What functions does each computer perform (surfing web, accessing custom library application, etc.) and what's the breakdown of those functions in percentages?
Assemble a list of all functions the computers are used for, determine how each function would benefit from running on newer hardware.
What new functions would the library like to incorporate utilizing newer computrs? Assemble a wish list, and then determine through a panel which of those functions are likely to be implemented in the next year if new computing resources are available.
With this information you should be able to determine which computers will benefit most from an upgrade. Other factors to consider are that it's more estheticly pleasing to have similar computers together (mild preference for grouping computers of the same type). Publicly usable computers that are upgraded can make a positive statement to library patrons (preference for visibility).
It should be pretty obvious that UO is not going to become a better game any time soon. If EA had any truly ambitious plans, they would have photoshopped some screenshots for us by now. The whole "work on UO" think is FUD, I just can't figure out how they've justified not firing people.
The sapping subscribers argument in this article is pretty dumb though. It should be clear by now that anyone who is playing Ultima Online is either not interested in 3D MMOs or has the cash to be willing to pay for multiple MMO accounts. You don't skip four major fantasy 3D-MMOs if you are a 3D-MMO player. UO-X was clearly in competition with EQ/DAOC/WOW/FF11 and had no relation to the play experience of UO-X.
It's clear that EA thought that UO-X would be a money loser. How do you lose money on an MMO? You spend $X on development, you spend $Y a year on your live team (since MMO dev is continual), and you make $Z in subscription fees over the first two years. If $Z $X + 2*$Y, you lose money. So, I'm guessing EA probably did some market projections. They decided, we can be ready to enter this market in about 3 years, and it will be so fragmented by then, and we're sufficiently unconfident in our ability to produce a competitive title, we'd better kill this thing.
I learned about this years again in grade 10 geography class. We canadians have 70% of the world's drinking water too. Bow down and worship us Americans!
As a gamer you pay a monthly subscription fee for a gaming service, the fee is something like $19.99 a month.
Any online game can choose to be covered under this service. If it is, you can play that game.
My $19.99 fee is then distributed proportionally to each of the game providers based on how much time I spent playing their game.
For example, in one month I might:
- Spend 10 hours playing MMO #1 ($10)
- Spend 5 hours playing MMO #2 ($5)
- Spend 5 hours playing team FPS game ($5)
My total allowed gameplay is unlimited, it's only the proportion of play that matters.
Unfortunately I don't think the publishers will ever agree to that, and unless the majority of fun online games was covered, it just wouldn't work.
The original laws as stated are interesting and mostly hold true today, the commentary is uninspired, poor, and mostly incorrect. I'm now going to give one example, but I could easily come up with 30 such examples from this article.
For example:
Law: someone is going to automate your gameplay
Reponse: only if you make your gameplay tedious!
That is simply not true. To prove this is not true, I just have to come up with one automation scenario not rooted in relief of tedium. Consider a theoretical RTS in which a player controls many units. Skill is required to issue commands to those units (there are many units, each unit's state has to be evaluted and the appropriate command selected, in real time). Now enter a tool that will give commands to units under conditions you identify, for example if you fall below 25% health, run to the back of the formation. Now we have an automation tool thats purpose is to increase effective skill, not relieve tedious gameplay.
All the reasons for automation I can think of off the top of my head are:
- Increase power (generate money, skill points, experience)
- Increase effective skill (previously discussed)
- Relieve tedium
- Break the system - in this case, a person automates the system just to prove he can
In general the article is strong on attacks, and weak on solutions. For example, there is lots of "get rid of the treadmill" commentary with 0 solutions posted explaining how this is done. Love the original laws, hate the commentary.
I know it's kind of silly, but if you're in a conversation with someone, and you're tethered by a headset cable, it limits you. If you need to go make a cup of tea or something, you need to inform everyone you're leaving, disconnect yourself, then go make the tea.
When you get back, you need to find out what you've missed. In multiplayer games, the state is always changing.
A huge deal? No, but it is limiting. It's nice to be able to just get up go do whatever, then come back and continue. It makes things much smoother.
Gaming with a headset is about having a remote continual shared gaming experience. It's like gaming with someone else in the same room, you communicate constantly, and for long periods of time. The basics of this kind of communication are chat (with chat logs, for when you need to AFK for a moment). A headset allows for a different kind of communication, and often quicker communication, and a wireless headset allows this to be uninterrupted communication. This is a good thing since unlike chats, there is no log you can quickly scroll up to review what you've missed.
Just mentioning that skype is a cpu hog. This matters because it means it's not great for playing recent video games.
A great alternative is teamspeak which lets groups of players talk. Another alternative (I haven't tried this one) is Ventrillo.
