If they can't re-establish communication this week, NASA may try to diagnose the problem by taking pictures of MGS with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
It's clear what's going on... terrorists have taken over and are trying to steal it. What they'll actually do is send in an ex-black-ops operative called out of retirement, because he's dealt with this kind of thing before, and because his genetic twin is the mastermind. This should be obvious. It's what always happens when dealing with a... Metal Gear. But this time we're not on Solid ground. We're in Space.
I cannot convince my parents to follow proper PC security procedures. I'm not talking about enterprise-level things such as card swipes and fingerprint scanners, just simple measures like logging off of the PC when it's not in use.
What? Seriously? Get real. The only "security" that you should be worried about here is whether they have a solid non-Windows firewall box in front of the network. "Logging off"? Don't be silly: they don't have anything on there that's actually that confidential. What purpose does logging off serve? If you want quick access locking, set up a screensaver and password; it's automatic and it accomplishes the same thing.
The real security problem is they're probably using Windows. Any measures on top of this are laughable to begin with. If you really want to solve something, start by changing that. (While I'm not really an Apple fan, OSX is a definite viable alternative that lacks basic security issues like "open a mail message or document and infect your machine".)
Do these things and you'll actually help them, not "feel-good" measures for appearance.
I'm not sure about this. In the photo library application demo, he brought up a keyboard with his hands, typed out a label for a photo, and put it away, in fewer than 10 seconds.
Right, but again, this was a demo application that was designed to look neat and take advantage of the multitouch screen... not be useful. How much time a day do you spend rearranging your photos on a lightboard? While it looked cool, it didn't do much. You couldn't sort, there was no categorization, no album interface, no way to post them, no real photo manipulation, or basically anything that would be useful for anything beyond browsing pr0n. (Any bets on whether this was their very first app?)
It seems pretty widely adaptable and convenient, especially if we can make the transition from physical keyboard and mouse to "virtual" keyboard and our hands, respsectively.
What I'm saying is that while this is neat for quick applications that don't require much text, it would be painful for multi-hour coding or authoring. And this is what most people do. For this kind of use, there is one absolute requirement: you don't need to look at it. And if you're not looking at it, you don't need an LCD powering it. (Any sort of predictive or dynamic keyboard violates this rule and makes typing require too much thought.)
The mouse was supposed to be away of extending our native manual precision and dexterity into our computer programs - now that this screen is here, the mouse is pretty mcuh obsolete, and we can bridge the hand-computer gap in a seemingly more natural, more direct way.
Yes, touchscreen interfaces are very neat. But they're not the answer to the world's problems. They won't magically make you be able to produce art where the mouse or tablet or whatever was getting in the way before. It may streamline things a bit, but it doesn't remove the need for skill.
Not only that, but the virtual keyboard frees us from the physical constraints and space requirements imposed by having an actual physical keyboard.
Again, only in very limited situations. Plus, onscreen keyboard means losing screen space, which is arguably far more valuable than desk space.
Really, "interface" was not the right word at all. The touchscreen and gestures are the interface. The word he was looking for was "widgets" or specifically "scrollbars".
Additionally while it was neat, it's not suited for everything. It would work great for playing with Xgl or graphical things, but it's not going to help much when writing code, papers, spreadsheets, and generally all the things most people do most of the day.
As for RSI, he doesn't seem to be much of an ergonomics expert... typing on a flat surface with no tactile feedback is not great. Perhaps they can augment the display with other technologies to help this.
All in all, it's really cool to watch the demos, but it's unlikely to change the world like he wants everyone to believe. And it's rather arrogant to dismiss the OLPC simply because it's "conventional". The alternative at this point is children having nothing.
Er wouldn't they indicate that it's evolving quickly because they're happily breaking compatibility in the name of development? I think these are two entirely different sets of circumstance.
Sure enough Firefox 2.0 does *NOT* handle memory allocation failures.
[...]
Upon restarting the same session one will find that Firefox only needs 900MB. That is a memory leak and/or heap fragmentation problem.
First off, almost nothing gracefully handles memory allocation failure. Particularly anything in C/C++. You need memory to complete an operation, and if you don't get it, you're screwed. There's no way to reliably unwind the stack and reverse the state of the program to continue without performing that operation.
