The original Dune was hardly an RTS. While there were certain strategic elements to it...there was little that was actually realtime. It played more like a turn-based, strategic RPG.
Yes, you can. It's called "Documents to Go", by Dataviz. It'll let you create and synchronize Word and Excel files..as well as several other formats if you buy the more expensive versions. Very handy... I use it to keep my class gradebooks on my PDA, and it works fine for all the formulas and formatting that I use.
Personally, I find my PDA to be obscenely useful. I carry it with me everywhere, and on the few occasions when I've forgotten it I've been completely lost. I use the thing primarily to keep my schedule... Between the hours I need to keep for my students, and my constantly changing schedule at EB, I have a very hard time keeping track of where I'm supposed to be. I also put any phone number or email address I've ever used in my PDA, so they're always quickly available to me. I have Docs-to-Go installed and use it to store my gradebooks for my classes, and use Avant Go to grab the news from several places. Finally, I've got a couple ebooks and a game or two, for when I've got nothing better to do.
This is my second PDA now. The first one was a handspring visor, and I have to admit that I didn't find that one terribly useful. It wasn't a matter of what it can/can't do, but simply the size of the thing. The visor was too big to carry around with me constantly... My m505 is much smaller and I can easily fit it in my pocket along with my wallet and a pen. Portability is a major issue with me...and I honestly find this thing far more portable than the paper implements it replaces (notepad, calendar, paperback, address book, newspaper, gradebooks).
I'm not sure really how "visible" such use is though... It isn't like I walk around constantly looking up addresses, or checking my schedule every 2 minutes. When I need the info, I look it up. I don't make a huge show of it either.... It isn't as if I'm waving my PDA around and screaming "look at me, I'm using a PDA!" That's really what makes it so useful to me... The device can do so many different things, but it's completely unobtrusive. Far less obtrusive than carrying around all those other items with me.
I don't know how the majority of people use theirs...or don't... Maybe they are predominantly a status symbol, but I find mine to be a lifesaver.
...I can tell you that the average consumer isn't going to have any problems with this. Most of these folks don't even know what a mod chip is, and wouldn't install one if they did. Most folks are basically honest, and they just get even more honest if you inform them that they won't be able to play online if they install a mod chip. Furthermore, I would be willing to bet that the "average consumer" will actually be in support of it. I'm constantly hearing people complain about the rampant cheating in various game communities. If Microsoft takes an active role in banning those who abuse their services & hardware it'll be seen as a step towards eliminating cheaters.
The folks who do care about mod chips usually fall into two categories - collectors and pirates. The pirates want mod chips so they can play all their games without having to pay for them...and honestly, I can't think they'd be terribly surprised by getting banned. The collectors usually want mod chips so they can import games that aren't available here in the US...but that really isn't a problem (yet) with the Xbox. Sure, there are also some other folks who mod their Xboxes...tinkers and developers and such...but again, I don't think they'd be very surprised to get banned.
Actually.... Quite some time ago, about the time that Apple was shipping its first PowerPC systems there was an expansion card that you could get that actually had an x86 processor on it. Don't know what ever happened to those...never got to use one myself...
Err...what an odd question... You could definitely get Darwin to run on a homemade PowerPC, I doubt if you'd even have to do much to make it happy. The question would be about a full-blown version of OS X running on it...which would boil down to driver compatability with the various bits & pieces you're using. Assuming you use Apple approved hardware, you'd have absolutely no trouble installing OS X.
As for the next part of your question...well, if it's a PowerPC emulator then any code running will think it is on a PowerPC...so of course you could run Darwin, Aqua, OS X, or whatever. You wouldn't really need an emulator though, since Apple has released Darwin for the x86.
I don't know what browsers are "officially" supported, but I have no trouble doing my banking with Mozilla. For that matter, I also have no trouble accessing my Capital One credit cards using Mozilla.
I don't think you understand the concept of "poisoning" a P2P network. It is not censorship, nor splitting of the network, nor anything of that nature.
Poisoning a P2P network involves distributing bad files intentionally. For example, you could generate a file with the same size and name as..say...an mp3 that you didn't want distributed. This file that you had created would be full of noise..or silence...or garbage...anything but the actual song. Finally, you make this song available over the P2P network.