Skype is great if you just want to use your computer for wireless chit chat.
I might as well plug the Jabra BT250 bluetooth headset while I'm at it. Wireless headset with up to 8 hours of talk time. I use this plus teamspeak to give me the freedom to wander my house and not loose contact with my gaming buddies. It also works nicely with my powerbook and my cell phone.
Excellent recommendation, a great wiki for this purpose is TWiki. Makes for a great Web accessible todo list.
The interface may not be as fast as dedicated todo list software, but it has the benefits of being good for taking notes, colaborative document editing, file upload, definable users lists for reading and editing documents.
I want a backwards compatible gameboy advance with 4x the CPU/GPU power and a 640x480 screen. Same footprint.
I love my gameboy advance. Higher resolution and cpu power would let it do it's main job for me better - act as an emulator. And hey, the regular games would be better too:)
Really, these are all just nit picks. GBA games are great as they are. With the gameboy player I can play gba games on my TV, and it's surprising how good quality they are from a graphics and gameplay experience.
I'm just not seeing the need for a more advanced handheld system. The PSP is clunky. The DS is, unnecessary. I won't buy either of them.
I've just started [link]a company[/link] and I'd like some free exposure from a heavily trafficked Web site. What question should I asked on Ask Slashdot to generate this exposure?
Ultimately, "the various formats need to be compatible," Averdieck says. "This will take a while to get sorted out, but it will happen. Meanwhile, Windows Media Player has a head start over all the other formats in Europe. And in the UK, there are 8.9 million PCs with Windows Media Player 9."
this is regarded as the best guide (Jarod's). If you're setting up a new box, first time mythtv user, consider following this guide even if Fedora isn't your favorite system. You can always reinstall later.
Some points which pundits may not mention (I'm a MythTV user):
- Dedicated PVR systems are always cheaper than building your own from parts
- PVR systems based on old hardware will be slow. It doesn't matter if you throw a hardware encoder/decoder in your Duron 850, it will be slow. You want all the CPU and disk speed you can get. Trust me.
- Be prepared to spend 40+ hours over the next three months setting up, configuring, debugging your system. Less if you don't care about customizing and tweaking. More if you're less experienced, and want to compile from source, or don't have popular hardware.
- If you use your Linux box for other things, be aware the system resources mythtv demands may make it slow and chunky.
- Setting up a MythTV box requires installing lots of stuff. The mythtv software works with LIRC (remote control drivers), iVTV (tuner drivers), and a bunch of stuff I don't remember. This isn't an install one thing and you're done project.
I enjoy tweaking systems, but I wasn't aware of the amount of time I'd have to put into MythTV. This in no way detracts from the project - it's a great project. Just know you're getting into something that's fairly technical, and requires troubleshooting.
For the record, PVR 350 + Athlon 1800 + 512 megs/ram on my mythtv box. Debian.
This is a non story. Games makers are driven by market forces. If games makers are focussing on making X-box games to make more money, good for them. You don't like this? Sorry.
How much money do you pay for a good PC game? $40-60. How much does it cost to make one? A lot more. Why can you get it for $40-60, because lots of other people are buying it as well, so you benefit from your collective purchasing power.
The market will grow and shrink based on how much people are spending on games. If there are a tonne of people out there who want to buy PC games, people will make games for them to compete for their dollars. If many of those people switch to console, surprise, there will be less PC and more console games made.
I think it's best to go with the flow. Buy games you enjoy, If they're console games, buy a console. If they're PC buy a PC (someone earlier identified how having a console + linux box is a killer combo of great games without the need for dual boot or a windows layer).
If you want to really whine, try being a mac gamer;)
First, if your client doesn't appreciate what you are giving them, you are either giving them too much or not selling them on what you're giving them.
Giving them to much - there is no point in giving your client something they will not appreciate. If you can't get them to appreciate it, it's not worth your time to develop it.
Not selling them - If you are dead set on giving your client something they don't value, you have to convince them that they need what you are offering. This is an uphill battle, this can be a full time job.
They key is to find out what your client truly wants, and then build that for them. When a client doesn't know what they want, you're in big danger, those are the kind of clients who won't appreciate what you give them (they can't appreciate it if they don't know they want it) and who will come to you with new bizarre requirements late in the project (they feel they haven't asked for much up to this point).
I lost 15 pounds over about two months through a combination of DDR and reduced calorie intake. Here's my experience and tips.
