It could be argued that ABS and stability control help the driver maintain control. Locking up the tires is rarely, if ever a good thing. And unless you're on the track, and need the car to be twitchy, stability control is usually a good thing. Again, it helps the driver stay in control. Your average driver, on average roads, is likely to be out of control in the situations where stability control would take effect. Or, on the verge of going out of control.
As long as we're basing everything on anecdotal evidence....
I don't think the average person is at all completely clueless about HD. Even my least tech-savvy of friends and family know that HD provides a much superior picture, and want HDTV setups. My mom, who usually is pretty complacent when it comes to purchasing TVs (in the past, she and my dad would just buy one when theirs broke, and never got anything fancy) now really wants an HDTV (preferably flat panel). Joe Sixpack may be clueless when it comes to the differences LCD, Plasma, 1080i, 720p, etc, but I think just about everyone knows that generally HDTVs==better picture quality. Everyone I know can easily recognize the difference between SD and HD, and readily recognize when something is in HD (without having even to show the SD feed first)
Where did I say computers were directly created as a result of the space program? The fact is, the space program has contributed to everything from computers to other materials. Just because the space program didn't directly create something doesn't mean it had no influence in it's advancement. You say that the space program is itself partly a spin off of military applications. So what? Again, just because the space program may be a spin off of military purposes, doesn't mean it hasn't influenced advancement of other fields. Solar panels, water purification, air filtration, among other technologiess have been helped by the space program.
There is no lift being generated by an satellite in orbit, and therefore it isn't flight. If it's not in orbit, then I'm pretty sure it's referred to as "falling", not "flying".
----------
So what do you call UFOs in space? Unidentified Falling Objects?
Or what about vehicles that fly via other methods other than lift? Such as rockets? Or aerostatically using buoyancy? (to quote wikipedia) Or if it was an alien craft with high tech such as say anti gravity?
I don't think it's necessary to take "Unidentified Flying Object" so literally. That, and lift isn't necessary for flight. To quote wikipedia again: "Flight is the process by which an animal or object achieves sustained movement either through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere, in the case of spaceflight."
Sorta OT, but I've been wanting a marriage of a Cintiq and a laptop for awhile. I've thought it would be a good product for Apple, what with the marketing writing itself: "The SketchBook". That, and Apple likes to target the artist/graphic design crowd. I have no idea how tablet laptops compare in terms of their resolution (input resolution, not display resolution) and pressure sensitivity (if any), but I'm guessing they're not quite to the level of a Cintiq (or a Graphire or Intuos). I'm sure such a device would be rather expensive, probably in the 4-5k dollar range, but I'd pick one up in a heartbeat to have a digital sketchbook to carry around.
Some of the social benefits of space exploration have helped raise our standard of living. A lot of the materials (and even computers) we use today that arguebly make life better, were directly and indirectly influenced and advanced by the space program.
Aren't the ends of the Surefires also designed with little "cut outs" that are for self defense as well? Not sure, but I think I saw as such in an ad or review for them in one of my dad's outdoor industry magazines.
I haven't played any console games with wheels, but I can confirm that racing sims on the PC with wheels and pedals can be quite taxing on the arms/wrists. I often play GTR2, F1 Challenge, and rFactor, and after a longer race, my hands/wrists and even arms can become quite sore. I often tend to grasp the wheel rather hard, and constantly clicking of the paddles to shift up/down would probably not be all that good for someone with arthritis. Especially when your shifting a thousand times or more over the course of the race. Of course, there's always the option to enable autoshifting.
That said, I find racing sims to be some of the funnest games out there. Takes a lot more skill and practice to master than the arcade type of racers (including the Gran Turismo series and Forza). Not only do you have to practice each track and learn every nuance, but the game is ever changing, even in a single race. The car becomes lighter the further into a stint, tires warm up, and wear, among other variables. Also, each car behaves differently, so there's always the challenge of mastering the car itself, and trying out different cars. Than there's the almost endless possibilities of car setup, and finding the best setup that works for you is a challenge all it's own.
Well, I did try your multiple DVD player idea, but I never could get the DVD playback properly sync'ed. That, and spending ~$100 dollars on 5 copies of the same movie just to hear it in surround sound.....
Anyway, back on topic myself... At my old apartment we had an Xbox 360, PS2, and a DVD player. The DVD player was part of one of the surround sound packages I mentioned. Before the 360 and surround sound (my roommate bought them at around the same time), we used a dedicated DVD player instead of the PS2 or original Xbox because it was much easier to use the remote than a controller. Before that, I used to use my PS2 as my DVD player, and one thing I found annoying was that often I'd pick up the controller and inadvertantly hit a button or two, which would fast forward, skip a chapter, stop, pause, etc the movie, which was annoying. Sure, it was my fault for doing so, but sometimes grabbing a remote is a lot easier than grabbing a controller, especially when you're not paying attention. Also, some people might get annoyed with something like a PS2 controller since it's not clearly labelled which button does what in terms of DVD controls.
