I don't know, as much as I'd like to support Tux Games, Interplay has lately been tossing in 'extras' when you pre-order games directly from them (priming the pump I suppose), including the two extra CDs they threw in if you pre-ordered the Collectors edition of "Baldur's Gate 2" (one from ordering the Collectors Edition and one from pre-ordering it). These contained two new item vendors (high-priced but fun new items) and the sound track which made it worth while to me.
While I don't agree with these practices, I would still want to see what they might include with "Neverwinter Nights".
Just remember to register the game for support... and let them know what your operating system is.
I know I've been filling out 'Linux' under the OSs that I run at home (next to Win9x). I have to believe that when they start to get enough of these in the marketting department, then the engineers start to have the leverage to get managment to try new things.
True. Don't forget to add Diablo 2 to the list of games that didn't quite live up to their hype (although it was worth a play through, replay value went out the window).
The only game I've played recently that I thought lived up to its hype was Baldur's Gate 2. Now of course I'm playing that while waiting for Masters of Orion 3 to come out which seems like its going to be great:)
Not only do they not realize that we have more control over the web, but do to technology we are gaining more control over Television also (you can almost hear the media cartels blanching).
Right now I will often video tape something, and do work, or play on the computer, just so I can zip through the comercials later, instead of being held captive by them. Alternatively I usually get a few pages read in whatever book I am reading, or I practice my flute, on the comercial breaks instead of watching them.
If I get a Tivo (which I have been concidering more and more each day), then I will only need to set it to pause for lets say ten minutes, and then watch it in a 'tape delayed' fasion where I can fast forward through the advertisements.
Right now TV advertisements have been getting more anoying and stupider with each passing year. The exceptions are usually sharp and funny, or at least considerable. How many people thought the Amazon.Com Acapella ad was cute the first time, but thats it? Now, how many would tune in the Snickers 'voting booth' ad that was a dead-on satire of both candidates and kept me laughing as much as Comedy Central's "InDecission 2000" election coverage?
An interesting exception (personally) was Double Dragon. I was expecting a true groaner... and I was right, but because the movie didn't take itself seriously at all, and actually tried to make you groan (and chuckle and laugh, including the ex-henchmen on the side of a California highway holding up a sign saying "Will Hench for Food").
When I got to the credits and saw one of the story credits went to Paul Dini (of Batman/Superman fame) I suddenly understood where some of the goofy, odd, and funny moments must have come from.
Except that the freaking storm was supposed to take care of that. Can't fly if the skies are full of sand and lightning. They replaced a smart element from the book with bad CGI airships. Why?
Ah.. thank you for explaining it. The only thing I can think of is that they couldn't think of how to properly film the city (and an attack on it) while it is under a severe sand storm, or else perhaps the scene would have taken too long to render using CGI, or would have blown the budget too much(just guessing though).
I watched the first hour or less of each night, and gave up in annoyance each time.
I won't comment on the effects since its mostly a matter of taste, and while I liked them overall, I also realised that they were acting on a budget.
A friend of mine (female) who had never seen Dune (the movie) or read any of the books was really getting into the story and enjoyed watching it a lot. There were definately some things that she didn't understand (_some_ voice overs, or background info at the beginning of each segment probably would have added to most peoples overall enjoyment).
Gee... If you stopped watching after an hour then I guess you didn't notice a few things, like the storm that sweeps in when they blow the shield wall and pumelts their shields into uselessness, with the ornothoptors flying through in the middle of the storm to destroy some fleeing airships... of course since you saw that bit you must have watched it almost to the end.
I agree, they downplayed the Worms a bit too much (either from budgetary constraints, or from fear of comparison to the movie). The group that Paul sends into the desert, are you refering to the group he talks about when confronting the emperor and telling him that he has men ready to pour changed water of life into a large patch of pre-spice mass thereby beginning a chain reaction that would kill all the makers, and purge arakis of all spice production? (last twenty minutes of the movie or so, so you may have missed it in your haste to flee). I do admit they could have done more with the worms.
They also cut a few scenes I wouldn't have, but I also liked some of the liberties they took. The use of captured 'thoptors to maintain air superiority is not unreasonable, the introduction of the young empress earlier on in the story makes her less of a shallow character, and we are now well aware that she can be cunning and dangerous (since she obviously manipulated her own father at the end of the story to get him to Dune).