The idea is that others will download this file because they think it is the song they are looking for. And then, if they don't realize it and remove the file immediately, others can download the file from their node. The idea is that if you get the "poisoned" file spread to enough nodes it will become nearly impossible to locate a "non-poisoned" file. The goal, of course, is to make it so hard to find these files that nobody bothers.
As you can see, this really has little to do with your examples of deactivating IRC servers.
Not exactly.... The buyer is generally interested in purchasing an EQ account for more than just the username/password, they usually want what that username/password grant access to. They're interested in the high-level character, or phat lewts, or whatever else may come along with the username/password. However, the key to those other items is the username/password. The only thing that is transmitted, transferred, or sold to another person is the username/password, which they then use to access the rest of the goodies. The same is true of a bank account number, or credit card number - those things in and of themselves are completely valueless, simply alphanumeric strings - but what they represent and grant access to makes them valuable.
No, you don't get it. First off, the mod attaches the PS1's portable LCD screen, not a television. As a side-affect of attaching the LCD screen, you can also plug the thing into a TV if you so desire.
As for getting the PS2 instead and saving yourself some money...that misses the point entirely. The whole reason to get a GBA, regardless of whether you mod it or not, is to play the games available on a GBA. There are plenty of titles available on the GBA that won't be showing up on the PS2 (or any other system) for a very, very long time - if ever.
As for why you might want to attach the LCD screen... It is fairly common knowledge that the screen on the GBA basically sucks. It is small and dim. There is no backlight of any kind. This is usually cited as the one and only major flaw with the GBA. Attaching an LCD screen would eliminate this flaw. Granted, it reduces the portability, but it greatly increases the playability.
I can't say I'm terribly happy to hear this. I've read through the posts in here, and I can see that I'm not the only one....but what are all these idiots doing congratulating GA Tech?? Did these folks not learn anything from writing code in their CS classes? This isn't a matter of reinventing the wheel, it's a matter of learning how to write code. The "no libraries" rules are not to force you to learn some specific algorithm, it's to force you to write your own code. If you're an architect, you can't simply grab the blueprints to an old building and then claim you know what you're doing. If you're an author you can't grab something by Shakespeare and then go get published. You need to do your own work. You need to learn how the language works, how the computer behaves, how to think in terms of algorithms. If you just let students collaborate on everything, or grab code off the net, then where will they learn how to write it themselves?
First off, this is not supposed to be quality journalism like C|NET. This is a community-run forum. Most of these stories are posted by other users of the site, not even by the site's administrators. Very few of these people are professional journalists, and even fewer of them (if any) are getting paid a thing for posting information here.
Secondly, a search just about anywhere on the word "aibo" should turn up far more than enough information to answer this question. Heck, you can even just type in www.aibo.com and get information. The tagline here is "News for nerds." There's an level of technical expertise expected from the readers here. Many of the stories here are about DIY hacks and coding....if you can't even look up a major product like the Aibo, I really don't think you should be here.
Freespace 2 is a space flight sim, vaguely similar to the Wing Commander type games. The storyline is basically linear, though there are a few branching points here and there, a few optional missions. You have numerous opportunities to earn medals throughout the game, you can finish with a ton of medals, or none at all. There's a good selection of ships and weapons to choose from, and a very interesting storyline, good graphics, all-around a very satisfying arcade flight sim. Not terribly realistic though. Freespace 2 also has some very good multiplayer modes, from a traditional deathmatch to some mission-oriented games, even a multiple mission storyline to play through. Again, you can earn medals and like kinds of things in multiplayer. There was also a very nice editor for the game. I wasted several months of my life to this game, it was great fun. Unfortunately, it's hard to find a multiplayer game anymore..... I've still got it sitting on my HD though, and I still play it fairly often. Still haven't seen another space flight sim this good.
Agreed. Once you've learned proper keyboarding/typing techniques, there's really not faster way to enter English-language characters. However, more and more people are casual users, and fewer and fewer of them actually know how to type. I teach some introductory CSC courses at the local community college, and I can say for a fact that at least 70% of my students would do better with a pen.
