I wonder if they did a similar study on Prius owners what the feedback would be.
I've been mildly considering a Prius, and my though was: it would be an efficient and responsible purchase (and buying an SUV would be an irresponsible purchase).
I suspect this is what people think. I was following a car the other day with this license frame: "Your SUV Sucks" "My hybrid sips"
So maybe the Prius is the SUV backlash.
Or maybe it's the first (practical) step towards really efficient cars.
As a customer of these apps, I DON'T CARE how long the approval process takes, I might even LIKE it.
I *love* the fact that apple is looking at what is being written into these apps!! I don't want harmful or risky stuff to get on my phone, and if something bad happens, I want them to have the ability to do something about it.
If the approval process takes a long time, maybe it will also make people think carefully before they send send an update to apple.
I especially think that apple should slow down developers that are sending out apps just to get to the top of the "recent apps" lists.
Even more interesting is that their chosen graphics cards seem to scale -- more money gets you proportionally more performance. However if you scroll up to the cpu section, it doesn't scale so well.
You know, I really REALLY love generals and have played it multiplayer online with friends until just recently when the bugs and network difficulties got to be too much for us.
I think whoever designed the networking code was either inexperienced or lazy or both.
Why can't they just use a SIMPLE network protocol??? For example, if you have a firewall, you have to open up the TCP ports: 80, 6667, 28910, 29900, 29920 and UDP ports: 4321, 27900. That's just part of it. There's loads more "fun" if NAT is involved.
What happened to games like quake -- just open one port and you're done?
I can't tell you the lost time given to configuring. I remember many nights having to cut the play short with friends because the configuring took loads of time at the start. I mean, you get your friends fired up about this game, they go to play it with you and... fizzle. (by the way, we're talking developers and network admins here... so we should have a headstart)
And the multiplayer... I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have a wonderful game in progress (myself and 2 friends vs. 5 computers), and have the game stop early because of either "Mismatch detected", "A serious error has occurred" (happens simultaneously on 3 computers!) or some network glitch. We've all replaced hardware, and that's not it. We have never gotten a generals game going successfully with 4 players for more than 5 minutes.
If a player has a network problem, it gives him an irrevocable 60 second countdown before kicking him out. No option to pause, just an option to kick him out early. Even if the problem is momentary, your 2 hour game is toast if he can't recover in that time.
So please EA, rethink how this stuff works and save us the pain!
You know, there's really NO POINT to play a game that pits you against your girlfriend. Really, relationships are about cooperation, and there's a lot to benefit from an adrenaline experience if you're both on the same side. Show her things and help her up, stay away from the smack-down.
Anyway, a few games from different genres...
Katamari Damacy 1 is a really fun off-kilter game, but the 2-player mode is not that fun. I don't know about We Love Katamari (the 2nd in the series), but I think they fixed the multiplayer. It's quirky, simple to pick up and addictive.
I think Dungeon Siege & DS2 are pretty good cooperative games for RPG-type games. Fighting is relatively easy and you can help each other. It's an attractive game too. Go out of your way to share the loot.
For shooter games, Serious Sam and Serious Sam 2 are really fun cooperative games. They might be more guy games. I've had lots of fun attacking 300-foot-tall monsters with my friends. It doesn't matter about skill, because the better players just help protect the beginners and there is plenty of work to go around. Weapons and ammo that appear always have multiple copies, so there's no fighting over stuff.
It's too bad that cooperative games are not as popular as they should be. I think it's because it requires extra effort and tweaking that most publishers don't bother with.
Maybe if review sites put "cooperative play" or "family play" on their checklists, it might help with the situation.
Slashdot Mirror
So this generates a revenue stream for developers how?
Vernor Vinge is still writing hard science fiction.
And quite good science fiction.
He paints a wonderfully imaginative (and I think prescient) picture of the near future in Rainbows End.
Does this mean the IRS will find out about the MILLIONS of dollars people in Nigeria have for me??
My taxes will go through the roof!!
ha ha. WRONG.
http://green.autoblog.com/2007/08/21/woz-gets-700-ticket-for-going-105-mph-in-a-prius/ :)
This seems like a troll to me. But maybe not.
I just read this article about this history of the SUV:
http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html
I wonder if they did a similar study on Prius owners what the feedback would be.
I've been mildly considering a Prius, and my though was: it would be an efficient and responsible purchase (and buying an SUV would be an irresponsible purchase).
I suspect this is what people think. I was following a car the other day with this license frame: "Your SUV Sucks" "My hybrid sips"
So maybe the Prius is the SUV backlash.
Or maybe it's the first (practical) step towards really efficient cars.
but once we get 4, it's only a matter of time before 5...
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930
you heard it here first.
This palm-based augmented reality game has been out for many years (since early 2007)
http://www.toyspring.com/arcade/index.php
New Logitech Mouse works... on glass, in space, underwater, on sand, in an oven...
