So glad you can gaze into the future, and tell us the complete fate of consoles released only about 6 months ago...I was just about to waste $300 on buying a Gamecube and a couple games later this week, too *snaps fingers*.
Seriously, though, why all the posturing?
Anyone who's going to buy a Xbox/Gamecube isn't going to be convinced otherwise by the rantings of a PS2 fanboy, and certainly isn't going to run to Sony like rats from a burning house:P
As for the reasons you give for buying a PS2....I already have PSX compatibility in the form of a perfectly fine original Playstation. And must-have games? Maybe for you, but not me....The only one even remotely interesting in that list you mention is FFX. The others I could really care less for....Especially the FMV-fest of MGS2.
I imagine you're referring to the RPG they had on their online service, don't remember the name, but it something to do with exploring inside a volcano or the like.
"Granted, this was written in a past incarnation of the client, but few people dedicate enough CPU time to the client to return stats as quickly as you."
Dedicating CPU time to it? More like it has to fight for the cycles it gets:P
That average I quoted before covers 2.9 years of time, during which some of that time the client was switched off, uninstalled entirely, or had to compete with things like arcade emulators, an FTP/Game/File-sharing server, 3D game engines, and such.
Atm, for example, I have 35% system resources free, and 32 processes going in Win98, including: High-bitrate MP3's playing in Winamp, a couple FTP transfers, a few IE/Mozilla windows, AIM, joystick/mouse software, Norton AV, SETI@Home itself, an SNES emulator, and BlackICE- Which is pretty typical for me.
As such, I really don't think i'm running this on anything even close to a dedicated machine:)
I'm sure there's plenty of people out there running at least the screensaver, that use their (newer) computers equally or less intensely than I do, with more available processing power...I know the computer at my family's home is not in use for 12-16 hours every day, as they're all sleeping and then at school/work for the day, which seems pretty typical...I'm curious why you think they'd be processing slower than me, personal hardware differences nonwithstanding?
Also, as you may be thinking along this line, I really don't believe that any significant number of the 3,692,327 current users are the types that leave their computers eating CPU cycles compiling 24/7 or the like.
Anyhow, even with all the crap i have running atm, i'm still making ~.9% progress every 10 minutes or so. Not exactly fast, but enough to get a WU done in about 19 hours or so...A bit slower than my average, but to be expected, and i'm sure that estimate improves much once I close everything, and let the blank screensaver mode run for 12 hours straight while i'm sleeping/in class.
As for the CPU/Real time thing...From where I see, CPU time = Real time on my system according to the client measurements, but maybe it's different for you.
Maybe it was just a freak combination of circumstances, but what happened to me was this:
I'd defragged my Win 98/Mandrake 8.1 HD a couple hours ago, and then had spent a bit of time repartioning some empty space i'd freed up...After a few changes and subsequent reboots, I found that (for some reason) the system would get to the point of loading LiLo and stop completely dead. Took a complete reformat of the drive to get things working again.
Might be that I just did something I shouldn't have when re-partioning, but if there's any issues, that's the closest thing to one i've had.
"but moving to Linux as my Desktop OS will never happen. Trust me, I have tried many times, but it is not worth the pain and suffering. "
Considering the first line of this post, you're being a bit hypocritical here.
Also, as for the idea that "EVERYONE uses Windows"....I guess I should go tell the head of my school's CS department they have to scrap 4 labs worth of Unix/Solaris workstations and servers? Or maybe the 20 gig Linux partition I have on this machine doesn't really exist?
I don't really intend this to be a flame, but i'm just sick of people assuming there's no concievable reason to use anything but Windows on the desktop.
Again, you're taking the same exact MS attitude that you claim to think sucks.
Re:Maybe I just don't get it..
on
WineX 2.0
·
· Score: 0
It does take up space, true, but WineX is not a seperate operating system, and is not anywhere near as large as Linux/Windows/whatever.
FF Tactics, FF9, FF Chronicles(2 games, techinically), Breath of Fire 3, Lunar: SSSC, Lunar: EBC, Star Ocean 2, Megaman X5, MMX6, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Dewprism, Legend of Mana, Grandia, Worms Armageddon....