A lot of the blame here seems to be aimed at the tech. industry.... People seem to think that the tech. industry isn't doing enough to explain things to your average user, or make them simple enough, or produce products that fit the average user's needs. Well, I'll certainly agree that this is all true to a certain degree, but I don't think that is where the majority of the problem lies. The majority of the problem lies not with the tech. industry for failing to educate the masses, but with the masses for failing to do anything to educate themselves.
I work at the local EB, and you'd be amazed at some of the customers we have in here. There are people who know absolutely nothing about the computer that they just purchased - don't know the RAM, speed, HDD space, nothing! This is on a machine that was just purchased a day ago...and all that information is available right on the box! Most people, when they go out to purchase a car, take a look at some basic information...type of transmission, MPG, airbags, ABS, number of seats...you get the idea. Most people (from what I've seen at EB) do not do the same thing with technology.
How much can you expect the tech. industry to educate/provide for the masses when they're not even willing to read the label on a package?
I play MMORPG's on my PC, and have greatly enjoyed some of them. I have nothing against the genre itself. However, I do have to say that plot is generally quite lacking in these games. Normally plot in a MMORPG comes from the players, not any pre-written script or storyline. This is why I also play CRPG's.
CRPG's such as Wizardry, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy involve the player in a massive story that somehow revolves around them. That's the fun part. You don't have to listen to other players talking out of character, you don't have to find a group...it's just you vs. the badguys. Both genres have their pros and cons, but they are two seperate and distinct genres.
Am I the only one who viewed this announcement with pure, unadulterated dread? Final Fantasy going MMORPG? For years now, Final Fantasy has been one of the few remaining CRPG's available. Every year there are fewer and fewer of them, and more MMORPG's.
Oh, I'm sure Square can come up with a good game, and I'm sure it'll sell well - heck, it's the next Final Fantasy. I'm just not looking forward to giving up my plot-driven and self-centered universe to play with a dozen people I don't even know.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Re:has the targeted demographic really changed?
on
Attack of the Clones
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· Score: 1
Nostalgia has absolutely nothing to do with it. Regardless of whether or not the target has changed, the production values have. You do remember Star Wars, don't you? The movies that broke new ground in virtually evey area of special effects? These movies featured then-unknown actors who could actually act, and visual effects that were absolutely stunning for their time.
Episode One features very poorly done CGI, and lots of big-name actors who aren't doing a very good job of acting. Fine, maybe there isn't as much new ground to break these days, but I would definitely have been happier with a hell of a lot less cheap CGI.
It just doesn't seem like as much care and effort when into making Episode One. Maybe more money, but less care.
yrs,
EPhemeriis
COULD be exceedingly useful
on
This is IT?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I must admit that I'm fairly disappointed by "IT". I was somehow hoping for giant war mecha or something of that type. I don't know...an electric scooter like this just lacks something...especially after all this hype. Reading through the posts here, I can see that most of you are in agreement with me. However, I really think we're missing the point. Steve Jobs could be right.
We Americans have never really been very much interested in public transportation. Trains, busses, subways...they all take second place to our cars. Our nice, inefficient, polluting cars. Now then, could you imagine if these things genuinely cought on? Imagine having our cities interconnected with high-speed railways, not highways. Imagine replacing all the roads in our cities with smaller pedestrian walkways, populated with people on Segways. Imagine how much less polution there would be, how much less noise would be generated, and how much less space would be wasted.
Yeah, I know...I'm still waiting for my flying cars and giant robots...but this could actually be useful technology.
Yes, it does matter, in two distinct ways. First off, your eyes are analog - not digital. They don't see individual frames, but a constant stream of input. In the real world, this constant stream of input is faster than your eyes can register, which gives you "motion blur". Motion blur makes things look more realistic. For a while, hardware manufacturers were attempting to implement a hardware motion blur, a fake motion blur, to trick you into thinking something was more realistic. If you have a video card that can spit out absurd numbers of frames per second, you get motion blur, and therefor realism. The reason that movies can be shown at a slower framerate than games is because the camera itself is analog, and motion blurs show up on the film - computers are not analog, and do not develop motion blur on their own. The second reason is because your framerate is not constant. The average scene may be rendered at 100 FPS, but a more complex or action-packed scene might only render at 30 FPS.
