If mod points could go higher than the "5, Insightful" that you already have, I'd throw some of my mod points at you. Instead, I'll blow them in a reply.
I second pretty much all that you have written here: Linux is ready for the corporate desktop (we have had several Linux desktops in my corporate area for a few years now); Linux is ready for the home user. The downside is that you need to check hardware compatibility (scanners, etc) and you can't be afraid to jump to the command line and do 'yum -y install' for some apps that didn't show up with your distro. Fortunately, you don't need to do that very often.
At home, my wife has been a Linux user since Red Hat Linux 7.1. Today, she's a happy Fedora Core user. She's definitely a non-technical user (she doesn't understand what "USB" is, but she knows our printer is "USB" and can recognize the right slot for the plug.) But she's become a complete Linux devotee, even to the point where she decided she's going to upgrade to an Intel Mac when they're available next year - and insisted that I install Linux on it!:-)
At work, I gave a presentation to our CIO a year ago about Linux on the desktop, and it was enough to convince him to install Linux for himself on a scratch desktop machine. He loves it, and we've had no problem with considering Linux part of our "enterprise desktop solution." When we look at new tools and software for the enterprise, Linux desktop support gets equal attention to Mac and Windows.
When giving that presentation to our CIO, I found that (briefly) walking him through the evolution of the Linux & UNIX desktop really helped. TWM.. olvwm... Motif/MWM... fvwm... fvwm95... AfterSTEP... GNOME. Somewhere in there, he recognized a Linux desktop that he was familiar with - and by the time we got to GNOME, he was totally impressed with the state of the current Linux desktop. He said he hadn't realized that Linux had progressed so far and had become so easy to use.
To sum up though, Linux is on par with Windows. Now if we can just get those pesky hardware drivers nailed down...
Can we please refer to Open Source either using the phrase "Open Source" or with the abbreviation "OSS"?? The "OS" usually stands for "Operating System".
So the headline of this article read to me like "HP calls for Sun and IBM to remove Operating System licenses" which is completely different from what the article was about.
... but with the fact that most home installations of Unix based systems will be on Linux boxes - and therefore in the hands of people with less security expertise than large companies have at their disposal.
But I thought that red button marked "Power" meant it would give me more computing power. So I pressed it. Damn, another system crash.
I'm slightly off-topic, but I'll post anywaya and risk the karma:
From TFA:
Some quotes: "For the version I worked on, we sweated bullets to make it backwards compatible with existing applications." "We had to make changes to DOS to help some very old applications that were doing some very bad things (like writing to files that had already closed their FCB's). DOS had to stand on its head to make every application work from version to version, including Lotus."
To me, this is a very interesting part of the article. On the FreeDOS Project we have recently had a thread about chasing MS-DOS compatibility. One side of the argument says that we should not be satisfied until we have implemented every quirk/feature of MS-DOS. Another side argues that as long as DOS applications that people use today work (for example, games and embedded systems) then we have done our job; we can implement any broken/missing stuff as it is discovered.
I've always considered myself on the "DOS should be a usable operating system, and we shouldn't be afraid to throw off 'crutches' that are no longer needed" side of the fence. When we wrote the FreeDOS Spec all those years ago, I deprecated some commands/programs because they were "crutches" to help applications written for earlier versions of DOS to run on newer versions of DOS. Other programs were reduced in scope, because the extra functionality really wasn't needed today (for example, DEFRAG was taken off the list, because so many freeware / shareware / commercial defraggers exist - or because many people run FreeDOS in a DOS emulator like VMWare or DOSemu, and defraggers aren't needed.)
Compatibility for the sake of supporting applications is good. Compatibility for the sake of compatibility is not necessarily good.
A group that is organizing with the intent to kill people.
Ever heard of 'conspiracy?'...
Here are some definitions for 'conspiracy.'...
