I've run GCC on machines with 16MB of memory before, but they also had at least several megabytes of swap storage as well. Will GCC even be able to compile anything on this box?
I know there is the relatively unused serial port in the back of the thing, but has anyone even developed a mass storage device for the Dreamcast?
I don't know why so many people hated that controller. Yes, it was worse than the other ones out during the time, but it worked rather well for what Intellivision was best for: sports games.
Yes, there were plenty of other good games out for intellivision (night stalker, astrosmash, AD&D, Tron series, talkies, etc) but if you were to compare the big three back then (Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision), the Intellivision was definately the best for sports games. I still love their baseball and football, as simple as they are.
Yeah, I read the Maximum PC article a few months ago when my subscription of that magazine came in. Pretty good, though I think the tuning advice was more for "this is how you can perfectly reproduce what you're supposed to see". My tips are for comfort and usability; not "monitor performance".
The only other thing that I could recommend is to change the color scheme you might use on your computer. If you're a windows person, I've found 'Plum (high color)' to be soothing.
I wrote an everything node a while ago about this, but here is the text reproduced.
This is really targetted at Computer Users who complain about how their eyes hurt, especially after a long day of staring at the computer monitor.
I have had 15/20 vision all my life, and I've also been a heavy user of computers since 1979. People ask how the heck I have maintained my eyesight. It is really simple: turn the brightness down!
Here are my tips for adjusting your computer monitor:
Display an image that contains a lot of BLACK, not grey, but black image. A perfect example is your boot loader, like lilo, if it doesn't have graphics. The black background should be black, not a shade of grey. If it is, turn down the brightness on your monitor. That is the dial that usually has a picture of a sun (or a circle with lines coming out from it).
Now turn down the contrast all the way. That is the dial with the half-filled circle. Turn it up until you can read the text without straining.
Now, if your monitor supports color temperature, adjust it to the 6000 or 6500 setting. This has a bit of a yellowish hue to the white, but you'll appreciate it later.
That's it. Note that if you are working on computer graphics, this will NOT make the colors bright and pretty, so you'll probably have to go back to the eye-killing settings. But if you're a coder who is just doing text and web browsing all day, USE THIS. Your eyes will thank you for it.
Even better: do the same thing I mentioned above, but with an LCD screen. CRT monitors are worse for your eyes than LCD.
If you're playing first person shooters like Quake, you will probably have to crank up the brightness dial. Just remember to turn it back down later!
I think the biggest problem is how the Windows Automatic Update feature is turned on by default on everyone's machines.
For most people, it is the only way they're ever going to install updates on their computer. However, I've found production Windows 2000 servers with this feature enabled! This is at least the 2nd or 3rd time that I've read a story on/. about a Windows XP/2000 patch that was no good.
If you want to disable automatic updates on your computer, go to Control Panel->System->Automatic Updates tab and click the buttons to turn it off. You'll be better off picking what you want to update manually.
I had a friend 20 years ago that used to keep all of his Apple ][ software in 5.25" floppy disk drawers, and catalogued them by an ID number. Yes, there were NO labels on the disk that said anything as to what they were other than "13F3". He just knew what numbers were what.
Never quite understood why he did that, but I have to admire his ability to catalog things like that.
The only thing I can argue with you on is the AIM client for Palm OS. I know about Jabber (I use it every day at work), but there is no PalmOS equivalent (from what I've seen) available right now. The one that I was able to find and download worked, but didn't remember my buddy list, which is an immediate "not good enough for use" issue. If it wasn't for the fact that I had just returned my new Tungsten C, I would have probably started work on a proper Palm OS client.
Anyway, I guess I was looking more at the 10-18 market, though you certainly sound like you break the mold of most teenagers.
I remember seeing this store the one time I drove to Apple in Cupertino. It was my first time in California (I'm a NYC native), and while driving down from San Francisco through the Valley, I was given the choice of one place I could stop and be a geek for a few minutes. Cupertino. Apple.
I was so thrilled to be there, though I had just missed the 5pm closing time of the gift shop, so I could only drive around in an infinate loop;-).
