Well, here we go again with the standard/. 1. Create huge storage medium 2. ??? 3. Profit!!@#!~~! 4. Get sued by the RIAA/MPAA and end up broke 5. Give up on technology, turn to religion 6. ??? 7. Prophet!!@#!~~!
Type story. or something. but anyways, enough inanity.. my point is. Am I the only one who fails to be excited by this stuff? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to dump the whole contents of my puter onto a single disc. But I can't help feeling the future, surely, must be solid state? What about those cool little Thumbdrive things (y'know. Size of your thumb, has a USB plug on it... stick it in yer puter, copy data, stick it in yer pocket).. sure, right now they're hellish expensive, and the biggest capacity you can find is somewhere around the 128 or 256 Mb mark.. but the rapid uptake of digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, and similar devices has already driven down the price of Compactflash, Smartmedia, and so on.
Question is, how long until we can pay harddrive style pound (or dollar) to megabyte ratios for these things. No, I don't expect it Real Soon Now, but it seems the most effective future solution to me.
Check this out.. it's called Boong-ga Boong-ga, and it must be the first game to come with a finger-and-arse controller. When's the home version coming out?
Re:I got to see the pics before they get /.ed
on
Water Computing
·
· Score: 1
Quoth Verteiron: Actually, it might not be that bad. Just drain it and put it in a box. Looks like most of the components are plastic, so it'll be pretty light. When you get to where you're going, just fill it from the tap.
Mmmmyesss.. but look at the size of one transistor on that thing. If you're planning on making anything capable of running Quake 3 at a decent FPS, you're going to need several inconveniently large buildings to store it in, and a good couple of oceans to run through it...
>a woman in scotland was sued for causing someone else trauma when she had an epilectic (sp?) fit
Yeah, this is true, and when I first saw the headlines, I was horrified: however. there's a little more to it than first meets the eye. The guy having a fit was driving his car at the time, and as a result, caused a low-speed crash. The woman recieved money for the damage to her car.. but yes, bizarrely, she also recieved money for "the mental trauma of seeing the man's contorted face while he was in the middle of a siezure"
It's to be expected. Where America leads the UK will follow. I give it 5 years max before suing people becomes the national sport.
As far as I'm aware, here in the UK you have a right to view any footage recorded of you on a CCTV camera so long as it's not a matter of national security or anything like that. The owner of the CCTV camera has a right to charge a fee for digging out the footage (around 10 UKP, I believe). Mark Thomas did a great job with this, forcing companies to dig through their CCTV archives, and found, not surprisingly, that most either claimed they had no footage of him (despite the fact that he had footage of himself being filmed by their CCTVs), or gave him incomplete footage (for example the company who had his removed with more-than-necessary force from their carpark, while in view of their CCTV)
Well, anyways. You have a right to see what they do, in the UK at least. Could be handy
Okay, as much as I like the sound of this as the next guy, let's take a realistic look at this:
Your average NES game is between ~25k (very small game), and ~500k (only a few this big), with most clocking in around 128K of rom data.
Now, how much data do you reckon you can get from one of these cards?.. well, according to Pocket IGN...The graphic and sound quality of the data from Card-Es isn't amazing by any means...the data strip can only hold 2K of memory on the horizontal strip, 1K on the vertical...
So, you're talking 3K per card. For a 25K game, (say, Tennis, or Donkey Kong) that's 9 cards (well, 8-and-a-third).. and if you want to play Kirby's Adventure - a whopping (by NES standards) 768K, then be prepared to scan in 256 cards!
Now maybe if they could find a way to use the WHOLE card, and both sides, at that, instead of just little strips across the edges - maybe then you'd get decent storage.. my guess is that way 25K-per-card should be easily achievable.. but as it stands now, the only NES related games you'll get are horribly stripped down subgame-esque versions.
However, there IS hope. Take a look at the GP32. Neat piece of handheld kit, more powerful (in many ways, less in others, but on the whole more..) than the GBA, it's aimed at homebrew developers - you can write your OWN code for it without any kind of dumbass linker setup, it uses smartmedia or CF (can't remember which) cards.. hell, there's even a DOOM port, a DivX player, and a NES emulator for it. What more d'ya want?:)
Quoteth: "And to the person who submitted this article: Why the hell would you instal KaZaA? Don't you know KaZaA is loaded with Spyware? Or do you like having stuff installed without your knowledge?"
