So the real reason CD's can't be copyrighted is because the CD standard didn't allow for them. So what's the next step for the RIAA? Simple - new standard. These things were written into the DVD spec document and so I predict a "CD 2" spec soon. Then they get the major manufacturers on board and before long come out with only "CD 2"'s. The Redbook Standard is over 20 years old, I figure it's not like they're turning right around and making a new one or something.
...instead of an artist saying "everyone buy our albums" they'll say "everyone please download out songs so our label will pay us a nickel. Doesn't matter to us if you listen to it..."
Methinks this little bubble will burst too quickly. Before the labels had to lie to the artist, now they have to just fudge some numbers.
Actually, last Christmas was the most successful Christmas Dreamcast ever had - they sold a ton of games and systems, plus they had a year's back catalog to work with. However they still lost millions and ditched the DC.
Now I'm not saying Sony's going to ditch the PS2 or that the PS2 is going into the toilet but it's true that this sort of survey is pointless at this point in time. All consoles look good their second Christmas out (except Nintendo 64, which launched in 1996, had little in the 1997 season but kicked ass in 1998 with Zelda).
Yes but they both cost money, and I would imagine the hard drive space (12GB per month) would cost more than the bandwidth.
I was mainly curious how these "just for the hell of it" sites (archiving news posts, archiving the whole freaking Internet) survive, unless they're bought out (ala DejaNews -> Google)
..now where am I supposed to go to see the "kitty rustlers" ad from two Super Bowls ago.
Actually I figured the money for bandwidth could kill them - so how is it that Internet Archive site is able to afford up to 12GB per month in hard drive space?
I can't speak for Monsters, Inc. (haven't seen it yet, ovbiously), but the previous 3 Pixar films kick ass. They're all three brilliant and hilarious and they make for really killer DVDs.
I've heard it said that John Lasseter is the second coming of Walt Disney. Not only do the Pixar movies make for technical achievements, but they also work well as stories and they make you want to watch them for something other than the "neato computer animation factor". Some films get too caught up on the how and forget the story. For example, on the Phantom Menace DVD's, they never mention the story and mythos of Star Wars, they just blathe on about how the made the waterfall sequence or Jar Jar's ears. John Lasseter is the new Walt Disney and his medium is computer animation - this is great news for/.-ers.
Also, I graduated from Texas A&M and I know there's a computer graphics (degree) program here that has sent at least a couple of people to Pixar. Does anyone out there know who?
Well, the deal with Indrema was it was a titanic notion from day one. Recall that console companies lose money on the hardware, so the notion of an "open source" console was specious at best - if you don't make money on the software and don't make that much (if anything) on the hardware, then where is your money made? Sure, Indrema's plan was to allow people to "license" their software, but come on..
However, NUON is mainly a DVD enhancement technology that "happens to" play games (as opposed to PS2, a game console that "happens to" play movies). There are few NUON titles other than Atari Jaguar sequels and the occasional CD-ROM shovelware (Myst). Therefore they can't convince DVD player manufacturers to place NUON chips in their systems. However if they make it an "open" console technology, then they can convince hobbyists and the like to make software for it. Then the increased demand makes for more of a push to put the NUON technology in DVD players, and NUON then has a more viable platform to encourage development for.
On the other hand, it could just be that NUON is on its way out the door and his handing off its source to people so that something can become of the technology eventually. They release the tools and such, then go out of business. Like DIVX players, NUON players become cheap and get snatched up by/.-ers.
Exactly - it's low cost but it's not viable. Projection onto a cloth screen isn't a solution. Break out your old 10MM home movies and project them onto a screen, and I think you'll get the idea of the effect here.
Having said that, were anyone to do this and be 100% satisfied with it (or hell, 80%) then I'd love to hear about it.