* DDR is fun enough to play every day, but I don't think it's a good idea to do so. After playing every day for a month I started to get some kind of RDI (repetitive dance injury, I just made that up). Anyway, playing 3-4 times a work should be fine. On the other days - do some other kind of exercise! I also recently injured my toe playing DDR and I haven't been able to play for a month. * The real "work out" for DDR comes from workout mode. The advantages of work out mode are the game never ends, and you can't lose. This removes breaks in play. It also lets you input your weight and set a workout goal in calories (I usually did 450/day). Whether or not their calorie counter is accurate, it certainly is not random, and thus can be used to ensure a consistent workout experience. * I really think any exercise program, whether it's weight loss oriented or cardio oriented works better if you take a look at your diet and healthy it up.
Some more practical questions: * Buy the cheapest pad you can to start. Many people just use cheap pads the whole way. I sprung for a knock off ignition pad (foam interior). Ebay is a fine place to buy them. Cheap pad fine. Ebay fine. No need to buy "best pad". A cheap pad should last you about 3 months of regular play. * Many people mod their cheap pads to turn them into basically indestructable pads. I never bothered, DDR pads are cheap enough I just buy new ones. I'm on my second set of pads and I've been playing over a year. You'll need a Ps2 -> USB converter in general also, which can also be bought online. * If you have a ps2 spring for DDR Max 2 (the newest PS2 ddr). While the free DDR games may be just super, I'd suggest buying the latest konami DDR to compare with. DDR Max 2 will get you playing fast, with a quality interface and songs. If you also want to set up your PC and download songs (and be warned, my understanding is that the song selection online is focussed on hard songs), go for it, but that's a project you need to work on. Playing DDR is something you can do right now if you pick up the game and a pad.
Good luck! DDR is a really fun game, and I think it can definitely be a contributing part of a healthy life.
Slashdot Mirror
How many hours a week is each computer used?
What functions does each computer perform (surfing web, accessing custom library application, etc.) and what's the breakdown of those functions in percentages?
Assemble a list of all functions the computers are used for, determine how each function would benefit from running on newer hardware.
What new functions would the library like to incorporate utilizing newer computrs? Assemble a wish list, and then determine through a panel which of those functions are likely to be implemented in the next year if new computing resources are available.
With this information you should be able to determine which computers will benefit most from an upgrade. Other factors to consider are that it's more estheticly pleasing to have similar computers together (mild preference for grouping computers of the same type). Publicly usable computers that are upgraded can make a positive statement to library patrons (preference for visibility).
Worth mentioning that the GBA is not region restricted, you can play Japanese cartridges on a US gameboy.
Also it's legal (I am not a lawyer) to play NES roms on a GBA through a flash card and emulator if you own the original title.
Oops slashdot doesn't like less than signs, the formula was $Z less than $X + 2*$Y, you lose money.
It should be pretty obvious that UO is not going to become a better game any time soon. If EA had any truly ambitious plans, they would have photoshopped some screenshots for us by now. The whole "work on UO" think is FUD, I just can't figure out how they've justified not firing people.
The sapping subscribers argument in this article is pretty dumb though. It should be clear by now that anyone who is playing Ultima Online is either not interested in 3D MMOs or has the cash to be willing to pay for multiple MMO accounts. You don't skip four major fantasy 3D-MMOs if you are a 3D-MMO player. UO-X was clearly in competition with EQ/DAOC/WOW/FF11 and had no relation to the play experience of UO-X.
It's clear that EA thought that UO-X would be a money loser. How do you lose money on an MMO? You spend $X on development, you spend $Y a year on your live team (since MMO dev is continual), and you make $Z in subscription fees over the first two years. If $Z $X + 2*$Y, you lose money. So, I'm guessing EA probably did some market projections. They decided, we can be ready to enter this market in about 3 years, and it will be so fragmented by then, and we're sufficiently unconfident in our ability to produce a competitive title, we'd better kill this thing.
If I go out on a date with a guy he better be ready to talk about slashdot and Linux, or that will be our last date!
Why don't you post a picture of yourself here, I'm sure you're drop dead gorgeous.
This is scored funny, but seriously, how rude of you to say that....
I learned about this years again in grade 10 geography class. We canadians have 70% of the world's drinking water too. Bow down and worship us Americans!
:/
Er wait
I mean, please don't invade us
sounds like skotos is run by smart people, that sounds great!
As a gamer you pay a monthly subscription fee for a gaming service, the fee is something like $19.99 a month.
Any online game can choose to be covered under this service. If it is, you can play that game.
My $19.99 fee is then distributed proportionally to each of the game providers based on how much time I spent playing their game.
For example, in one month I might:
- Spend 10 hours playing MMO #1 ($10)
- Spend 5 hours playing MMO #2 ($5)
- Spend 5 hours playing team FPS game ($5)
My total allowed gameplay is unlimited, it's only the proportion of play that matters.
