I don't think the storyline for "Sprited Away" nearly matches that of "Princess Mononoke". I liked SA but not in the way I liked PM. SA was a rather juvenile movie, not to say it wasn't entertaining. PM touches on belief systems as well as respect for the planet. In short, SA is a nice fairy tale slash bedtime story, whereas PM is a fantastic drama.
As for Beauty and the Beast being nominated, I thought The Little Mermaid and Lion King had better storylines.
Algerian at size 6 would be illegible on a Macintosh because Macs use 72 DPI for fonts (magically the same as the default resolution for most monitors, and half the resolution of the printed page).
Because Windows uses 96 DPI for fonts, a 6 point font on Windows would look like a 9 point font on Mac OS.
Instead what we are getting is a half-assed game about beating monsters for hours on end while talking with others.
You'd be surprised at how addictive Phantasy Star Online made this. There's also the collection and trading of items (see Pokémon for that addiction factor) and the fact that you need multiple players to attain some items. It's more fun than it sounds.
Keep in mind that if you're playing on a PS2, you're seeing graphics in 720x480 resolution (NTSC) at a measly 30 effective frames per second
Keep in mind that if you're watching a movie you're seeing it in 720x480 resolution at a measly 24 fps. Someone should do a study to find out the highest discernible frame rate the eye can accurately process. I have a theory that it can't discern much over 60 fps.
All the UI aspects, drivers, software, APIs and so on are well developed. Yeah, they are not perfect, in fact not even comfortable for most people, but they work. Sure, there are bugs, and some components suffer from the fact that they work in an unpredicted environment (even though it is in-house).
They're well-developed, but there's bugs, they work in an unpredicted enviornment, and they're uncomfortable to most people? Boy, you have a fascinating sense of well-developed.
Please, teach us some more NewSpeak(TM). What's next? "Windows is a very secure operating system, sure there's backdoors and stack overflows, there's poor defaults set up for new users."
The concern about viruses is, I think, a very legitimate one. I'm just glad I use Opera [opera.com], which wouldn't let them do that, I think. Other browsers (Mozilla? Konqueror?) might be just as good, but I haven't tried them.
OmniWeb for Mac OS X has the BEST feature I have ever seen (and haven't seen it replicated in other browsers):
Javascript is:
Enabled
Disabled
Scripts are allowed to open new windows:
always
only in response to a link being clicked
never
Of course, not using Windows (and IE) will save you from most of the horrors of the Internet.
However, I just don't see most website owners risking their livelihoods by implementing an image format which most of their customers, plugins or no, may not be able to read--particularly since so much of web layout is done using images these days instead of text.
Oh, whatEVER! Like you, me, and everyone else doesn't run across Flash-only sites that are just for driver downloads from hardware manufacturers.
If you're basing your livelihood around something as sketchy as the internet (and you're not a pr0n pusher, which are the only people making money off of the net) then you're probably already having worse troubles.
Think about it--how many users are set to automatically download plugins as needed?
Every enduser that doesn't change the default setting in Internet Exploder for Windorks.
It's a risk most companies won't take--you don't want your users not being able to use your site.
OMG, that's the best laugh I've had off/. in a loooooooooooooong time. Try running most companies sites through http://validator.w3.org. Better yet, validate Slashdot, because it's obvious the webmasters here didn't. The only way you assure that all users can access your site is through strict HTML 4.01, and most companies could give a crap if you access their site or not, because as mentioned, they don't make any money on the web!
many people will argue that Link's Awakening [legendofzelda.com] was one of the best, if not the best in the series (I would disagree personally).
I'd disagree, as well. The best was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (all the concepts of the original taken to stellar levels), closely followed by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (astounding 3D interpretation). I have actually heard that the best one is Majora's Mask, but I never played it (the only one I haven't played), I sold my N64 right before it was announced.
I'm wating for a Gameboy Advance version of Zelda, hopefully it won't be a ported version of Link to the Past, I've played that game all the way through so many times dunno if I have the strength to do it again (and I'd have to do it again if they brought it out for GBA).
I've found that just about any game based on a long running cartoon is absolute crap...The opposite is true as well... any good games often are made into really crap cartoons
I disagree, you've just played games by companies that make crap games but somehow licensed the character rights. Capcom has always made great games based on Disney characters and Cartoon shows. Konami/Ultra has always made great games based on Warner Bros. characters. SEGA has also made great Disney-based games.