This is just my personal collection, and stuff that I still play on a daily basis....If I included games that i'd like to play but don't have, I could probably come up with 20 or 30 more at least.
Personally, the main reason I haven't bought a PS2 is because i'd have to sell my PS1+games to finance it atm, and I refuse to give up all the old games I still love.
The splash screen SEGFAULTs on launch. That's not really a problem, it's just sort of funny, the way that an exploitable buffer overrun in kbiff would be funny. Which is to say, sort of sad.
Updating your version of Qt3 from CVS should fix this problem....I had the same problem using it under Mandrake 8.2, tried everything up to a reformat and reinstall, worked fine once I found a post with the Qt suggestion though.
It wasn't until recently that I found out that most distros don't require a reformat to have a successful upgrade, and that usually you don't have to worry about most packages not working correctly out of the box like Mandrake's
You != Everyone else
I, for one, was able to do a seamless upgrade from 8.1 via downloaded 8.2 ISO images. Worked perfectly once "out of the box", just as 8.1 did before. As for any package problems, 99.9% of them have resulted from me personally screwing something up, and just required tweaks or at the worst, a few minute re-install from the originals. As much as we might like to think so, stuff like urpmi doesn't just stop working on it's own, and whatever you changed after installing it isn't really Mandrake's problem.
Imagine(and laugh at?) the nightmare that would result if every single niggling problem in Windows introduced by a program install or hardware change was blamed on Microsoft?
Frankly, instead of pining away over how your hardware incompatibilities and possible screwups make the distro unbearably horrible, stop and think for a moment, eh?
I just downloading a full install of KDE3 last night, and all the archives together, including QT and all the devel packages, were only about 170 megs or so...Maybe i'm just reading this post wrong or something. Even when all installed, KDE still isn't anywhere even close to 2.5 gigs.
I wasn't really comparing them directly...Just pointing out that if DBZ doesn't have enough substance for you, there are other series out there that do.
Considering that i've seen Bebop all the way through, and a fair amount of Eva(and loved both series), those were the first two that came to mind:)
Ya know, sometimes it doesn't bother people if something is "pre-digested kiddie fare", though DBZ is not.
I'm guessing you probably haven't watched more than a few of the 120-odd episodes that have been English dubbed, you got annoyed at some of the cheesy toy commercials, and suddenly the whole thing is junk.
I'll admit, DBZ certainly has flaws(Goku's fight with Freiza on Namek- The longest 5 minutes in the history of time), but good material is still to be found, especially the Android and Buu sagas.
At any rate, consider this:
Some people actually watch TV for pure entertainment, pure and simple, and as things go, DBZ can be pretty entertaining. If you want something hugely meaningful in your anime, watch Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop. If you want something that can be simply fun to watch, take in DBZ.
"Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?
Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.
I'd like to make the suggestion that if you click on the link, and the content looks like no channel you've ever seen before in your life, then IGNORE THE POST and don't whine about it! How hard is that?
Seriously...Aren't Americans supposed to be the whining, self-centered ones? I have plenty of friends in other parts of the world, but everytime I see something like this, i'm still damn glad to be living in good ole' NY state, USA....Not to mention embarassed for those that CAN control themselves.
Being a college student atm, I haven't really had the funds or inclination to upgrade to XP....Not to mention the same licensing issues that bother you, so i'm not really qualified to make any direct comments about it.
You make a good point, in any case...Just from what i've seen and heard in various places, and considering how (unfortunately) ubiquitous XP is likely to be in the near future. Even with the advantage(s) it may or may not have, though, I think the comparison is still pretty valid at this point.
Taking into account the vast number of people that still use/did use Win98 or Win95, the transition to a fairly user-friendly Linux system wouldn't be too painful, especially (for example) for people like my parents or grandparents who only use a computer for casual web-browsing, email, and playing CD's, and who barely even know XP exists at the moment.
In other words, what i'm trying to say is that there wouldn't be much of a barrier to using Linux for that sort of person, as it's likely a bit better or at least the same functionality as what they've been used to for years and years now.
That's the market we should be trying to convert, not (mostly) XP users, I think.
