The linked page actually explains the contest. International contestants can use the Compute Server Plugin for NetBeans to compete.
Contest B
* Open to both US and International participants
* Does not require access to the Sun Grid Compute Utility
* Contest submission must be developed using the Compute Server Plugin for NetBeans.
o This excludes C/C++ applications as well as Java applications not developed with Compute Server Project.
* Contest submission must fall within at least one of the following relevant categories: Financial Services, Media and Entertainment, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Energy, Scientific and Academic, Misc.
* Contest submission must not require a 3rd-party commercial license to run.
I know Carmack wasn't going after the WOWs of the world, but the possibility occurred to me that it might be cool to have a cell phone client for a PC virtual world - perhaps affecting the world in non-traditional ways.
Would you like to mash a few cell phone buttons to craft yourself something nifty for your return home?
How about an opportunity to influence factors that aren't controllable through the PC, like beasts or items? For example, play a beast vs. beast minigame against other cell phone users, and the winner will recieve more power or loot in the PC world or something like that.
As an alternative input device, the cell phone has some interesting possibilities. If you consider cell phones equipped with GPS, you could conceivably have a very interesting dynamic to the gameplay based on actual location. I see many possibilities for making this a fun gaming tool rather than the minesweeper handheld it is today.
It may seem logical to respond that evolution yields varied results, or throw up hypotheses about the physics involved or whatever the hell you want. But these do not explain cause, and cannot answer why chromosomal size is varied.
Back in the stone age, graphics made the back of the box look good. Seedy publishers started to put cutscenes on the box, and so we all got burned. Today, anyone can quickly scour the internet for reviews and find out which games are fun, and which are not (once you filter out all the "this is the greatest game ever" reviews that people use to feel good about their purchase). Maybe the little pictures on the box helped sell more games in the past, but that era has long past.
Check out which games get enshrined as the "Greatest Games of All Time" (pick your favorite game site). Almost none of them were reliant on graphics - for most, graphics simply complimented the gameplay. All of them were fun for many people.
Graphics alone will never do it for people when it comes to games. Games inherently trail movies in terms of production quality, since everything must be done real time. Oblivion may look good for a game, but it looks like crap compared to Shrek, which is now several years old. Dragon's Lair looked almost as good as He-Man, but it really wasn't all that fun pressing the single action button at just the right time, was it?
Raise your hands if you had a NeoGeo. Anyone, Bueller? If you had one, you're probably a VP at Daddy's company right now, not reading Slashdot.
Different system. Different time. "Adjusted price" for electronics is a joke.
When the NeoGeo came out, pre-teen kids like myself drooled over its coolness, but knew Pop would never allow such an exorbitant amount for a video game machine. Of course, if it were for the computer, that's a different story - because "Dad, it's for school!"
Nowadays, the target for PS3 is well-financed college grads, bachelors, or college students who'll just charge it to the old student loan, or the rich kids. 3 out of 4 weren't raised by video games in the NeoGeo's time.
We don't even have an HD television, and I know only 1 person who does, and he doesn't have HD service. I'll probably get one when my current TV dies or is won't work because the government thinks I need HD to be a good American. The olde faithful tube can last decades, you know. As far as I'm concerned, Donald Trump's pores can remain an unseen mystery.
Personally, $600 for a console is an outlandish sum in my household, and if my boy asked for one, I'd tell him he's nuts and he'd better get a job (thankfully he's only 2). Of course, if it's for the computer, that's a different story... hehe.
Unions will never work for IT or tech in general, because everyone knows that geeks fancy themselves elite intellectuals, and equate "Union" with "Grunt". That may sound troll to you, but it is true. Every programmer I've ever met thinks they're a modern day Da Vinci.
Also, it's true that corporations have been largely successful at stamping out unions and bribing the officers to the point where the common worker is not well represented these days.