Pokémon is the only time I have seen both the game and the cartoon have equally good quality, but I think they were designed together. Other than that (and maybe Mega Man if I remember correctly), I've yet to see a good cartoon based on a video game. The biggest problem cartoon script writers seem to have when they make a cartoon based on a game is that they always try to change the basic premise. They are too busy trying to find themselves creatively fascinating that they forget there is already a loyal fan following for the game, otherwise there wouldn't be a cartoon created around it.
The total enjoyment = enjoyment level * duration, and your point only makes sense if the only possible values for 'enjoyment' are 1 and 0, or some constant k and 0 where k is the same for all games. Is a 5000-hour game that you barely enjoy at all honestly better than a 20-hour game that is completely engrossing all the way through?
Of course it's an analog and not a digital measurement. Truth is, the best games are really the one's that demand obsession, and I don't just mean from a small group of guys that like to run around and kill people. I mean games like:
Phantasy Star Online
Super Mario Bros. 3
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Final Fantasy VII
Pokémon
ICO
Oregon Trail
SSX Tricky
These are the kinda games that make you wanna play until it's finished, and then make you wish it wasn't finished.
look talk sync date touch expand size whatis nice unzip grep head leaks whereis find open finger tail mount rm fsck whoami man uptime more group biff perl ed cc tim join merge yes spray dump halt heap umount leave sleep
Which, all together had a combined marketshare of -- what, 0.5%? Now there's a piece of pie worth chasing.
Alternative operating systems are rarely (if ever) calculated in market share. Analysts calculate market share by how many computers are shipped (not sold) with a certain OS, and how many copies of an OS are actually sold.
Looking at it now, it certainly seems appealing to have sold your product to people that would have bought it instead of begging people to take it for free. Netscape is over and gone, I guess they were chasing the wrong pie. You certainly don't get bought out and put on the back burner because you are the most profitable (AOL bought Netscape for its enterprise software, not the browser).
Linux
Umm, dude. Netscape does make a version for Linux.
Maybe you should re-read my post, I said, "at the time". Meaning when Netscape still existed as a company, and not an orphaned division of AOL/TWX.
Finally, Apple packages Quicktime, iMovie, iTunes, Appleworks (a full office suite), and more with their OS.
Uh, AppleWorks is not bundled with the OS, and never has been. It comes with consumer hardware, and has never been bundled with Pro hardware, but then Pangea's Bugdom, and Nanosaur are bundled with consumer hardware also. Apple has also always let third party companies put their installers on the Mac OS CD. Like AOL, despite Earthlink being Apple's preferred ISP, and Communicator, despite IE being the default browser, and Adobe Acrobat, even though Preview will open PDF's.
Apple and Real even agreed that it was most beneficial to users and competition to let the user decide which media files would open with their respective applications, and would not change the preferences before clearly stating to the user what would happen, and that their applications would alert the user if an application changed their preferred application for media-type playback.
Apple has even opened up the QuickTime file format with MPEG 4 (the format is open, some compressors are not).
It wouldn't matter if Apple created hidden API's, used them for their applications to make sure their apps had an advantage over the competition, or purposefully broke competitors apps with every point release, Apple is not a monopoly, Microsoft is.
This is how Netscape was crushed by Microsoft. Netscape didn't do everything right -- in fact, they made their share of wrong decisions -- but they were truly doomed from the very start. Even if Netscape had a crystal ball and knew the future and did everything perfectly right, they'd still have been buried by Microsoft.
With Microsoft using tactics such as I've described above, there is absolutely no way to successfully compete against them.
Actually, Netscape was more interested in a pissing contest between Barksdale and Gates. Navigator (and consequently Communicator) should have been available on everything that was not Windows. Netscape should have made Navigator the best browser for Macintosh, Amiga, BeOS, Linux, Unix, Sega Saturn, any semi-modern (at the time) system with an internet connection. Did they? No. Instead they were caught up in trying to show up Microsoft. It wasn't about making a good browser, it was about adding things no one wanted just because the other guy didn't have it. Microsoft even beat Netscape at the standards game, Internet Explorer for Macintosh meets more HTML standards than even Amaya (and IE for Windows is a not too distant second).
As it stands, Mozilla still isn't in the mindset of making it the best browser for alternative platforms, it is still Windows-centric, trying to add things IE for Windows has, or adding tabbed browsing, instead of focusing on getting Gecko to render pages to W3C specifications. As it stands, AOL and Intuit are the only two companies that have ever "beaten" Microsoft, and that's just because Microsoft ignored those markets long enough that those products have become a standard (despite AOL's flaws, it is still a good "internet with training wheels" for new computer users).
