"If one has a very high standard of living,one sometimes has to do a very low standard of movie" - Michael Caine, but I think relevant there as well. Shatner, like Caine, describes himself as a working actor not a precious artist.
Wasn't Pinball Fantasies but its predecessor, Pinball Dreams that got me into pinball. That and a table at university - Fire! by Williams. Just about a couple of decades then go by without me playing, and then Pinball Dreams comes out on the iPhone. I liked playing so much that I bought a real table, Gottlieb's Surf'n'Safari, for the home.
It's a massive hit - my wife likes it, my kids like it, I like it...it's great. Pinball Dreams is where it started for me though - the Nightmare table is massively playable and the music great.
Anyone remember the 8-bit game 'Game Over'? Now that was misleading, even though they mimicked the box 'art' in the title screen. Gained notoriety for being the first box art needing to be withdrawn and redone (well, in the UK at least - not sure about anywhere else).
Here's the game in question. Look at it, then click the title image. Yep, that's what you think it is. Then click on the gameplay images bottom-left. Err....hmm.
No, and I noticed a number of replies thought that was what I meant. I'm not saying all films should be geared to the under tens, I'm saying that audiences growing up now will expect 3D as a given: it's the new baseline.
In the same way that there's not many black and white silents being made today, so I'm expecting in the future that not too many 2D films will be made, audiences will have grown up with 3D and will expect it as a base.
A lot of stars never made the transition from silent to talkies either.
Face it: a new era is here and the kids love it. -I- love it. My kids, all under ten, all expect to see 3D when they go to the cinema now. I'm rather older than that, and I like seeing 3D too. It's just the new given, not a novelty any more.
I don't turn my nose up at 2D, abut then I don't turn my nose up at black and White or silent either. There are. thkse that would, and as time goes on I expect there will be those that feel the same about 2D bs 3D, at least at the cinema.
Cheers,
Ian
The cutsie word 'jailbreak' seems to be catching on, but if this were any other os I think the phrase 'gaping remote code execution security hole' might be more appropriate.
I use an iPhone and I thank people who do these exploits for bringing them to attention. If the means of jailbreak is "connect via USB then faff" I can live with it. If it's "go to this website and get an instant remote execution exploit from people you don't know" then I become rather more concerned.
It's an exploit, same as any other. It should be patched as fast as possible and such an action wouldn't be evil, it would be the correct response to a remote execution hole.
Later reborn as Virus on the 16bit machines, Zarch on the Acorn Archimedes was a fantastic demo of what the hardware could do. And, for its time, the 32bit RISC-based Arch could do a lot.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Software patents and the death of the Amiga
on
The Amiga Turns 25
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
"That post seems to be nonsense, because you could buy a NTSC CD32 in various shops in the USA."
Reading the Wikipedia entry, it seems those were Canadian stock brought across the US border. That entry also bears out the XOR patent story, and searching around on the web seems to confirm multiple sources for it.
It's news to me too - only learned about it today. But it does seem to have validity. Agree with the rest of your post though - betting big time on the CD32 would have been...well....interesting as a strategy.
I use E-UAE, in combination with the licensed Kickstart/Workbench and key files from Amiga Forever and Hi Toro as a GUI (can't seem to link to Hi-Toro directly - just click the tab after following that link). Great for those days when it just has to be a game of Paradroid 90...
Cheers,
Ian
Software patents and the death of the Amiga
on
The Amiga Turns 25
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It describes how Commodore lost a software patent fight over, believe it or not, blinking a cursor using XOR. They owed $10m as a result, and were also prohibited from bringing CD32 into the US. Since Commodore had bet large on the CD32, this was a fatal blow.
Read it, it's interesting. I didn't realise this and've read more about Commodore than many. If you're interested in the history of Commodore, and it is interesting, try "On The Edge", which describes it very well. The book is sold out in many places but I imagine it will be possible to locate copies.
Similar vein, and I always wanted one of these: SIDstation, but sadly they're no longer made anymore.
For those using softsynths, have a look at QuadraSID too (demo MP3 on the right-hand side of that page), particular with the Rob Hubbard expansion packs. I use that a fair amount in what I write. If anyone else knows of some interesting softsynths along the same lines, I'd be interested to hear.