Overall this was much more faithfull to the book than the Lynch movie (at least these still suits covered your whole body... yeah... we're going to march through terrible desert wearing a suit to reclaim our moisture and protect us from the desert... oh, and it doesn't cover our heads).
Maybe it has something to do with a generation who has grown up with VCRs (as well as those who have gotten very used to them). If someone missed something, hey, we can always rewind. If someone doesn't like it, fine, they can go home or borrow the tape and watch it on THIER machine at home (its not like its costing them anything). Plus of course the fact that when we are watching a movie on a VCR we usually know everyone in the 'audiance'.
I agree, people need to realize that movies are a different experiance (short of the Rocky Horror Picture Show), and I would love to see what these same people who talk in movies would be like at a Broadway show (and I would love to see them ejected).
As a quick side note, I've found that people who can't whisper usually have a hard time hearing (not imperical evidence, but an observation). Of course in the case of 'young adults' its usually a disregard for anyone else (intentional or un-intentional).
They need to do a recount! By hand this time and not a mechanical probe hand either!:)
It is very obvious that we should have lawyers on Mars so for this sort of thing... Who needs scientists when lawyers can make decisons for us!
I agree 100% which is why I call for the next Mars probe to be outfitted with a Lawyer Landing System (LLS). This is very similar to the system used to successfully allow the Mars Prospector to land, except replacing the airbag with lawyers. Since Lawyers are 99% hot air, and a naturally produced product of California and New York, we should be able to condense them into a small enough space by placing them into sensory deprevation tanks. Once they near the point of deployment, a micro-cassette of the closing arguments in the Gore vs. Bush campaign can be played, there-by causing the lawyers to emit hot air and inflate, protecting the payload from harm during the inevitable rough landing. Those lawyers that survive the landing will then be on hand to arrange themselves to properly argue the case of whether or not there is life on Mars (while those of us back on Earth will be assured that even if there is life, there is certainly no intelligent life).
This is a very interesting article in the Washington Post today about an experiment on the Viking mission to Mars apparently found life on Mars - or not."
Apparently there are a number of uncounted results that have yet to be tabulated. The machine outputted the data from Viking onto punchcards, and the debate is about the status of those cards that were not entirely punched (ie. contained "hanging chad"). "I wish they would either decide that Mars contains life or not" one pedestrian comentated, "I just want to get back to my normal life and this question has been hanging over our heads for far too long already!"
If this said the same thing substituting Linux for Windows it would be marked as a troll.
No, it would be marked offtopic, since Linux doesn't plaster its name all over every application.
Now, if GNU, Gnome or KDE had been substituted for Windows then it probably would have been marked as a troll, since every program they make HAS to include their name as part of the program name (very similar to Microsoft), even to creation of strange names like GNU/Linux, Gnumeric & Konqueror (notice that most of the programmers have spelling habits similar to CmdrTaco when it comes to naming a project).
Yeah... MSIE has a much smaller footprint then Mozilla...
According to MS, since the browser is integrated with the OS, I guess its footprint is, what?, 150 meg or so?
note1: this applies only to the Windows version, YMMV w/Mac&Solaris
note2: this only applies to an initial install, after several windows 'updates' this size has been known to grow to ~250 meg
Being jewish and orthodox I would still almost mark this down as 'Flamebait', but there is something to what you said that I was thinking about.
Does a culture that maintains something akin to the Sabbath (a day without all of the modern conviniences/interuptions) help maintain itself between generations? I know one family that is not jewish, but sunday was family day. The whole family would be and do something together. Do things like this help make a younger generation more respectful or more likely to listen to an older generation?
I know for myself one of the things I enjoy the most about the week is the Sabbath, when I can throw my pager in a drawer and not worry about it (was very handy for when the Millenium turned and lots of my co-workers were on 24hour call). Oh, and for the record, my two 'accomplishments' for the week in my own mind is working through the tractate of Sotah with a friend, and completing the single player missions in 'Star Trek: Armada'.
I don't think the classic Colour wheel can really be used as an indication that we are seeing the same thing, rather it just means that the colors we are percieving react the same way (if we each mix something we perceive and have tagged 'yellow' with something that have perceived and tagged 'blue' we get something that we perceive and have been taught to tag 'green').