What tech needs is a unified professional association with licensure similar to the American Medical Association or the Bar. Why? Because tech workers lack polical influence and have no lobbying voice in Washington. It takes an organization with money to spend to make a difference in the United $tates these days, and a banding together of technology professionals is very much needed. Don't like H1-B? What can you do about it? What can an organization that represents 1000s do about it?
It would be interesting to see the actual submission footage. It seems pretty clear that Bethesda wants to stay out of the fray on this political issue, so I doubt they'd leak it, but it would shed light on all of this for sure.
The resource problem is an interesting one. I'd wager that if they enlisted "general public reviewers" to preview the games prior to release they'd get an army of volunteers who'd do it just to get early copies of games. I realize software is generally not ready prior to release and things can get put in at the 11th hour, but perhaps it could help "normalize" the ratings by using a plurality of reviewiers.
Best quote from TFA: "the current rating system is drastically flawed and here is yet another reason why we need legislation to assist parents and protect children" [California Assemblyman Leland Yee].
That is exactly what I need for my kids, the US Gov't writing some helpful laws to this end. Perhaps they could help by also removing those extremely violent newscasts on the cable and network news outlets. The newspapers too. They are FILLED with reports of violence and war that are to the detriment of my children. Can you believe the SCHOOL in my hometown also teaches children about sometimes very gruesome and unsettling violence in history class, and I need laws to stop this from harming them. I can't do it all!
A good law to draft would be to transport all of my children to some sort of government educational facility, where they can learn to serve their country by putting down the violent people of the world through judicious use of lethal force. In this Utopian society, there would be no sex, because it is "dirty" and "very bad", and the law would provide men in jack boots to catch the teens "in the backseat trying to pick her locks", and they could "send them back to mother in a cardboard box".
I need help with the music out there these days too. Everyone knows the only good use for so-called "Heavy Metal" music is in psychological warfare.
As for games, we need wholesome, morality-based games. America's Army could teach my kids about responsible engagement, for instance. In that game, everyone plays as Americans! They only shoot "terrorist-looking" people, the way it should be.
And offensive movies should be re-cut. Take the terrific job done on "Brazil" (the love endures all ending). That movie was a real downer before some fine studio exec had it corrected.
This topic is getting a bit tired, but the fact that this "retort" misses the greater issue is compelling.
1) Play Oblivion for 1 hour, you'll find zombies with their guts hanging out. The player is rewarded for bashing them MANY MANY times as they spray blood all over the walls. I don't see how Bethesda could have "hid" this from the ratings board - it shows up within minutes of play.
2) Talk to the various characters in the first town in the game, and you'll find out there's a "secret" guild that will let you in if you MURDER someone. In fact, you are very often rewarded for criminal activity in Oblivion. Going to jail is REQUIRED to complete at least one of the quests in the game (probably more, I don't know).
3) A nipple shows up in a downloadable mod, and OMG! change the rating to "Mature".
This isn't about Oblivion being rated "M", it's about the reason provided for the change. "More gore than initially disclosed" is ridiculous, because the game is chock full of gore and it's central to the gameplay itself. When the ESRB initially reviewed the game, did they even play it? My take is that Oblivion probably should've been rated "M" from the start. The game contains mature subject matter and it was no secret, plain and simple.
Are American Teens exposed to graphic violence through other means? Yes, certainly.
Are young children? I am reading the classic book, Farmer Boy, of the famed Little House on the Prarie series to my Kindergartner. In this book, the "older boys" in the school house gain reputation for "thrashing" teachers into submission with their fists. The replacement teacher is heralded for subdueing his attackers with a whip.
Does that make it a "good thing"(TM)? Nope. (see also: "Shikata ga nai")
Can a Teen process violence in entertainment and separate such depictions from the morality requisite to be a good citizen? Yes. "Mortal Combat" was a popular morality target in my teenage years, yet I never attempted a "Finishing Move" on any of my schoolmates, and I've grown up to be a good citizen by most accounts.