I use Kazaa without spyware. It's great - biggst filesharing network I've found (I have problems with WinMX). For the spyware-free Kazaa, see www.kazaalite.com
A while back I was in the States, and one of the things I wanted to do while I was there was to get a PDA - specifically the Clie PEG-S360, which isn't avaliable here in the UK - at least not anywhere that I've found. Anyways, while PDA shopping I visited a Target store, and was fairly surprised to see they were advertising the S360 as having a resolution of 800*600 - The higher-end Clie's have high-res screens (tho not, AFAIK -that- high res(?)), but the S360 is the same small res as all standard palms (160*100, methinks). When I asked one of the guys working there about it, he just muttered some kind of incoherent nonsense about certain software being able to use a higher resolution. Now -THAT- would be a really neat trick.
Anyways, moral of the story is that I ended up getting my PDA elsewhere. For some crazy reason when I'm buying something from someone, I feel a bit more confident if they actually _have a clue_ about the product they're selling:)
(side note. Any fellow UK/. readers will recognise echoes of this if they've ever been in a Dixons shop - not that any self-respecting/.er would)
Yet more apologies to poor ol' Poe. He's having a rough time tonight..
-----------
Once upon a life so pointless, while I keyed my fingers jointless,
Joining many a dull and meaningless channel of IRC electric bore,
While I nodded, nearly sleeping, suddenly there came a beeping,
As of some automaton creeping, creeping 'hind my mon-i-tor.
T'was a private chat request, blinking on my mon-i-tor-
Only this, and nothing more.
Ah, so distinctly I recall hoping that this modem call
Came from some hot babe that wished to ball!
Eagerly I wished for action; I felt the need for satisfaction
From Hot4U or Do!Me5, hrnygrl...I need it live-
A girl who's live, shut-in and lonely; garbed in silky panties only,
Only panties, nothing more.
(Of course I know they're all disgusting- saggy butts and teeth-a-crusting.
But so am I- that's why we hide in cyberspace, we all want for nothing more!
We may be geeks and friendless losers, this little band of IRC Kr00zers,
But we *have* libidos, just like you.
We need to cuddle, kiss and coo-
We need to type and stroke and spew.)
Presently my doink was humming; I had a hand that needed gumming-
"Madam," typed I, "or Sir??!!, truly cybersex I do implore;
But the fact is I was sleeping, and so gently you came beeping,
And so faintly you came beeping, beeping on my mon-i-tor,
But anyway...Let's Do It!"- ( and wait 3 minutes, 4...)
The 'Status' screen there, nothing more.
Deep into a funk I fell, I had been sent to Loser Hell,
Torture, evil torture I'd never dared to dream before;
Turned down for sex on IRC! Even MUTANTS would not sleep with me!
And the only floating word there was the auto "Ping!"
"Ping" I whispered-the server sent the auto "Ping!"-
To tell it not a thing was wrong, my PC sent the auto "Pong".
Back into the channel turning, my cheeks quite red, my forehead burning,
Soon again I heard a beeping somewhat louder than before!
"Surely," thought I, "surely *now* a partner willing!"
"Tell me how you rub your breasts", typed I, "and my fantasy explore-
Let my head fall 'twixt your legs...Please be my hot electric whore!"
Again-just 'Status', nothing more.
A tantrum here (I flung my coffee), Why Do These Sluts Refuse To Boff Me?
Suddenly appeared a message that sent my wanking heart a-soar
"SEXYFEM invites you/we'll have sex until we turn blue/to join the channel #raven/where we will surely cyberscrew!"
And so I rushed to join the FEM, my new found love, my horny gem-
(The things we typed I'll not repeat- suffice to say We Beat Our Meat.)
Afterwards, we sat and smoked..."Was It Good For You?" I suavely joked.
"Oh yes, my dear-you are Da Man! I think I love you, we need a plan-
A plan to meet in Real Life-you'll be my STUD, I'll be your WIFE!"
"Oh yes" typed I, for I was smitten-
"Please marry me my pookiekitten! Fly to my city, Tuesday next!
We'll Bone In PERSON, Not In TEXT!"
