Kinda off topic, but I just ordered Uplink published by Strategy First. This has a RL slant since you play a "hacker" manipulating remote systems from your home PC through a gateway. It has fairly addictive gameplay. Played through the demo and wanted more. Cannot wait for the full game to get here.
I appreciate your rant, marketing in this country is indeed aimed at the lowest common denominator. And the sheeple buy whatever is crammed down their throat.
I do have a slight issue though with your claim of Win2000/XP not "working" right. BeOS 4.5 is my main OS right now since it does most of what I need to do. I do however have a dev/gaming machine that runs WinXP Pro. This machine is always on and I have only had one lockup, and that was from bad video drivers. Otherwise XP is the most stable version of Windows yet.
Here is a better question. Would you rather have these people bitching that Windows always crashes, or bugging you because they cannot figure out how to configure Linux?
Anyone who is a regular player of Age of Empires is familiar with the Petard units. There is some perverse sense of joy blowing up squads of your own units while weraking havoc on your enemies.
I had a NES stop reading cartridges a few years ago. I noticed the springs in the cartridge tray were weak enough that the tray wiggled. I replaced the springs (purchased at ACE hardware)and it has worked fine ever since.
I am currently underemployed (normally a Net admin) driving a forklift at a distribution wharehouse for a home improvement store. They have a very annoying commercial mascot. A bobble head of this annoying man was sent out to the employees(this company sounds alot like MY NARDS, which is what they can suck for giving such unadulterated crap). We also get a gift certificate to one of their stores of varying amounts depending how long one has been with the company(another craptacular gift that costs them almost nothing).
I think your memories are clouded a bit. Take off the rose colored glasses when looking back on the yesteryear of gaming. Yes there were a lot of good games, but there were also quite a few bad ones as well.
I think the difference is there were fewer games produced then so the ratio of good:crap was better. There were only two console makers that counted (SEGA/Nintendo) then, and they were still trying to shake off the adverse effects of the crash in '83 when all the old school consoles dwindled and died. So not a whole lot was produced. Now there are three major consoles in the market, all doing decently. Last time I checked video games was a 5+ billion dollar a year industry, so more companies take a risk in releasing a game that may be sub par.
The GBA screen cannot be backlit. It is a TFT reflective screen. It must be lit from the front. Picking nits aside, I installed the Triton Labs Afterburner kit on my GBA. It only takes a little ability with a soldering iron. If you plan on playing your GBA farther than 3 feet from the sun I highly suggest adding the Afterburner.
Simple. If you are under ground you do not have to fear pasty white people trying to throw Ritz, Saltines, Townhouse or other flat crunchy breadlike foodstuffs at you.
It seems here in the Chicago area finding a tech job is next to impossible. I have been looking for a network admin position (I've even stooped to sending resumes for Help Desk Positions) since March. I have gotten no interviews and three calls back telling me "oh, we just filled that position a week ago, sorry." I don't have a degree but I do have five years of job experience. I beleive there is a large surplus of unemployed tech workers in the area especially with companies like Motorolla and Lucent laying off so many people.
About the only advice I would give your girlfriend is keep looking something will eventually come up. I find the Chicago Tribune has a ton of computer jobs listed. If your girlfriend has done any personal programming projects outside of school she may want to show those off to potential employers. Put up a webpage with links to the projects or send a demo disc if she sends paper resumes. Some employers get impressed when you show them you can actually code and do have the ability to finish a project.
Good luck to your girlfriend, may she find a job quickly.
luxury... we didn't have bullets in those days, we didn't even have hands to throw them with if we had. We had to pawn our hands for a lump of cold gravel to eat. And if you tell the young people that today and they won't believe you.;P
Sony put out a similar memory in Japan (PocketStation) it was supposed to be released in the states but never was. Final Fantasy 8 actually supported the PocketStation in the US release(it may have worked with an imported unit but I am not sure).
Here is a link to lik-sang's product page of the PocketStation
You could get really good copies if your CD player on your stereo had a digital out and your sound card has a digital in(Like the SB Live). My main problem with doing this is time. I like the ability to rip from a CD into MP3 quickly. I recently reconverted my 200+ CD collection into MP3. I would have detested doing the conversion if it had taken the same time as playing each disc.
uhh... you don't come hear very often do you? I'm suprized their is only won mistake in that post. (misspelling intentional);p The horrible grammar is a staple of slashdot stories. Most of us get over it and fail to bitch about it. If you understood the meaning behind the misspelling; in the universal sense of things; does it really matter if a story uses here instead of hear? Did anyone die over it? No. To recap, grammar has always been a Slashdot problem, most of us get over it fairly quick, some of us bitch and moan about it 'cause we have nothing better to do.
Slashdot Mirror
Aurora, IL? Too bad The Office is a crappy place to go.
That must have been a Firestone upgrade, right?
odd todd is a really funny site. Quite a few of us have felt like this.
there is in german
Kinda off topic, but I just ordered Uplink published by Strategy First. This has a RL slant since you play a "hacker" manipulating remote systems from your home PC through a gateway. It has fairly addictive gameplay. Played through the demo and wanted more. Cannot wait for the full game to get here.