Can responsible, involved parents allow their brood to slash video game foes for fun? Yes. I enjoy such entertainment, and I'm sure my young'uns will too. Human beings are violent (see also: "history of civilization"). It'll be my decision to make concerning their maturity approaching such subject matter.
If my teen sees a booby, will all my hard parenting work unravel? God, I hope not. That would surely mean I'd done a terrible job educating my own on the birds and the bees. Believe it or not, I'd rather my kids look at boobies than bash skulls. Interest in sex is not unnatural (see also: "World Population").
ESRB claims the change is due to a lack of disclosure. Under normal circumstances, that would be an acceptable reason in my mind. However, the gratuitous and obvious violence in Oblivion calls into question the criteria by which the game was rated IN THE FIRST PLACE. The ESRB lacks credibility, and this debacle won't help that issue, that is certain.
However, Windows automatic file replacement prevents you from copying over WINDOWS/system32/cards.dll, the resource dll used by solitaire (and the other simple card games on Windows) to draw the cards.
You can, however, simply copy cards.dll and sol.exe from WINDOWS/system32 to a separate directory on your PC, open cards.dll with a program like ResHacker, and replace all the card images with naked people. This is trivial to do. It took me 3 minutes to create a "Solitaire: Swimsuit Edition" using this method, but I could have made "Solitaire: Donkey Pr0n Edition" just as easily - and put it on the web for all the children to download.
I'd post the result, but I'd hate to have Micro$oft lawyers dragging me into court for hacking Solitaire. Anyway, you can do it yourself very easily if you want.
Well said. Entertainment is not inherently evil; life would be pretty boring without it.
I know you were using some well-crafted hyperbole, but as I was reading your list, it occurred to me that many of these hobbies approximate activities that in some spheres are considered work...
As mindless humans, we continuously perform tasks to gain rewards, even in our leisure.
Canning beets
Play: Sense of accomplishment
Work: Survive the cold winter
Doll/Child Care
Play: Affection through responsibility
Work: The children take care of you
Gardening
Play: A Tangible Yield
Work: Tangible cash or food
Reading
Play: Mental Imagery
Work: Mental Anguish & a Degree
Television
Play: Blissful Mindlessness
Work: Mindnumbingly boring (ever been a security guard?)
Video Games
Play: Food pellet rewards
Work: 25 cents/day farming pellets for lazy gamers
So, it appears that if a thing is necessary for survival, it's work, and if it isn't, and you still do it, it's play.
This thing is limited to 3840x1024! 2x24" widescreen LCDs will run 3840x1200 for around $2000 US. 3 19" + $300 cost of this would be more.
I guess the screen break with 3 monitors is better than 2 though. Someone mentioned projectors, and this could be really cool for that. 1024x768 projectors can be purchased for under $1000 US. For $3300 + my PC and a beefy GFX card, my basement could be really nice....
Who are these folks who proclaim "open kernel" to mean "not dynamically loading closed code"? Any emulator/virtual machine/interpreter has the potential to load closed code. Should these things be similarly outlawed from running as kernel-mode daemons or drivers on an open system? What about embedded code on devices? Must they too be open to gain the privilege of interaction with open software?
This seems like our fair idea turning on itself to the point of being ridiculous. Where does it end? Should open Linux prevent running closed user-mode apps? Should it allow interacting with other closed systems through the network?
To me OSS always targeted enabling people to interact with their machines. The exclusionary arm always makes me wonder what's being accomplished by "picking up our toys and taking them home with us". Olive branches, people, olive branches. My vote is for an open specification that driver/device manufacturers can support if they choose. That seems the most "open" thinking to me.
Now that the AT&T/SBC/Ameritech overlords have taken control over BellSouth, things will only get better for you. If by better, you think service calls to 20 different divisions of people sitting in the same room and mistakes on every bill are a good thing.