I may be off base, but I would have thought a Linux version would have been a valuable addition to them, not only because of the Linux market but also because of the market that can use Linux binaries. I would immagine (and I may be very wrong) that BSD users, or users of Solaris x86 would both benifit from a Linux version that they could run through each OS's linux compatibility layer (similar to the way Corel used WINE to make WordPerfect 2000 available on Linux).
AP - Today the U.S. unveils its road plan to maintain a technical lead over the rest of the world. The announcement of Torvalds 2.0 is heralded by some as a much needed replacement of an already old component. Others commented that you should never trust a 'dot' release, and that while they might be interested in Torvalds 2.0 in the future, it is currently much too immature to transfer mission critical responsibilities to. In any event, the fact that there is continued development in the Torvalds 'family' of products is happy and good news for all.
How many people are going to go looking to disable it, or are going to be alarmed when they suddenly see a big dialog box with a red stop sign that say s "WARNING! The system attempted to run a program with questionable authentication!" or some such error message?
Given MS's track record this smacks of future bullying potential.
First off, the registered voters all saw the ballot in advance, and none of them complained *then*.
I thought someone mentioned this already but...the ballot changed between the one that the voters saw beforehand and the one on the day of the election.
I agree, I like the EC, but I would like to see more states have a 'Winner Take Most' instead of 'Winner Take All'. I believe this would strengthen third party candidates (who then might be able to get a few votes), and allow the views of the minority to be carried more toward the actual EC voting process (as opposed to now where the EC seems almost a 'rubber stamp' aproval).
Of course the idea of Coalition government might be interesting, but as long as we don't have things like 'Votes of No-Confidence' we should be fine:)
I think I heard somewhere that there have been seven times so far the Florida's deligates have not all voted as they should have. These delegates are usually chosen for their loyalty, and going against your parties wishes would probably kill any political carier (within that party at least), however in none of those cases has this decided an election, so people haven't really heard about it as much.
Now, I'm not sure what states have what laws about when the delegates can 'vote their concience', but there has been precident that these votes count as they were actually voted.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know, as much as I'd like to support Tux Games, Interplay has lately been tossing in 'extras' when you pre-order games directly from them (priming the pump I suppose), including the two extra CDs they threw in if you pre-ordered the Collectors edition of "Baldur's Gate 2" (one from ordering the Collectors Edition and one from pre-ordering it). These contained two new item vendors (high-priced but fun new items) and the sound track which made it worth while to me.
While I don't agree with these practices, I would still want to see what they might include with "Neverwinter Nights".
Just remember to register the game for support... and let them know what your operating system is.
I know I've been filling out 'Linux' under the OSs that I run at home (next to Win9x). I have to believe that when they start to get enough of these in the marketting department, then the engineers start to have the leverage to get managment to try new things.
True. Don't forget to add Diablo 2 to the list of games that didn't quite live up to their hype (although it was worth a play through, replay value went out the window).
:)
The only game I've played recently that I thought lived up to its hype was Baldur's Gate 2. Now of course I'm playing that while waiting for Masters of Orion 3 to come out which seems like its going to be great
Not only do they not realize that we have more control over the web, but do to technology we are gaining more control over Television also (you can almost hear the media cartels blanching).
Right now I will often video tape something, and do work, or play on the computer, just so I can zip through the comercials later, instead of being held captive by them. Alternatively I usually get a few pages read in whatever book I am reading, or I practice my flute, on the comercial breaks instead of watching them.
If I get a Tivo (which I have been concidering more and more each day), then I will only need to set it to pause for lets say ten minutes, and then watch it in a 'tape delayed' fasion where I can fast forward through the advertisements.
Right now TV advertisements have been getting more anoying and stupider with each passing year. The exceptions are usually sharp and funny, or at least considerable. How many people thought the Amazon.Com Acapella ad was cute the first time, but thats it? Now, how many would tune in the Snickers 'voting booth' ad that was a dead-on satire of both candidates and kept me laughing as much as Comedy Central's "InDecission 2000" election coverage?
I think it was also the concept of the Geo-Synchronus satellite (the 'Clark Orbit' as its known) that really made a big contribution also.
An interesting exception (personally) was Double Dragon. I was expecting a true groaner... and I was right, but because the movie didn't take itself seriously at all, and actually tried to make you groan (and chuckle and laugh, including the ex-henchmen on the side of a California highway holding up a sign saying "Will Hench for Food").
When I got to the credits and saw one of the story credits went to Paul Dini (of Batman/Superman fame) I suddenly understood where some of the goofy, odd, and funny moments must have come from.