Interesting. So if I understand correctly, you throw out everything you own after 10 years even if it's still in working condition because not doing so would be unfair to the industry (after all, you had your money's worth)?
No - clearly not. But computers are of their time - a ten year-old machine that's still doing good work today represents excellent, and I do mean excellent value. Same for a peripheral. I'm typing now on an...erm...I think 4 year-old MacBook Pro - it's the newest machine I've got and I have absolutely no plans for an upgrade yet. I actually do have a ten year-old PC doing good work, acting as a MAME box. I have older retro kit too but I'm discounting these as they're not part of my 'normal' computing set-up.
That's about the only way I can make sense of your comment. Sure, replace what's broken, and upgrade what doesn't perform adequately anymore, but if something is working and still performing well, why replace it?
Never said you should. Said quite the opposite in fact - said that if you're still using a ten year-old card today, you've had excellent value. Thing is though, I doubt you are and I'll bet there are good, sane reasons for this.
For example, I've got a microwave that's about 25 years old now. Nothing fancy about it, but it's built like a tank, and it's working. I could get a new one, but why? It still heats food like it's supposed to. I'll buy a new one (and a fancy new one for that matter) the very day it breaks, but before that, why should I throw it out just because I've "had my money's worth"?
Nonsensical. The demands on your microwave haven't changed - it needed to cook food then, it needs to cook pretty much the same food now. The demands on a computer certainly have changed though, particularly those on a high-end graphics card. High end of ten years back could be breezed through by anything on sale today, high end of today will be breezed through by anything on sale in 2020. It's not a static environment.
Incidentally, you might want to look at your 25 year old microwave. Bet you you'd save by buying a new one that's more power efficient.
This [techbuket.net] was over the top, totally bonkers, hilariously exaggerated just 10 years ago.
"Just"? Just ten years ago? The only thing I've got left from 10 years ago is the mouse. If you're still using it ten years later, I rather think you've had your money's worth.
I'm guessing the issue at hand is about having an alternative to calendering for those now on exchange servers, but not sure.
For me this is great. My usage: to have a family calendar which my wife and I can update and have appear on each other's devices in a reasonable amount of time. My wife is fairly heavily involved in local community things, and often has meetings in the evenings I need to know about (so I can be home to look after the kids). Meanwhile, I often have late occuring work things that mean I have to block out evenings at relatively short notice. A text is always sent, but a mark in the calendar is always best.
Sounds like a very formal and structured way to have a family life, but it really isn't. It's just a glorified 'notes pinned to the fridge' approach, only it works without either of us having to actually be near a fridge...
To achieve this, I've been running my own CalDAV server on a co-lo box. iCal, and the iPhone, handles it extremely well but setting it up and handling users/groups etc. was a fair amount of annoyance and required a few tricks (remounting the partition just to run a calendar server? Hmm), plus the UI and config files are very resource rather than user centric. A smooth way of doing that would be very welcome.
I like this idea in principle, but concerned about the details. The article says it's "formalising an existing code of practice" so perhaps Australians here can let us know how it currently works?
I'm thinking mostly about false positives - I've had a Mac identified as running some Windows virus, at the time I presumed due to NAT somewhere at the ISP level. Getting that sorted out was a matter of waiting half an hour or so, but I can imagine that becoming a more serious issue if this is 'by law'.
The other thing worrying would be forced steps to remove things. I could go with an "ensure you're clean rule", but would be against a "ensure you're running this particular security measure" rule.
The only chance of beating my desktop a mobile device would have is when it's equally priced, transportable, but can be quickly and easily "docked" in so I can use my real screens, keyboard, mouse and speakers. I'm talking about a single override cable into a dock station here, not manually plugging and unplugging each one every time.
But these things have existed for years and years. The corporate world is full of 'em - docking stations abound to do precisely the job you're talking about.