No joke, I was slammed by Ameritech for long distance carrier, charged $5 for a single 2 minute call across the street, and had to talk to service people at Ameritech, SBC, and AT&T Long Distance (though they are all the same fscking company). When I told my local carrier I was slammed, they didn't believe me. "Gasp! That hasn't happened in years!", she said. So I had her call for me while I sat silent on a three-way call, and she spoke with 3 or 4 reps (as I did, all giving the old runaround) refusing to pay the charge on my behalf (and they even told her she'd need the local telco to call in!). In the end, it became clear that my local carrier would be footing the bill, because there is no end to the runaround at Ma Bell.
The next day, I walked into my local carrier and signed a document that disallowed changes to my long distance carrier without my written approval.
When SBC was my main carrier a few years back, many if not most of my bills contained errors. Every single one of them were in favor of SBC. Pure evil.
Technical innovation has been raging in games, screenshots are ever more beautiful year after year, sound is terrific, and physics are improved. It's the content and themes that are stalled in a never-ending regurgitation of last year's offerings, and this is a result of producers wanting a "safe-bet" for the stakeholders money.
Not to mention the availability of suitable mates a college prof enjoys over a software engr. And in that same spirit, how come "Rock Star", "Fashion Model", or "Professional Athlete" didn't make the list? Seems to me those would be much better careers than what I'm doing right now, typing nonsense into Slashdot.
"Oil Tycoon" and "Real Estate Baron" seem like pretty good jobs too. Sheesh.
...and the text editor never freezes because Intellisense is barfing.
Ever try to work with Unicode translations in east asian languages in Visual Studio? Guess what, it craps out horribly. Notepad is your best option unless you've got the money to buy some specialized big $$$ software for the task (or write your own, I guess). It is absurd that in this day and age, translation support is so crappy in Windows dev tools. Anyone know of some OSS software for Unicode file editing that doesn't Sh1t all over the line feeds and such?
Notepad doesn't require you wait for a runtime to startup. It is very quick to launch. One of the first things I do to a Windows box is put Notepad in the SendTo context menu.
It is a stupid simple program, and that is probably a major reason why it works. I often get angry about the single level of undo and other such shortcomings, but I still find myself using Notepad quite a bit.
They should rewrite Visual Studio, because it has some serious stability issues. Oh wait, they do that every year or so, and it never gets better.
Gotta have a nice media room in any futuristic home.
Room that can be dark or light midday
Dual high resolution projectors mounted to seemlessly meet on your specially painted wall, that run your dream high-end machines via wireless keyboard, mouse, gamepads, KVM, network
Closet designed with a rack for your computers, ventilation, power, sound insulation - why look and listen to all this stuff? Put it in a special little room of its own.
Comfortable couch, chairs, you know - furniture
Nice Bose sound system, properly configured for your room
Good Lighting - this is critically important. Check out these fancy control systems from Lutron. If money is no object, you can have some seriously cool sh1t.
Some nice extras:
bathroom attached for quick emergency access
fully stocked wet bar at the back of the room
sound insulation for all walls, floor, and ceiling in the room
heavy solid hardwood door with a lock
Other useful "future home" ideas:
Energy saving materials and appliances - this is the most important advance in home construction on a practical level
Central sound system could be cool, but you can roll one yourself with wireless network and some small appliances these days. A PDA with some control software through wireless to your media computer(s) would be a nice project, and not all that costly.
If you're in a cold climate, heated drives are very nice. No back-breaking snow shoveling.
Most of the other "future" features I've seen amount to gimmicks.
Central computerized climate system? You can get a programmable thermostat for $70, so why get heavy with this? The climate in my home doesn't need that kind of mustard, I keep it around 70 degrees when I am awake, and set back at night.
Intercom? What for? I can yell at my kids - its more personal;)
Security systems? If you live like Scarface maybe.