Horrible! Waiting all that week, I thought suspense would kill this geek-
But finally the Day was here. I could almost smell my FEM was near.
Near she was. The plane-It Landed. The doors-They Parted. My love-Appeared. My sanity-Departed.
For standing on that airline runway...Horrid...Sick...Uncanny...
My Loser Love, My Nerdly Mate- turned out to be...MY GRANNY!!!!!!!!!!
Hmm.. looking through this thread reminded me of a story I read ages back about a haunted arcade machine in a coin-op - something to do with a guy who kept trying to beat a certain lap-time on an Atari Sprint machine, but could never quite shave off that all-important last tenth of a second.. anyways, the guy then died in a car crash. The night he died, the machine turned itself on, played itself, the lap time he'd been striving to beat, put his initials in the high score table, screamed, then turned itself off, never to work again.
I've scoured google to find the story again, but had no joy.. so no link-karma for me then, eh?.. but if anyone can find it, pls post the URL.. as I remember it was a fairly entertaining yarn.
Oh!.. You must mean those thousands actively protesting up and down the streets holding signs saying "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear!" and chanting "What do we want? Whatever the government tells us!" "When do we want it? Whenever's convenient for them!"
Sorry, but from where I'm sitting, it looks like the collective will is too busy being apathetic, and watching the home shopping channel.
IANAA (American). I'm from the UK, but this stuff really disturbs me, not least because the USA has just given itself carte blanche to listen in to the world, not just itself. And what do you think Tony Blair (our Prime Minister) is going to do about the fact that no UK sourced internet data transmissions are secure now, even if of a highly confidential/sensitive/completely-innocent nature? Why he's going to smile, nod, and wait 'till Bush says jump, so he can ask "how high?", same as always.
And, one last thought...
It seems to me in short that:
These laws are being made to stamp out terrorists.
Of course, prevention is better than cure..
So let's stamp out those who -may become- terrorists.
Like.. people who speak out against these new laws! Obviously if they're complaining about them, they must have a guilty conscience - why on earth would an innocent person have a problem with giving up all their privacy?
Another "must check out" is Psycle [pastnotecut.org] - similar to Jeskola Buzz, but much, much more friendly to the creative process (entering all the hex in Buzz's sequence editor drains my brain), and likewise, free as in beer.
"MP3 isn't a win really. Price-wise I can get a cheapish MD recorder for £79. The cheapest 64MB MP3 player is £230"
Eep! Where are you shopping?!
A couple of months back, I got a 128 Mb MP3 player for just over £100 - plus, being a dodgy taiwanese one, it can be used as a l33ch t00l - no restrictions on uploading/downloading mp3s or other files on it. Okay, so it's not the flashiest player out there, but it does everything I want, it's USB, it's got good sound, and it's great for taking over to a friend's place, and coming back with 128 Mb of new MP3's without having to go through blank CD's like there's no tomorrow:)
(fwiw, got it from www.scan.co.uk, model name is Cooltrax. It was quite a while back tho, so iono if they'd still have any)
-- RichardX
Yeah, yeah, offtopic, mod me down baby!
"It's such an advanced technology at a shockingly low price"
So, if I get this right, these things are just the right size to be able to lose down the back of the sofa/through a hole in your pocket/get swallowed by the cat.. they store less than normal CD's (500 Mb? I'd be excited if it was 500 Gb, or even just 5 Gb), they cost much more than normal CD's ($10 to make?!), and they store data on both sides, hence either expensive readers to read both sides, or having to flip the damn thing over every five minutes to read the other side..
Isn't improvement wonderful:)
Also.. "just bigger than a quarter and can store up to five music albums."
This thing stores 500 Mb which equates to 5 music albums?.. okay, in that case, yer bog-standard common or garden 650 Mb cd must be able to store 6.5 music albums, then, eh?
And I'm sorry, but I can't resist this:
"But the company has shrunk the unit, which is about the size a Palm Pilot, to roughly the size of a small diamond."
A small diamond? of course. why not the same size as a small dog poo, or a small piece of mouldy cheese?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, here we go again with the standard /.
1. Create huge storage medium
2. ???
3. Profit!!@#!~~!
4. Get sued by the RIAA/MPAA and end up broke
5. Give up on technology, turn to religion
6. ???