Except that the freaking storm was supposed to take care of that. Can't fly if the skies are full of sand and lightning. They replaced a smart element from the book with bad CGI airships. Why?
Ah.. thank you for explaining it. The only thing I can think of is that they couldn't think of how to properly film the city (and an attack on it) while it is under a severe sand storm, or else perhaps the scene would have taken too long to render using CGI, or would have blown the budget too much(just guessing though).
I watched the first hour or less of each night, and gave up in annoyance each time.
I won't comment on the effects since its mostly a matter of taste, and while I liked them overall, I also realised that they were acting on a budget.
A friend of mine (female) who had never seen Dune (the movie) or read any of the books was really getting into the story and enjoyed watching it a lot. There were definately some things that she didn't understand (_some_ voice overs, or background info at the beginning of each segment probably would have added to most peoples overall enjoyment).
Gee... If you stopped watching after an hour then I guess you didn't notice a few things, like the storm that sweeps in when they blow the shield wall and pumelts their shields into uselessness, with the ornothoptors flying through in the middle of the storm to destroy some fleeing airships... of course since you saw that bit you must have watched it almost to the end.
I agree, they downplayed the Worms a bit too much (either from budgetary constraints, or from fear of comparison to the movie). The group that Paul sends into the desert, are you refering to the group he talks about when confronting the emperor and telling him that he has men ready to pour changed water of life into a large patch of pre-spice mass thereby beginning a chain reaction that would kill all the makers, and purge arakis of all spice production? (last twenty minutes of the movie or so, so you may have missed it in your haste to flee). I do admit they could have done more with the worms.
They also cut a few scenes I wouldn't have, but I also liked some of the liberties they took. The use of captured 'thoptors to maintain air superiority is not unreasonable, the introduction of the young empress earlier on in the story makes her less of a shallow character, and we are now well aware that she can be cunning and dangerous (since she obviously manipulated her own father at the end of the story to get him to Dune).
Overall this was much more faithfull to the book than the Lynch movie (at least these still suits covered your whole body... yeah... we're going to march through terrible desert wearing a suit to reclaim our moisture and protect us from the desert... oh, and it doesn't cover our heads).
Maybe it has something to do with a generation who has grown up with VCRs (as well as those who have gotten very used to them). If someone missed something, hey, we can always rewind. If someone doesn't like it, fine, they can go home or borrow the tape and watch it on THIER machine at home (its not like its costing them anything). Plus of course the fact that when we are watching a movie on a VCR we usually know everyone in the 'audiance'.
I agree, people need to realize that movies are a different experiance (short of the Rocky Horror Picture Show), and I would love to see what these same people who talk in movies would be like at a Broadway show (and I would love to see them ejected).
As a quick side note, I've found that people who can't whisper usually have a hard time hearing (not imperical evidence, but an observation). Of course in the case of 'young adults' its usually a disregard for anyone else (intentional or un-intentional).
They need to do a recount! By hand this time and not a mechanical probe hand either! :)
It is very obvious that we should have lawyers on Mars so for this sort of thing... Who needs scientists when lawyers can make decisons for us!
I agree 100% which is why I call for the next Mars probe to be outfitted with a Lawyer Landing System (LLS). This is very similar to the system used to successfully allow the Mars Prospector to land, except replacing the airbag with lawyers. Since Lawyers are 99% hot air, and a naturally produced product of California and New York, we should be able to condense them into a small enough space by placing them into sensory deprevation tanks. Once they near the point of deployment, a micro-cassette of the closing arguments in the Gore vs. Bush campaign can be played, there-by causing the lawyers to emit hot air and inflate, protecting the payload from harm during the inevitable rough landing. Those lawyers that survive the landing will then be on hand to arrange themselves to properly argue the case of whether or not there is life on Mars (while those of us back on Earth will be assured that even if there is life, there is certainly no intelligent life).
This is a very interesting article in the Washington Post today about an experiment on the Viking mission to Mars apparently found life on Mars - or not."
Apparently there are a number of uncounted results that have yet to be tabulated. The machine outputted the data from Viking onto punchcards, and the debate is about the status of those cards that were not entirely punched (ie. contained "hanging chad"). "I wish they would either decide that Mars contains life or not" one pedestrian comentated, "I just want to get back to my normal life and this question has been hanging over our heads for far too long already!"