Second, I believe you are suggesting they implement a defragmenting memory manager. If you'd care write one, particularly one that drops in place of their current one, I'm sure they'd be happy to accept. Good luck.
The real complaint here is "Firefox uses a lot of memory". That may be so, but then it has a pretty high compatibility for rendering all the silly XML and Javascript and crap the web requires these days. If you want a slim (but not so compatible) browser, you should check out dillo or something.
I am without question getting a Wii (eventually anyway... I'm not planning on getting any console at launch) just for Zelda, but it's a big disappointment that it won't at least be Zelda at 720p. The screenshots look at best marginally better than the Cube version, and worse even than some PS2 games (compare to Shadow of the Colossus and other recent games). I don't think the Wii will age very well. (And low-resolution 3D is far worse than low-resolution 2D.)
2000
Sega: "The Dreamcast is going to be the most advanced gaming machine of our time! At only $149, it will be a value! On top of that, we're releasing it a year ahead of Sony's offerings!"
Sony: "$299"
2006
Microsoft: "The XBOX360 is going to be the most advanced gaming machine of our time (it's just as fast as the PS3)! At only $399 (+$50/year for live, +$199 if you want HD-DVD) it will be a value! On top of that, we're releasing it a year ahead of Sony's offerings!"
Sony: "$499 (+$100 if you want more HDD and wifi)"
I love how in the transition between actual quote and article/topic it went from "game segment" (referring to Sony's game division, using "segment" because we're talking about financials) to "game sector" and the explicit claim they're referring to the entire "games industry". That's some great journalism. By which I mean some really poor elementary-school reading comprehension skills.
If you don't believe this, you should: it already happened. Go check up on the 2004 Washington State election (yeah it's a Wikipedia reference... go follow all the links or do your own research if you don't like it). Democrats win despite the Republicans thinking they would: lots of recounting, ridiculously tiny margin of victory, lots of arguing, etc. Same as the national election, just the parties were swapped.
OK so surely I'm not the only one who saw "RFID In Government Issued IDs?" then had my eyes skip to "poured cold water on using RFID in government-mandated identity cards and documents" and figured they discovered covert RFID tags in paper IDs by getting them wet?
Gaming is the only reason to go with Vista anymore.
Being neither a Windows user nor a PC gamer, I'm wondering if you mean "Windows" where you said "Vista," or if there is a real reason for switching to Vista for gaming. Does it do something XP doesn't...? (This isn't a rhetorical question.)
None of the excellent games on the playstation and ps2 were made by Sony.
Wrong. Just out of games I own (minus ones in parentheses, which are not out yet):
Ape Escape 1, 2, 3
God of War 1 (, 2)
Gran Turismo 1, 2, 3, 4
ICO
Jak and Daxter 1, 2, 3
Kinetica [Hey, this was one of the first ps2 racers and it was pretty neat]
Ratchet and Clank 1, 2, 3
Shadow of the Colossus
Sly Cooper 1, 2, 3
Syphon Filter 1 (, Omega Strain)
Twisted Metal Black
Wipeout Fusion
Additionally, Sony has fostered the relationships and provided the expertise to make their platform attractive to developers. They listen and respond. The PS1 was all SDK, and devs wanted to code the metal, thus they got the PS2. Yeah, it was harder, but they asked for it, and got it. The PS2 was hard to start, so they've got a huge library of code and APIs for the PS3. Their developer-friendliness was the reason that they attracted development houses from Nintendo in the first place. Being developer-friendly results in third-party games, which are what really sell the platform. This has been a hard lesson for Nintendo that's been a long time in coming. They seem to have learned it to an extent with the Wii, but we'll see how it works out.
But the point is that Sony deserves credit for attracting third-party games; hype doesn't sell a console to the people who are doing the coding. And "public relations disaster" is mostly in the minds of forum dwellers who will spin anything to rationalize the fact their parents might not buy them a PS3.
Are you guys really falling all over yourselves for this company? Haven't they screwed you enough? (And by you, I mean the Customer)
On the contrary. SCE has delivered two solid platforms already, each with thousands of games, hundreds of those being of excellent quality. Too many to play, too many to choose from. This isn't what I call "screwing over".