Although....it wouldn't actually be 12Ghz without a clock....
yrs,
Ephemeriis
creative writing vs. technical writing
on
Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Personally, I've always thought of computer games as art, no matter what the "officials" may say. The defining factor, I think, is the fact that it has a story. A computer game tells a story with a protagonist, an antagonist, a setting, theme, plot, climax...everything you need for a decent novel. Sure, many computer games are very shallow, which would make them bad art...but still art.
As for programming in general...it depends. It can be art, or not. Generic programming is much like technical writing. It is utilitarian, not artistic. It is a task assigned to someone, that any old monkey could do - not an artistic expression of one person's vision. However, this is not always true. Just as there are generic chairs that sell for $10.99 at K-Mart and then bizzarre sculptures of chair-like things on display at galleries, there can also be artistic programs. Someone can write artistic code...but code doesn't have to be artistic.
I think it's just a little early yet for most of the world to accept code as art. I'm sure it took a while for people to recognize the artistry that can go into photography as well.
I'm using a Linksys BEFSR41. It's a 4 port 10/100 switch, and a router. I used this to replace my hub and install a router all in one fell swoop. It's worked very well for me. It's a very simple product, and uses a web-based configuration system. It works just fine with my DSL modem, as well as both Windows and Linux machines. You can change a few things...but it is not a very sophisticated router. It's got DHCP (which you can turn off), NAT, port and IP blocking, and it works with PPPoE. It was about $120 at the time that I bought it. They've also got a 1 port version, if you don't need the extra. I'd strongly recommend it, unless you really want all the goodies to play with.
These are the reasons that most publishers/developers include something in the license making the selling of characters and equipment from their game illegal. They don't usually do much to prevent such exchanges, but they make sure that everyone has to click a button that says they won't do it. That makes them legally irresponsible for what may happen to your money. As for how these things affect gamers and the folks tht sell the equipment...well, just take a look at EverQuest. EQ gets patches constantly, and they often change the power and rarity of various items - therefor changing their value. People are constantly complaining about how the economy has been screwed up in EQ. I don't think I've seen a single patch come out that didn't receive some kind of "now my stuff is worthless" comment. People aren't too happy when that happens, but they don't have much recourse. If you're willing to spend the money on a "virtual" item, then you better be willing to take the very real risks involved.
The fact of the matter is that these mod developers are releasing a DBZ game. Yes, I know it isn't a standalone title and it is free and everything else - that doesn't matter. If Funimation ever wants to release a DBZ game, they don't want to have to compete against some Q3 modders. Technically, it is illegal to use DBZ skins and names and everything else too, but those aren't half as serious as a full-blown mod. Funimation doesn't care if you use a DBZ name as your player name in Q3 or Diablo II or anything else, there's nothing there to potentially cut into their revenues later.
The problem with ebooks is that they're such a mixed bag. I love to read, and I get my absolute favorite books in print. I like to have a nice hardcover edition of the stuff I really love, like Dune. However, I read far too much to keep all these books hanging around, and I certainly can't easily pack away a week's worth of reading for a vacation. I go through a book a day, maybe more if they're good! I've got piles of books that I don't want anymore! Sure, they were good the first time around, but I've read them and they're not good enough to revisit.
I've got a Palm m505, and love it for ebooks. It's great. I can stuff a week's worth of reading in it, and the backlight lets me read in the dark. Plus, it's even smaller than a paperback. I can shove a whole week's worth of reading in my pocket. The problem is not with the concept, but with the execution.
Ebooks come in too many different formats. You need to make sure you've got the right reader for the book you just bought, and sometimes you have to buy the reader too. And, as you pointed out, fair use is nonexistant in ebooks. You can't do anything to them that you would expect to do to a print book. Finally, there's very little variety. You can find the classics easily enough, but new releases are nearly impossible to locate. After all that, the publishers go and charge you more for an ebook than for a paperback! I'd expect to pay less myself, since they don't actually have to print or ship them.