Touch panel central control systems? I have a nice compact touch panel PC sitting beside me right now, and when I took possession of it, I was thinking, "Oh cool, I can install this in my house and do all sorts of cool shtuff", but I couldn't think of anything useful for it besides the obvious lighting/media control/climate control, and shrink-wrapped systems are available that do all of those things already without me needing to build my own relays and such. I suppose it could make for a nice media room master control...
So, make a sweet media room and you will be proud of yourself.
Excellent point; I'm glad someone finally made it. My home theater didn't cost top $$$, and it sure as hell beats sitting in some smelly greasy plastic chair in a crowded theater. I took the wife to see "Walk the Line", and all she could say is that it would've been much better at home.
The future of public presentation has got to be IMAX. It is prohibitively expensive, the quality is stunning, and the theaters are very well appointed (those I've been in at least). Of course, there has to be good material... (a point not missed by those in this forum).
Slashdot Mirror
Coolapps Contest Page
The linked page actually explains the contest. International contestants can use the Compute Server Plugin for NetBeans to compete.
Contest B
* Open to both US and International participants
* Does not require access to the Sun Grid Compute Utility
* Contest submission must be developed using the Compute Server Plugin for NetBeans.
o This excludes C/C++ applications as well as Java applications not developed with Compute Server Project.
* Contest submission must fall within at least one of the following relevant categories: Financial Services, Media and Entertainment, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Energy, Scientific and Academic, Misc.
* Contest submission must not require a 3rd-party commercial license to run.
Coolapps Contest Description referenced by the Sun press release, but not linked (for some reason).
International Contestents can use the Compute Server Plugin for NetBeans.
OMG, I'm paranoid enough already.
I know Carmack wasn't going after the WOWs of the world, but the possibility occurred to me that it might be cool to have a cell phone client for a PC virtual world - perhaps affecting the world in non-traditional ways.
Would you like to mash a few cell phone buttons to craft yourself something nifty for your return home?
How about an opportunity to influence factors that aren't controllable through the PC, like beasts or items? For example, play a beast vs. beast minigame against other cell phone users, and the winner will recieve more power or loot in the PC world or something like that.
As an alternative input device, the cell phone has some interesting possibilities. If you consider cell phones equipped with GPS, you could conceivably have a very interesting dynamic to the gameplay based on actual location. I see many possibilities for making this a fun gaming tool rather than the minesweeper handheld it is today.
There are other variations which make us unique.
Like our lives.
It may seem logical to respond that evolution yields varied results, or throw up hypotheses about the physics involved or whatever the hell you want. But these do not explain cause, and cannot answer why chromosomal size is varied.
So, if you really want to know, the answer is...
because.
Back in the stone age, graphics made the back of the box look good. Seedy publishers started to put cutscenes on the box, and so we all got burned. Today, anyone can quickly scour the internet for reviews and find out which games are fun, and which are not (once you filter out all the "this is the greatest game ever" reviews that people use to feel good about their purchase). Maybe the little pictures on the box helped sell more games in the past, but that era has long past.
Check out which games get enshrined as the "Greatest Games of All Time" (pick your favorite game site). Almost none of them were reliant on graphics - for most, graphics simply complimented the gameplay. All of them were fun for many people.
Graphics alone will never do it for people when it comes to games. Games inherently trail movies in terms of production quality, since everything must be done real time. Oblivion may look good for a game, but it looks like crap compared to Shrek, which is now several years old. Dragon's Lair looked almost as good as He-Man, but it really wasn't all that fun pressing the single action button at just the right time, was it?
Raise your hands if you had a NeoGeo. Anyone, Bueller? If you had one, you're probably a VP at Daddy's company right now, not reading Slashdot.
Different system. Different time. "Adjusted price" for electronics is a joke.
When the NeoGeo came out, pre-teen kids like myself drooled over its coolness, but knew Pop would never allow such an exorbitant amount for a video game machine. Of course, if it were for the computer, that's a different story - because "Dad, it's for school!"