If this said the same thing substituting Linux for Windows it would be marked as a troll.
No, it would be marked offtopic, since Linux doesn't plaster its name all over every application.
Now, if GNU, Gnome or KDE had been substituted for Windows then it probably would have been marked as a troll, since every program they make HAS to include their name as part of the program name (very similar to Microsoft), even to creation of strange names like GNU/Linux, Gnumeric & Konqueror (notice that most of the programmers have spelling habits similar to CmdrTaco when it comes to naming a project).
(remove tounge from cheek)
Yeah... MSIE has a much smaller footprint then Mozilla ...
According to MS, since the browser is integrated with the OS, I guess its footprint is, what?, 150 meg or so?
note1: this applies only to the Windows version, YMMV w/Mac&Solaris
note2: this only applies to an initial install, after several windows 'updates' this size has been known to grow to ~250 meg
Being jewish and orthodox I would still almost mark this down as 'Flamebait', but there is something to what you said that I was thinking about.
Does a culture that maintains something akin to the Sabbath (a day without all of the modern conviniences/interuptions) help maintain itself between generations? I know one family that is not jewish, but sunday was family day. The whole family would be and do something together. Do things like this help make a younger generation more respectful or more likely to listen to an older generation?
I know for myself one of the things I enjoy the most about the week is the Sabbath, when I can throw my pager in a drawer and not worry about it (was very handy for when the Millenium turned and lots of my co-workers were on 24hour call). Oh, and for the record, my two 'accomplishments' for the week in my own mind is working through the tractate of Sotah with a friend, and completing the single player missions in 'Star Trek: Armada'.
I don't think the classic Colour wheel can really be used as an indication that we are seeing the same thing, rather it just means that the colors we are percieving react the same way (if we each mix something we perceive and have tagged 'yellow' with something that have perceived and tagged 'blue' we get something that we perceive and have been taught to tag 'green').
So... will the book come with a copy of Linux?
Which distribution?
I may be off base, but I would have thought a Linux version would have been a valuable addition to them, not only because of the Linux market but also because of the market that can use Linux binaries. I would immagine (and I may be very wrong) that BSD users, or users of Solaris x86 would both benifit from a Linux version that they could run through each OS's linux compatibility layer (similar to the way Corel used WINE to make WordPerfect 2000 available on Linux).
AP - Today the U.S. unveils its road plan to maintain a technical lead over the rest of the world. The announcement of Torvalds 2.0 is heralded by some as a much needed replacement of an already old component. Others commented that you should never trust a 'dot' release, and that while they might be interested in Torvalds 2.0 in the future, it is currently much too immature to transfer mission critical responsibilities to. In any event, the fact that there is continued development in the Torvalds 'family' of products is happy and good news for all.
Okay, lets say its 'optional'.
Whats the default setting going to be?
How many people are going to go looking to disable it, or are going to be alarmed when they suddenly see a big dialog box with a red stop sign that say s "WARNING! The system attempted to run a program with questionable authentication!" or some such error message?
Given MS's track record this smacks of future bullying potential.
First off, the registered voters all saw the ballot in advance, and none of them complained *then*.
I thought someone mentioned this already but...the ballot changed between the one that the voters saw beforehand and the one on the day of the election.
I agree, I like the EC, but I would like to see more states have a 'Winner Take Most' instead of 'Winner Take All'. I believe this would strengthen third party candidates (who then might be able to get a few votes), and allow the views of the minority to be carried more toward the actual EC voting process (as opposed to now where the EC seems almost a 'rubber stamp' aproval).
:)
Of course the idea of Coalition government might be interesting, but as long as we don't have things like 'Votes of No-Confidence' we should be fine
Interesting point. I'm surprised that the media doesn't go with this sort of angle, if for no other reason, than to justify their original actions.
So what you're saying is that the media called "First post!" and then got moderated down?
If only we could moderate (most) of the media down to -1 so we wouldn't have to see the inanity they kept throwing at us.
I think I heard somewhere that there have been seven times so far the Florida's deligates have not all voted as they should have. These delegates are usually chosen for their loyalty, and going against your parties wishes would probably kill any political carier (within that party at least), however in none of those cases has this decided an election, so people haven't really heard about it as much.
Now, I'm not sure what states have what laws about when the delegates can 'vote their concience', but there has been precident that these votes count as they were actually voted.