I love books, and I love the concept of ebooks, but so far the execution is leaving much to be desired. I really wish the publishers would get with it, and give me what I want rather than what protects them the best. I can assure you, I'd buy a heck of a lot more books if I just had the room for them.
Slashdot Mirror
The original Dune was hardly an RTS. While there were certain strategic elements to it...there was little that was actually realtime. It played more like a turn-based, strategic RPG.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Yes, you can. It's called "Documents to Go", by Dataviz. It'll let you create and synchronize Word and Excel files..as well as several other formats if you buy the more expensive versions. Very handy... I use it to keep my class gradebooks on my PDA, and it works fine for all the formulas and formatting that I use.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Personally, I find my PDA to be obscenely useful. I carry it with me everywhere, and on the few occasions when I've forgotten it I've been completely lost. I use the thing primarily to keep my schedule... Between the hours I need to keep for my students, and my constantly changing schedule at EB, I have a very hard time keeping track of where I'm supposed to be. I also put any phone number or email address I've ever used in my PDA, so they're always quickly available to me. I have Docs-to-Go installed and use it to store my gradebooks for my classes, and use Avant Go to grab the news from several places. Finally, I've got a couple ebooks and a game or two, for when I've got nothing better to do.
This is my second PDA now. The first one was a handspring visor, and I have to admit that I didn't find that one terribly useful. It wasn't a matter of what it can/can't do, but simply the size of the thing. The visor was too big to carry around with me constantly... My m505 is much smaller and I can easily fit it in my pocket along with my wallet and a pen. Portability is a major issue with me...and I honestly find this thing far more portable than the paper implements it replaces (notepad, calendar, paperback, address book, newspaper, gradebooks).
I'm not sure really how "visible" such use is though... It isn't like I walk around constantly looking up addresses, or checking my schedule every 2 minutes. When I need the info, I look it up. I don't make a huge show of it either.... It isn't as if I'm waving my PDA around and screaming "look at me, I'm using a PDA!" That's really what makes it so useful to me... The device can do so many different things, but it's completely unobtrusive. Far less obtrusive than carrying around all those other items with me.
I don't know how the majority of people use theirs...or don't... Maybe they are predominantly a status symbol, but I find mine to be a lifesaver.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
...I can tell you that the average consumer isn't going to have any problems with this. Most of these folks don't even know what a mod chip is, and wouldn't install one if they did. Most folks are basically honest, and they just get even more honest if you inform them that they won't be able to play online if they install a mod chip. Furthermore, I would be willing to bet that the "average consumer" will actually be in support of it. I'm constantly hearing people complain about the rampant cheating in various game communities. If Microsoft takes an active role in banning those who abuse their services & hardware it'll be seen as a step towards eliminating cheaters.
The folks who do care about mod chips usually fall into two categories - collectors and pirates. The pirates want mod chips so they can play all their games without having to pay for them...and honestly, I can't think they'd be terribly surprised by getting banned. The collectors usually want mod chips so they can import games that aren't available here in the US...but that really isn't a problem (yet) with the Xbox. Sure, there are also some other folks who mod their Xboxes...tinkers and developers and such...but again, I don't think they'd be very surprised to get banned.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Actually.... Quite some time ago, about the time that Apple was shipping its first PowerPC systems there was an expansion card that you could get that actually had an x86 processor on it. Don't know what ever happened to those...never got to use one myself...
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Err...what an odd question... You could definitely get Darwin to run on a homemade PowerPC, I doubt if you'd even have to do much to make it happy. The question would be about a full-blown version of OS X running on it...which would boil down to driver compatability with the various bits & pieces you're using. Assuming you use Apple approved hardware, you'd have absolutely no trouble installing OS X.
As for the next part of your question...well, if it's a PowerPC emulator then any code running will think it is on a PowerPC...so of course you could run Darwin, Aqua, OS X, or whatever. You wouldn't really need an emulator though, since Apple has released Darwin for the x86.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
I don't know what browsers are "officially" supported, but I have no trouble doing my banking with Mozilla. For that matter, I also have no trouble accessing my Capital One credit cards using Mozilla.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
I don't think you understand the concept of "poisoning" a P2P network. It is not censorship, nor splitting of the network, nor anything of that nature.