Does Sony/BMG do stupid stuff? Yes. Does Sony Pictures do stupid stuff? They're MPAA---yes. Does Sony Computer Entertainment do stupid stuff? Probably, but less so. What they have done is deliver a solid platform with a solid library. Have they secretly funded organizations to undermine the Linux community? No. So, yes, I'm "voting" with my dollar; I may "vote no" to Sony/BMG, I may "vote no" to Sony Pictures, but I will "vote yes" to SCE. May they set an example for the rest of the company.
Now the problem isn't that the cell power can be optimized, it's just that there's NO TOOLS TO DO SO AT THIS TIME. That's right, it's up to DEVELOPERS to optimize their own code, and I'm going to be honest, the learning curve and time that's going to be spent doing so is just not going to help this system.
This is entirely inaccurate. They were demonstrating tools at GDC for this, and various vendors have engines already available. Also recall that the PS2 really was bare metal on release; it remains the most difficult of the last generation, and yet it was the top seller with the most games. And the PS3 is said to be very familiar to those who worked on the PS2, so...
There's LOADS of other problems, too. Lack of units. High unit cost.
Are you talking about HDMI? They're under $10. Which cables did you mean?
The fragility of the Blue Ray CRC (it's so dense that one tiny scratch can destroy an entire disc because it stops the error correction from even being able to do its job).
Well, since the Blu-Ray DURABIS2 can withstand steel wool, you'd really have to be mistreating that disc.
And the lack of any real online system to be demonstrated.
And XBOX Live! was going to kill the PS2.
The Xbox is in a realm of its own. It focuses on games that are not innovative, but instead improves ever so slightly on older paradigms. In this, those "hardcore" gamers who enjoy playing the best shooters on a *controller* will enjoy the XBox (yes, I know they're coming out with new controls).
The 360 is in the realm of FPS's and sports games, just like the original XBOX. Contrary to popular opinion, frat boys who play Halo are not hardcore gamers. They're casual gamers. Hardcore gamers are the ones that play all the games, especially the obscure and oldschool ones. They import the original before it comes out locally. They might have an XBOX, but only because they're completionists, not because having an XBOX makes them hardcore.
This is not because I was raised on Nintendo. It's not because I owned the Mario/Zelda Cerial, subscribed to Nintendo power throughout the 90's, got up early as a kid to watch Captain N and the Super Mario World TV shows, owned mario comic books, and even paid to see that crappy Mario Bros. Movie. I had all but abandoned that company after my two fav gaming companies, Squaresoft and Capcom, left Nintendo. I'm supporting Nintendo because after ALLLLLL these years of CRAP... I'm amazed to find a company that puts out a QUALITY PRODUCT, who gets THIRD PARTY SUPPORT for this product, who INNOVATES the market using this product, who will successfully INTEGRATE other products into this product, and who has made this ANGRY YOUNG MALE feel like a DOE EYED BOY again.
That is, you're a closet fanboy who has been waiting all these years to come out. Yeah, I grew up with Nintendo too, and read the magazines, saw the shows and movies, and didn't think much of anything else (Sega what? Sony who?). That said, "QUALITY PRODUCT" is premature, "THIRD PARTY SUPPORT" is hopeful, and "INNOVATIVE" is hype. Do you love your Wii? Is it bad?
Not to mention spring is a terrible time to launch a gaming console. It's a big expense... and most people spend their biggest at Christmas, not during the spring (when wallets are likely still hurting from last Christmas). The other PS consoles have all had end-of-year launch dates.
Slashdot Mirror
It's clear what's going on... terrorists have taken over and are trying to steal it. What they'll actually do is send in an ex-black-ops operative called out of retirement, because he's dealt with this kind of thing before, and because his genetic twin is the mastermind. This should be obvious. It's what always happens when dealing with a... Metal Gear. But this time we're not on Solid ground. We're in Space.
And we've got Snakes in Space.
What? Seriously? Get real. The only "security" that you should be worried about here is whether they have a solid non-Windows firewall box in front of the network. "Logging off"? Don't be silly: they don't have anything on there that's actually that confidential. What purpose does logging off serve? If you want quick access locking, set up a screensaver and password; it's automatic and it accomplishes the same thing.