I'm currently sitting here with my last-gen (ie. non-unibody) MacBook Pro plugged into an external monitor, external keyboard, external speakers and an external mouse. It's one of the more clumsy of the laptops for doing this with, as no (sanely priced) docking station exists. Even so, it took me all of five seconds to do that - one USB cable, one monitor cable, one speaker cable. The PC world is better at this - shove it in your docking station and forget it exists.
The only desktops I have in my house are specialised things - a Mac Mini for a media centre, an ancient PC sat inside an arcade machine to act as a MAME box. For straight-forward computing, I don't actually use desktops at all at home. Work is a different matter, but again I'm unusual in my computing needs at work and many many people could do fine, better even, with a laptop and a dock.
I wasn't aware someone was forcing me to move the cursor up to the address bar and deliberately click the 'READER' button. I rather thought it was me choosing to do that, mostly to get rid of the junk that appears on these multipage articles.
I'm using the feature heavily. Totally by choice, not by force.
For those who don't know, these are 16-18 year olds typically and they would normally be using these exams as a stepping stone to University. They wouldn't be computer science specialists at this point.
At this level, I agree with the decision. You're looking for aptitude and interest at this stage, not machine specifics. Pascal is a good language for expressing and solving problems and was enough to get my attention when I was doing A Levels twenty years back - in Turbo Pascal.
Surf'N'Safari. Your classic fun for all the family - artwork passes the wife'n'children test (in fact my wife was co-conspiritor in getting the game rather than someone I had to convince), game is fun and hard to do well on without being absolutely killer difficulty. All this and James Earl Jones starring as a shades-wearing alligator and telling me the Whirlpool Millions Are Lit in as cheesy an accent as you can imagine. Who can resist?
Am occasionally on rgp, though that's got to be the highest volume usenet group left on the whole of usenet I would have thought. Had fantastic help from the group - had a problem with the auxiliary sound board, one guy just posted his phone number up there to help me through it.
Games don't need to be dumber, the average age of a gamer is over 25, we aren't morons so stop treating us like them.
To me, this is both the conceit and the problem. "I'm older, so I want something more complex". Well, my current favourite game is the pinball machine I've bought, and I'm 38. Games that I play the most are short pick up'n'play things, not long complex involved ones.
I'm not suggesting games should become less complex, rather that there should be less complex games available. The two of us sound like we're in different markets and that's fine - your choice isn't wrong, neither is mine. However the idea that because you're older you need something more complex and involved - that's an idea I question. It's purely a matter of choice, not age. As a teen I played the excellent Dungeon Master and mapped things out on paper. My current incarnation wouldn't begin to have the time to do that and wouldn't particularly enjoy doing so either - it's not a function of age, it's a function of time and whatever you happen to be enjoying at the time.
Glad to be wrong on that front, though if there's also selective recording / replay of the audience reaction, then I consider myself at least partly right;)
One thing that surprised me was the difference between takes. There'd be different styles, sometimes different dialogue (a lot is improvised, at one point Chris O'Dowd was clearly just making it up on the spot and reducing the writer to fits of laughter let alone us in the audience) - the point of the scene stays the same but there's much more variation than I was expecting to see.
Perhaps, if they do cut'n'paste laughter from take to take, that's why it sometimes seems out of place? There were a couple of takes I can think of that were for a purely technical reason (shadow was falling in the wrong place) and they repeated that three or four times. Perhaps if they use laughter from take one where it's fresh to us, but then use video from take four where it's technically right then that's why it sometimes sounds out of place. I've no definite knowledge they're doing this, but it would seem to make sense.
b) As I just wrote in another comment, laugh tracks are obnoxious, but eh, I overlook them generally. When I was small, I thought that they were all recorded from the "live studio audience," but that's just what they *want* you to think.
See above. The laughing is real, is recorded in the studio and well...I was alive the last time I checked.
Slashdot Mirror
"If one has a very high standard of living,one sometimes has to do a very low standard of movie" - Michael Caine, but I think relevant there as well. Shatner, like Caine, describes himself as a working actor not a precious artist.
Cheers,
Ian
Wasn't Pinball Fantasies but its predecessor, Pinball Dreams that got me into pinball. That and a table at university - Fire! by Williams. Just about a couple of decades then go by without me playing, and then Pinball Dreams comes out on the iPhone. I liked playing so much that I bought a real table, Gottlieb's Surf'n'Safari, for the home.