Hey, be careful with that list of definitions. I'm not saying I'm backing al-Qaeda or terrorism, but shutting down web sites under your definition of "conspiracy" leads to misuse. It just so happens that on US soil around 1776, some people met your definition. Except we called it a "Revolution" and/or "Independence":
a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act
{such as, to overthrow British rule over American colonies}
a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot)
{such as, to overthrow British rule over American colonies - which was illegal under British law}
a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose
{such as, to overthrow British rule over American colonies - which was illegal under British law}
It cuts both ways, man. The danger with giving up a little freedom (speech) to have a little security is that you quickly have neither.
Even better, what happens to ThinkGeek since they are selling a Super Cantenna? From the description:
A Cantenna is simply an inexpensive version of the long-range antennas used by wireless internet providers and mobile phone companies. It is ideally suited for sending or receiving wireless signals in the 2.4 GHz ISM band (802.11b + g). Now, with your own Cantenna you can extend the range of your wireless network or connect to other wireless networks in your neighborhood.
"Miami lawyer Jack Thompson is at it again, this time with something above and beyond absurd. Gamestop is reporting that Thompson has accused The Sims 2 of contain obscene material."
I suddenly asked myself this morning: what's in a rating?
The MPAA says theirs is a "Voluntary Movie Rating System", and they are assigned solely at the MPAA's discretion. G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17... it's all a voluntary ratings system. AFAIK, it's not really enforced by law. That is, I don't know that federal law has anything that prohibits a 16-year-old from seeing an R-rated movie. Certainly, if the theater chooses not to let you to see it, you can pick it up 6 months later as a rental.
The TV ratings are TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV ("fantasy violence"), TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA. These are all assigned by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, and the ratings were (originally?) intended to be used together with the V-Chip to keep children from seeing inappropriate content.
The ESRB (as we are all aware by now) assigns game ratings based on responses to questionaires by those evaluating the games (usually, adults in & around New York.) Games can be rated EC, E, E10+, T, M, AO.
Why am I listing all this? Because I started to ask myself when the madness will stop about game ratings, and how it's all about protecting the children and making it easier for parents to pick content appropriate for their kids.
Why has no one argued to apply the same standard of ratings to books? Some argue that video games should be treated differently than, say, books because video games are more interactive while books are passive entertainment. But television and movies are passive entertainment.
If the argument is that game ratings help make sure kids "aren't exposed to indecent depictions" then why not use book ratings to ensure the same thing? Just like games, books can be rated EC (Little Golden Books), E ('Peter Rabbit'), E10+ ('Harry Potter' 1-4), T ('Harry Potter' 5-6), M (Stephenson, Gibson), AO (pr0n). Why wouldn't a book ratings system like this work?
Because it feels too much like censorship, that's why. It's not censorship, but too many people would think it crosses the line.
Page 6 in the book talks about the Babbage punch card.
This is off-topic from the OP, but Babbage punch cards were/are also used in other applications that just analytical machines. They are still used in weaving factories, for example.
I own a kilt, and when I visited the weaver that made the kilt (Geoffrey(Tailor) in Edinburgh) they showed off their kilt weaving machine. It uses Babbage punch cards to control the action- load this color, weave, return, load other color, weave, return,...
I mean, really. We've posted an article not about Google or what Google is up to next, but about the guys that gave Google money and the next project they are funding. This is pure hype, guys. I hope Slashdot got a kickback on this.
While off-topic from the article itself, it's interesting to note that the Google query you linked to has About.com as the first hit. Let me say that again: About.com is distributing a mod/patch that lets you see the Sims naked when they take off their clothes (normally, the game blurs the naughty bits.) But no one is up in arms that About.com (an otherwise reputable web site) take down the mod.
I agree. Allow me to re-post a comment I made the other day about this topic:
I had a conversation about this topic with a guy on the bus the other day (he saw me with my GBA, asked me about gaming, then jumped right to the GTA thing.)
This guy said that he was upset about "those game guys" (Rockstar) selling a game like that, with sex and stuff in it. He said he was really worried about his 12-yr-old son, who plays the game on his XBox.