Anyway, I remember seeing this Apple dealer across the street (well, go out the front of the complex, make two rights, and make a sharp left across the street). They had a large colored Apple logo (the old "rainbow" style, which I am sentimental for), even though every other Apple symbol around was the new metal/steel/aqua or whatever they call it. I found that strangely comforting that even though Apple changed their logo, their old one was always staring them right back into the doorway of the gift shop. I was glad they didn't change their sign.
Anyway, silly nostalgia and memories.. go back to your own business..
Think about the teenage kids that are unceremoniously tied to their instant messaging.
I think the only reason WHY they wouldn't want to use this device is if they also were heavy into video conferencing as well. Ever watch a teenager use a computer?
Sure, you could buy a PDA.. ever teenage kid has $400-$500 to spend on a PDA. This device is under $100, and thats the initial price. For the PDA, you also need to buy the AIM software (AOL stopped giving away the PalmOS version at some point in the past few months, I believe).
Quite frankly, I think the kids are going to want this for Christmas.
The first Sierra game I played was Hi-Res Adventure #1: Mystery House. That was on an old Apple ][ back around 1980. The graphics were so primitive by today's standards, but naturally back then you didn't even notice.
I remember there being a slightly corrupted sector on my disk back then that caused one of the images to be drawn incorrectly. If you didn't know about the game before, it basically was non-filling hi-res graphics. In other words:
hplot 10,10 to 10,20
hplot 10,20 to 20,20
hplot 20,20 to 20,10
hplot 20,10 to 10,10
...would draw a box. Now with the speed of those games, you SAW it draw this box. So, one of the sectors containing the image data had a bad bit or two, and as a result, it started drawing a person, but then shot off completely askew. Interesting.
Hey Kids! Want to take over thousands of people's machines? Hack Geocities and install your own 3733t "eYe r0K uR w0RlD" binary at this URL!...
I can only imagine that this is now the bullseye for hundreds of crackers who want to compromise people's computers. I hope the honest security people who have "taken control" of this page are making sure every few seconds that their true uninstaller program is there, and not someone else's kRaK program.
Actually, I just bought a Tungsten C, which has the same 400MHz XScale processor as the top of the line iPaq. It'd be nice if they ported this program for this device.
My thoughts on the Tungsten C? VERY nice machine, a little cheap feeling (plastic case VS metal, as they did with the T and other Palm models), wonderful features, but lacking a microphone (has 2.5mm earbud/mic jack). The screen and processor are WONDERFUL, but I feel that the software just hasn't been tuned to this much power yet. Things scroll down WAY too fast, and it just feels that someone put a 800hp motor in a compact car. I'm not complaining, but I'd appreciate some OS tuning in this area.
Did anyone else find it really interesting that IIS now has text based configuration files.
Interesting. Now if Windows would only come with some half-way decent text manipulation programs, it would make sense! Right now you either need to install UWin, MKS or Cygnus to get a decent grep-like utility. In Windows, you have the "find" command. No comparison; it does the same job, but the output obviously was meant for human consumption, not text parsing. Of course you could write a program to parse it, but you have to do a little extra work.
I remember reading something years ago about how you created the first modem device for the Apple ][. It featured not only Bell 103 communications, but also a whole slew of "phreak tools", including the ability to do just about every blue/black/red/etc box set of tones imaginable. I believe for some reason you weren't allowed to follow through with the production and sale of this device, because it was just too powerful in the hands of a phone phreak. Many of these capabilities, however, appeared later in the Novation AppleCat modem.
My question is, am I correct in that your device never made it out of the door? Additionally, did it become, or did you have any part in the legendary AppleCat modem? What was the full feature list of your device, and how did it compare to the later AppleCat modem?
For those who don't know what a Novation AppleCat modem is, you can check out this site for more information.
It would be nice if the server supported the latest AOL AIM standards. I was a daily user of AIM for years, but recently my company blocked access to it, and now we have an internal Jabber service. Fine, but there are a few people that I spoke with almost on a daily basis for years that I rarely talk to anymore (our conversations weren't large enough for phone, and not long or focused enough for email). We've got MSN messenger gateway service, but I'm not signing up for a Passport account to use it.
I don't see why they couldn't do it, though. Wasn't there some link between Netscape, AOL and Sun? Should still be as far as I know.