It's a massive hit - my wife likes it, my kids like it, I like it...it's great. Pinball Dreams is where it started for me though - the Nightmare table is massively playable and the music great.
Cheers,
Ian
"Then click on the gameplay images bottom-left."
That would be bottom-right of course. I knew that. Honest.
Cheers,
Ian
Anyone remember the 8-bit game 'Game Over'? Now that was misleading, even though they mimicked the box 'art' in the title screen. Gained notoriety for being the first box art needing to be withdrawn and redone (well, in the UK at least - not sure about anywhere else).
Here's the game in question. Look at it, then click the title image. Yep, that's what you think it is. Then click on the gameplay images bottom-left. Err....hmm.
Cheers,
Ian
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Deathtrap Dungeon are out in the iPhone now. I believe Citadel of Chaos is too, not entirely sure.
I have the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the second Creature of Havoc comes out I'll be buying that one too.
Cheers,
Ian
No, and I noticed a number of replies thought that was what I meant. I'm not saying all films should be geared to the under tens, I'm saying that audiences growing up now will expect 3D as a given: it's the new baseline.
In the same way that there's not many black and white silents being made today, so I'm expecting in the future that not too many 2D films will be made, audiences will have grown up with 3D and will expect it as a base.
Cheers, Ian
A lot of stars never made the transition from silent to talkies either.
Face it: a new era is here and the kids love it. -I- love it. My kids, all under ten, all expect to see 3D when they go to the cinema now. I'm rather older than that, and I like seeing 3D too. It's just the new given, not a novelty any more.
I don't turn my nose up at 2D, abut then I don't turn my nose up at black and White or silent either. There are. thkse that would, and as time goes on I expect there will be those that feel the same about 2D bs 3D, at least at the cinema. Cheers, Ian
The cutsie word 'jailbreak' seems to be catching on, but if this were any other os I think the phrase 'gaping remote code execution security hole' might be more appropriate.
I use an iPhone and I thank people who do these exploits for bringing them to attention. If the means of jailbreak is "connect via USB then faff" I can live with it. If it's "go to this website and get an instant remote execution exploit from people you don't know" then I become rather more concerned.
It's an exploit, same as any other. It should be patched as fast as possible and such an action wouldn't be evil, it would be the correct response to a remote execution hole.
Cheers,
Ian
Later reborn as Virus on the 16bit machines, Zarch on the Acorn Archimedes was a fantastic demo of what the hardware could do. And, for its time, the 32bit RISC-based Arch could do a lot.
Cheers,
Ian
"That post seems to be nonsense, because you could buy a NTSC CD32 in various shops in the USA."
Reading the Wikipedia entry, it seems those were Canadian stock brought across the US border. That entry also bears out the XOR patent story, and searching around on the web seems to confirm multiple sources for it.
It's news to me too - only learned about it today. But it does seem to have validity. Agree with the rest of your post though - betting big time on the CD32 would have been...well....interesting as a strategy.
Cheers,
Ian
I use E-UAE, in combination with the licensed Kickstart/Workbench and key files from Amiga Forever and Hi Toro as a GUI (can't seem to link to Hi-Toro directly - just click the tab after following that link). Great for those days when it just has to be a game of Paradroid 90...
Cheers,
Ian
Digg are currently running this story, and there's a post on there leading to this:
Software Patent ended CD32 and Commodore Amiga
It describes how Commodore lost a software patent fight over, believe it or not, blinking a cursor using XOR. They owed $10m as a result, and were also prohibited from bringing CD32 into the US. Since Commodore had bet large on the CD32, this was a fatal blow.
Read it, it's interesting. I didn't realise this and've read more about Commodore than many. If you're interested in the history of Commodore, and it is interesting, try "On The Edge", which describes it very well. The book is sold out in many places but I imagine it will be possible to locate copies.
Cheers,
Ian
Similar vein, and I always wanted one of these: SIDstation, but sadly they're no longer made anymore.