My response: people are trying to get GTA:SA moved up to a "Adult Only" (AO) rating. That means 18 and over. But it's already got a "Mature" (M) rating. So kids under 17 shouldn't be playing it anyway, and did he know that before he bought it? (Emphasis mine.) The guy got real quiet after that.
I wonder how many parents just bought this game for their kids because it was "hot", not realizing what the game was about, or even checking the rating.
(Disclaimer: I loved GTA3, got bored in GTA:VC, haven't gotten GTA:SA yet.)
Amen. I live in Minneapolis, and I had a conversation about this topic with a guy on the bus the other day (he saw me with my GBA, asked me about gaming, then jumped right to the GTA thing.)
This guy said that he was upset about "those game guys" (Rockstar) selling a game like that, with sex and stuff in it. He said he was really worried about his 12-yr-old son, who plays the game on his XBox.
My response: people are trying to get GTA:SA moved up to a "Adult Only" (AO) rating. That means 18 and over. But it's already got a "Mature" (M) rating. So kids under 17 shouldn't be playing it anyway, and did he know that before he bought it? (Emphasis mine.) The guy got real quiet after that.
I wonder how many parents just bought this game for their kids because it was "hot", not realizing what the game was about, or even checking the rating.
(Disclaimer: I loved GTA3, got bored in GTA:VC, haven't gotten GTA:SA yet.)
Cameras, streaming music, web browsing, PalmOS, txt chat, games... and now, television. But I wonder how good it is at being an actual phone? You know, the kind we use to make calls.
I was on campus for a meeting today, and had to make a call on my all-digital phone/camera/appliance. The quality was pretty bad (it would go silent for brief periods, so I missed part of the conversation.) This while I was outside, with 5 bars of signal!
When I look at all the cool stuff you can do with a mobile phone these days, I'm unimpressed. I just want something that lets me make a clear, uninterrupted phone call.
The FSF is a good candidate. I looked into that once, when people kept asking me how they could donate money to the FreeDOS Project.
I asked Richard Stallman if the FSF would be willing to accept
donations that would benefit FreeDOS projects. This was his reply (be
aware of his conditions):
This sort of thing is possible, and within our charter.
I think we would have the responsibility to supervise the
spending of the money, to make sure it was spent in a legitimate
way on FreeDOS development and not siphoned away to something else.
Also, if we do this for you, we would want to ask you to help us out
in little ways--for example, if you mention in FreeDOS materials
the system people often call "Linux", we'd like you to call it
"GNU/Linux". And we'd ask you to use the term "free software"
preferentially rather than "open source".
The "little ways" thing ("GNU/Linux" instead of just "Linux") would probably not be such a little thing for some people, if the $126,155.29 were donated to them for the FSF to distribute.
You'd need a system where disconnected players get swapped for ones in queue or something though.
Do it like 'Enemy Territory' does it. Players connect to a server, and if there is an open slot they get to play. They pick a side, and fight.
In the war simulation the parent describes, a disconnected player could be replaced by a 'bot. Real players who connect would take the place of 'bots. As they disconnect, another 'bot is spawned to take their place.
It would be interesting - if done right, you don't know if you are playing against 'bots or real people. (The key would be to not put an identifier above everyone's heads. Just show the names as people are killed... "Dr.Opveter (Axis) was blown to bits by {AI}soldier's panzerfaust (Allied)".)
I always thought you could do enjoyable games based on Larry Niven's Ringworld. It's so damn huuuuuge, you could have a series of games and have each take place in a different, unique locale. Towns, floating cities, plains, mountains, oceans, Mars map, etc. It could be MMO, but I would think a third-person game would be most flexible.
If someone were to take this one, don't just follow the books. Sure, sprinkle in some events from the books (we like to see that) but don't let it be about Louis Wu. What about the Hero who was walking the "Great Arch" (the Ringworld)? Let him be the central character. He could accept missions/quests from each town he visits, which would take him into the surrounding areas (forests, plains, mountains, etc.)
Since it's the Hero, I can imagine lots of swordplay and action. Maybe some platforming in between. Something like the 'Prince of Persia' games.