Unfortunately I don't think the publishers will ever agree to that, and unless the majority of fun online games was covered, it just wouldn't work.
You may find giving commands to individual units tedious, and you could use a tool like the one I described to relieve tedium.
But, my original point is that a player who did not find giving commands tedious, could automate for the purpose of obtaining a competitive advantage.
Anything can be called tedious, but that is not always the motivation for automation of gameplay.
The original laws as stated are interesting and mostly hold true today, the commentary is uninspired, poor, and mostly incorrect. I'm now going to give one example, but I could easily come up with 30 such examples from this article.
For example:
Law: someone is going to automate your gameplay
Reponse: only if you make your gameplay tedious!
That is simply not true. To prove this is not true, I just have to come up with one automation scenario not rooted in relief of tedium. Consider a theoretical RTS in which a player controls many units. Skill is required to issue commands to those units (there are many units, each unit's state has to be evaluted and the appropriate command selected, in real time). Now enter a tool that will give commands to units under conditions you identify, for example if you fall below 25% health, run to the back of the formation. Now we have an automation tool thats purpose is to increase effective skill, not relieve tedious gameplay.
All the reasons for automation I can think of off the top of my head are:
- Increase power (generate money, skill points, experience)
- Increase effective skill (previously discussed)
- Relieve tedium
- Break the system - in this case, a person automates the system just to prove he can
In general the article is strong on attacks, and weak on solutions. For example, there is lots of "get rid of the treadmill" commentary with 0 solutions posted explaining how this is done. Love the original laws, hate the commentary.
I know it's kind of silly, but if you're in a conversation with someone, and you're tethered by a headset cable, it limits you. If you need to go make a cup of tea or something, you need to inform everyone you're leaving, disconnect yourself, then go make the tea.
When you get back, you need to find out what you've missed. In multiplayer games, the state is always changing.
A huge deal? No, but it is limiting. It's nice to be able to just get up go do whatever, then come back and continue. It makes things much smoother.
Gaming with a headset is about having a remote continual shared gaming experience. It's like gaming with someone else in the same room, you communicate constantly, and for long periods of time. The basics of this kind of communication are chat (with chat logs, for when you need to AFK for a moment). A headset allows for a different kind of communication, and often quicker communication, and a wireless headset allows this to be uninterrupted communication. This is a good thing since unlike chats, there is no log you can quickly scroll up to review what you've missed.
Just mentioning that skype is a cpu hog. This matters because it means it's not great for playing recent video games.
A great alternative is teamspeak which lets groups of players talk. Another alternative (I haven't tried this one) is Ventrillo.
Skype is great if you just want to use your computer for wireless chit chat.
I might as well plug the Jabra BT250 bluetooth headset while I'm at it. Wireless headset with up to 8 hours of talk time. I use this plus teamspeak to give me the freedom to wander my house and not loose contact with my gaming buddies. It also works nicely with my powerbook and my cell phone.
Excellent recommendation, a great wiki for this purpose is
TWiki. Makes for a great Web accessible todo list.
The interface may not be as fast as dedicated todo list software, but it has the benefits of being good for taking notes, colaborative document editing, file upload, definable users lists for reading and editing documents.
I want a backwards compatible gameboy advance with 4x the CPU/GPU power and a 640x480 screen. Same footprint.
:)
I love my gameboy advance. Higher resolution and cpu power would let it do it's main job for me better - act as an emulator. And hey, the regular games would be better too
Really, these are all just nit picks. GBA games are great as they are. With the gameboy player I can play gba games on my TV, and it's surprising how good quality they are from a graphics and gameplay experience.
I'm just not seeing the need for a more advanced handheld system. The PSP is clunky. The DS is, unnecessary. I won't buy either of them.
I've just started [link]a company[/link] and I'd like some free exposure from a heavily trafficked Web site. What question should I asked on Ask Slashdot to generate this exposure?
Ultimately, "the various formats need to be compatible," Averdieck says. "This will take a while to get sorted out, but it will happen. Meanwhile, Windows Media Player has a head start over all the other formats in Europe. And in the UK, there are 8.9 million PCs with Windows Media Player 9."
If only they'd heard of the MP3 format...
this is regarded as the best guide (Jarod's). If you're setting up a new box, first time mythtv user, consider following this guide even if Fedora isn't your favorite system. You can always reinstall later.
That's like saying...Algorithm? You're calling this "bubble sort" an algorithm? It's way too simple to be worth of the term algorithm.
No one said it was a impressive AI!