Isn't this the same thing they've been "selling" for decades now? It consists of a large sheet, your television and a Fresnel lens (where the $10 comes in, BTW). You basically throw a sheet in front of your TV and place the Fresnel lens between them and viola. Of course, this is a flimsy arrangement, so blueprints to construct a wooden monstrosity to hold the whole thing are included. Oh, and of course this will produce an upside down picture (since we have basic telescope theory at work here) so you have to turn your TV upside down (which may have been less of a big deal back in the 1950's when TV's were basically boxes and they came up with this idea).
Oh, and nevermind the fact that with today's technology and a greater emphasis than ever on DVD and digital picture we're willing to throw away $10 at whatever snake oil peddler comes along. "Just project it on your bed sheets!"
Re:Postal sucks and Loki is screwed
on
Loki Goes Postal
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· Score: 1
I could be wrong but I remember the deal was that the patch wasn't available until after Christmas (after buying season, in other words) so that it wouldn't cannibalize sales. Loki's lack of distribution abilities (compared with Activision's anyway) hurt that quite a bit.
At the time I was working at a Babbage's and we had the occasional person looking for the Linux port of "X" and what out manager told them (as was told to him by corporate) was that Babbage's had carried the Linux port of "Civilization: Call to Power" and it didn't sell for shit, and neither did a box of Quake 2 ports of the mission packs and such, so carrying a port of game "X" was unlikely. It seemed stupid to me - CtP wasn't a big seller for Windows, either, plus a lowsy game all around, and anyone who wanted to play Quake 2 in Linux had done so before they came out with in in a box, but this is the logic Bean Counters go by and it's hard to argue with.
I walked into Half Price Books the other day and I saw dozens of copies of Quake 3 and Soldier of Fortune for Linux at $10 each. I guess this is where Loki ports go when they die.
Schnapple
Postal sucks and Loki is screwed
on
Loki Goes Postal
·
· Score: 1
I played this game a long time ago - it was BAD. It's akin to saying "we got the rights to Daikatana!"
For that matter, it's a sign Loki is going away, if this is as good as they can do. Most recent popular games either don't want to touch Linux, want to port the games themselves, or just don't want to go through another publisher.
Part of Loki's problem is the intentional segregation. It was originally impossible to patch Quake 3 Windows to the Linux version, and the Linux and Mac versions were sold separately. Loki's tactics were intended to get them the money they were due and to gauge Linux support. However, it didn't work - Linux copies sold a tiny fraction of the number sold. Loki blamed it on most Linux users also being Windows dual-booters and that they settled on the Windows version and could wait for the patch. Furthermore, Loki's contract only allow for binary patches (which are a pain apparently) and make it so that the developer is paying the publisher (instead of the ideal vice versa).
Couple that with the fact that we have a company whose lone claim is that they're trying to make money off of a free operating system with freeloading users and the fact that the best they can do in most cases is to port old tired games (and the occasional Quake engine title) and it's doom for Loki.
Had they been smart they would have ported Half-Life, negotiating that deal at any cost.
Okay, so I read that this is a binary patch for previous users but the install routine implies that it's just "harder" to do anything with it, not impossible for those of us who are Watcom-less. So, is it possible to use this to do anything if you're starting from scratch?
Oh, and I'm more interested in the FORTRAN component of all this - don't ask me why...
Okay, here's another question - what's so "United" about the United Paramount Network? Were there several Paramount Networks (or other things) before UPN "united" them? Is it like The I in IHOP, where it doesn't mean anything? Or did they think they would have an advantage over "the WB" if they had three letters like the big 4 networks (or 3+Fox if you prefer)?
Did anyone see the actress on that one episode of NYPD Blue? She's gotten all fat and nasty. Too bad - to think she left ST:TNG to be killed on Pet Sematary.
Plus, the Dreamcast can already boot from a CD-R, something the PS2 can't do natively. And they're $80 these days.