7. Prophet!!@#!~~!
Type story. or something. but anyways, enough inanity.. my point is. Am I the only one who fails to be excited by this stuff? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to dump the whole contents of my puter onto a single disc. But I can't help feeling the future, surely, must be solid state? What about those cool little Thumbdrive things (y'know. Size of your thumb, has a USB plug on it... stick it in yer puter, copy data, stick it in yer pocket).. sure, right now they're hellish expensive, and the biggest capacity you can find is somewhere around the 128 or 256 Mb mark.. but the rapid uptake of digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, and similar devices has already driven down the price of Compactflash, Smartmedia, and so on.
Question is, how long until we can pay harddrive style pound (or dollar) to megabyte ratios for these things. No, I don't expect it Real Soon Now, but it seems the most effective future solution to me.
Well, anyways, just my thoughts.
Check this out.. it's called Boong-ga Boong-ga, and it must be the first game to come with a finger-and-arse controller. When's the home version coming out?
... a wired article.. and a Register article
Here's some shots and info...
Quoth Verteiron: Actually, it might not be that bad. Just drain it and put it in a box. Looks like most of the components are plastic, so it'll be pretty light. When you get to where you're going, just fill it from the tap.
Mmmmyesss.. but look at the size of one transistor on that thing. If you're planning on making anything capable of running Quake 3 at a decent FPS, you're going to need several inconveniently large buildings to store it in, and a good couple of oceans to run through it...
>a woman in scotland was sued for causing someone else trauma when she had an epilectic (sp?) fit
Yeah, this is true, and when I first saw the headlines, I was horrified: however. there's a little more to it than first meets the eye. The guy having a fit was driving his car at the time, and as a result, caused a low-speed crash. The woman recieved money for the damage to her car.. but yes, bizarrely, she also recieved money for "the mental trauma of seeing the man's contorted face while he was in the middle of a siezure"
It's to be expected. Where America leads the UK will follow. I give it 5 years max before suing people becomes the national sport.
As far as I'm aware, here in the UK you have a right to view any footage recorded of you on a CCTV camera so long as it's not a matter of national security or anything like that. The owner of the CCTV camera has a right to charge a fee for digging out the footage (around 10 UKP, I believe). Mark Thomas did a great job with this, forcing companies to dig through their CCTV archives, and found, not surprisingly, that most either claimed they had no footage of him (despite the fact that he had footage of himself being filmed by their CCTVs), or gave him incomplete footage (for example the company who had his removed with more-than-necessary force from their carpark, while in view of their CCTV)
Well, anyways. You have a right to see what they do, in the UK at least. Could be handy
Okay, as much as I like the sound of this as the next guy, let's take a realistic look at this:
...The graphic and sound quality of the data from Card-Es isn't amazing by any means...the data strip can only hold 2K of memory on the horizontal strip, 1K on the vertical...
:)
Your average NES game is between ~25k (very small game), and ~500k (only a few this big), with most clocking in around 128K of rom data.
Now, how much data do you reckon you can get from one of these cards?.. well, according to Pocket IGN
So, you're talking 3K per card. For a 25K game, (say, Tennis, or Donkey Kong) that's 9 cards (well, 8-and-a-third).. and if you want to play Kirby's Adventure - a whopping (by NES standards) 768K, then be prepared to scan in 256 cards!
Now maybe if they could find a way to use the WHOLE card, and both sides, at that, instead of just little strips across the edges - maybe then you'd get decent storage.. my guess is that way 25K-per-card should be easily achievable.. but as it stands now, the only NES related games you'll get are horribly stripped down subgame-esque versions.
However, there IS hope. Take a look at the GP32. Neat piece of handheld kit, more powerful (in many ways, less in others, but on the whole more..) than the GBA, it's aimed at homebrew developers - you can write your OWN code for it without any kind of dumbass linker setup, it uses smartmedia or CF (can't remember which) cards.. hell, there's even a DOOM port, a DivX player, and a NES emulator for it. What more d'ya want?
This is a pretty cool experiment in ALife/Evolution/etc. And it's got pretty 3d graphics & physics, too
Framsticks
Quoteth: "And to the person who submitted this article: Why the hell would you instal KaZaA? Don't you know KaZaA is loaded with Spyware? Or do you like having stuff installed without your knowledge?"
