I agree with the general premise of the article, but unfortunately it was vary light on any useful tips or code.
For instance, this thread in/. is http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/1 0/02/1946224&mode=flat&tid=95 -- why couldn't it just be http://developers.slashdot.org/thread/02-10-02/194 6224.html ? Or even http://slashdot.org/developers/02-10-02/User_Cente red_URL_Design.html ?
I'd love to have some tips from various folk on how to use Perl and PHP with Apache in fancy ways to simplify and avoid these clunky URLs.
Based on my guesses, they believe that any decent quality series that they support will become much more popular, so they don't want to invest in a series that they don't own. They probably feel that they made Farscape the success that it is, and that Henson gets too much credit for (not that I particularly feel this way, but this is the way that networks think.)
Thus for limited resource: airtime (at the convention panel they said their number one problem was scheduling), the best way to maximize profits is to promote programs that they have a larger stake in.
What I think this means in the long run is more mini-series by the SciFi channel, and more series that are directly produced by SciFi or it's parent Vivendi/Universal.
I attended WorldCon, in which some of the executives of the SciFi channel were at a panel.
They gave no clue that they were cancelling Farscape, but it was clear that the relationship with Farscape was different then many of their other shows. Basically a number of their shows are produced by either themselves or by a sister company under Vivendi Universal, but Farscape is not.
Thus they have very few rights to Farscape, basically first broadcast rights. They may have decided that they needed more rights or control to the properties that they do broadcast then what Farscape was offering. Think about it, with the Dune miniseries, they own it completely. They get money from every DVD, every overseas sale, etc.
This adds up, and may be what makes them believe they'll make more money producing their own or their sister companies shows then continuing to promote Farscape which owns all such subsidiary rights.
BTW, re: the comments about starting in January being a bad sign, the executives also said in the panel that they don't try to do new stuff in the fall like the other networks. Instead, they counter-program, and thus introduce new mini-series and events in December when most networks are doing their first reruns, and introduce new shows in January and Summer when the momentum for network shows is down.
A warning: we purchased 4 of the Shuttle small form factor computers (the SS-25) and we have had 3 power supplies go bad. The first we were able to get replaced by the retailer (Fry's), however, the other two we have yet to get replaced by Shuttle in spite of RMA.
Thus I'm concerned now quite concerned about the quality of the power supply as a weak point for of any small format computer.
Gizzmonic wrote > obviously without doing any research.
The 'History of Online Gaming' has a long pedigree -- it has been vetted and added to by the Mud-Dev@kanga.nu community which includes some of the top online game designers in the world.
Sure, it isn't perfect, it can use some minor improvements, but it has been well research and vetted by the Mud-Dev community. If you have some criticisms or spot in inaccuracies, they have been prompt to adding relevant changes to the history.
We also have been using TWiki for several years. The best thing about it is that ever wiki page is RCS'ed, so that you can see versioning back into the past. Some of our system documentation hundreds of revisions, and you can go back and see what changed.
From a manager's perspective TWiki's RCS capabilities also allow the manager to just click the 'See All Changes' button, and see all the work that was done in the last day or so. From a collaboration perspective, all the documents are live for all editors with simple locking, so it will sometimes say "John is currently editing ProductionSystemDoc", etc.
I highly recommend it for small teams.
-- Herder of Cats
Multiple games, one price
on
Pay to Play
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Rather then charging for each game, Skotos is offering multiple games for a single monthly fee.
Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.
They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".
The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!
Unfortunately, none of the existing billing services support a subscription based model. We looked quite extensively for one, but only found ones for the porn industry -- the porn industry has very different requirements for security, and a completely different set of payment service providers that take a much larger cut or have other limitations that make them not feasible.
I understand Portal offers a subscription billing services software product that works with standard payment service providers, however, it costs mid-6 figures.
I have a Cappucino (the DVD version) which I primarily use as a portable task server.
Basically what I call a "task server" is a computer dedicated to things that take too long, like Kazaa downloads, compiles, DivX compression, etc. I can leave the machine where it is more convenient to do the task while I'm gone, whether that is at work, at home, or on the road. For instance, as I have lots of bandwidth at work so if I'm downloading the latest Buffy episode it is more convenient for me to leave the Cappacino at my desk. If I'm doing some projects at home I'll use it at home. I also use the Cappucino to a lesser extent as a transfer file server.