Well, one reason to have multiple DVD players is that you can buy one of those cheap DVD/surround sound system packages. I know a few people who have setups like this.
Sorry, but "for marginal increase in picture quality" is just flat wrong. You can get some clear shots out of some nice P&S's, but DSLRs will have much better quality. Naturally, the better the DSLR and lenses, the better the quality. Of course, the higher quality lenses and cameras will cost more, but they will be more than "marginally better". The nature of the larger sensor and better optics options with a DSLR greatly surpass those of P&S cameras. To the average viewer, they may appear to be marginal improvements, but any discerning eye will be able to see the quality difference, and the quality of a P&S will stick out like a sore thumb. Heck, take a look at the difference between a stock Canon 300D and lens kit, and compare the picture quality with a P&S with the same megapixel capability. Clear difference. (Because, as anyone with a bit of knowledge will know, it's not all about the megapixels, but the sensors and optics)
Usually about 10 windows (give or take a few) here too.
Main (work) machine:
modo and/or Maya
Photoshop
Zbrush
Explorer for transferring texture files, 3d model files, etc.
musikCube for listening to music.
Secondary machine:
IRC client
Usually two or more instances of Firefox. I keep seperate windows open for seperate subjects. For instance, one Firefox window may have/. open, with tabs for the specific linked articles and/. discussion pages. Another Firefox window may have a Google Image Search or 3d.sk page for reference images, with tabs containing the actual images.
IM client, with one window open for the buddy list, and another with tabbed IM windows.
Though I don't own, or plan to buy a PSP, hopefully the PSP-PS3 integration with games isn't done as afterthoughts, or too much emphasis put on it so as to adversely(sp) affect other parts of the game. Things like a rear-view mirror, while it may sound like a good idea, seems kind of pointless to me. I'd rather have the rear view mirror on the screen, in front of me, at the top - Where you would expect a rear-view mirror to normally be in your field of view when driving. Unless you have some kind of special mount for the PSP, where the hell else are you going to put it? On the couch, next to you? On the coffee table? It just seems like one of those ideas that sounds cool until you actually think about it's usefullness.
Well, there may be very little to no content now, but those of us who actually do have common sense realise that there will be content available. Those with common sense may also realise that given the price of blu-ray stand alone players, the PS3 with it's ability to play games may not be that bad of a deal. I fail to see your arguement about excluding the *very* rich. You don't even have to be rich to be able to afford a PS3. A PS3 and a game to get started is around one paycheck for someone who makes ~50,000-60,000 USD a year. Last time I checked, that doesn't exactly put you into the "very rich" segment of the population.
In other words, those of us who actually do possess common sense are actually more open minded instead of being close minded as well as narrow minded like yourself.
Though I quickly get used to just about any controller (with the exception of the Xbox's early giant-size controllers) I've actually liked the design of the PS controller. I don't really experience the problems you say you have with driving games, and I played a lot of GT3 and 4.
You do have a point about being stagnant with the controller though. I don't think it necessarily needs a completely radical redesign, but it's barely even been an evolutionary process. Sure, the motion sensing could be cool, but like you said, it seems more of an afterthought, and I'm guessing it won't be heavily utilised by games, and could very well be implemented very poorly in a lot of games.
And for everyone who feels the same way as you, there's enough people who feel the opposite for the launch units to sell out. The point is, your three points may be valid to you, but they do not represent everyone. I'm not saying you implied they do, but so many people bring up such points as a reason why the PS3 will fail. I think the PS3 will do quite fine, because as we've seen with past consoles, people are willing to pay even 3x as much for one after they've sold out the initial launch units. As time goes on, the price will drop, and more and more people will begin to see "my desire does not justify the cost" point dwindle away.
Apparently hitting a moving target in a little box was too difficult for some users, so they switched to a wide-angle taser or something with "Shock the monkey". One click, one kill.
I pwned that game with my l33t aimbot and wallhacks, n00b.
Unless he has a proper lighting setup, it may actually take longer to clean up the photos of the documents than to simply scan them. Also, if the bills/reciepts/etc are of different sizes, he would have to zoom and fit it in frame, and crop the images among other considerations.
Slashdot Mirror
It could be argued that ABS and stability control help the driver maintain control. Locking up the tires is rarely, if ever a good thing. And unless you're on the track, and need the car to be twitchy, stability control is usually a good thing. Again, it helps the driver stay in control. Your average driver, on average roads, is likely to be out of control in the situations where stability control would take effect. Or, on the verge of going out of control.
As long as we're basing everything on anecdotal evidence....
