I remember back a long time ago on Reading Rainbow Levar(sp?) Burton visiting a research lab and them showing him a working model of holographic memory. I'm not sure which episode it was but I remember them saying we would have holographic memory "by the end of the decade"
Damn vapor...
(and no I'm not mixing this up with star trek)
The real solution to this problem wont be seen until the tools to develop graphical games are as easy to use as the tools for IF (interactive fiction) Many of the stories in IF are recognized as truly intriguing worthwile reads because its possible to create IF with just one person. Once the tools are in place for anyone to make a game creative storytelling will be much simpler.
I can just see this processor, mixed with a bit of Mark Tildens analog AI research to really advance Artificial Intelligence. For the uninitiated Mark Tilden discovered that by tying a group of only four or so transistors and sending a regular analog signal through it he could get small robots to walk, and indeed do an amazing number of things, including optimize it's path and even remember it's solution for a small amount of time(about 3 or 4 seconds). Not only that but when given a certain stimulus need (example make them solar powered and have only one are of light they would compete with other bots to gain access to better light. Indeed a lot of the behavior that these little bots produce is so complex and life like that he has spent a long time just documenting behaviour. Now give a set of these bot's circuits the ability to "optimize" the speed of the signal, and a few stimuly and let it play. If the stimulous was for "human approval" some input from a human indicating good or bad.... Heck what do I know, I'm non AI researcher but it always sounded cool to me:-)
For more information on Mark Tilden go to
BEAM Online
Ethereal is great for non switched networks but if your using a switched network I would recommend you try Ettercap, a small program I found on Sourceforge that works wonders with switches. Slightly buggy but worth a look see
Ok so lets be honest for a second. Yes I use P2P to download music, usenet to downlad games and movies, and my xbox has a mod chip in it so I can play ripped versions of games.
So?
I also own more CD's than any of my "legit" friends. 90% of the games I owned illegally that I played more than a few rounds of I own legally. See I'm one of the MAJORITY of pirates that only buys something if he enjoys it. In fact I refuse to buy an album if I haven't downloaded the tracks and decided I like the majority of the songs. I wont buy a game unless I enjoyed the game enough with a few friends at a lan party to get a copy and play online. Does the industry loose money off me? Only if they make a crappy game, or try to sell me a CD for 20 bucks that has two songs worth listening to. On the other hand I also have more stuff that no one has heard of (ever heard of the band Maktub on the Top 40? what about the Apperitions?) It comes down to this. If I get an illegal copy of something its because I either a) can't obtain it legaly (for instance episodes of my favorite shows that don't have a DVD release) b) want to try the WHOLE product, not some little sample that gives no idea what the final product is like. or c) sample something that no one has heard of before.
Ultimately I only buy things I think are worth the price charged.
As a matter of fact I just found a maybe not so much legal, as a justifiable use for a keylogger. My girfriend lives at home with her mom, 6 year old brother, and her mom's boyfriend. Being the geek I am I took the time to help clean their system of spyware and the like when I ran into a few child pornography pictures in the recycle bin. Seeing as they have a 6 year old child living there I wanted to keep an eye on their system to find out where the pictures had come from. Sure enough three days later I got a log in the email of the boyfriend chatting with a young child online. I informed the mother, and the police and now the asshole is up on child porn charges. Obviously they couldn't use the keylog information but the fact that the pictures were on there was enough.
As an ex Dell laptop user and current Toshiba Laptop User, let me recomend you stop off at the nearest electronics dealer and pick up a Toshiba laptop. I've had four laptops from them, and I've never had a single problem with any of them. They are stable, WELL constructed (example, instead of the crappy laptop speakers that Dell includes they have Harmon Kardon speakers, with a built in subwoofer, not exactly audiophile status but a hell of a lot better than most.) My current laptop has a 17' lcd who's native res is 1600x1200x32 Everywhere I go the first thing that people comment on is the quality of my screen. That on top of the fact that there is a minimum of crappy software installed, and a tech support line that is actually helpful puts Toshiba at the top for me.
Actually speaking from experience I can tell you that the Ipaq screen is excelent for viewing movies. There is a usenet group specifically oriented to ripping movies for the handheld and they are fitting whole movies with nice sound and exactly the right res for the PPC in about 128 meg. With my 512 card I can easily fit a few episodes of a TV show, without commercials, on it (heck I have the whole first season of Family Guy on it right now.) Cartoons of course look the best but a movie is still watchable on it. No it's not a suround sound dynamic visual spectacle, but with most TV shows and sitcoms your only watching it for something to do at lunch or the like. No it's not like an MP3 player where you watch something while doing something else, but it's great for those long flights or boring meetings ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lunches. Basically an episode of your favorite TV show beats twiddling your thumbs any day
When I initially puchased my Ipaq, I planned on using it for Organizing my contacts appointments etc (bs I wanted a fancy GBA and I know it) I have found though that the primary uses I have for my Ipaq is for wathing episodes of some of my favorite shows (when ripped properly a movie tends to look pretty decent, at least enough to be able to enjoy an episode or two of my favorite shows at lunch) and suprisingly enough reading. The screen is just the right brightness that I harldy ever read a physical book anymore. The vast majority of books are available somewhere out there in ebook form, and there's nothing like the ability to read at night without a fancy booklight while the wife is asleep. To be honest the only game I've spent any signifigant time playing is Nethack, whose free PPC version is quite enjoyable. Oh and it keeps my bookwork and appoints too... yeah thats it.