For those using softsynths, have a look at QuadraSID too (demo MP3 on the right-hand side of that page), particular with the Rob Hubbard expansion packs. I use that a fair amount in what I write. If anyone else knows of some interesting softsynths along the same lines, I'd be interested to hear.
Cheers,
In
Interesting. So if I understand correctly, you throw out everything you own after 10 years even if it's still in working condition because not doing so would be unfair to the industry (after all, you had your money's worth)?
No - clearly not. But computers are of their time - a ten year-old machine that's still doing good work today represents excellent, and I do mean excellent value. Same for a peripheral. I'm typing now on an...erm...I think 4 year-old MacBook Pro - it's the newest machine I've got and I have absolutely no plans for an upgrade yet. I actually do have a ten year-old PC doing good work, acting as a MAME box. I have older retro kit too but I'm discounting these as they're not part of my 'normal' computing set-up.
That's about the only way I can make sense of your comment. Sure, replace what's broken, and upgrade what doesn't perform adequately anymore, but if something is working and still performing well, why replace it?
Never said you should. Said quite the opposite in fact - said that if you're still using a ten year-old card today, you've had excellent value. Thing is though, I doubt you are and I'll bet there are good, sane reasons for this.
For example, I've got a microwave that's about 25 years old now. Nothing fancy about it, but it's built like a tank, and it's working. I could get a new one, but why? It still heats food like it's supposed to. I'll buy a new one (and a fancy new one for that matter) the very day it breaks, but before that, why should I throw it out just because I've "had my money's worth"?
Nonsensical. The demands on your microwave haven't changed - it needed to cook food then, it needs to cook pretty much the same food now. The demands on a computer certainly have changed though, particularly those on a high-end graphics card. High end of ten years back could be breezed through by anything on sale today, high end of today will be breezed through by anything on sale in 2020. It's not a static environment.
Incidentally, you might want to look at your 25 year old microwave. Bet you you'd save by buying a new one that's more power efficient.
Cheers,
Ian
This [techbuket.net] was over the top, totally bonkers, hilariously exaggerated just 10 years ago.
"Just"? Just ten years ago? The only thing I've got left from 10 years ago is the mouse. If you're still using it ten years later, I rather think you've had your money's worth.
Cheers,
Ian
I'm guessing the issue at hand is about having an alternative to calendering for those now on exchange servers, but not sure.
For me this is great. My usage: to have a family calendar which my wife and I can update and have appear on each other's devices in a reasonable amount of time. My wife is fairly heavily involved in local community things, and often has meetings in the evenings I need to know about (so I can be home to look after the kids). Meanwhile, I often have late occuring work things that mean I have to block out evenings at relatively short notice. A text is always sent, but a mark in the calendar is always best.
Sounds like a very formal and structured way to have a family life, but it really isn't. It's just a glorified 'notes pinned to the fridge' approach, only it works without either of us having to actually be near a fridge...
To achieve this, I've been running my own CalDAV server on a co-lo box. iCal, and the iPhone, handles it extremely well but setting it up and handling users/groups etc. was a fair amount of annoyance and required a few tricks (remounting the partition just to run a calendar server? Hmm), plus the UI and config files are very resource rather than user centric. A smooth way of doing that would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Ian
I like this idea in principle, but concerned about the details. The article says it's "formalising an existing code of practice" so perhaps Australians here can let us know how it currently works?
I'm thinking mostly about false positives - I've had a Mac identified as running some Windows virus, at the time I presumed due to NAT somewhere at the ISP level. Getting that sorted out was a matter of waiting half an hour or so, but I can imagine that becoming a more serious issue if this is 'by law'.
The other thing worrying would be forced steps to remove things. I could go with an "ensure you're clean rule", but would be against a "ensure you're running this particular security measure" rule.
Cheers,
Ian
Heh. Pics, including the pinball table next to it: Home arcade gallery.
Cheers,
Ian
The only chance of beating my desktop a mobile device would have is when it's equally priced, transportable, but can be quickly and easily "docked" in so I can use my real screens, keyboard, mouse and speakers. I'm talking about a single override cable into a dock station here, not manually plugging and unplugging each one every time.
But these things have existed for years and years. The corporate world is full of 'em - docking stations abound to do precisely the job you're talking about.