I appreciate your rant, marketing in this country is indeed aimed at the lowest common denominator. And the sheeple buy whatever is crammed down their throat.
I do have a slight issue though with your claim of Win2000/XP not "working" right. BeOS 4.5 is my main OS right now since it does most of what I need to do. I do however have a dev/gaming machine that runs WinXP Pro. This machine is always on and I have only had one lockup, and that was from bad video drivers. Otherwise XP is the most stable version of Windows yet.
Here is a better question. Would you rather have these people bitching that Windows always crashes, or bugging you because they cannot figure out how to configure Linux?
Anyone who is a regular player of Age of Empires is familiar with the Petard units. There is some perverse sense of joy blowing up squads of your own units while weraking havoc on your enemies.
I had a NES stop reading cartridges a few years ago. I noticed the springs in the cartridge tray were weak enough that the tray wiggled. I replaced the springs (purchased at ACE hardware)and it has worked fine ever since.
There was a somewhat free NES Cool Spot game. If you sent in UPC barcodes and S&H you received a go-like game featuring Cool Spot.
doesn't even need to be very sophisticated. All it needs to be able to say is "What?", "I don't understand", and "Where's the tea?"
I am currently underemployed (normally a Net admin) driving a forklift at a distribution wharehouse for a home improvement store. They have a very annoying commercial mascot. A bobble head of this annoying man was sent out to the employees(this company sounds alot like MY NARDS, which is what they can suck for giving such unadulterated crap). We also get a gift certificate to one of their stores of varying amounts depending how long one has been with the company(another craptacular gift that costs them almost nothing).
I think Animal House was out a little before gameboy.
The movie you are thinking about is PCU.
I think your memories are clouded a bit. Take off the rose colored glasses when looking back on the yesteryear of gaming. Yes there were a lot of good games, but there were also quite a few bad ones as well.
I think the difference is there were fewer games produced then so the ratio of good:crap was better. There were only two console makers that counted (SEGA/Nintendo) then, and they were still trying to shake off the adverse effects of the crash in '83 when all the old school consoles dwindled and died. So not a whole lot was produced. Now there are three major consoles in the market, all doing decently. Last time I checked video games was a 5+ billion dollar a year industry, so more companies take a risk in releasing a game that may be sub par.
The GBA screen cannot be backlit. It is a TFT reflective screen. It must be lit from the front. Picking nits aside, I installed the Triton Labs Afterburner kit on my GBA. It only takes a little ability with a soldering iron. If you plan on playing your GBA farther than 3 feet from the sun I highly suggest adding the Afterburner.
Really? I have an 8x CD-R that is still running strong after 6 years.
Iguess that is what happens when you do a few kilos of coke.
Try mp3.com's electronica section. I have found quite a bit of good trance there.
How does a bunker protect you from crackers?
Simple. If you are under ground you do not have to fear pasty white people trying to throw Ritz, Saltines, Townhouse or other flat crunchy breadlike foodstuffs at you.
My guess is the next buzzword is iridium...
Oakley Sunglasses have been using Iridium on their product for years. So if your idea pans out they will be well ahead of the marketing curve.
Interact has a LI battery that attaches to the bottom of the PS and powers the PS and their portable screen.
It seems here in the Chicago area finding a tech job is next to impossible. I have been looking for a network admin position (I've even stooped to sending resumes for Help Desk Positions) since March. I have gotten no interviews and three calls back telling me "oh, we just filled that position a week ago, sorry." I don't have a degree but I do have five years of job experience. I beleive there is a large surplus of unemployed tech workers in the area especially with companies like Motorolla and Lucent laying off so many people.
About the only advice I would give your girlfriend is keep looking something will eventually come up. I find the Chicago Tribune has a ton of computer jobs listed. If your girlfriend has done any personal programming projects outside of school she may want to show those off to potential employers. Put up a webpage with links to the projects or send a demo disc if she sends paper resumes. Some employers get impressed when you show them you can actually code and do have the ability to finish a project.
Good luck to your girlfriend, may she find a job quickly.
luxury... we didn't have bullets in those days, we didn't even have hands to throw them with if we had. We had to pawn our hands for a lump of cold gravel to eat. And if you tell the young people that today and they won't believe you. ;P
Sony put out a similar memory in Japan (PocketStation) it was supposed to be released in the states but never was. Final Fantasy 8 actually supported the PocketStation in the US release(it may have worked with an imported unit but I am not sure).
Here is a link to lik-sang's product page of the PocketStation
You could get really good copies if your CD player on your stereo had a digital out and your sound card has a digital in(Like the SB Live). My main problem with doing this is time. I like the ability to rip from a CD into MP3 quickly. I recently reconverted my 200+ CD collection into MP3. I would have detested doing the conversion if it had taken the same time as playing each disc.
uhh... you don't come hear very often do you? I'm suprized their is only won mistake in that post. (misspelling intentional) ;p The horrible grammar is a staple of slashdot stories. Most of us get over it and fail to bitch about it. If you understood the meaning behind the misspelling; in the universal sense of things; does it really matter if a story uses here instead of hear? Did anyone die over it? No. To recap, grammar has always been a Slashdot problem, most of us get over it fairly quick, some of us bitch and moan about it 'cause we have nothing better to do.