Frankly I'm all for them never releasing an IPO. Sure it brings in extra cash in the short term but in the long term, your buisness focus shifts from your product and customers to the whims of your shareholders. One of the primary reasons people use google that I've seen isn't the qualit of searches, it's the lack of abusive adds, and genereal "customer friendly" enviroment that google provides. So the longer they put off selling stock the longer they don't have shareholders breathing down their necks for better profit margins.
Anyone who has read Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" knows that the events which kick off the 3rd World War are indeed a Siberean oil line being blown up, thus damaging their oil reserves unrepairably. Knowing Clancy's tendency to discover little details like this, and his incredibly acurate rendering of "What if" I can't say it would supprise me at all if this were a true event. Indeed the funniest thing to me is that Clancy except for a few years of ROTC never served in the military at all. (I believe he was an insurance salesman but I could eb wrong about that detail) When he first published his books the government tried to courtmarshall him only to find he had no military experience.
Not to step outside the Slashdot standard but remember, we do live in an open market. If Microsoft and intel try to pull this kind of stunt, even the most basic computer user is going to notice. ("Why can't I download my mp3's of the net etc.") Then along comes a company that sells a board that's compatible with the newer processors but lacks the DRM and guess what all the computer manufacturers will chose. Before you put on your tin hats remember that we still control what we purchase, and we only put up with what we allow big business to get away with.
I'm sure many people will flame over this but I think the economy is generaly on it's way up anyways. A lot of the early warning signs have started to show up (Real estate is at a 60 year high, manufacturing is showing vastly increased earnings etc.) I've often been suprised that many people blame the current administration for the downturn in the economy when to signifigantly change the path of the economy takes at least 3 years of work, in my opinion this is just the initial effects of the current economy plan coming in to action.
Flame if you want but remember, getting the economy to work has never been a set in stone progress... maybe Bush's plan really will work:-)
Sounds like the writer is just pissed he hasn't seen a lot of innovation in the most hyped games. True there are a lot of sequels and rehashes but that's true of any art form (art form in the literal definintion not asthetic) We all complain about the massive number of movie sequels books sequels (Harry Potter anyone?) but we tend to forget that innovation requires time, after all the addage "nothing new under the sun" is the rule more than a guidline. In games we get two types of innovation engine innovations (The new engines on Doom III and Half-Life are a real step to a truely interactive immersive world) and then we get gameplay inovation, which is much harder. After all gameplay doesn't require better graphics and we've had a long time to come up with new ideas. However I would say that there have been some very interesting gameplay innovations of late, what with planetside, which takes the MMO concept in a dirrection away from the lvl grind of an RPG to real world concept. Then we have GTA which while not new was a MAJOR change in the way we play games. So no not every new game coming out is highly innovative, they do use concepts we know to be fun.
I seem to recall reading this somewhere... oh here ooops:-)
On another note I got to watch one of these do there thing a while back, and while the concept seems cool they tend to bump into feet a litle too much. It's like a dog trying to hump your leg
Actually what the patent says is the delivery of a gift when the purchaser did not provide enough mailing information. But that's nothing more than your basic mail correction software like what we use here at my office. So the patent is still crap but it's not as stupid as it first sounds
To be honest I can't say I can see this.
When I decided to set up a linux server here at work I had near 0 experience at *nix minus the basic ls cp etc. After snagging a copy of Mandrake (mock all you want It's damn good) I covered the basics in the help files that came with Mandrake and had a samba server, apache server and a nice ssh server running on our little intranet in less then a week, now all I've ever really had to do is check the logs every once in a while, change the passwords, and play a little Amatage Tron ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H run a couple tests. It's now been up and running for a little over 10 months without a single reboot needed. The TCO on my admin of that server is next to nothing. On the other hand the XP ME 2k etc boxes are where I spend my time.
Noah was a drunk. Look what he accomplished. And no one's even asking you to build an ark. All you have to do is go to New Jersey. -Metatron (Dogma)
Slashdot Mirror
Glad to know the new version is out I will now avoid this thread before all the tampon jokes
"I'd rather have a nice thin and light Mini distro rather than a bloody huge Maxi"
DAMN
A +5 Insightful comment about PORN?!?!
and behold the final sign of the apocalypse is manifest.