I don't think the average person is at all completely clueless about HD. Even my least tech-savvy of friends and family know that HD provides a much superior picture, and want HDTV setups. My mom, who usually is pretty complacent when it comes to purchasing TVs (in the past, she and my dad would just buy one when theirs broke, and never got anything fancy) now really wants an HDTV (preferably flat panel). Joe Sixpack may be clueless when it comes to the differences LCD, Plasma, 1080i, 720p, etc, but I think just about everyone knows that generally HDTVs==better picture quality. Everyone I know can easily recognize the difference between SD and HD, and readily recognize when something is in HD (without having even to show the SD feed first)
Where did I say computers were directly created as a result of the space program? The fact is, the space program has contributed to everything from computers to other materials. Just because the space program didn't directly create something doesn't mean it had no influence in it's advancement. You say that the space program is itself partly a spin off of military applications. So what? Again, just because the space program may be a spin off of military purposes, doesn't mean it hasn't influenced advancement of other fields. Solar panels, water purification, air filtration, among other technologiess have been helped by the space program.
----------
a satellite
There is no lift being generated by an satellite in orbit, and therefore it isn't flight. If it's not in orbit, then I'm pretty sure it's referred to as "falling", not "flying".
----------
So what do you call UFOs in space? Unidentified Falling Objects?
Or what about vehicles that fly via other methods other than lift? Such as rockets? Or aerostatically using buoyancy? (to quote wikipedia) Or if it was an alien craft with high tech such as say anti gravity?
I don't think it's necessary to take "Unidentified Flying Object" so literally. That, and lift isn't necessary for flight. To quote wikipedia again: "Flight is the process by which an animal or object achieves sustained movement either through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere, in the case of spaceflight."
Or one of the definitions of flying:
4. to travel in an aircraft or spacecraft.
Sorta OT, but I've been wanting a marriage of a Cintiq and a laptop for awhile. I've thought it would be a good product for Apple, what with the marketing writing itself: "The SketchBook". That, and Apple likes to target the artist/graphic design crowd. I have no idea how tablet laptops compare in terms of their resolution (input resolution, not display resolution) and pressure sensitivity (if any), but I'm guessing they're not quite to the level of a Cintiq (or a Graphire or Intuos). I'm sure such a device would be rather expensive, probably in the 4-5k dollar range, but I'd pick one up in a heartbeat to have a digital sketchbook to carry around.
Actually, I think it was an effort to kill off all the black bears whereas the polar (white) bears habitats survived just fine.
Some of the social benefits of space exploration have helped raise our standard of living. A lot of the materials (and even computers) we use today that arguebly make life better, were directly and indirectly influenced and advanced by the space program.
Aren't the ends of the Surefires also designed with little "cut outs" that are for self defense as well? Not sure, but I think I saw as such in an ad or review for them in one of my dad's outdoor industry magazines.
Herpes: It's not a bug, it's a feature!
I haven't played any console games with wheels, but I can confirm that racing sims on the PC with wheels and pedals can be quite taxing on the arms/wrists. I often play GTR2, F1 Challenge, and rFactor, and after a longer race, my hands/wrists and even arms can become quite sore. I often tend to grasp the wheel rather hard, and constantly clicking of the paddles to shift up/down would probably not be all that good for someone with arthritis. Especially when your shifting a thousand times or more over the course of the race. Of course, there's always the option to enable autoshifting.
That said, I find racing sims to be some of the funnest games out there. Takes a lot more skill and practice to master than the arcade type of racers (including the Gran Turismo series and Forza). Not only do you have to practice each track and learn every nuance, but the game is ever changing, even in a single race. The car becomes lighter the further into a stint, tires warm up, and wear, among other variables. Also, each car behaves differently, so there's always the challenge of mastering the car itself, and trying out different cars. Than there's the almost endless possibilities of car setup, and finding the best setup that works for you is a challenge all it's own.
Well, I did try your multiple DVD player idea, but I never could get the DVD playback properly sync'ed. That, and spending ~$100 dollars on 5 copies of the same movie just to hear it in surround sound.....
Anyway, back on topic myself... At my old apartment we had an Xbox 360, PS2, and a DVD player. The DVD player was part of one of the surround sound packages I mentioned. Before the 360 and surround sound (my roommate bought them at around the same time), we used a dedicated DVD player instead of the PS2 or original Xbox because it was much easier to use the remote than a controller. Before that, I used to use my PS2 as my DVD player, and one thing I found annoying was that often I'd pick up the controller and inadvertantly hit a button or two, which would fast forward, skip a chapter, stop, pause, etc the movie, which was annoying. Sure, it was my fault for doing so, but sometimes grabbing a remote is a lot easier than grabbing a controller, especially when you're not paying attention. Also, some people might get annoyed with something like a PS2 controller since it's not clearly labelled which button does what in terms of DVD controls.