Nowadays, the target for PS3 is well-financed college grads, bachelors, or college students who'll just charge it to the old student loan, or the rich kids. 3 out of 4 weren't raised by video games in the NeoGeo's time.
We don't even have an HD television, and I know only 1 person who does, and he doesn't have HD service. I'll probably get one when my current TV dies or is won't work because the government thinks I need HD to be a good American. The olde faithful tube can last decades, you know. As far as I'm concerned, Donald Trump's pores can remain an unseen mystery.
Personally, $600 for a console is an outlandish sum in my household, and if my boy asked for one, I'd tell him he's nuts and he'd better get a job (thankfully he's only 2). Of course, if it's for the computer, that's a different story... hehe.
..and serve genetically-engineered meals. They could use hydrogen fuel reserves, and use H1-B pilots.
They could call it the FUDBus.
Terrible idea from a marketing standpoint. "Look! Our planes are cheaper! The pilot can even control the plane from the toilet!"
[I'm joking of course]
Unions will never work for IT or tech in general, because everyone knows that geeks fancy themselves elite intellectuals, and equate "Union" with "Grunt". That may sound troll to you, but it is true. Every programmer I've ever met thinks they're a modern day Da Vinci.
Also, it's true that corporations have been largely successful at stamping out unions and bribing the officers to the point where the common worker is not well represented these days.
What tech needs is a unified professional association with licensure similar to the American Medical Association or the Bar. Why? Because tech workers lack polical influence and have no lobbying voice in Washington. It takes an organization with money to spend to make a difference in the United $tates these days, and a banding together of technology professionals is very much needed. Don't like H1-B? What can you do about it? What can an organization that represents 1000s do about it?
Think about it.
I didn't know that.
It would be interesting to see the actual submission footage. It seems pretty clear that Bethesda wants to stay out of the fray on this political issue, so I doubt they'd leak it, but it would shed light on all of this for sure.
The resource problem is an interesting one. I'd wager that if they enlisted "general public reviewers" to preview the games prior to release they'd get an army of volunteers who'd do it just to get early copies of games. I realize software is generally not ready prior to release and things can get put in at the 11th hour, but perhaps it could help "normalize" the ratings by using a plurality of reviewiers.
Best quote from TFA: "the current rating system is drastically flawed and here is yet another reason why we need legislation to assist parents and protect children" [California Assemblyman Leland Yee].
That is exactly what I need for my kids, the US Gov't writing some helpful laws to this end. Perhaps they could help by also removing those extremely violent newscasts on the cable and network news outlets. The newspapers too. They are FILLED with reports of violence and war that are to the detriment of my children. Can you believe the SCHOOL in my hometown also teaches children about sometimes very gruesome and unsettling violence in history class, and I need laws to stop this from harming them. I can't do it all!
A good law to draft would be to transport all of my children to some sort of government educational facility, where they can learn to serve their country by putting down the violent people of the world through judicious use of lethal force. In this Utopian society, there would be no sex, because it is "dirty" and "very bad", and the law would provide men in jack boots to catch the teens "in the backseat trying to pick her locks", and they could "send them back to mother in a cardboard box".
I need help with the music out there these days too. Everyone knows the only good use for so-called "Heavy Metal" music is in psychological warfare.
As for games, we need wholesome, morality-based games. America's Army could teach my kids about responsible engagement, for instance. In that game, everyone plays as Americans! They only shoot "terrorist-looking" people, the way it should be.
And offensive movies should be re-cut. Take the terrific job done on "Brazil" (the love endures all ending). That movie was a real downer before some fine studio exec had it corrected.
This topic is getting a bit tired, but the fact that this "retort" misses the greater issue is compelling.
1) Play Oblivion for 1 hour, you'll find zombies with their guts hanging out. The player is rewarded for bashing them MANY MANY times as they spray blood all over the walls. I don't see how Bethesda could have "hid" this from the ratings board - it shows up within minutes of play.