Also, Bleem [bleem.com] has made the most of the independent DC scene. Randy (of Bleem) reverse engineered all his own tools and they finally released BleemDC for GT2, the first commercial software based emulator for one console based on another. They're about to unveil one for Metal Gear Solid that makes that game look even better than the PC port. If you hit the Bleem!Cast Forum [dcemulation.com] and ask real nice, Rand will probably even answer questions for you (he's pretty cool like that).
As for porting non-emulators, a guy on the DCEmulation page going by crt0 ported Doom to the console, the first game to be ported to it (and the first "straight" port of Doom), so you might want to give him a shout on the boards.
What a coincidence, I just read in PC Magazine how this was a POS. True, it had USB and such but it ran Opera (shudder), it used BeIA, had a mere 56K Modem, wouldn't save MP3's, can't run anything Shockwave or Windows Media, etc. They gave it one star. No woner Sony killed it.
I of course am one of those who will be reading at least the first book of the trilogy prior to the movie this fall, but while I know that the series goes in the order of The Hobbit, LOTR Trilogy, Silmarillion chronologically, what order should i read them in? I'm on the impression that The Hobbit is something of a children's book and if it's nicer as a "prequel after the fact" then I'd rather get into a meatier book, rather than waste my time and perhaps get discouraged by the childishness of The Hobbit. Any tips?
Okay, when I went to school people brought NES carts to trade/loan with others and just to generally show off. One day some kid beats up another kid to steal his cart. What is the school's reaction? Just ban the possession of NES carts at school. Ignore the problem - it will go away.
So when the advent of the pager and cell phone come around, they ban those as well. At my school the line was that pagers and cell phones could be used by drug dealers, so rather than crack down on the drugs, just ban the pagers so at least they can ignore the issue (my school also banned hats - they can be "gang related"). Granted, the class interruption notion is pretty legitimate - simply put, there shouldn't be anything in a high school student's life that's worth being paged or called in the middle of the day about - these are school children, for Christ's sake.
Therefore, the next logical move is to ban PDA's as well. They're kinda like pagers. They're kinda like games. They're gonna get stolen, so just ban them. Kinda like when your ISP bans you from running a web server - they're only going to go after you if it becomes a problem. You can have a PDA at these schools, just keep it hidden.
These schools will un-ban PDA's when they can be used usefully - which is why the first bit of this story is good. Why would you need to know appointments in shcool? Your appointment is school. Period. But of course you could keep homework assignments in there and so forth.
This will of course lead to the "my dog ate my batteries" defense.
Schnapple
Re:OT: What're the " is Romero's bitch" lines?
on
Ion Storm Reorganizes
·
· Score: 2
Ion Storm came out with a full page magazine ad stating in big letters, "THIS FALL JOHN ROMERO'S GONNA MAKE YOU HIS BITCH" (Daikatana ad).
The ad came out in 1997, three years before Daikatana came out.
Suffice it to say that after incessant delays and a game that was at best lackluster, this became an irony point.
Slashdot Mirror
So the real reason CD's can't be copyrighted is because the CD standard didn't allow for them. So what's the next step for the RIAA? Simple - new standard. These things were written into the DVD spec document and so I predict a "CD 2" spec soon. Then they get the major manufacturers on board and before long come out with only "CD 2"'s. The Redbook Standard is over 20 years old, I figure it's not like they're turning right around and making a new one or something.
Methinks this little bubble will burst too quickly. Before the labels had to lie to the artist, now they have to just fudge some numbers.
Withess Hyperspace Delivery Boy. That took what, a week?
Actually, last Christmas was the most successful Christmas Dreamcast ever had - they sold a ton of games and systems, plus they had a year's back catalog to work with. However they still lost millions and ditched the DC.
Now I'm not saying Sony's going to ditch the PS2 or that the PS2 is going into the toilet but it's true that this sort of survey is pointless at this point in time. All consoles look good their second Christmas out (except Nintendo 64, which launched in 1996, had little in the 1997 season but kicked ass in 1998 with Zelda).