With WinXP Pros's "Remote Desktop Connection" I can use any Win2K or WinXP machine to connect to the Cappucino remotely and control whatever task I'm running there. WinXP Pro's RDC is really quite cool, and at DSL speeds I can run apps from home while machine is at work, and visually barely notice that I'm connecting remotely.
I like the Cappucino for what I use it for, but it really could use some improvements to make it more generally useful. I'd consider using it for music or as a lan party machine, but the Cappacino's video is useless for games and the audio is insufficiently high fidelity (though I know someone who is using it with a USB audio system with better results then I.) The DVD version doesn't rip very fast either, so it is only an adequate dedicated ripping machine.
These audio and video limitation appears to also apply to the Mynix e-Space machine as well. If a successor to either box was using the new nVidia nForce chip I'd swap out and use the new device more broadly then I'm currently using the Cappacino.
The only major thing that I can see of Mynix e-Space machine has over the Cappucino is that it appears to have a DVI output. I have been trying to convert to DVI LCDs, and the Cappucino is now my only computer that can't use them.
However, the fact that the Mynix e-Space machine require USB for networking seems a poor choice. My Cappacino only needs two wires, an ethernet and the power, (which both conveniently plug on the same side) and it is up and working.
Another minor advantage that the Mynix e-Space machine appears to have is that all the major connections are in the back. The Cappacino has connectors on three sides, spaced out fairly broadly. If I was trying to use the Cappacino as a semi-portable desktop machine, the wires coming out from all sides would be quite inconvenient.
I also use CLIQ as well and am quite happy. They are a DSL spinoff of Zocalo Engineering (zocalo.net), a T1+only ISP also based in the Bay Area that is one of the most highly peered ISPs in the business. They are small, but very geek friendly.
The founder of Zocalo, Bill Woodcock is quite active in the IETF and various small ISP organizations.
BTW, both are the only ISPs that I know of that will route AppleTalk.
I have on a regular basis used racks designed for music appliances (midi, synthesizers, mixers, etc.) for computers. It is particularly useful for transport -- for instance, I have a setup that I take to conventions that has a file server, switch, a router, and a 802.11b wireless net. I can put the face plates on it and lock it up like a large suitcase when not in use, and transport it in my car.
The biggest issue is the depth -- most cases are less then 17" deep. A few are 17" deep and these are suitable for some computer uses. I've never found one deeper then 19" deep. As most server boxes are quite deeper then 17", I had to search for some time to find a rackmount server box that was small enough.
-- Herder of Cats
Capaccino discussed before here on Slashdot
on
Tiny Little Computer
·
· Score: 5
This appears to be a Spanish language relabeling of SaintSong's Capaccino computer www.cappuccinopc.com.
I did end up purchasing one of the Capaccino's -- nice unit, 1Ghz PIII, 20Gig HD, DVD, 512K RAM, ethernet, etc. Has pretty much everything I wanted but a 3D chip. Since it takes so little space, but can't be a game machine for me, I use it as a very portable server.
abe ferman wrote Only tricky part to watch out for - you can't get credit unless there is substantial uncertainty about recouping the profits from the research.
I have over the last decade with various entrepreneurial companies that I've started been able to qualify for the R&D tax credit. The key issues that my CPAs have always wanted from me to be well documented was that:
The work was clearly R&D, and not maintenance of existing code or code that was currently for sale or licensed. We had to provide accurate time logs when programmers did work on both types of software.
That we only got a credit when our R&D expenditure was greater then last years, making it useful for only the first few years of the corporation.
At no point can I recall that we had to document the goal of the R&D was toward a profit making activity, though that may have been implied because it was our goal.
Though I do believe that that further research on the R&D tax credit will be that to qualify for it that the intent of the R&D has to be for profit.
On the other hand, successfully becoming profitable will not be -- in my case, a couple of the R&D efforts didn't result in a final sellable product. We might not have tried the R&D if the tax credit had not been available, which is the purpose of the regulation.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with the general premise of the article, but unfortunately it was vary light on any useful tips or code.
/. is http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/1 0/02/1946224&mode=flat&tid=95 -- why couldn't it just be http://developers.slashdot.org/thread/02-10-02/194 6224.html ? Or even http://slashdot.org/developers/02-10-02/User_Cente red_URL_Design.html ?