The real security problem is they're probably using Windows. Any measures on top of this are laughable to begin with. If you really want to solve something, start by changing that. (While I'm not really an Apple fan, OSX is a definite viable alternative that lacks basic security issues like "open a mail message or document and infect your machine".)
Do these things and you'll actually help them, not "feel-good" measures for appearance.
Really?
A few things:
Right, but again, this was a demo application that was designed to look neat and take advantage of the multitouch screen... not be useful. How much time a day do you spend rearranging your photos on a lightboard? While it looked cool, it didn't do much. You couldn't sort, there was no categorization, no album interface, no way to post them, no real photo manipulation, or basically anything that would be useful for anything beyond browsing pr0n. (Any bets on whether this was their very first app?)
What I'm saying is that while this is neat for quick applications that don't require much text, it would be painful for multi-hour coding or authoring. And this is what most people do. For this kind of use, there is one absolute requirement: you don't need to look at it. And if you're not looking at it, you don't need an LCD powering it. (Any sort of predictive or dynamic keyboard violates this rule and makes typing require too much thought.)
Yes, touchscreen interfaces are very neat. But they're not the answer to the world's problems. They won't magically make you be able to produce art where the mouse or tablet or whatever was getting in the way before. It may streamline things a bit, but it doesn't remove the need for skill.
Again, only in very limited situations. Plus, onscreen keyboard means losing screen space, which is arguably far more valuable than desk space.
Really, "interface" was not the right word at all. The touchscreen and gestures are the interface. The word he was looking for was "widgets" or specifically "scrollbars".
Additionally while it was neat, it's not suited for everything. It would work great for playing with Xgl or graphical things, but it's not going to help much when writing code, papers, spreadsheets, and generally all the things most people do most of the day.
As for RSI, he doesn't seem to be much of an ergonomics expert... typing on a flat surface with no tactile feedback is not great. Perhaps they can augment the display with other technologies to help this.
All in all, it's really cool to watch the demos, but it's unlikely to change the world like he wants everyone to believe. And it's rather arrogant to dismiss the OLPC simply because it's "conventional". The alternative at this point is children having nothing.
Er wouldn't they indicate that it's evolving quickly because they're happily breaking compatibility in the name of development? I think these are two entirely different sets of circumstance.
First off, almost nothing gracefully handles memory allocation failure. Particularly anything in C/C++. You need memory to complete an operation, and if you don't get it, you're screwed. There's no way to reliably unwind the stack and reverse the state of the program to continue without performing that operation.
Second, I believe you are suggesting they implement a defragmenting memory manager. If you'd care write one, particularly one that drops in place of their current one, I'm sure they'd be happy to accept. Good luck.
The real complaint here is "Firefox uses a lot of memory". That may be so, but then it has a pretty high compatibility for rendering all the silly XML and Javascript and crap the web requires these days. If you want a slim (but not so compatible) browser, you should check out dillo or something.
But I never evened mentioned the Wii.
That's because we're more interested in things like improving society through technology, science, and other things. Not by controlling people.
I think the problem is they don't have a grasp of common sense, either.
And "No one needs more than 480p!"
I am without question getting a Wii (eventually anyway... I'm not planning on getting any console at launch) just for Zelda, but it's a big disappointment that it won't at least be Zelda at 720p. The screenshots look at best marginally better than the Cube version, and worse even than some PS2 games (compare to Shadow of the Colossus and other recent games). I don't think the Wii will age very well. (And low-resolution 3D is far worse than low-resolution 2D.)
2000
Sega: "The Dreamcast is going to be the most advanced gaming machine of our time! At only $149, it will be a value! On top of that, we're releasing it a year ahead of Sony's offerings!"
Sony: "$299"
2006
Microsoft: "The XBOX360 is going to be the most advanced gaming machine of our time (it's just as fast as the PS3)! At only $399 (+$50/year for live, +$199 if you want HD-DVD) it will be a value! On top of that, we're releasing it a year ahead of Sony's offerings!"
Sony: "$499 (+$100 if you want more HDD and wifi)"
I love how in the transition between actual quote and article/topic it went from "game segment" (referring to Sony's game division, using "segment" because we're talking about financials) to "game sector" and the explicit claim they're referring to the entire "games industry". That's some great journalism. By which I mean some really poor elementary-school reading comprehension skills.