I guess it makes me a youngin, but hearing "netcom" brings me back. I wasn't even a shell user, I was a puny ix'er.
Almost as sad as your failure at the concept of a joke?
Well, one reason to have multiple DVD players is that you can buy one of those cheap DVD/surround sound system packages. I know a few people who have setups like this.
Sorry, but "for marginal increase in picture quality" is just flat wrong. You can get some clear shots out of some nice P&S's, but DSLRs will have much better quality. Naturally, the better the DSLR and lenses, the better the quality. Of course, the higher quality lenses and cameras will cost more, but they will be more than "marginally better". The nature of the larger sensor and better optics options with a DSLR greatly surpass those of P&S cameras. To the average viewer, they may appear to be marginal improvements, but any discerning eye will be able to see the quality difference, and the quality of a P&S will stick out like a sore thumb. Heck, take a look at the difference between a stock Canon 300D and lens kit, and compare the picture quality with a P&S with the same megapixel capability. Clear difference. (Because, as anyone with a bit of knowledge will know, it's not all about the megapixels, but the sensors and optics)
Usually about 10 windows (give or take a few) here too.
/. open, with tabs for the specific linked articles and /. discussion pages. Another Firefox window may have a Google Image Search or 3d.sk page for reference images, with tabs containing the actual images.
Main (work) machine:
modo and/or Maya
Photoshop
Zbrush
Explorer for transferring texture files, 3d model files, etc.
musikCube for listening to music.
Secondary machine:
IRC client
Usually two or more instances of Firefox. I keep seperate windows open for seperate subjects. For instance, one Firefox window may have
IM client, with one window open for the buddy list, and another with tabbed IM windows.
Though I don't own, or plan to buy a PSP, hopefully the PSP-PS3 integration with games isn't done as afterthoughts, or too much emphasis put on it so as to adversely(sp) affect other parts of the game. Things like a rear-view mirror, while it may sound like a good idea, seems kind of pointless to me. I'd rather have the rear view mirror on the screen, in front of me, at the top - Where you would expect a rear-view mirror to normally be in your field of view when driving. Unless you have some kind of special mount for the PSP, where the hell else are you going to put it? On the couch, next to you? On the coffee table? It just seems like one of those ideas that sounds cool until you actually think about it's usefullness.
Well, there may be very little to no content now, but those of us who actually do have common sense realise that there will be content available. Those with common sense may also realise that given the price of blu-ray stand alone players, the PS3 with it's ability to play games may not be that bad of a deal. I fail to see your arguement about excluding the *very* rich. You don't even have to be rich to be able to afford a PS3. A PS3 and a game to get started is around one paycheck for someone who makes ~50,000-60,000 USD a year. Last time I checked, that doesn't exactly put you into the "very rich" segment of the population.
In other words, those of us who actually do possess common sense are actually more open minded instead of being close minded as well as narrow minded like yourself.
Though I quickly get used to just about any controller (with the exception of the Xbox's early giant-size controllers) I've actually liked the design of the PS controller. I don't really experience the problems you say you have with driving games, and I played a lot of GT3 and 4.
You do have a point about being stagnant with the controller though. I don't think it necessarily needs a completely radical redesign, but it's barely even been an evolutionary process. Sure, the motion sensing could be cool, but like you said, it seems more of an afterthought, and I'm guessing it won't be heavily utilised by games, and could very well be implemented very poorly in a lot of games.
And for everyone who feels the same way as you, there's enough people who feel the opposite for the launch units to sell out. The point is, your three points may be valid to you, but they do not represent everyone. I'm not saying you implied they do, but so many people bring up such points as a reason why the PS3 will fail. I think the PS3 will do quite fine, because as we've seen with past consoles, people are willing to pay even 3x as much for one after they've sold out the initial launch units. As time goes on, the price will drop, and more and more people will begin to see "my desire does not justify the cost" point dwindle away.
Apparently hitting a moving target in a little box was too difficult for some users, so they switched to a wide-angle taser or something with "Shock the monkey". One click, one kill.
I pwned that game with my l33t aimbot and wallhacks, n00b.
Pffft, you role around in mayonnaise? Miracle Whip is where it's at. Loser.
Newegg has a 12x17 inch flatbed for $1042.99 USD.
2 E16838150035/
Specific model: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
I don't have any experience with Microtek scanners, but it'd probably get the job done.
I had to use a digital camera because flatbed scanners that do 11x17 or larger are extremely expensive, they're like $3000 or more.
They're closer to 1000-2500 dollars than 3000 dollars. At least for consumer equipment.
Unless he has a proper lighting setup, it may actually take longer to clean up the photos of the documents than to simply scan them. Also, if the bills/reciepts/etc are of different sizes, he would have to zoom and fit it in frame, and crop the images among other considerations.