For instance, this thread in
I'd love to have some tips from various folk on how to use Perl and PHP with Apache in fancy ways to simplify and avoid these clunky URLs.
-- Herder Of Cats
But they don't have DVD, foreign rights, etc.
Based on my guesses, they believe that any decent quality series that they support will become much more popular, so they don't want to invest in a series that they don't own. They probably feel that they made Farscape the success that it is, and that Henson gets too much credit for (not that I particularly feel this way, but this is the way that networks think.)
Thus for limited resource: airtime (at the convention panel they said their number one problem was scheduling), the best way to maximize profits is to promote programs that they have a larger stake in.
What I think this means in the long run is more mini-series by the SciFi channel, and more series that are directly produced by SciFi or it's parent Vivendi/Universal.
-- Herder of Cats
I attended WorldCon, in which some of the executives of the SciFi channel were at a panel.
They gave no clue that they were cancelling Farscape, but it was clear that the relationship with Farscape was different then many of their other shows. Basically a number of their shows are produced by either themselves or by a sister company under Vivendi Universal, but Farscape is not.
Thus they have very few rights to Farscape, basically first broadcast rights. They may have decided that they needed more rights or control to the properties that they do broadcast then what Farscape was offering. Think about it, with the Dune miniseries, they own it completely. They get money from every DVD, every overseas sale, etc.
This adds up, and may be what makes them believe they'll make more money producing their own or their sister companies shows then continuing to promote Farscape which owns all such subsidiary rights.
BTW, re: the comments about starting in January being a bad sign, the executives also said in the panel that they don't try to do new stuff in the fall like the other networks. Instead, they counter-program, and thus introduce new mini-series and events in December when most networks are doing their first reruns, and introduce new shows in January and Summer when the momentum for network shows is down.
-- Herder of Cats
A warning: we purchased 4 of the Shuttle small form factor computers (the SS-25) and we have had 3 power supplies go bad. The first we were able to get replaced by the retailer (Fry's), however, the other two we have yet to get replaced by Shuttle in spite of RMA.
Thus I'm concerned now quite concerned about the quality of the power supply as a weak point for of any small format computer.
-- Herder of Cats
Gizzmonic wrote
> obviously without doing any research.
The 'History of Online Gaming' has a long pedigree -- it has been vetted and added to by the Mud-Dev@kanga.nu community which includes some of the top online game designers in the world.
Sure, it isn't perfect, it can use some minor improvements, but it has been well research and vetted by the Mud-Dev community. If you have some criticisms or spot in inaccuracies, they have been prompt to adding relevant changes to the history.
-- Herder of Cats
We also have been using TWiki for several years. The best thing about it is that ever wiki page is RCS'ed, so that you can see versioning back into the past. Some of our system documentation hundreds of revisions, and you can go back and see what changed.
From a manager's perspective TWiki's RCS capabilities also allow the manager to just click the 'See All Changes' button, and see all the work that was done in the last day or so. From a collaboration perspective, all the documents are live for all editors with simple locking, so it will sometimes say "John is currently editing ProductionSystemDoc", etc.
I highly recommend it for small teams.
-- Herder of Cats
Current they offer The Eternal City -- a romanesque RPG game, Castle Marrach -- a high-fantasy social game popular with women, and Galactice Emperor -- a weekly political game to become the Galactic Emperor.
They also have a number of other games announced to come out later in the year, including "Lovecraft Country" and "Paranoia".
The also have an active articles section with columns by MMPORPG pundit Jessica Mulligan, MUD pioneer Richard Bartle, and many others. If you are an online game designer there are many great articles here!
-- Herder of Cats
Unfortunately, none of the existing billing services support a subscription based model. We looked quite extensively for one, but only found ones for the porn industry -- the porn industry has very different requirements for security, and a completely different set of payment service providers that take a much larger cut or have other limitations that make them not feasible.
I understand Portal offers a subscription billing services software product that works with standard payment service providers, however, it costs mid-6 figures.
-- Herder of Cats
I have a Cappucino (the DVD version) which I primarily use as a portable task server.