(but ONLY if you're right-handed)
Don't dial the number! Just press and hold the menu button and say "Call Mom".
(voicedial works great with the iPhone 3gs)
As a customer of these apps, I DON'T CARE how long the approval process takes, I might even LIKE it.
I *love* the fact that apple is looking at what is being written into these apps!! I don't want harmful or risky stuff to get on my phone, and if something bad happens, I want them to have the ability to do something about it.
If the approval process takes a long time, maybe it will also make people think carefully before they send send an update to apple.
I especially think that apple should slow down developers that are sending out apps just to get to the top of the "recent apps" lists.
I highly recommend "I, Robot" - the book, not the lame movie.
and I highly recommend "Rainbows End" by Vernor Vinge (for the near future anyway)
4) a pony
I just have to mention this...
If you play gta iv offline, you have to download the patch, and it's in .rar format.
I am dumbfounded as to how this came about.
Windows cannot natively recognize or open a .rar format file.
What's even sillier is what happens next. "How do I open/install a .rar file?"
try googling "gta iv rar". These results do not mention winrar.
sigh.
Debugging by David Agans
http://www.amazon.com/Debugging-David-J-Agans/dp/0814474578
Does this make anyone think of the 20-eyed frog from the polluted lake in The Simpson's Movie?
Maybe not so much Asimov's foundation series.. I could not get through them as a kid.
However, the Asimov robot books, like "I, Robot" I loved and read as many as I could.
I loved those as a kid and read any I could get my hands on.
And many of them are available online for free:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a#a267
now he needs to get someone to sponsor him to dump some of this in the middle of that large plastic floating island...
I got a small 1U 150w celeron system for less than $50, but you have to go in to find that kind of stuff.
They have nice current systems too.
http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=10174
highly recommended
I just hope they don't help things like Sonny Bono did.
Personally, I like the PC parts picking guide and it's graph of
video card price vs performance.
http://shsc.info/PCPartsPickingGuide#titelanker13
Even more interesting is that their chosen graphics cards seem to
scale -- more money gets you proportionally more performance.
However if you scroll up to the cpu section, it doesn't scale so well.
A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs.
You know, I really REALLY love generals and have played it multiplayer online with friends
until just recently when the bugs and network difficulties got to be too much for us.
I think whoever designed the networking code was either inexperienced or lazy or both.
Why can't they just use a SIMPLE network protocol??? For example, if you have a
firewall, you have to open up the TCP ports: 80, 6667, 28910, 29900, 29920
and UDP ports: 4321, 27900. That's just part of it. There's loads more "fun" if NAT
is involved.
What happened to games like quake -- just open one port and you're done?
I can't tell you the lost time given to configuring. I remember many nights
having to cut the play short with friends because the configuring took
loads of time at the start. I mean, you get your friends fired up about
this game, they go to play it with you and... fizzle. (by the way, we're talking
developers and network admins here... so we should have a headstart)
And the multiplayer... I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have a wonderful game
in progress (myself and 2 friends vs. 5 computers), and have the game stop early because
of either "Mismatch detected", "A serious error has occurred" (happens simultaneously
on 3 computers!) or some network glitch. We've all replaced hardware, and that's not
it. We have never gotten a generals game going successfully with 4 players for more than
5 minutes.
If a player has a network problem, it gives him an irrevocable 60 second countdown
before kicking him out. No option to pause, just an option to kick him out early.
Even if the problem is momentary, your 2 hour game is toast if he can't recover in that
time.
So please EA, rethink how this stuff works and save us the pain!
You know, there's really NO POINT to play a game that pits you against
your girlfriend. Really, relationships are about cooperation, and there's
a lot to benefit from an adrenaline experience if you're both on the
same side. Show her things and help her up, stay away from
the smack-down.
Anyway, a few games from different genres...
Katamari Damacy 1 is a really fun off-kilter game, but the 2-player mode is
not that fun. I don't know about We Love Katamari (the 2nd in the series), but
I think they fixed the multiplayer. It's quirky, simple to pick up and addictive.
I think Dungeon Siege & DS2 are pretty good cooperative games for RPG-type
games. Fighting is relatively easy and you can help each other. It's an
attractive game too. Go out of your way to share the loot.
For shooter games, Serious Sam and Serious Sam 2 are really
fun cooperative games. They might be more guy games. I've
had lots of fun attacking 300-foot-tall monsters with my friends.
It doesn't matter about skill, because the better players just help protect
the beginners and there is plenty of work to go around. Weapons
and ammo that appear always have multiple copies, so there's no
fighting over stuff.
It's too bad that cooperative games are not as popular as they should
be. I think it's because it requires extra effort and tweaking that most
publishers don't bother with.
Maybe if review sites put "cooperative play" or "family play" on their
checklists, it might help with the situation.
Wonder where he's getting the time to add all this stuff...
:)
Doesn't the guy sleep?