Some points which pundits may not mention (I'm a MythTV user):
- Dedicated PVR systems are always cheaper than building your own from parts
- PVR systems based on old hardware will be slow. It doesn't matter if you throw a hardware encoder/decoder in your Duron 850, it will be slow. You want all the CPU and disk speed you can get. Trust me.
- Be prepared to spend 40+ hours over the next three months setting up, configuring, debugging your system. Less if you don't care about customizing and tweaking. More if you're less experienced, and want to compile from source, or don't have popular hardware.
- If you use your Linux box for other things, be aware the system resources mythtv demands may make it slow and chunky.
- Setting up a MythTV box requires installing lots of stuff. The mythtv software works with LIRC (remote control drivers), iVTV (tuner drivers), and a bunch of stuff I don't remember. This isn't an install one thing and you're done project.
I enjoy tweaking systems, but I wasn't aware of the amount of time I'd have to put into MythTV. This in no way detracts from the project - it's a great project. Just know you're getting into something that's fairly technical, and requires troubleshooting.
For the record, PVR 350 + Athlon 1800 + 512 megs/ram on my mythtv box. Debian.
This is a non story. Games makers are driven by market forces. If games makers are focussing on making X-box games to make more money, good for them. You don't like this? Sorry.
;)
How much money do you pay for a good PC game? $40-60. How much does it cost to make one? A lot more. Why can you get it for $40-60, because lots of other people are buying it as well, so you benefit from your collective purchasing power.
The market will grow and shrink based on how much people are spending on games. If there are a tonne of people out there who want to buy PC games, people will make games for them to compete for their dollars. If many of those people switch to console, surprise, there will be less PC and more console games made.
I think it's best to go with the flow. Buy games you enjoy, If they're console games, buy a console. If they're PC buy a PC (someone earlier identified how having a console + linux box is a killer combo of great games without the need for dual boot or a windows layer).
If you want to really whine, try being a mac gamer
Yes I've dealt with this one.
First, if your client doesn't appreciate what you are giving them, you are either giving them too much or not selling them on what you're giving them.
Giving them to much - there is no point in giving your client something they will not appreciate. If you can't get them to appreciate it, it's not worth your time to develop it.
Not selling them - If you are dead set on giving your client something they don't value, you have to convince them that they need what you are offering. This is an uphill battle, this can be a full time job.
They key is to find out what your client truly wants, and then build that for them. When a client doesn't know what they want, you're in big danger, those are the kind of clients who won't appreciate what you give them (they can't appreciate it if they don't know they want it) and who will come to you with new bizarre requirements late in the project (they feel they haven't asked for much up to this point).
Come on iTunes get it in gear! I'm still waiting for mac iTunes.
The leader in online music sales can't seem to sell internationally.
I lost 15 pounds over about two months through a combination of DDR and reduced calorie intake. Here's my experience and tips.
* DDR is fun enough to play every day, but I don't think it's a good idea to do so. After playing every day for a month I started to get some kind of RDI (repetitive dance injury, I just made that up). Anyway, playing 3-4 times a work should be fine. On the other days - do some other kind of exercise! I also recently injured my toe playing DDR and I haven't been able to play for a month.
* The real "work out" for DDR comes from workout mode. The advantages of work out mode are the game never ends, and you can't lose. This removes breaks in play. It also lets you input your weight and set a workout goal in calories (I usually did 450/day). Whether or not their calorie counter is accurate, it certainly is not random, and thus can be used to ensure a consistent workout experience.
* I really think any exercise program, whether it's weight loss oriented or cardio oriented works better if you take a look at your diet and healthy it up.
Some more practical questions:
* Buy the cheapest pad you can to start. Many people just use cheap pads the whole way. I sprung for a knock off ignition pad (foam interior). Ebay is a fine place to buy them. Cheap pad fine. Ebay fine. No need to buy "best pad". A cheap pad should last you about 3 months of regular play.
* Many people mod their cheap pads to turn them into basically indestructable pads. I never bothered, DDR pads are cheap enough I just buy new ones. I'm on my second set of pads and I've been playing over a year. You'll need a Ps2 -> USB converter in general also, which can also be bought online.
* If you have a ps2 spring for DDR Max 2 (the newest PS2 ddr). While the free DDR games may be just super, I'd suggest buying the latest konami DDR to compare with. DDR Max 2 will get you playing fast, with a quality interface and songs. If you also want to set up your PC and download songs (and be warned, my understanding is that the song selection online is focussed on hard songs), go for it, but that's a project you need to work on. Playing DDR is something you can do right now if you pick up the game and a pad.
Good luck! DDR is a really fun game, and I think it can definitely be a contributing part of a healthy life.