Once XP finshes it's assimilation, and starts entering the stage of being required for everything ala Win95's development, the tables could well be turned, though...But then again, Linux design won't be standing still either:)
"For example: how does one install a new program on RedHat? Assuming it's an RPM, the user opens a command prompt and *bzzzt!* Linux just lost. On Debian, assuming you have a deb file, the user opens a command prompt and *bzzzt!* Linux just lost again. Are there GUIs for this? Sure. Are they sufficiently easy to use for a newbie (Are they easily accessible from the system menu or an icon)? Not yet. "
I don't know what distribution you're using, obviously, but....Under the KDE 2.2.2 and Mandrake 8.1 system that I have going, I double-click the RPM I want to install, put in my root password, hit next once, listen to the HD fan whir a bit, and it's done. As you say, *bzzzt!*...All I had to do was doubleclick the file in Konqueror to get the process going. This isn't easily accessable? Even on the command prompt, all I have to do is type "rpm *insert-package-name-here*". Again, not rocket science. And don't say "Yeah, but on this distro..."....Just as there's different flavors of Windoze that are better for PC newbies, same with Linux.
Hell, even installing the OS itself couldn't have been simpler. Just pop in a boot CD, the installer starts, answer some basic questions(Just like Windows), let Mandrake automatically put itself in my free space, a few more Windows-similar configuration questions, pick the packages I want(or just leave the default choices for newbies)....And it's done in about 20-30 minutes, much faster and just as non-confusing as Windows.
"With that in mind, it's probably better that Joe Sixpack doesn't get exposed to Linux at this point. Right now, it is likely that he will be turned off to it and hate it. When replaced with WinXP, Linux on the desktop, from a newbie point of view, will look horrible from a usability point of view. "
I don't know about you, but I LOVE the look of my Linux desktop as compared to Win98 atm. Maybe it doesn't look as good to everyone, but try using the Liquid style+theme in KDE, fiddle a bit to your liking, and tell me that doesn't look pretty slick.
As for usability itself, I can do everything I can under Windows, and more, and usually somewhat easier.
It's all a matter of actually USING the extra features of what you have going, rather than getting bogged down into the attitude that the command prompt is The Only Way(tm) to use Linux.
Just as much as you'd like to remain ignorant of the fact that this dimwit broke state and/or federal law, and that this had NOTHING to do with "corporate america".
I'm curious, too...What exactly is illegal and "not approved by corporate america" that we all should be able to do? I'm guessing you're just someone ticked off that you can't do stuff like "exploring" secured computer systems or make bootleg copies of DVD's and such.
Actually, the real people stealing my money are the bastard ushers working for Hoyts Cinema that wouldn't let me bring my own mall-bought soda in:P
At any rate, as a friend of mine has jokingly suggested lately, i'm already going to Hell for mass MP3 downloading...So what's one more transgression, eh?:)
Seriously, though...If it bothers you that much, just lock yourself in your house, and let the rest of us enjoy what turned out to be a pretty darn good movie. Not everything has to be a political statement, you know....
Had a mess-up with our family's Verizon bill a few months ago for a second phone line-
Had stuff like 4x charges for totally identical calls, dayime charges for after-11 PM calls, 9-hour calls begining at 2 AM, etc.....They finally gave up and credited us the whole thing after a week or two, and admitted even they couldn't sort it out.
I decided to give that link a look, and tried the Javascript BSOD simulation here.
Since i'm using Netscape 6.2, it popped up a normal browser window instead of (i'm assuming) a BSOD, that kept re-opening itself no matter how many times it was closed, and I had to totally restart Netscape to kill it:P
If you're going to link to things like this, at least make sure they work correctly...
Slashdot Mirror
How does one get on this list? I see mention of how many people have joined so far, but not the method for doing it....
...But in the spirit of tonight's release, my Hotmail account now belongs to Anakin Skywalker :P
:)
Bit of a relocation to Vanuatu, though...More roomy than Coruscant, I imagine
Umm...Assuming you're not joking, you need to go back and watch the original trilogy a few more times, that should clear things up.