If you're going to develop a product with the intent on beating Microsoft, you're wasting your time. They don't play fair, they never will. You have to have the attitude that you are creating a great product that stands on its own.
Does this mean that Apple is finally going to put some kind of reasonably modern filesystem under OS X?
You obviously haven't read much about the HFS+ Volume Format. It's very interesting and even extensible, the problem is none of the advanced features of it are being used by Apple.
The real beauty of the BeFS wasn't the journaling (that's been done before) it was the ability to let the user define their own meta-data. That's the sort of thing Apple really needs to add to Mac OS X (that and eliminating extensions and Type/Creator in favour of MIME types).
Q: The initial release this fall is Windows only. How do I get the Linux version?
A: There will be a certificate in the package that entitles you to a free Linux installation CD once the Linux version is available. Fill out the certificate and send it to us. Once the Linux version of gobeProductive is released we will send a CD to you.
Q:When you say you are developing a "Linux" version, does this mean that you will include the source so that I can compile it for Linux on my [non-Intel derived CPU] machine, or will you release versions for non-Intel derived CPU Linux?
A:No, gobe Productive for Linux is a publicity stunt. It is to get our product mentioned on technical websites, and hopefully The Screensavers. If we were actually serious about releasing a Linux version, we would realise that Red Hat Linux on an Intel derived CPU is not the it-all end-all of Linux.
Q:Since Windows is basically an Intel derived CPU only operating system, and gobe Productive is currently released for it, and since most people who have an Intel derived CPU version of Linux installed also have Windows installed (because it came with their computer), why are you only releasing gobe for Intel derived CPU versions of Linux?
A:Please see above.
It boggles the mind to think how much information four properly used DVD discs can hold. Certainly way more than is required by a four hour cut, with audio commentary.
Well, as stated in an earlier post that you might have missed, it has all of the promotional specials that were on cable networks.
The Moulin Rouge DVD was 2 discs, so was Shrek, and there wasn't much in the way of materials on either, so I can see something as massive as LOTR requiring the extra space.
I just hope the menus system is better than the endless burrowing on most of these sort of discs.
I would love to see what Dell has to say about the OEM agreements with MS. After all they did support Linux for a little while. Now that seems to have gone by the waist-side. I also wonder what the reprecussions of Gateway speaking out against MS.
Well, for starters it's wayside, and I'll assume it was a transposition type with "repercussions". Gateway is actually in a good position to do this, and it will benefit them greatly if they succeed.
Pretty much everyone reading Slashdot knows that Gateway bought Amiga, for whatever that means they received in the deal. Gateway is also a direct marketer with a handful of outlets. Gateway would probably love to offer AmigaOS and Linux machines. When you are a direct marketer, you profit most by doing whatever each individual customer wants, not by trying to guess what the vast majority want. Gateway doesn't send out a configuration and hope it moves off of the shelf, you tell them what you want. Not that Gateway is all that great at making quality machines, but wouldn't it be great to see that stupid cow talking about how he just made friends with a penguin?
Halo is one of the greatest games I've played, and it was a release title.
Halo is a console game and has slowdown. CONSOLE! SLOWDOWN! Slowdown has been a non-issue since SNES added DSPs to the cartridge. That was about 10 years ago.
Since when is 18% CPU usage playing an MP3 at all decent?
Since when does it matter? The whole point of Folding at Home, SETI@Home, and all those other distributed applications is that no one ever uses all their processor power.
That 18% is also because my audio is USB audio, and there's no audio processor in my Mac. It's all digital. So for 18% of the processor, it decodes the MP3, turns it into audio, and sends it out over USB to the speakers.
I think it's brilliant, but then, as mentioned before, very few on Slashdot appreciate elegance (which is why Linux desktop environments are seen as so damn ugly by everyone outside of the Slashdot demographic).
Slashdot Mirror
As for Beauty and the Beast being nominated, I thought The Little Mermaid and Lion King had better storylines.
Because Windows uses 96 DPI for fonts, a 6 point font on Windows would look like a 9 point font on Mac OS.
You'd be surprised at how addictive Phantasy Star Online made this. There's also the collection and trading of items (see Pokémon for that addiction factor) and the fact that you need multiple players to attain some items. It's more fun than it sounds.
They're well-developed, but there's bugs, they work in an unpredicted enviornment, and they're uncomfortable to most people? Boy, you have a fascinating sense of well-developed.