I would think a game company could do a long series of games following the Hero across the Ringworld without repeating areas.
A totally elementary Google search would have brought up EVERYTHING you would need to get things going.
... including my page about 'Using Palm Zire with Linux'. The only stumbling block I had was that the USB device it was sitting on wasn't being chown'd to me, so I had to manually extend the permissions so I could read/write to the device.
Aside from that, it's easy. My only other problem has been that I can't sync my work calendar (we use Oracle Collaboration Suite, and there's no connector for that in Linux.)
Finally, someone agrees with me on this! Reducing Force sensitivity to midichlorians in ones bloodstream was totally lame....
It would certainly make more sense that the Jedi were sworn to celibacy after a point in their training...probably when they lost their Padawan braid. Celibate warrior-monks are a fixture of both Western and Eastern history.
I abbreviated your post quite a bit, but I totally agree. It's even more important to note that, the way it was explained to us in Ep 1, The Force is basically an STD. Anyone can "get" the Force... a Jedi just needs to have offspring.
Yes, that and when Yorda puts you in a boat and sends you out of harm's way. I felt really heartsick about that, like I'd helped this little girl out of so many dangers, and now she's making a selfless act to save me.
Then you wake up on the beach, and Yorda is there. I'm not too manly to admit that I got a little misty-eyed at the ending.:-)
Damn, now I have to go out and find a used copy of ICO!
For me, the most emotion I've felt while playing a video game was playing the first 'Deus Ex'. I'd been playing the entire game with some kind of moral sense - I tried not to kill people (even if they were "bad"... I only killed less than a dozen people the entire game), I chose "sneakiness" over blazing guns, and I tried to do the "Right Thing" (including not stepping on those damn alley cats.)
I remember the end of the game - you're presented with 3 mutually-exclusive options for the mission that will end the game. After I uncovered the 3rd option and I realized the choice I had to make, I actually stopped playing the game for about a week while I made my decision. It really was that hard for me. How to best benefit "society", and is the cost worth it?
In the end, I decided it was best to destroy the communications hub and plunge the world into a 2nd Dark Age. Man, what a decision! But I figured I couldn't trust the HELIOS AI or Morgan Everett.
Slashdot Mirror
If mod points could go higher than the "5, Insightful" that you already have, I'd throw some of my mod points at you. Instead, I'll blow them in a reply.
I second pretty much all that you have written here: Linux is ready for the corporate desktop (we have had several Linux desktops in my corporate area for a few years now); Linux is ready for the home user. The downside is that you need to check hardware compatibility (scanners, etc) and you can't be afraid to jump to the command line and do 'yum -y install' for some apps that didn't show up with your distro. Fortunately, you don't need to do that very often.
At home, my wife has been a Linux user since Red Hat Linux 7.1. Today, she's a happy Fedora Core user. She's definitely a non-technical user (she doesn't understand what "USB" is, but she knows our printer is "USB" and can recognize the right slot for the plug.) But she's become a complete Linux devotee, even to the point where she decided she's going to upgrade to an Intel Mac when they're available next year - and insisted that I install Linux on it! :-)
At work, I gave a presentation to our CIO a year ago about Linux on the desktop, and it was enough to convince him to install Linux for himself on a scratch desktop machine. He loves it, and we've had no problem with considering Linux part of our "enterprise desktop solution." When we look at new tools and software for the enterprise, Linux desktop support gets equal attention to Mac and Windows.
When giving that presentation to our CIO, I found that (briefly) walking him through the evolution of the Linux & UNIX desktop really helped. TWM .. olvwm ... Motif/MWM ... fvwm ... fvwm95 ... AfterSTEP ... GNOME. Somewhere in there, he recognized a Linux desktop that he was familiar with - and by the time we got to GNOME, he was totally impressed with the state of the current Linux desktop. He said he hadn't realized that Linux had progressed so far and had become so easy to use.
To sum up though, Linux is on par with Windows. Now if we can just get those pesky hardware drivers nailed down...