I remember my father years ago used to have a roll or two of toilet paper that looked like stock ticker. Don't remember it being all that comfortable, but if there ever was a paper that was funny, and not harsh on the tuchus, I'd buy some when guests come over.
Many people know this trick and can do it themselves if they have a problem with free registration.
I can only imagine that if Slashdot, one of the largest redirection sites on the internet (heck, what is that term.. uhh.. Slashdot effect?).. if this site starts doing the 'archive' trick automatically, I can only imagine that this little feature will disappear rather soon.
Re:If Ars Technica is so concerned about usability
on
A Better Finder?
·
· Score: 1
...why is this article in white print on a black background?... There's a reason books and newspapers are printed in black print on a white background: IT'S EASIER TO READ.
C'mon, its just as easy to read as white on black. You're talking about your personal preference, or what you're used to.
The reason why they went black on white with the original GUIs was because they wanted to have the WYSIWYG concept of "this is your sheet of paper on which you're writing/drawing/scribbling/etc".
Personally, while I appreciate the concept, I find it is one of the large causes of bad eyesight among computer users. Most people crank their monitor brightness. Now, add a white/bright background in which you're straining to read little black letters. I think this is just as wise as trying to read the wattage of a lightbulb while its on.
If you care, you can see my tips for saving your eyesight as a computer user. I've been using computers for over 20 years and I still have the same 15/20 vision I've had since I was a child.
Take it how you will, as it is your right, but I'll argue that implying that "whitespace means product" is because programmers are too damn lazy to hit the asterisk to clarify the code.
Yes, I can appreciate how it maps out better to how chalkboard mathematics are written, but this is a computer. Computers demand precision or you get garbage output. Type the darn asterisk.
I can just see the accidental bug now (aren't they all?).. someone forgets to put a "+" operator in (sloppy typing), and their program keeps getting wrong answers for some reason because it compiled correctly, but it is producing a product somewhere deep in calculation code instead of a sum. Ain't that going to be a bitch to debug? It compiles fine, don't it?
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't After Dark supposed to be released for OS X any day now?
I know there is the relatively unused serial port in the back of the thing, but has anyone even developed a mass storage device for the Dreamcast?
Yes, there were plenty of other good games out for intellivision (night stalker, astrosmash, AD&D, Tron series, talkies, etc) but if you were to compare the big three back then (Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision), the Intellivision was definately the best for sports games. I still love their baseball and football, as simple as they are.
The only other thing that I could recommend is to change the color scheme you might use on your computer. If you're a windows person, I've found 'Plum (high color)' to be soothing.
Your mileage may vary.
For most people, it is the only way they're ever going to install updates on their computer. However, I've found production Windows 2000 servers with this feature enabled! This is at least the 2nd or 3rd time that I've read a story on /. about a Windows XP/2000 patch that was no good.
If you want to disable automatic updates on your computer, go to Control Panel->System->Automatic Updates tab and click the buttons to turn it off. You'll be better off picking what you want to update manually.
Never quite understood why he did that, but I have to admire his ability to catalog things like that.
The only thing I can argue with you on is the AIM client for Palm OS. I know about Jabber (I use it every day at work), but there is no PalmOS equivalent (from what I've seen) available right now. The one that I was able to find and download worked, but didn't remember my buddy list, which is an immediate "not good enough for use" issue. If it wasn't for the fact that I had just returned my new Tungsten C, I would have probably started work on a proper Palm OS client.
Anyway, I guess I was looking more at the 10-18 market, though you certainly sound like you break the mold of most teenagers.
I was so thrilled to be there, though I had just missed the 5pm closing time of the gift shop, so I could only drive around in an infinate loop ;-).
Anyway, I remember seeing this Apple dealer across the street (well, go out the front of the complex, make two rights, and make a sharp left across the street). They had a large colored Apple logo (the old "rainbow" style, which I am sentimental for), even though every other Apple symbol around was the new metal/steel/aqua or whatever they call it. I found that strangely comforting that even though Apple changed their logo, their old one was always staring them right back into the doorway of the gift shop. I was glad they didn't change their sign.
