final title.
20 crashes of pre-release software is hardly out of the ordinary - I've been developing a computer game over the past year, and it has crashed about as much. Ditto for nearly ANY windows app I've written, of any appreciable size.
I found Mozilla to be a high quality implementation of a web browser - that's why I liked it.