Poisoning a P2P network involves distributing bad files intentionally. For example, you could generate a file with the same size and name as..say...an mp3 that you didn't want distributed. This file that you had created would be full of noise..or silence...or garbage...anything but the actual song. Finally, you make this song available over the P2P network.
The idea is that others will download this file because they think it is the song they are looking for. And then, if they don't realize it and remove the file immediately, others can download the file from their node. The idea is that if you get the "poisoned" file spread to enough nodes it will become nearly impossible to locate a "non-poisoned" file. The goal, of course, is to make it so hard to find these files that nobody bothers.
As you can see, this really has little to do with your examples of deactivating IRC servers.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Not exactly.... The buyer is generally interested in purchasing an EQ account for more than just the username/password, they usually want what that username/password grant access to. They're interested in the high-level character, or phat lewts, or whatever else may come along with the username/password. However, the key to those other items is the username/password. The only thing that is transmitted, transferred, or sold to another person is the username/password, which they then use to access the rest of the goodies. The same is true of a bank account number, or credit card number - those things in and of themselves are completely valueless, simply alphanumeric strings - but what they represent and grant access to makes them valuable.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
No, you don't get it. First off, the mod attaches the PS1's portable LCD screen, not a television. As a side-affect of attaching the LCD screen, you can also plug the thing into a TV if you so desire.
As for getting the PS2 instead and saving yourself some money...that misses the point entirely. The whole reason to get a GBA, regardless of whether you mod it or not, is to play the games available on a GBA. There are plenty of titles available on the GBA that won't be showing up on the PS2 (or any other system) for a very, very long time - if ever.
As for why you might want to attach the LCD screen... It is fairly common knowledge that the screen on the GBA basically sucks. It is small and dim. There is no backlight of any kind. This is usually cited as the one and only major flaw with the GBA. Attaching an LCD screen would eliminate this flaw. Granted, it reduces the portability, but it greatly increases the playability.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
I can't say I'm terribly happy to hear this. I've read through the posts in here, and I can see that I'm not the only one....but what are all these idiots doing congratulating GA Tech?? Did these folks not learn anything from writing code in their CS classes? This isn't a matter of reinventing the wheel, it's a matter of learning how to write code. The "no libraries" rules are not to force you to learn some specific algorithm, it's to force you to write your own code. If you're an architect, you can't simply grab the blueprints to an old building and then claim you know what you're doing. If you're an author you can't grab something by Shakespeare and then go get published. You need to do your own work. You need to learn how the language works, how the computer behaves, how to think in terms of algorithms. If you just let students collaborate on everything, or grab code off the net, then where will they learn how to write it themselves?
yrs,
Ephemeriis
First off, this is not supposed to be quality journalism like C|NET. This is a community-run forum. Most of these stories are posted by other users of the site, not even by the site's administrators. Very few of these people are professional journalists, and even fewer of them (if any) are getting paid a thing for posting information here.
Secondly, a search just about anywhere on the word "aibo" should turn up far more than enough information to answer this question. Heck, you can even just type in www.aibo.com and get information. The tagline here is "News for nerds." There's an level of technical expertise expected from the readers here. Many of the stories here are about DIY hacks and coding....if you can't even look up a major product like the Aibo, I really don't think you should be here.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Freespace 2 is a space flight sim, vaguely similar to the Wing Commander type games. The storyline is basically linear, though there are a few branching points here and there, a few optional missions. You have numerous opportunities to earn medals throughout the game, you can finish with a ton of medals, or none at all. There's a good selection of ships and weapons to choose from, and a very interesting storyline, good graphics, all-around a very satisfying arcade flight sim. Not terribly realistic though. Freespace 2 also has some very good multiplayer modes, from a traditional deathmatch to some mission-oriented games, even a multiple mission storyline to play through. Again, you can earn medals and like kinds of things in multiplayer. There was also a very nice editor for the game. I wasted several months of my life to this game, it was great fun. Unfortunately, it's hard to find a multiplayer game anymore..... I've still got it sitting on my HD though, and I still play it fairly often. Still haven't seen another space flight sim this good.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Agreed. Once you've learned proper keyboarding/typing techniques, there's really not faster way to enter English-language characters. However, more and more people are casual users, and fewer and fewer of them actually know how to type. I teach some introductory CSC courses at the local community college, and I can say for a fact that at least 70% of my students would do better with a pen.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
A lot of the blame here seems to be aimed at the tech. industry.... People seem to think that the tech. industry isn't doing enough to explain things to your average user, or make them simple enough, or produce products that fit the average user's needs. Well, I'll certainly agree that this is all true to a certain degree, but I don't think that is where the majority of the problem lies. The majority of the problem lies not with the tech. industry for failing to educate the masses, but with the masses for failing to do anything to educate themselves.