Can we please refer to Open Source either using the phrase "Open Source" or with the abbreviation "OSS"?? The "OS" usually stands for "Operating System".
So the headline of this article read to me like "HP calls for Sun and IBM to remove Operating System licenses" which is completely different from what the article was about.
</soapbox>
But I thought that red button marked "Power" meant it would give me more computing power. So I pressed it. Damn, another system crash.
I'm slightly off-topic, but I'll post anywaya and risk the karma:
From TFA:
To me, this is a very interesting part of the article. On the FreeDOS Project we have recently had a thread about chasing MS-DOS compatibility. One side of the argument says that we should not be satisfied until we have implemented every quirk/feature of MS-DOS. Another side argues that as long as DOS applications that people use today work (for example, games and embedded systems) then we have done our job; we can implement any broken/missing stuff as it is discovered.
I've always considered myself on the "DOS should be a usable operating system, and we shouldn't be afraid to throw off 'crutches' that are no longer needed" side of the fence. When we wrote the FreeDOS Spec all those years ago, I deprecated some commands/programs because they were "crutches" to help applications written for earlier versions of DOS to run on newer versions of DOS. Other programs were reduced in scope, because the extra functionality really wasn't needed today (for example, DEFRAG was taken off the list, because so many freeware / shareware / commercial defraggers exist - or because many people run FreeDOS in a DOS emulator like VMWare or DOSemu, and defraggers aren't needed.)
Compatibility for the sake of supporting applications is good. Compatibility for the sake of compatibility is not necessarily good.
A group that is organizing with the intent to kill people. Ever heard of 'conspiracy?' ...
Here are some definitions for 'conspiracy.' ...
Hey, be careful with that list of definitions. I'm not saying I'm backing al-Qaeda or terrorism, but shutting down web sites under your definition of "conspiracy" leads to misuse. It just so happens that on US soil around 1776, some people met your definition. Except we called it a "Revolution" and/or "Independence":
It cuts both ways, man. The danger with giving up a little freedom (speech) to have a little security is that you quickly have neither.
Even better, what happens to ThinkGeek since they are selling a Super Cantenna? From the description:
Emphasis mine
Cool links, but I have an OT question: how do you get the latitude/longitude for this? I can't seem to figure it out using Google Maps.
Sixth DebConf Ends in Success
Nope, doesn't help. For some reason, I'm still reading this headline as "Sith DebConf Ends in Success".
So now the Sith have organized, and it's no longer "one master, one apprentice." Damn. Time to get your lightsabers ready.
"Miami lawyer Jack Thompson is at it again, this time with something above and beyond absurd. Gamestop is reporting that Thompson has accused The Sims 2 of contain obscene material."
I suddenly asked myself this morning: what's in a rating?
The MPAA says theirs is a "Voluntary Movie Rating System", and they are assigned solely at the MPAA's discretion. G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 ... it's all a voluntary ratings system. AFAIK, it's not really enforced by law. That is, I don't know that federal law has anything that prohibits a 16-year-old from seeing an R-rated movie. Certainly, if the theater chooses not to let you to see it, you can pick it up 6 months later as a rental.
The TV ratings are TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV ("fantasy violence"), TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA. These are all assigned by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, and the ratings were (originally?) intended to be used together with the V-Chip to keep children from seeing inappropriate content.
The ESRB (as we are all aware by now) assigns game ratings based on responses to questionaires by those evaluating the games (usually, adults in & around New York.) Games can be rated EC, E, E10+, T, M, AO.
Why am I listing all this? Because I started to ask myself when the madness will stop about game ratings, and how it's all about protecting the children and making it easier for parents to pick content appropriate for their kids.
Why has no one argued to apply the same standard of ratings to books? Some argue that video games should be treated differently than, say, books because video games are more interactive while books are passive entertainment. But television and movies are passive entertainment.