Basically what I call a "task server" is a computer dedicated to things that take too long, like Kazaa downloads, compiles, DivX compression, etc. I can leave the machine where it is more convenient to do the task while I'm gone, whether that is at work, at home, or on the road. For instance, as I have lots of bandwidth at work so if I'm downloading the latest Buffy episode it is more convenient for me to leave the Cappacino at my desk. If I'm doing some projects at home I'll use it at home. I also use the Cappucino to a lesser extent as a transfer file server.
With WinXP Pros's "Remote Desktop Connection" I can use any Win2K or WinXP machine to connect to the Cappucino remotely and control whatever task I'm running there. WinXP Pro's RDC is really quite cool, and at DSL speeds I can run apps from home while machine is at work, and visually barely notice that I'm connecting remotely.
I like the Cappucino for what I use it for, but it really could use some improvements to make it more generally useful. I'd consider using it for music or as a lan party machine, but the Cappacino's video is useless for games and the audio is insufficiently high fidelity (though I know someone who is using it with a USB audio system with better results then I.) The DVD version doesn't rip very fast either, so it is only an adequate dedicated ripping machine.
These audio and video limitation appears to also apply to the Mynix e-Space machine as well. If a successor to either box was using the new nVidia nForce chip I'd swap out and use the new device more broadly then I'm currently using the Cappacino.
The only major thing that I can see of Mynix e-Space machine has over the Cappucino is that it appears to have a DVI output. I have been trying to convert to DVI LCDs, and the Cappucino is now my only computer that can't use them.
However, the fact that the Mynix e-Space machine require USB for networking seems a poor choice. My Cappacino only needs two wires, an ethernet and the power, (which both conveniently plug on the same side) and it is up and working.
Another minor advantage that the Mynix e-Space machine appears to have is that all the major connections are in the back. The Cappacino has connectors on three sides, spaced out fairly broadly. If I was trying to use the Cappacino as a semi-portable desktop machine, the wires coming out from all sides would be quite inconvenient.
-- Herder of Cats
I also use CLIQ as well and am quite happy. They are a DSL spinoff of Zocalo Engineering (zocalo.net), a T1+only ISP also based in the Bay Area that is one of the most highly peered ISPs in the business. They are small, but very geek friendly.
The founder of Zocalo, Bill Woodcock is quite active in the IETF and various small ISP organizations.
BTW, both are the only ISPs that I know of that will route AppleTalk.
-- Herder of Cats
-- Herder of Cats
My personal suggestion is to offer to buy the person/team a hard drive. In my experience, OpenSource authors can always use more ;-)
The biggest issue is the depth -- most cases are less then 17" deep. A few are 17" deep and these are suitable for some computer uses. I've never found one deeper then 19" deep. As most server boxes are quite deeper then 17", I had to search for some time to find a rackmount server box that was small enough.
-- Herder of Cats
This unit and its smaller sibling have been discussed before on Slashdot -- it's smaller sibling is called Expresso was discussed http://www.slashdot.org/articles/00/04/18/2326253. shtml.
There is a review of the unit at http://203.120.86.4/products/hwharddrive/story/0,2 000008984,20199957,00.htm.
I did end up purchasing one of the Capaccino's -- nice unit, 1Ghz PIII, 20Gig HD, DVD, 512K RAM, ethernet, etc. Has pretty much everything I wanted but a 3D chip. Since it takes so little space, but can't be a game machine for me, I use it as a very portable server.
-- Herder of Cats
abe ferman wrote
Only tricky part to watch out for - you can't get credit unless there is substantial uncertainty about recouping the profits from the research.
I have over the last decade with various entrepreneurial companies that I've started been able to qualify for the R&D tax credit. The key issues that my CPAs have always wanted from me to be well documented was that:
The work was clearly R&D, and not maintenance of existing code or code that was currently for sale or licensed. We had to provide accurate time logs when programmers did work on both types of software.
That we only got a credit when our R&D expenditure was greater then last years, making it useful for only the first few years of the corporation.
At no point can I recall that we had to document the goal of the R&D was toward a profit making activity, though that may have been implied because it was our goal.
Though I do believe that that further research on the R&D tax credit will be that to qualify for it that the intent of the R&D has to be for profit.
On the other hand, successfully becoming profitable will not be -- in my case, a couple of the R&D efforts didn't result in a final sellable product. We might not have tried the R&D if the tax credit had not been available, which is the purpose of the regulation.
-- Herder of Cats