I work at the local EB, and you'd be amazed at some of the customers we have in here. There are people who know absolutely nothing about the computer that they just purchased - don't know the RAM, speed, HDD space, nothing! This is on a machine that was just purchased a day ago...and all that information is available right on the box! Most people, when they go out to purchase a car, take a look at some basic information...type of transmission, MPG, airbags, ABS, number of seats...you get the idea. Most people (from what I've seen at EB) do not do the same thing with technology.
How much can you expect the tech. industry to educate/provide for the masses when they're not even willing to read the label on a package?
yrs,
Ephemeriis
I play MMORPG's on my PC, and have greatly enjoyed some of them. I have nothing against the genre itself. However, I do have to say that plot is generally quite lacking in these games. Normally plot in a MMORPG comes from the players, not any pre-written script or storyline. This is why I also play CRPG's.
CRPG's such as Wizardry, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy involve the player in a massive story that somehow revolves around them. That's the fun part. You don't have to listen to other players talking out of character, you don't have to find a group...it's just you vs. the badguys. Both genres have their pros and cons, but they are two seperate and distinct genres.
Am I the only one who viewed this announcement with pure, unadulterated dread? Final Fantasy going MMORPG? For years now, Final Fantasy has been one of the few remaining CRPG's available. Every year there are fewer and fewer of them, and more MMORPG's.
Oh, I'm sure Square can come up with a good game, and I'm sure it'll sell well - heck, it's the next Final Fantasy. I'm just not looking forward to giving up my plot-driven and self-centered universe to play with a dozen people I don't even know.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Nostalgia has absolutely nothing to do with it. Regardless of whether or not the target has changed, the production values have. You do remember Star Wars, don't you? The movies that broke new ground in virtually evey area of special effects? These movies featured then-unknown actors who could actually act, and visual effects that were absolutely stunning for their time.
Episode One features very poorly done CGI, and lots of big-name actors who aren't doing a very good job of acting. Fine, maybe there isn't as much new ground to break these days, but I would definitely have been happier with a hell of a lot less cheap CGI.
It just doesn't seem like as much care and effort when into making Episode One. Maybe more money, but less care.
yrs,
EPhemeriis
I must admit that I'm fairly disappointed by "IT". I was somehow hoping for giant war mecha or something of that type. I don't know...an electric scooter like this just lacks something...especially after all this hype. Reading through the posts here, I can see that most of you are in agreement with me. However, I really think we're missing the point. Steve Jobs could be right.
We Americans have never really been very much interested in public transportation. Trains, busses, subways...they all take second place to our cars. Our nice, inefficient, polluting cars. Now then, could you imagine if these things genuinely cought on? Imagine having our cities interconnected with high-speed railways, not highways. Imagine replacing all the roads in our cities with smaller pedestrian walkways, populated with people on Segways. Imagine how much less polution there would be, how much less noise would be generated, and how much less space would be wasted.