2) Talk to the various characters in the first town in the game, and you'll find out there's a "secret" guild that will let you in if you MURDER someone. In fact, you are very often rewarded for criminal activity in Oblivion. Going to jail is REQUIRED to complete at least one of the quests in the game (probably more, I don't know).
3) A nipple shows up in a downloadable mod, and OMG! change the rating to "Mature".
This isn't about Oblivion being rated "M", it's about the reason provided for the change. "More gore than initially disclosed" is ridiculous, because the game is chock full of gore and it's central to the gameplay itself. When the ESRB initially reviewed the game, did they even play it? My take is that Oblivion probably should've been rated "M" from the start. The game contains mature subject matter and it was no secret, plain and simple.
Are American Teens exposed to graphic violence through other means? Yes, certainly.
Are young children? I am reading the classic book, Farmer Boy, of the famed Little House on the Prarie series to my Kindergartner. In this book, the "older boys" in the school house gain reputation for "thrashing" teachers into submission with their fists. The replacement teacher is heralded for subdueing his attackers with a whip.
Does that make it a "good thing"(TM)? Nope. (see also: "Shikata ga nai")
Can a Teen process violence in entertainment and separate such depictions from the morality requisite to be a good citizen? Yes. "Mortal Combat" was a popular morality target in my teenage years, yet I never attempted a "Finishing Move" on any of my schoolmates, and I've grown up to be a good citizen by most accounts.
Can responsible, involved parents allow their brood to slash video game foes for fun? Yes. I enjoy such entertainment, and I'm sure my young'uns will too. Human beings are violent (see also: "history of civilization"). It'll be my decision to make concerning their maturity approaching such subject matter.
If my teen sees a booby, will all my hard parenting work unravel? God, I hope not. That would surely mean I'd done a terrible job educating my own on the birds and the bees. Believe it or not, I'd rather my kids look at boobies than bash skulls. Interest in sex is not unnatural (see also: "World Population").
ESRB claims the change is due to a lack of disclosure. Under normal circumstances, that would be an acceptable reason in my mind. However, the gratuitous and obvious violence in Oblivion calls into question the criteria by which the game was rated IN THE FIRST PLACE. The ESRB lacks credibility, and this debacle won't help that issue, that is certain.
However, Windows automatic file replacement prevents you from copying over WINDOWS/system32/cards.dll, the resource dll used by solitaire (and the other simple card games on Windows) to draw the cards.
You can, however, simply copy cards.dll and sol.exe from WINDOWS/system32 to a separate directory on your PC, open cards.dll with a program like ResHacker, and replace all the card images with naked people. This is trivial to do. It took me 3 minutes to create a "Solitaire: Swimsuit Edition" using this method, but I could have made "Solitaire: Donkey Pr0n Edition" just as easily - and put it on the web for all the children to download.
I'd post the result, but I'd hate to have Micro$oft lawyers dragging me into court for hacking Solitaire. Anyway, you can do it yourself very easily if you want.
I know you were using some well-crafted hyperbole, but as I was reading your list, it occurred to me that many of these hobbies approximate activities that in some spheres are considered work...
As mindless humans, we continuously perform tasks to gain rewards, even in our leisure.
So, it appears that if a thing is necessary for survival, it's work, and if it isn't, and you still do it, it's play.
I lived a good long while before Slashdot.
This thing is limited to 3840x1024! 2x24" widescreen LCDs will run 3840x1200 for around $2000 US. 3 19" + $300 cost of this would be more.
I guess the screen break with 3 monitors is better than 2 though. Someone mentioned projectors, and this could be really cool for that. 1024x768 projectors can be purchased for under $1000 US. For $3300 + my PC and a beefy GFX card, my basement could be really nice....
Who are these folks who proclaim "open kernel" to mean "not dynamically loading closed code"? Any emulator/virtual machine/interpreter has the potential to load closed code. Should these things be similarly outlawed from running as kernel-mode daemons or drivers on an open system? What about embedded code on devices? Must they too be open to gain the privilege of interaction with open software?