I use Kazaa without spyware. It's great - biggst filesharing network I've found (I have problems with WinMX). For the spyware-free Kazaa, see www.kazaalite.com
typo amendment: Standard palm res is more like 160*160, methinks
A while back I was in the States, and one of the things I wanted to do while I was there was to get a PDA - specifically the Clie PEG-S360, which isn't avaliable here in the UK - at least not anywhere that I've found. Anyways, while PDA shopping I visited a Target store, and was fairly surprised to see they were advertising the S360 as having a resolution of 800*600 - The higher-end Clie's have high-res screens (tho not, AFAIK -that- high res(?)), but the S360 is the same small res as all standard palms (160*100, methinks). When I asked one of the guys working there about it, he just muttered some kind of incoherent nonsense about certain software being able to use a higher resolution. Now -THAT- would be a really neat trick.
:)
/. readers will recognise echoes of this if they've ever been in a Dixons shop - not that any self-respecting /.er would)
Anyways, moral of the story is that I ended up getting my PDA elsewhere. For some crazy reason when I'm buying something from someone, I feel a bit more confident if they actually _have a clue_ about the product they're selling
(side note. Any fellow UK
Ah-ha! I had a vague feeling it was somewhere on gamespy, but wasn't sure.. thankies :)
-- RichardX
Yet more apologies to poor ol' Poe. He's having a rough time tonight..
-----------
Once upon a life so pointless, while I keyed my fingers jointless,
Joining many a dull and meaningless channel of IRC electric bore,
While I nodded, nearly sleeping, suddenly there came a beeping,
As of some automaton creeping, creeping 'hind my mon-i-tor.
T'was a private chat request, blinking on my mon-i-tor-
Only this, and nothing more.
Ah, so distinctly I recall hoping that this modem call
Came from some hot babe that wished to ball!
Eagerly I wished for action; I felt the need for satisfaction
From Hot4U or Do!Me5, hrnygrl...I need it live-
A girl who's live, shut-in and lonely; garbed in silky panties only,
Only panties, nothing more.
(Of course I know they're all disgusting- saggy butts and teeth-a-crusting.
But so am I- that's why we hide in cyberspace, we all want for nothing more!
We may be geeks and friendless losers, this little band of IRC Kr00zers,
But we *have* libidos, just like you.
We need to cuddle, kiss and coo-
We need to type and stroke and spew.)
Presently my doink was humming; I had a hand that needed gumming-
"Madam," typed I, "or Sir??!!, truly cybersex I do implore;
But the fact is I was sleeping, and so gently you came beeping,
And so faintly you came beeping, beeping on my mon-i-tor,
But anyway...Let's Do It!"- ( and wait 3 minutes, 4...)
The 'Status' screen there, nothing more.
Deep into a funk I fell, I had been sent to Loser Hell,
Torture, evil torture I'd never dared to dream before;
Turned down for sex on IRC! Even MUTANTS would not sleep with me!
And the only floating word there was the auto "Ping!"
"Ping" I whispered-the server sent the auto "Ping!"-
To tell it not a thing was wrong, my PC sent the auto "Pong".
Back into the channel turning, my cheeks quite red, my forehead burning,
Soon again I heard a beeping somewhat louder than before!
"Surely," thought I, "surely *now* a partner willing!"
"Tell me how you rub your breasts", typed I, "and my fantasy explore-
Let my head fall 'twixt your legs...Please be my hot electric whore!"
Again-just 'Status', nothing more.
A tantrum here (I flung my coffee), Why Do These Sluts Refuse To Boff Me?
Suddenly appeared a message that sent my wanking heart a-soar
"SEXYFEM invites you/we'll have sex until we turn blue/to join the channel #raven/where we will surely cyberscrew!"
And so I rushed to join the FEM, my new found love, my horny gem-
(The things we typed I'll not repeat- suffice to say We Beat Our Meat.)
Afterwards, we sat and smoked..."Was It Good For You?" I suavely joked.
"Oh yes, my dear-you are Da Man! I think I love you, we need a plan-
A plan to meet in Real Life-you'll be my STUD, I'll be your WIFE!"
"Oh yes" typed I, for I was smitten-
"Please marry me my pookiekitten! Fly to my city, Tuesday next!