Yes but they both cost money, and I would imagine the hard drive space (12GB per month) would cost more than the bandwidth.
I was mainly curious how these "just for the hell of it" sites (archiving news posts, archiving the whole freaking Internet) survive, unless they're bought out (ala DejaNews -> Google)
..now where am I supposed to go to see the "kitty rustlers" ad from two Super Bowls ago.
Actually I figured the money for bandwidth could kill them - so how is it that Internet Archive site is able to afford up to 12GB per month in hard drive space?
Plus Mac users can't play the DVD-ROM content and therefore can't see the Nov. 8 trailer, even though QuickTime is a Mac-borne concept.
I've heard it said that John Lasseter is the second coming of Walt Disney. Not only do the Pixar movies make for technical achievements, but they also work well as stories and they make you want to watch them for something other than the "neato computer animation factor". Some films get too caught up on the how and forget the story. For example, on the Phantom Menace DVD's, they never mention the story and mythos of Star Wars, they just blathe on about how the made the waterfall sequence or Jar Jar's ears. John Lasseter is the new Walt Disney and his medium is computer animation - this is great news for /.-ers.
Also, I graduated from Texas A&M and I know there's a computer graphics (degree) program here that has sent at least a couple of people to Pixar. Does anyone out there know who?
However, NUON is mainly a DVD enhancement technology that "happens to" play games (as opposed to PS2, a game console that "happens to" play movies). There are few NUON titles other than Atari Jaguar sequels and the occasional CD-ROM shovelware (Myst). Therefore they can't convince DVD player manufacturers to place NUON chips in their systems. However if they make it an "open" console technology, then they can convince hobbyists and the like to make software for it. Then the increased demand makes for more of a push to put the NUON technology in DVD players, and NUON then has a more viable platform to encourage development for.
On the other hand, it could just be that NUON is on its way out the door and his handing off its source to people so that something can become of the technology eventually. They release the tools and such, then go out of business. Like DIVX players, NUON players become cheap and get snatched up by /.-ers.
..I own one of the dumbest ideas ever.
Having said that, were anyone to do this and be 100% satisfied with it (or hell, 80%) then I'd love to hear about it.
Schnapple
No, I think it's literally just upside down.
Schnapple
http://members.tripod.com/schnapple99/
Oh, and nevermind the fact that with today's technology and a greater emphasis than ever on DVD and digital picture we're willing to throw away $10 at whatever snake oil peddler comes along. "Just project it on your bed sheets!"
For shame this made it as a Slashdot topic.
Schnapple
http://members.tripod.com/schnapple99/
I could be wrong but I remember the deal was that the patch wasn't available until after Christmas (after buying season, in other words) so that it wouldn't cannibalize sales. Loki's lack of distribution abilities (compared with Activision's anyway) hurt that quite a bit.
At the time I was working at a Babbage's and we had the occasional person looking for the Linux port of "X" and what out manager told them (as was told to him by corporate) was that Babbage's had carried the Linux port of "Civilization: Call to Power" and it didn't sell for shit, and neither did a box of Quake 2 ports of the mission packs and such, so carrying a port of game "X" was unlikely. It seemed stupid to me - CtP wasn't a big seller for Windows, either, plus a lowsy game all around, and anyone who wanted to play Quake 2 in Linux had done so before they came out with in in a box, but this is the logic Bean Counters go by and it's hard to argue with.
I walked into Half Price Books the other day and I saw dozens of copies of Quake 3 and Soldier of Fortune for Linux at $10 each. I guess this is where Loki ports go when they die.
Schnapple
I played this game a long time ago - it was BAD. It's akin to saying "we got the rights to Daikatana!"
For that matter, it's a sign Loki is going away, if this is as good as they can do. Most recent popular games either don't want to touch Linux, want to port the games themselves, or just don't want to go through another publisher.