If the argument is that game ratings help make sure kids "aren't exposed to indecent depictions" then why not use book ratings to ensure the same thing? Just like games, books can be rated EC (Little Golden Books), E ('Peter Rabbit'), E10+ ('Harry Potter' 1-4), T ('Harry Potter' 5-6), M (Stephenson, Gibson), AO (pr0n). Why wouldn't a book ratings system like this work?
Because it feels too much like censorship, that's why. It's not censorship, but too many people would think it crosses the line.
Just a thought..
Page 6 in the book talks about the Babbage punch card. This is off-topic from the OP, but Babbage punch cards were/are also used in other applications that just analytical machines. They are still used in weaving factories, for example.
I own a kilt, and when I visited the weaver that made the kilt (Geoffrey(Tailor) in Edinburgh) they showed off their kilt weaving machine. It uses Babbage punch cards to control the action- load this color, weave, return, load other color, weave, return, ...
(Well, I thought it was interesting.)
Hype for Nerds. Stuff that doesn't matter.
I mean, really. We've posted an article not about Google or what Google is up to next, but about the guys that gave Google money and the next project they are funding. This is pure hype, guys. I hope Slashdot got a kickback on this.
While off-topic from the article itself, it's interesting to note that the Google query you linked to has About.com as the first hit. Let me say that again: About.com is distributing a mod/patch that lets you see the Sims naked when they take off their clothes (normally, the game blurs the naughty bits.) But no one is up in arms that About.com (an otherwise reputable web site) take down the mod.
I agree. Allow me to re-post a comment I made the other day about this topic:
I had a conversation about this topic with a guy on the bus the other day (he saw me with my GBA, asked me about gaming, then jumped right to the GTA thing.) This guy said that he was upset about "those game guys" (Rockstar) selling a game like that, with sex and stuff in it. He said he was really worried about his 12-yr-old son, who plays the game on his XBox.
My response: people are trying to get GTA:SA moved up to a "Adult Only" (AO) rating. That means 18 and over. But it's already got a "Mature" (M) rating. So kids under 17 shouldn't be playing it anyway, and did he know that before he bought it? (Emphasis mine.) The guy got real quiet after that.
I wonder how many parents just bought this game for their kids because it was "hot", not realizing what the game was about, or even checking the rating.
(Disclaimer: I loved GTA3, got bored in GTA:VC, haven't gotten GTA:SA yet.)
Amen. I live in Minneapolis, and I had a conversation about this topic with a guy on the bus the other day (he saw me with my GBA, asked me about gaming, then jumped right to the GTA thing.)
This guy said that he was upset about "those game guys" (Rockstar) selling a game like that, with sex and stuff in it. He said he was really worried about his 12-yr-old son, who plays the game on his XBox.
My response: people are trying to get GTA:SA moved up to a "Adult Only" (AO) rating. That means 18 and over. But it's already got a "Mature" (M) rating. So kids under 17 shouldn't be playing it anyway, and did he know that before he bought it? (Emphasis mine.) The guy got real quiet after that.
I wonder how many parents just bought this game for their kids because it was "hot", not realizing what the game was about, or even checking the rating.
(Disclaimer: I loved GTA3, got bored in GTA:VC, haven't gotten GTA:SA yet.)
Cameras, streaming music, web browsing, PalmOS, txt chat, games ... and now, television. But I wonder how good it is at being an actual phone? You know, the kind we use to make calls.
I was on campus for a meeting today, and had to make a call on my all-digital phone/camera/appliance. The quality was pretty bad (it would go silent for brief periods, so I missed part of the conversation.) This while I was outside, with 5 bars of signal!
When I look at all the cool stuff you can do with a mobile phone these days, I'm unimpressed. I just want something that lets me make a clear, uninterrupted phone call.
In case anybody is thinking this would make a good movie, it's been done.
Oh, they made a movie out of this, but I wouldn't call it "good".
The FSF is a good candidate. I looked into that once, when people kept asking me how they could donate money to the FreeDOS Project. I asked Richard Stallman if the FSF would be willing to accept donations that would benefit FreeDOS projects. This was his reply (be aware of his conditions):
The "little ways" thing ("GNU/Linux" instead of just "Linux") would probably not be such a little thing for some people, if the $126,155.29 were donated to them for the FSF to distribute.