We'll Bone In PERSON, Not In TEXT!"
Horrible! Waiting all that week, I thought suspense would kill this geek-
But finally the Day was here. I could almost smell my FEM was near.
Near she was. The plane-It Landed. The doors-They Parted. My love-Appeared. My sanity-Departed.
For standing on that airline runway...Horrid...Sick...Uncanny...
My Loser Love, My Nerdly Mate- turned out to be...MY GRANNY!!!!!!!!!!
Hmm.. looking through this thread reminded me of a story I read ages back about a haunted arcade machine in a coin-op - something to do with a guy who kept trying to beat a certain lap-time on an Atari Sprint machine, but could never quite shave off that all-important last tenth of a second.. anyways, the guy then died in a car crash. The night he died, the machine turned itself on, played itself, the lap time he'd been striving to beat, put his initials in the high score table, screamed, then turned itself off, never to work again.
I've scoured google to find the story again, but had no joy.. so no link-karma for me then, eh?.. but if anyone can find it, pls post the URL.. as I remember it was a fairly entertaining yarn.
-- RichardX
What will is that, then?
Oh!.. You must mean those thousands actively protesting up and down the streets holding signs saying "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear!" and chanting "What do we want? Whatever the government tells us!" "When do we want it? Whenever's convenient for them!"
Sorry, but from where I'm sitting, it looks like the collective will is too busy being apathetic, and watching the home shopping channel.
IANAA (American). I'm from the UK, but this stuff really disturbs me, not least because the USA has just given itself carte blanche to listen in to the world, not just itself. And what do you think Tony Blair (our Prime Minister) is going to do about the fact that no UK sourced internet data transmissions are secure now, even if of a highly confidential/sensitive/completely-innocent nature? Why he's going to smile, nod, and wait 'till Bush says jump, so he can ask "how high?", same as always.
And, one last thought...
It seems to me in short that:
These laws are being made to stamp out terrorists.
Of course, prevention is better than cure..
So let's stamp out those who -may become- terrorists.
Like.. people who speak out against these new laws! Obviously if they're complaining about them, they must have a guilty conscience - why on earth would an innocent person have a problem with giving up all their privacy?
Just a thought.
Another "must check out" is Psycle [pastnotecut.org] - similar to Jeskola Buzz, but much, much more friendly to the creative process (entering all the hex in Buzz's sequence editor drains my brain), and likewise, free as in beer.
"MP3 isn't a win really. Price-wise I can get a cheapish MD recorder for £79. The cheapest 64MB MP3 player is £230"
:)
Eep! Where are you shopping?!
A couple of months back, I got a 128 Mb MP3 player for just over £100 - plus, being a dodgy taiwanese one, it can be used as a l33ch t00l - no restrictions on uploading/downloading mp3s or other files on it. Okay, so it's not the flashiest player out there, but it does everything I want, it's USB, it's got good sound, and it's great for taking over to a friend's place, and coming back with 128 Mb of new MP3's without having to go through blank CD's like there's no tomorrow
(fwiw, got it from www.scan.co.uk, model name is Cooltrax. It was quite a while back tho, so iono if they'd still have any)
-- RichardX
Yeah, yeah, offtopic, mod me down baby!
Woo, I'm excited..
:)
"It's such an advanced technology at a shockingly low price"
So, if I get this right, these things are just the right size to be able to lose down the back of the sofa/through a hole in your pocket/get swallowed by the cat.. they store less than normal CD's (500 Mb? I'd be excited if it was 500 Gb, or even just 5 Gb), they cost much more than normal CD's ($10 to make?!), and they store data on both sides, hence either expensive readers to read both sides, or having to flip the damn thing over every five minutes to read the other side..
Isn't improvement wonderful
Also.. "just bigger than a quarter and can store up to five music albums."
This thing stores 500 Mb which equates to 5 music albums?.. okay, in that case, yer bog-standard common or garden 650 Mb cd must be able to store 6.5 music albums, then, eh?
And I'm sorry, but I can't resist this:
"But the company has shrunk the unit, which is about the size a Palm Pilot, to roughly the size of a small diamond."
A small diamond? of course. why not the same size as a small dog poo, or a small piece of mouldy cheese?
-- RichardX