Please, teach us some more NewSpeak(TM). What's next? "Windows is a very secure operating system, sure there's backdoors and stack overflows, there's poor defaults set up for new users."
OmniWeb for Mac OS X has the BEST feature I have ever seen (and haven't seen it replicated in other browsers):
Javascript is:
Scripts are allowed to open new windows:
Of course, not using Windows (and IE) will save you from most of the horrors of the Internet.
Oh, whatEVER! Like you, me, and everyone else doesn't run across Flash-only sites that are just for driver downloads from hardware manufacturers.
If you're basing your livelihood around something as sketchy as the internet (and you're not a pr0n pusher, which are the only people making money off of the net) then you're probably already having worse troubles.
Every enduser that doesn't change the default setting in Internet Exploder for Windorks.
OMG, that's the best laugh I've had off /. in a loooooooooooooong time. Try running most companies sites through http://validator.w3.org. Better yet, validate Slashdot, because it's obvious the webmasters here didn't. The only way you assure that all users can access your site is through strict HTML 4.01, and most companies could give a crap if you access their site or not, because as mentioned, they don't make any money on the web!
TCP/IP, FTP, HTTP, HTML, TelNet, POP, SMTP, XML, Perl, Open Firmware, TWAIN, IRC, PNG, MIME, should I go on?
I'd disagree, as well. The best was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (all the concepts of the original taken to stellar levels), closely followed by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (astounding 3D interpretation). I have actually heard that the best one is Majora's Mask, but I never played it (the only one I haven't played), I sold my N64 right before it was announced.
I'm wating for a Gameboy Advance version of Zelda, hopefully it won't be a ported version of Link to the Past, I've played that game all the way through so many times dunno if I have the strength to do it again (and I'd have to do it again if they brought it out for GBA).
I disagree, you've just played games by companies that make crap games but somehow licensed the character rights. Capcom has always made great games based on Disney characters and Cartoon shows. Konami/Ultra has always made great games based on Warner Bros. characters. SEGA has also made great Disney-based games.
Pokémon is the only time I have seen both the game and the cartoon have equally good quality, but I think they were designed together. Other than that (and maybe Mega Man if I remember correctly), I've yet to see a good cartoon based on a video game. The biggest problem cartoon script writers seem to have when they make a cartoon based on a game is that they always try to change the basic premise. They are too busy trying to find themselves creatively fascinating that they forget there is already a loyal fan following for the game, otherwise there wouldn't be a cartoon created around it.
It's posts like this that really make /. worth reading. :-) It's hard to find intelligent humour on the net.
Of course it's an analog and not a digital measurement. Truth is, the best games are really the one's that demand obsession, and I don't just mean from a small group of guys that like to run around and kill people. I mean games like:
- Phantasy Star Online
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Final Fantasy VII
- Pokémon
- ICO
- Oregon Trail
- SSX Tricky
These are the kinda games that make you wanna play until it's finished, and then make you wish it wasn't finished.look talk sync date touch expand size whatis nice unzip grep head leaks whereis find open finger tail mount rm fsck whoami man uptime more group biff perl ed cc tim join merge yes spray dump halt heap umount leave sleep
Alternative operating systems are rarely (if ever) calculated in market share. Analysts calculate market share by how many computers are shipped (not sold) with a certain OS, and how many copies of an OS are actually sold.
Looking at it now, it certainly seems appealing to have sold your product to people that would have bought it instead of begging people to take it for free. Netscape is over and gone, I guess they were chasing the wrong pie. You certainly don't get bought out and put on the back burner because you are the most profitable (AOL bought Netscape for its enterprise software, not the browser).
Maybe you should re-read my post, I said, "at the time". Meaning when Netscape still existed as a company, and not an orphaned division of AOL/TWX.
Uh, AppleWorks is not bundled with the OS, and never has been. It comes with consumer hardware, and has never been bundled with Pro hardware, but then Pangea's Bugdom, and Nanosaur are bundled with consumer hardware also. Apple has also always let third party companies put their installers on the Mac OS CD. Like AOL, despite Earthlink being Apple's preferred ISP, and Communicator, despite IE being the default browser, and Adobe Acrobat, even though Preview will open PDF's.
Apple and Real even agreed that it was most beneficial to users and competition to let the user decide which media files would open with their respective applications, and would not change the preferences before clearly stating to the user what would happen, and that their applications would alert the user if an application changed their preferred application for media-type playback.
Apple has even opened up the QuickTime file format with MPEG 4 (the format is open, some compressors are not).