Obi-Wan wasn't exactly being truthful in A New Hope, remember?
So glad you can gaze into the future, and tell us the complete fate of consoles released only about 6 months ago...I was just about to waste $300 on buying a Gamecube and a couple games later this week, too *snaps fingers*.
:P
Seriously, though, why all the posturing?
Anyone who's going to buy a Xbox/Gamecube isn't going to be convinced otherwise by the rantings of a PS2 fanboy, and certainly isn't going to run to Sony like rats from a burning house
As for the reasons you give for buying a PS2....I already have PSX compatibility in the form of a perfectly fine original Playstation. And must-have games? Maybe for you, but not me....The only one even remotely interesting in that list you mention is FFX. The others I could really care less for....Especially the FMV-fest of MGS2.
Sierra Online was/is a company, not a game.
I imagine you're referring to the RPG they had on their online service, don't remember the name, but it something to do with exploring inside a volcano or the like.
Logged in. Better now?
:P
:)
"Granted, this was written in a past incarnation of the client, but few people dedicate enough CPU time to the client to return stats as quickly as you."
Dedicating CPU time to it? More like it has to fight for the cycles it gets
That average I quoted before covers 2.9 years of time, during which some of that time the client was switched off, uninstalled entirely, or had to compete with things like arcade emulators, an FTP/Game/File-sharing server, 3D game engines, and such.
Atm, for example, I have 35% system resources free, and 32 processes going in Win98, including: High-bitrate MP3's playing in Winamp, a couple FTP transfers, a few IE/Mozilla windows, AIM, joystick/mouse software, Norton AV, SETI@Home itself, an SNES emulator, and BlackICE- Which is pretty typical for me.
As such, I really don't think i'm running this on anything even close to a dedicated machine
I'm sure there's plenty of people out there running at least the screensaver, that use their (newer) computers equally or less intensely than I do, with more available processing power...I know the computer at my family's home is not in use for 12-16 hours every day, as they're all sleeping and then at school/work for the day, which seems pretty typical...I'm curious why you think they'd be processing slower than me, personal hardware differences nonwithstanding?
Also, as you may be thinking along this line, I really don't believe that any significant number of the 3,692,327 current users are the types that leave their computers eating CPU cycles compiling 24/7 or the like.
Anyhow, even with all the crap i have running atm, i'm still making ~.9% progress every 10 minutes or so. Not exactly fast, but enough to get a WU done in about 19 hours or so...A bit slower than my average, but to be expected, and i'm sure that estimate improves much once I close everything, and let the blank screensaver mode run for 12 hours straight while i'm sleeping/in class.
As for the CPU/Real time thing...From where I see, CPU time = Real time on my system according to the client measurements, but maybe it's different for you.
Maybe it was just a freak combination of circumstances, but what happened to me was this:
I'd defragged my Win 98/Mandrake 8.1 HD a couple hours ago, and then had spent a bit of time repartioning some empty space i'd freed up...After a few changes and subsequent reboots, I found that (for some reason) the system would get to the point of loading LiLo and stop completely dead. Took a complete reformat of the drive to get things working again.
Might be that I just did something I shouldn't have when re-partioning, but if there's any issues, that's the closest thing to one i've had.
"but moving to Linux as my Desktop OS will never happen. Trust me, I have tried many times, but it is not worth the pain and suffering. "
Considering the first line of this post, you're being a bit hypocritical here.
Also, as for the idea that "EVERYONE uses Windows"....I guess I should go tell the head of my school's CS department they have to scrap 4 labs worth of Unix/Solaris workstations and servers? Or maybe the 20 gig Linux partition I have on this machine doesn't really exist?
I don't really intend this to be a flame, but i'm just sick of people assuming there's no concievable reason to use anything but Windows on the desktop.
Again, you're taking the same exact MS attitude that you claim to think sucks.
It does take up space, true, but WineX is not a seperate operating system, and is not anywhere near as large as Linux/Windows/whatever.
Let's see...
FF Tactics, FF9, FF Chronicles(2 games, techinically), Breath of Fire 3, Lunar: SSSC, Lunar: EBC, Star Ocean 2, Megaman X5, MMX6, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Dewprism, Legend of Mana, Grandia, Worms Armageddon....