Yeah, I know...I'm still waiting for my flying cars and giant robots...but this could actually be useful technology.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Yes, it does matter, in two distinct ways. First off, your eyes are analog - not digital. They don't see individual frames, but a constant stream of input. In the real world, this constant stream of input is faster than your eyes can register, which gives you "motion blur". Motion blur makes things look more realistic. For a while, hardware manufacturers were attempting to implement a hardware motion blur, a fake motion blur, to trick you into thinking something was more realistic. If you have a video card that can spit out absurd numbers of frames per second, you get motion blur, and therefor realism. The reason that movies can be shown at a slower framerate than games is because the camera itself is analog, and motion blurs show up on the film - computers are not analog, and do not develop motion blur on their own. The second reason is because your framerate is not constant. The average scene may be rendered at 100 FPS, but a more complex or action-packed scene might only render at 30 FPS.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Although....it wouldn't actually be 12Ghz without a clock....
yrs,
Ephemeriis
Personally, I've always thought of computer games as art, no matter what the "officials" may say. The defining factor, I think, is the fact that it has a story. A computer game tells a story with a protagonist, an antagonist, a setting, theme, plot, climax...everything you need for a decent novel. Sure, many computer games are very shallow, which would make them bad art...but still art.
As for programming in general...it depends. It can be art, or not. Generic programming is much like technical writing. It is utilitarian, not artistic. It is a task assigned to someone, that any old monkey could do - not an artistic expression of one person's vision. However, this is not always true. Just as there are generic chairs that sell for $10.99 at K-Mart and then bizzarre sculptures of chair-like things on display at galleries, there can also be artistic programs. Someone can write artistic code...but code doesn't have to be artistic.
I think it's just a little early yet for most of the world to accept code as art. I'm sure it took a while for people to recognize the artistry that can go into photography as well.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
I'm using a Linksys BEFSR41. It's a 4 port 10/100 switch, and a router. I used this to replace my hub and install a router all in one fell swoop. It's worked very well for me. It's a very simple product, and uses a web-based configuration system. It works just fine with my DSL modem, as well as both Windows and Linux machines. You can change a few things...but it is not a very sophisticated router. It's got DHCP (which you can turn off), NAT, port and IP blocking, and it works with PPPoE. It was about $120 at the time that I bought it. They've also got a 1 port version, if you don't need the extra. I'd strongly recommend it, unless you really want all the goodies to play with.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
These are the reasons that most publishers/developers include something in the license making the selling of characters and equipment from their game illegal. They don't usually do much to prevent such exchanges, but they make sure that everyone has to click a button that says they won't do it. That makes them legally irresponsible for what may happen to your money. As for how these things affect gamers and the folks tht sell the equipment...well, just take a look at EverQuest. EQ gets patches constantly, and they often change the power and rarity of various items - therefor changing their value. People are constantly complaining about how the economy has been screwed up in EQ. I don't think I've seen a single patch come out that didn't receive some kind of "now my stuff is worthless" comment. People aren't too happy when that happens, but they don't have much recourse. If you're willing to spend the money on a "virtual" item, then you better be willing to take the very real risks involved.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
yrs,
Ephemeriis
The problem with ebooks is that they're such a mixed bag. I love to read, and I get my absolute favorite books in print. I like to have a nice hardcover edition of the stuff I really love, like Dune. However, I read far too much to keep all these books hanging around, and I certainly can't easily pack away a week's worth of reading for a vacation. I go through a book a day, maybe more if they're good! I've got piles of books that I don't want anymore! Sure, they were good the first time around, but I've read them and they're not good enough to revisit.
I've got a Palm m505, and love it for ebooks. It's great. I can stuff a week's worth of reading in it, and the backlight lets me read in the dark. Plus, it's even smaller than a paperback. I can shove a whole week's worth of reading in my pocket. The problem is not with the concept, but with the execution.
Ebooks come in too many different formats. You need to make sure you've got the right reader for the book you just bought, and sometimes you have to buy the reader too. And, as you pointed out, fair use is nonexistant in ebooks. You can't do anything to them that you would expect to do to a print book. Finally, there's very little variety. You can find the classics easily enough, but new releases are nearly impossible to locate. After all that, the publishers go and charge you more for an ebook than for a paperback! I'd expect to pay less myself, since they don't actually have to print or ship them.
I love books, and I love the concept of ebooks, but so far the execution is leaving much to be desired. I really wish the publishers would get with it, and give me what I want rather than what protects them the best. I can assure you, I'd buy a heck of a lot more books if I just had the room for them.
yrs,
Ephemeriis