I'm currently sitting here with my last-gen (ie. non-unibody) MacBook Pro plugged into an external monitor, external keyboard, external speakers and an external mouse. It's one of the more clumsy of the laptops for doing this with, as no (sanely priced) docking station exists. Even so, it took me all of five seconds to do that - one USB cable, one monitor cable, one speaker cable. The PC world is better at this - shove it in your docking station and forget it exists.
The only desktops I have in my house are specialised things - a Mac Mini for a media centre, an ancient PC sat inside an arcade machine to act as a MAME box. For straight-forward computing, I don't actually use desktops at all at home. Work is a different matter, but again I'm unusual in my computing needs at work and many many people could do fine, better even, with a laptop and a dock.
Cheers,
Ian
I wasn't aware someone was forcing me to move the cursor up to the address bar and deliberately click the 'READER' button. I rather thought it was me choosing to do that, mostly to get rid of the junk that appears on these multipage articles.
I'm using the feature heavily. Totally by choice, not by force.
Cheers,
Ian
For those who don't know, these are 16-18 year olds typically and they would normally be using these exams as a stepping stone to University. They wouldn't be computer science specialists at this point.
At this level, I agree with the decision. You're looking for aptitude and interest at this stage, not machine specifics. Pascal is a good language for expressing and solving problems and was enough to get my attention when I was doing A Levels twenty years back - in Turbo Pascal.
Cheers,
Ian
Which game did you get, and are you on RGP?
Surf'N'Safari. Your classic fun for all the family - artwork passes the wife'n'children test (in fact my wife was co-conspiritor in getting the game rather than someone I had to convince), game is fun and hard to do well on without being absolutely killer difficulty. All this and James Earl Jones starring as a shades-wearing alligator and telling me the Whirlpool Millions Are Lit in as cheesy an accent as you can imagine. Who can resist?
Am occasionally on rgp, though that's got to be the highest volume usenet group left on the whole of usenet I would have thought. Had fantastic help from the group - had a problem with the auxiliary sound board, one guy just posted his phone number up there to help me through it.
Cheers,
Ian
Games don't need to be dumber, the average age of a gamer is over 25, we aren't morons so stop treating us like them.
To me, this is both the conceit and the problem. "I'm older, so I want something more complex". Well, my current favourite game is the pinball machine I've bought, and I'm 38. Games that I play the most are short pick up'n'play things, not long complex involved ones.
I'm not suggesting games should become less complex, rather that there should be less complex games available. The two of us sound like we're in different markets and that's fine - your choice isn't wrong, neither is mine. However the idea that because you're older you need something more complex and involved - that's an idea I question. It's purely a matter of choice, not age. As a teen I played the excellent Dungeon Master and mapped things out on paper. My current incarnation wouldn't begin to have the time to do that and wouldn't particularly enjoy doing so either - it's not a function of age, it's a function of time and whatever you happen to be enjoying at the time.
Cheers,
Ian
Glad to be wrong on that front, though if there's also selective recording / replay of the audience reaction, then I consider myself at least partly right ;)
One thing that surprised me was the difference between takes. There'd be different styles, sometimes different dialogue (a lot is improvised, at one point Chris O'Dowd was clearly just making it up on the spot and reducing the writer to fits of laughter let alone us in the audience) - the point of the scene stays the same but there's much more variation than I was expecting to see.
Perhaps, if they do cut'n'paste laughter from take to take, that's why it sometimes seems out of place? There were a couple of takes I can think of that were for a purely technical reason (shadow was falling in the wrong place) and they repeated that three or four times. Perhaps if they use laughter from take one where it's fresh to us, but then use video from take four where it's technically right then that's why it sometimes sounds out of place. I've no definite knowledge they're doing this, but it would seem to make sense.
Cheers,
Ian
b) As I just wrote in another comment, laugh tracks are obnoxious, but eh, I overlook them generally. When I was small, I thought that they were all recorded from the "live studio audience," but that's just what they *want* you to think.
See above. The laughing is real, is recorded in the studio and well...I was alive the last time I checked.
Cheers,
Ian