Anyway, silly nostalgia and memories.. go back to your own business..
Think about the teenage kids that are unceremoniously tied to their instant messaging.
I think the only reason WHY they wouldn't want to use this device is if they also were heavy into video conferencing as well. Ever watch a teenager use a computer?
Sure, you could buy a PDA.. ever teenage kid has $400-$500 to spend on a PDA. This device is under $100, and thats the initial price. For the PDA, you also need to buy the AIM software (AOL stopped giving away the PalmOS version at some point in the past few months, I believe).
Quite frankly, I think the kids are going to want this for Christmas.
The "new" design does hold a lot more content, but I thought the aesthetics of the original were better.
I remember there being a slightly corrupted sector on my disk back then that caused one of the images to be drawn incorrectly. If you didn't know about the game before, it basically was non-filling hi-res graphics. In other words:
I can only imagine that this is now the bullseye for hundreds of crackers who want to compromise people's computers. I hope the honest security people who have "taken control" of this page are making sure every few seconds that their true uninstaller program is there, and not someone else's kRaK program.
I like how this duplicate was posted under the 'take-a-closer-look' department.
My thoughts on the Tungsten C? VERY nice machine, a little cheap feeling (plastic case VS metal, as they did with the T and other Palm models), wonderful features, but lacking a microphone (has 2.5mm earbud /mic jack). The screen and processor are WONDERFUL, but I feel that the software just hasn't been tuned to this much power yet. Things scroll down WAY too fast, and it just feels that someone put a 800hp motor in a compact car. I'm not complaining, but I'd appreciate some OS tuning in this area.
Interesting. Now if Windows would only come with some half-way decent text manipulation programs, it would make sense! Right now you either need to install UWin, MKS or Cygnus to get a decent grep-like utility. In Windows, you have the "find" command. No comparison; it does the same job, but the output obviously was meant for human consumption, not text parsing. Of course you could write a program to parse it, but you have to do a little extra work.
My question is, am I correct in that your device never made it out of the door? Additionally, did it become, or did you have any part in the legendary AppleCat modem? What was the full feature list of your device, and how did it compare to the later AppleCat modem?
For those who don't know what a Novation AppleCat modem is, you can check out this site for more information.
I don't see why they couldn't do it, though. Wasn't there some link between Netscape, AOL and Sun? Should still be as far as I know.
I remember my father years ago used to have a roll or two of toilet paper that looked like stock ticker. Don't remember it being all that comfortable, but if there ever was a paper that was funny, and not harsh on the tuchus, I'd buy some when guests come over.
I can only imagine that if Slashdot, one of the largest redirection sites on the internet (heck, what is that term.. uhh.. Slashdot effect?).. if this site starts doing the 'archive' trick automatically, I can only imagine that this little feature will disappear rather soon.
C'mon, its just as easy to read as white on black. You're talking about your personal preference, or what you're used to.
The reason why they went black on white with the original GUIs was because they wanted to have the WYSIWYG concept of "this is your sheet of paper on which you're writing/drawing/scribbling/etc".
Personally, while I appreciate the concept, I find it is one of the large causes of bad eyesight among computer users. Most people crank their monitor brightness. Now, add a white/bright background in which you're straining to read little black letters. I think this is just as wise as trying to read the wattage of a lightbulb while its on.
If you care, you can see my tips for saving your eyesight as a computer user. I've been using computers for over 20 years and I still have the same 15/20 vision I've had since I was a child.
If she didn't do them on a Lisa, I'd bet she did them on an Apple II. Hey, it's black and white, right? The Apple II at least had those two colors ;-)
Yes, I can appreciate how it maps out better to how chalkboard mathematics are written, but this is a computer. Computers demand precision or you get garbage output. Type the darn asterisk.
I can just see the accidental bug now (aren't they all?).. someone forgets to put a "+" operator in (sloppy typing), and their program keeps getting wrong answers for some reason because it compiled correctly, but it is producing a product somewhere deep in calculation code instead of a sum. Ain't that going to be a bitch to debug? It compiles fine, don't it?
"Evil! EEEEEEEEEEEvvviiiilll!!!!"
(or whatever the heck that character's name was...)
No, just "Elmer Fudd".