I wasn't aware of that DOS game, but I found a review of it here: GameBytes issue 21.
Actually, this is the sequel. You may have played the original.
Oh no, that's a really bad thing for Anakin to do ... does he go to the Dark side after that?? :-)
You'd need a system where disconnected players get swapped for ones in queue or something though.
Do it like 'Enemy Territory' does it. Players connect to a server, and if there is an open slot they get to play. They pick a side, and fight.
In the war simulation the parent describes, a disconnected player could be replaced by a 'bot. Real players who connect would take the place of 'bots. As they disconnect, another 'bot is spawned to take their place.
It would be interesting - if done right, you don't know if you are playing against 'bots or real people. (The key would be to not put an identifier above everyone's heads. Just show the names as people are killed ... "Dr.Opveter (Axis) was blown to bits by {AI}soldier's panzerfaust (Allied)".)
I always thought you could do enjoyable games based on Larry Niven's Ringworld. It's so damn huuuuuge, you could have a series of games and have each take place in a different, unique locale. Towns, floating cities, plains, mountains, oceans, Mars map, etc. It could be MMO, but I would think a third-person game would be most flexible.
If someone were to take this one, don't just follow the books. Sure, sprinkle in some events from the books (we like to see that) but don't let it be about Louis Wu. What about the Hero who was walking the "Great Arch" (the Ringworld)? Let him be the central character. He could accept missions/quests from each town he visits, which would take him into the surrounding areas (forests, plains, mountains, etc.)
Since it's the Hero, I can imagine lots of swordplay and action. Maybe some platforming in between. Something like the 'Prince of Persia' games.
I would think a game company could do a long series of games following the Hero across the Ringworld without repeating areas.
A totally elementary Google search would have brought up EVERYTHING you would need to get things going.
... including my page about 'Using Palm Zire with Linux'. The only stumbling block I had was that the USB device it was sitting on wasn't being chown'd to me, so I had to manually extend the permissions so I could read/write to the device.
Aside from that, it's easy. My only other problem has been that I can't sync my work calendar (we use Oracle Collaboration Suite, and there's no connector for that in Linux.)
Finally, someone agrees with me on this! Reducing Force sensitivity to midichlorians in ones bloodstream was totally lame. ...
It would certainly make more sense that the Jedi were sworn to celibacy after a point in their training...probably when they lost their Padawan braid. Celibate warrior-monks are a fixture of both Western and Eastern history.
I abbreviated your post quite a bit, but I totally agree. It's even more important to note that, the way it was explained to us in Ep 1, The Force is basically an STD. Anyone can "get" the Force ... a Jedi just needs to have offspring.
Yes, that and when Yorda puts you in a boat and sends you out of harm's way. I felt really heartsick about that, like I'd helped this little girl out of so many dangers, and now she's making a selfless act to save me.
Then you wake up on the beach, and Yorda is there. I'm not too manly to admit that I got a little misty-eyed at the ending. :-)
Damn, now I have to go out and find a used copy of ICO!
For me, the most emotion I've felt while playing a video game was playing the first 'Deus Ex'. I'd been playing the entire game with some kind of moral sense - I tried not to kill people (even if they were "bad" ... I only killed less than a dozen people the entire game), I chose "sneakiness" over blazing guns, and I tried to do the "Right Thing" (including not stepping on those damn alley cats.)
I remember the end of the game - you're presented with 3 mutually-exclusive options for the mission that will end the game. After I uncovered the 3rd option and I realized the choice I had to make, I actually stopped playing the game for about a week while I made my decision. It really was that hard for me. How to best benefit "society", and is the cost worth it?
In the end, I decided it was best to destroy the communications hub and plunge the world into a 2nd Dark Age. Man, what a decision! But I figured I couldn't trust the HELIOS AI or Morgan Everett.