This is just my personal collection, and stuff that I still play on a daily basis....If I included games that i'd like to play but don't have, I could probably come up with 20 or 30 more at least.
Personally, the main reason I haven't bought a PS2 is because i'd have to sell my PS1+games to finance it atm, and I refuse to give up all the old games I still love.
The splash screen SEGFAULTs on launch. That's not really a problem, it's just sort of funny, the way that an exploitable buffer overrun in kbiff would be funny. Which is to say, sort of sad.
Updating your version of Qt3 from CVS should fix this problem....I had the same problem using it under Mandrake 8.2, tried everything up to a reformat and reinstall, worked fine once I found a post with the Qt suggestion though.
It wasn't until recently that I found out that most distros don't require a reformat to have a successful upgrade, and that usually you don't have to worry about most packages not working correctly out of the box like Mandrake's
You != Everyone else
I, for one, was able to do a seamless upgrade from 8.1 via downloaded 8.2 ISO images. Worked perfectly once "out of the box", just as 8.1 did before. As for any package problems, 99.9% of them have resulted from me personally screwing something up, and just required tweaks or at the worst, a few minute re-install from the originals. As much as we might like to think so, stuff like urpmi doesn't just stop working on it's own, and whatever you changed after installing it isn't really Mandrake's problem.
Imagine(and laugh at?) the nightmare that would result if every single niggling problem in Windows introduced by a program install or hardware change was blamed on Microsoft?
Frankly, instead of pining away over how your hardware incompatibilities and possible screwups make the distro unbearably horrible, stop and think for a moment, eh?
Umm...2.5 gig for KDE?
I just downloading a full install of KDE3 last night, and all the archives together, including QT and all the devel packages, were only about 170 megs or so...Maybe i'm just reading this post wrong or something. Even when all installed, KDE still isn't anywhere even close to 2.5 gigs.
I guess the US/Russian/Whoever else's navy's are in a helluva lot of trouble using nuclear reactors in subs, then?
Damn sight more energy in those than the batteries this thing uses, that's for sure.
Just tried it a moment ago with IE 6, and i'm getting an "HTTP 403 [Forbidden]".
I wasn't really comparing them directly...Just pointing out that if DBZ doesn't have enough substance for you, there are other series out there that do.
:)
Considering that i've seen Bebop all the way through, and a fair amount of Eva(and loved both series), those were the first two that came to mind
Anyway, this is beginning to get off-topic...
Ya know, sometimes it doesn't bother people if something is "pre-digested kiddie fare", though DBZ is not.
I'm guessing you probably haven't watched more than a few of the 120-odd episodes that have been English dubbed, you got annoyed at some of the cheesy toy commercials, and suddenly the whole thing is junk.
I'll admit, DBZ certainly has flaws(Goku's fight with Freiza on Namek- The longest 5 minutes in the history of time), but good material is still to be found, especially the Android and Buu sagas.
At any rate, consider this:
Some people actually watch TV for pure entertainment, pure and simple, and as things go, DBZ can be pretty entertaining. If you want something hugely meaningful in your anime, watch Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop. If you want something that can be simply fun to watch, take in DBZ.
Just one...
"Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?
Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 10/28/00 "
I'd like to make the suggestion that if you click on the link, and the content looks like no channel you've ever seen before in your life, then IGNORE THE POST and don't whine about it! How hard is that?
Seriously...Aren't Americans supposed to be the whining, self-centered ones? I have plenty of friends in other parts of the world, but everytime I see something like this, i'm still damn glad to be living in good ole' NY state, USA....Not to mention embarassed for those that CAN control themselves.
Being a college student atm, I haven't really had the funds or inclination to upgrade to XP....Not to mention the same licensing issues that bother you, so i'm not really qualified to make any direct comments about it.
:)
You make a good point, in any case...Just from what i've seen and heard in various places, and considering how (unfortunately) ubiquitous XP is likely to be in the near future. Even with the advantage(s) it may or may not have, though, I think the comparison is still pretty valid at this point.