It wouldn't matter if Apple created hidden API's, used them for their applications to make sure their apps had an advantage over the competition, or purposefully broke competitors apps with every point release, Apple is not a monopoly, Microsoft is.
Actually, Netscape was more interested in a pissing contest between Barksdale and Gates. Navigator (and consequently Communicator) should have been available on everything that was not Windows. Netscape should have made Navigator the best browser for Macintosh, Amiga, BeOS, Linux, Unix, Sega Saturn, any semi-modern (at the time) system with an internet connection. Did they? No. Instead they were caught up in trying to show up Microsoft. It wasn't about making a good browser, it was about adding things no one wanted just because the other guy didn't have it. Microsoft even beat Netscape at the standards game, Internet Explorer for Macintosh meets more HTML standards than even Amaya (and IE for Windows is a not too distant second).
As it stands, Mozilla still isn't in the mindset of making it the best browser for alternative platforms, it is still Windows-centric, trying to add things IE for Windows has, or adding tabbed browsing, instead of focusing on getting Gecko to render pages to W3C specifications. As it stands, AOL and Intuit are the only two companies that have ever "beaten" Microsoft, and that's just because Microsoft ignored those markets long enough that those products have become a standard (despite AOL's flaws, it is still a good "internet with training wheels" for new computer users).
If you're going to develop a product with the intent on beating Microsoft, you're wasting your time. They don't play fair, they never will. You have to have the attitude that you are creating a great product that stands on its own.
The real beauty of the BeFS wasn't the journaling (that's been done before) it was the ability to let the user define their own meta-data. That's the sort of thing Apple really needs to add to Mac OS X (that and eliminating extensions and Type/Creator in favour of MIME types).
Q:When you say you are developing a "Linux" version, does this mean that you will include the source so that I can compile it for Linux on my [non-Intel derived CPU] machine, or will you release versions for non-Intel derived CPU Linux?
A:No, gobe Productive for Linux is a publicity stunt. It is to get our product mentioned on technical websites, and hopefully The Screensavers. If we were actually serious about releasing a Linux version, we would realise that Red Hat Linux on an Intel derived CPU is not the it-all end-all of Linux.
Q:Since Windows is basically an Intel derived CPU only operating system, and gobe Productive is currently released for it, and since most people who have an Intel derived CPU version of Linux installed also have Windows installed (because it came with their computer), why are you only releasing gobe for Intel derived CPU versions of Linux?
A:Please see above.
Well, as stated in an earlier post that you might have missed, it has all of the promotional specials that were on cable networks.
The Moulin Rouge DVD was 2 discs, so was Shrek, and there wasn't much in the way of materials on either, so I can see something as massive as LOTR requiring the extra space.
I just hope the menus system is better than the endless burrowing on most of these sort of discs.
Well, for starters it's wayside, and I'll assume it was a transposition type with "repercussions". Gateway is actually in a good position to do this, and it will benefit them greatly if they succeed.
Pretty much everyone reading Slashdot knows that Gateway bought Amiga, for whatever that means they received in the deal. Gateway is also a direct marketer with a handful of outlets. Gateway would probably love to offer AmigaOS and Linux machines. When you are a direct marketer, you profit most by doing whatever each individual customer wants, not by trying to guess what the vast majority want. Gateway doesn't send out a configuration and hope it moves off of the shelf, you tell them what you want. Not that Gateway is all that great at making quality machines, but wouldn't it be great to see that stupid cow talking about how he just made friends with a penguin?
Halo is a console game and has slowdown. CONSOLE! SLOWDOWN! Slowdown has been a non-issue since SNES added DSPs to the cartridge. That was about 10 years ago.
Amen to that. Outside of MTV Music Generator 2, ICO, Final Fantasy X, and Grand Theft Auto 3, there's NOTHING good on PS2, except for PS1 games.
I weep when I remember that there was almost nothing BAD on Dreamcast.
Real Life(TM) is no fun, which is the point of video games.
If I want something that looks like real life, I'll just go outside.
David Koresh's compound was not a "church". It was classified as a cult.
Since when does it matter? The whole point of Folding at Home, SETI@Home, and all those other distributed applications is that no one ever uses all their processor power.
That 18% is also because my audio is USB audio, and there's no audio processor in my Mac. It's all digital. So for 18% of the processor, it decodes the MP3, turns it into audio, and sends it out over USB to the speakers.
I think it's brilliant, but then, as mentioned before, very few on Slashdot appreciate elegance (which is why Linux desktop environments are seen as so damn ugly by everyone outside of the Slashdot demographic).