Part of Loki's problem is the intentional segregation. It was originally impossible to patch Quake 3 Windows to the Linux version, and the Linux and Mac versions were sold separately. Loki's tactics were intended to get them the money they were due and to gauge Linux support. However, it didn't work - Linux copies sold a tiny fraction of the number sold. Loki blamed it on most Linux users also being Windows dual-booters and that they settled on the Windows version and could wait for the patch. Furthermore, Loki's contract only allow for binary patches (which are a pain apparently) and make it so that the developer is paying the publisher (instead of the ideal vice versa).
Couple that with the fact that we have a company whose lone claim is that they're trying to make money off of a free operating system with freeloading users and the fact that the best they can do in most cases is to port old tired games (and the occasional Quake engine title) and it's doom for Loki.
Had they been smart they would have ported Half-Life, negotiating that deal at any cost.
Schnapple
Okay, so I read that this is a binary patch for previous users but the install routine implies that it's just "harder" to do anything with it, not impossible for those of us who are Watcom-less. So, is it possible to use this to do anything if you're starting from scratch?
Oh, and I'm more interested in the FORTRAN component of all this - don't ask me why...
Schnapple
Okay, here's another question - what's so "United" about the United Paramount Network? Were there several Paramount Networks (or other things) before UPN "united" them? Is it like The I in IHOP, where it doesn't mean anything? Or did they think they would have an advantage over "the WB" if they had three letters like the big 4 networks (or 3+Fox if you prefer)?
Schnapple
Did anyone see the actress on that one episode of NYPD Blue? She's gotten all fat and nasty. Too bad - to think she left ST:TNG to be killed on Pet Sematary.
Schnapple
DCEmulation.com
Plus, the Dreamcast can already boot from a CD-R, something the PS2 can't do natively. And they're $80 these days.
Also, Bleem [bleem.com] has made the most of the independent DC scene. Randy (of Bleem) reverse engineered all his own tools and they finally released BleemDC for GT2, the first commercial software based emulator for one console based on another. They're about to unveil one for Metal Gear Solid that makes that game look even better than the PC port. If you hit the Bleem!Cast Forum [dcemulation.com] and ask real nice, Rand will probably even answer questions for you (he's pretty cool like that).
As for porting non-emulators, a guy on the DCEmulation page going by crt0 ported Doom to the console, the first game to be ported to it (and the first "straight" port of Doom), so you might want to give him a shout on the boards.
Schnapple
Just get Activision Classics for the PSX and play it on the PS2 like I did :)
Schnapple
Schnapple
Schnapple
Schnapple
Okay, when I went to school people brought NES carts to trade/loan with others and just to generally show off. One day some kid beats up another kid to steal his cart. What is the school's reaction? Just ban the possession of NES carts at school. Ignore the problem - it will go away.
So when the advent of the pager and cell phone come around, they ban those as well. At my school the line was that pagers and cell phones could be used by drug dealers, so rather than crack down on the drugs, just ban the pagers so at least they can ignore the issue (my school also banned hats - they can be "gang related"). Granted, the class interruption notion is pretty legitimate - simply put, there shouldn't be anything in a high school student's life that's worth being paged or called in the middle of the day about - these are school children, for Christ's sake.
Therefore, the next logical move is to ban PDA's as well. They're kinda like pagers. They're kinda like games. They're gonna get stolen, so just ban them. Kinda like when your ISP bans you from running a web server - they're only going to go after you if it becomes a problem. You can have a PDA at these schools, just keep it hidden.
These schools will un-ban PDA's when they can be used usefully - which is why the first bit of this story is good. Why would you need to know appointments in shcool? Your appointment is school. Period. But of course you could keep homework assignments in there and so forth.
This will of course lead to the "my dog ate my batteries" defense.
Schnapple
The ad came out in 1997, three years before Daikatana came out.
Suffice it to say that after incessant delays and a game that was at best lackluster, this became an irony point.
Schnapple