Taking into account the vast number of people that still use/did use Win98 or Win95, the transition to a fairly user-friendly Linux system wouldn't be too painful, especially (for example) for people like my parents or grandparents who only use a computer for casual web-browsing, email, and playing CD's, and who barely even know XP exists at the moment.
In other words, what i'm trying to say is that there wouldn't be much of a barrier to using Linux for that sort of person, as it's likely a bit better or at least the same functionality as what they've been used to for years and years now.
That's the market we should be trying to convert, not (mostly) XP users, I think.
Once XP finshes it's assimilation, and starts entering the stage of being required for everything ala Win95's development, the tables could well be turned, though...But then again, Linux design won't be standing still either
"For example: how does one install a new program on RedHat? Assuming it's an RPM, the user opens a command prompt and *bzzzt!* Linux just lost. On Debian, assuming you have a deb file, the user opens a command prompt and *bzzzt!* Linux just lost again. Are there GUIs for this? Sure. Are they sufficiently easy to use for a newbie (Are they easily accessible from the system menu or an icon)? Not yet. "
I don't know what distribution you're using, obviously, but....Under the KDE 2.2.2 and Mandrake 8.1 system that I have going, I double-click the RPM I want to install, put in my root password, hit next once, listen to the HD fan whir a bit, and it's done. As you say, *bzzzt!*...All I had to do was doubleclick the file in Konqueror to get the process going. This isn't easily accessable? Even on the command prompt, all I have to do is type "rpm *insert-package-name-here*". Again, not rocket science. And don't say "Yeah, but on this distro..."....Just as there's different flavors of Windoze that are better for PC newbies, same with Linux.
Hell, even installing the OS itself couldn't have been simpler. Just pop in a boot CD, the installer starts, answer some basic questions(Just like Windows), let Mandrake automatically put itself in my free space, a few more Windows-similar configuration questions, pick the packages I want(or just leave the default choices for newbies)....And it's done in about 20-30 minutes, much faster and just as non-confusing as Windows.
"With that in mind, it's probably better that Joe Sixpack doesn't get exposed to Linux at this point. Right now, it is likely that he will be turned off to it and hate it. When replaced with WinXP, Linux on the desktop, from a newbie point of view, will look horrible from a usability point of view. "
I don't know about you, but I LOVE the look of my Linux desktop as compared to Win98 atm. Maybe it doesn't look as good to everyone, but try using the Liquid style+theme in KDE, fiddle a bit to your liking, and tell me that doesn't look pretty slick.
As for usability itself, I can do everything I can under Windows, and more, and usually somewhat easier.
It's all a matter of actually USING the extra features of what you have going, rather than getting bogged down into the attitude that the command prompt is The Only Way(tm) to use Linux.
Just as much as you'd like to remain ignorant of the fact that this dimwit broke state and/or federal law, and that this had NOTHING to do with "corporate america".
I'm curious, too...What exactly is illegal and "not approved by corporate america" that we all should be able to do? I'm guessing you're just someone ticked off that you can't do stuff like "exploring" secured computer systems or make bootleg copies of DVD's and such.
Get a clue.
Actually, the real people stealing my money are the bastard ushers working for Hoyts Cinema that wouldn't let me bring my own mall-bought soda in :P
:)
At any rate, as a friend of mine has jokingly suggested lately, i'm already going to Hell for mass MP3 downloading...So what's one more transgression, eh?
Seriously, though...If it bothers you that much, just lock yourself in your house, and let the rest of us enjoy what turned out to be a pretty darn good movie. Not everything has to be a political statement, you know....
No argument there...
Had a mess-up with our family's Verizon bill a few months ago for a second phone line-
Had stuff like 4x charges for totally identical calls, dayime charges for after-11 PM calls, 9-hour calls begining at 2 AM, etc.....They finally gave up and credited us the whole thing after a week or two, and admitted even they couldn't sort it out.
Since i'm using Netscape 6.2, it popped up a normal browser window instead of (i'm assuming) a BSOD, that kept re-opening itself no matter how many times it was closed, and I had to totally restart Netscape to kill it
If you're going to link to things like this, at least make sure they work correctly...