This seems like our fair idea turning on itself to the point of being ridiculous. Where does it end? Should open Linux prevent running closed user-mode apps? Should it allow interacting with other closed systems through the network?
To me OSS always targeted enabling people to interact with their machines. The exclusionary arm always makes me wonder what's being accomplished by "picking up our toys and taking them home with us". Olive branches, people, olive branches. My vote is for an open specification that driver/device manufacturers can support if they choose. That seems the most "open" thinking to me.
Now that the AT&T/SBC/Ameritech overlords have taken control over BellSouth, things will only get better for you. If by better, you think service calls to 20 different divisions of people sitting in the same room and mistakes on every bill are a good thing.
No joke, I was slammed by Ameritech for long distance carrier, charged $5 for a single 2 minute call across the street, and had to talk to service people at Ameritech, SBC, and AT&T Long Distance (though they are all the same fscking company). When I told my local carrier I was slammed, they didn't believe me. "Gasp! That hasn't happened in years!", she said. So I had her call for me while I sat silent on a three-way call, and she spoke with 3 or 4 reps (as I did, all giving the old runaround) refusing to pay the charge on my behalf (and they even told her she'd need the local telco to call in!). In the end, it became clear that my local carrier would be footing the bill, because there is no end to the runaround at Ma Bell.
The next day, I walked into my local carrier and signed a document that disallowed changes to my long distance carrier without my written approval.
When SBC was my main carrier a few years back, many if not most of my bills contained errors. Every single one of them were in favor of SBC. Pure evil.
Technical innovation has been raging in games, screenshots are ever more beautiful year after year, sound is terrific, and physics are improved. It's the content and themes that are stalled in a never-ending regurgitation of last year's offerings, and this is a result of producers wanting a "safe-bet" for the stakeholders money.
Not to mention the availability of suitable mates a college prof enjoys over a software engr. And in that same spirit, how come "Rock Star", "Fashion Model", or "Professional Athlete" didn't make the list? Seems to me those would be much better careers than what I'm doing right now, typing nonsense into Slashdot.
"Oil Tycoon" and "Real Estate Baron" seem like pretty good jobs too. Sheesh.
...so you can write some must-have programs for the hordes of Windows users.
Seriously though, "must-have" is relative to "must-do". If you've never needed Windows before to do something, there can be no must-have apps.
Not if Richard Grimes' analysis is correct...
...and the text editor never freezes because Intellisense is barfing.
Ever try to work with Unicode translations in east asian languages in Visual Studio? Guess what, it craps out horribly. Notepad is your best option unless you've got the money to buy some specialized big $$$ software for the task (or write your own, I guess). It is absurd that in this day and age, translation support is so crappy in Windows dev tools. Anyone know of some OSS software for Unicode file editing that doesn't Sh1t all over the line feeds and such?
Notepad doesn't require you wait for a runtime to startup. It is very quick to launch. One of the first things I do to a Windows box is put Notepad in the SendTo context menu.
It is a stupid simple program, and that is probably a major reason why it works. I often get angry about the single level of undo and other such shortcomings, but I still find myself using Notepad quite a bit.
They should rewrite Visual Studio, because it has some serious stability issues. Oh wait, they do that every year or so, and it never gets better.
Some nice extras:
Other useful "future home" ideas:
Most of the other "future" features I've seen amount to gimmicks.
So, make a sweet media room and you will be proud of yourself.
Excellent point; I'm glad someone finally made it. My home theater didn't cost top $$$, and it sure as hell beats sitting in some smelly greasy plastic chair in a crowded theater. I took the wife to see "Walk the Line", and all she could say is that it would've been much better at home.
The future of public presentation has got to be IMAX. It is prohibitively expensive, the quality is stunning, and the theaters are very well appointed (those I've been in at least). Of course, there has to be good material... (a point not missed by those in this forum).