If you don't believe this, you should: it already happened. Go check up on the 2004 Washington State election (yeah it's a Wikipedia reference... go follow all the links or do your own research if you don't like it). Democrats win despite the Republicans thinking they would: lots of recounting, ridiculously tiny margin of victory, lots of arguing, etc. Same as the national election, just the parties were swapped.
OK so surely I'm not the only one who saw "RFID In Government Issued IDs?" then had my eyes skip to "poured cold water on using RFID in government-mandated identity cards and documents" and figured they discovered covert RFID tags in paper IDs by getting them wet?
Perhaps; on the other hand, is it not the duty of an American to make sure his country remains free?
Being neither a Windows user nor a PC gamer, I'm wondering if you mean "Windows" where you said "Vista," or if there is a real reason for switching to Vista for gaming. Does it do something XP doesn't...? (This isn't a rhetorical question.)
Wrong. Just out of games I own (minus ones in parentheses, which are not out yet):
Additionally, Sony has fostered the relationships and provided the expertise to make their platform attractive to developers. They listen and respond. The PS1 was all SDK, and devs wanted to code the metal, thus they got the PS2. Yeah, it was harder, but they asked for it, and got it. The PS2 was hard to start, so they've got a huge library of code and APIs for the PS3. Their developer-friendliness was the reason that they attracted development houses from Nintendo in the first place. Being developer-friendly results in third-party games, which are what really sell the platform. This has been a hard lesson for Nintendo that's been a long time in coming. They seem to have learned it to an extent with the Wii, but we'll see how it works out.
But the point is that Sony deserves credit for attracting third-party games; hype doesn't sell a console to the people who are doing the coding. And "public relations disaster" is mostly in the minds of forum dwellers who will spin anything to rationalize the fact their parents might not buy them a PS3.
On the contrary. SCE has delivered two solid platforms already, each with thousands of games, hundreds of those being of excellent quality. Too many to play, too many to choose from. This isn't what I call "screwing over".
Does Sony/BMG do stupid stuff? Yes. Does Sony Pictures do stupid stuff? They're MPAA---yes. Does Sony Computer Entertainment do stupid stuff? Probably, but less so. What they have done is deliver a solid platform with a solid library. Have they secretly funded organizations to undermine the Linux community? No. So, yes, I'm "voting" with my dollar; I may "vote no" to Sony/BMG, I may "vote no" to Sony Pictures, but I will "vote yes" to SCE. May they set an example for the rest of the company.
This is entirely inaccurate. They were demonstrating tools at GDC for this, and various vendors have engines already available. Also recall that the PS2 really was bare metal on release; it remains the most difficult of the last generation, and yet it was the top seller with the most games. And the PS3 is said to be very familiar to those who worked on the PS2, so...
Yeah yeah, it's the PS2 all over again.
Are you talking about HDMI? They're under $10. Which cables did you mean?
Well, since the Blu-Ray DURABIS2 can withstand steel wool, you'd really have to be mistreating that disc.
And XBOX Live! was going to kill the PS2.
The 360 is in the realm of FPS's and sports games, just like the original XBOX. Contrary to popular opinion, frat boys who play Halo are not hardcore gamers. They're casual gamers. Hardcore gamers are the ones that play all the games, especially the obscure and oldschool ones. They import the original before it comes out locally. They might have an XBOX, but only because they're completionists, not because having an XBOX makes them hardcore.
That is, you're a closet fanboy who has been waiting all these years to come out. Yeah, I grew up with Nintendo too, and read the magazines, saw the shows and movies, and didn't think much of anything else (Sega what? Sony who?). That said, "QUALITY PRODUCT" is premature, "THIRD PARTY SUPPORT" is hopeful, and "INNOVATIVE" is hype. Do you love your Wii? Is it bad?
Actually, the virtual console launch list is only 26 games. 26 games I've played, too. This is ni
Not to mention spring is a terrible time to launch a gaming console. It's a big expense... and most people spend their biggest at Christmas, not during the spring (when wallets are likely still hurting from last Christmas). The other PS consoles have all had end-of-year launch dates.