I remember back a long time ago on Reading Rainbow Levar(sp?) Burton visiting a research lab and them showing him a working model of holographic memory. I'm not sure which episode it was but I remember them saying we would have holographic memory "by the end of the decade" Damn vapor... (and no I'm not mixing this up with star trek)
Wait, lemme go get the marshmallows.... MMMM smores
Ok go ahead
The real solution to this problem wont be seen until the tools to develop graphical games are as easy to use as the tools for IF (interactive fiction) Many of the stories in IF are recognized as truly intriguing worthwile reads because its possible to create IF with just one person. Once the tools are in place for anyone to make a game creative storytelling will be much simpler.
I can just see this processor, mixed with a bit of Mark Tildens analog AI research to really advance Artificial Intelligence. For the uninitiated Mark Tilden discovered that by tying a group of only four or so transistors and sending a regular analog signal through it he could get small robots to walk, and indeed do an amazing number of things, including optimize it's path and even remember it's solution for a small amount of time(about 3 or 4 seconds). Not only that but when given a certain stimulus need (example make them solar powered and have only one are of light they would compete with other bots to gain access to better light. Indeed a lot of the behavior that these little bots produce is so complex and life like that he has spent a long time just documenting behaviour. Now give a set of these bot's circuits the ability to "optimize" the speed of the signal, and a few stimuly and let it play. If the stimulous was for "human approval" some input from a human indicating good or bad.... Heck what do I know, I'm non AI researcher but it always sounded cool to me :-)
For more information on Mark Tilden go to
BEAM Online
Ethereal is great for non switched networks but if your using a switched network I would recommend you try Ettercap, a small program I found on Sourceforge that works wonders with switches. Slightly buggy but worth a look see
Ok so lets be honest for a second. Yes I use P2P to download music, usenet to downlad games and movies, and my xbox has a mod chip in it so I can play ripped versions of games. So? I also own more CD's than any of my "legit" friends. 90% of the games I owned illegally that I played more than a few rounds of I own legally. See I'm one of the MAJORITY of pirates that only buys something if he enjoys it. In fact I refuse to buy an album if I haven't downloaded the tracks and decided I like the majority of the songs. I wont buy a game unless I enjoyed the game enough with a few friends at a lan party to get a copy and play online. Does the industry loose money off me? Only if they make a crappy game, or try to sell me a CD for 20 bucks that has two songs worth listening to. On the other hand I also have more stuff that no one has heard of (ever heard of the band Maktub on the Top 40? what about the Apperitions?) It comes down to this. If I get an illegal copy of something its because I either a) can't obtain it legaly (for instance episodes of my favorite shows that don't have a DVD release) b) want to try the WHOLE product, not some little sample that gives no idea what the final product is like. or c) sample something that no one has heard of before. Ultimately I only buy things I think are worth the price charged.
As a matter of fact I just found a maybe not so much legal, as a justifiable use for a keylogger. My girfriend lives at home with her mom, 6 year old brother, and her mom's boyfriend. Being the geek I am I took the time to help clean their system of spyware and the like when I ran into a few child pornography pictures in the recycle bin. Seeing as they have a 6 year old child living there I wanted to keep an eye on their system to find out where the pictures had come from. Sure enough three days later I got a log in the email of the boyfriend chatting with a young child online. I informed the mother, and the police and now the asshole is up on child porn charges. Obviously they couldn't use the keylog information but the fact that the pictures were on there was enough.
As an ex Dell laptop user and current Toshiba Laptop User, let me recomend you stop off at the nearest electronics dealer and pick up a Toshiba laptop. I've had four laptops from them, and I've never had a single problem with any of them. They are stable, WELL constructed (example, instead of the crappy laptop speakers that Dell includes they have Harmon Kardon speakers, with a built in subwoofer, not exactly audiophile status but a hell of a lot better than most.) My current laptop has a 17' lcd who's native res is 1600x1200x32 Everywhere I go the first thing that people comment on is the quality of my screen. That on top of the fact that there is a minimum of crappy software installed, and a tech support line that is actually helpful puts Toshiba at the top for me.
Actually speaking from experience I can tell you that the Ipaq screen is excelent for viewing movies. There is a usenet group specifically oriented to ripping movies for the handheld and they are fitting whole movies with nice sound and exactly the right res for the PPC in about 128 meg. With my 512 card I can easily fit a few episodes of a TV show, without commercials, on it (heck I have the whole first season of Family Guy on it right now.) Cartoons of course look the best but a movie is still watchable on it. No it's not a suround sound dynamic visual spectacle, but with most TV shows and sitcoms your only watching it for something to do at lunch or the like. No it's not like an MP3 player where you watch something while doing something else, but it's great for those long flights or boring meetings ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lunches. Basically an episode of your favorite TV show beats twiddling your thumbs any day
When I initially puchased my Ipaq, I planned on using it for Organizing my contacts appointments etc (bs I wanted a fancy GBA and I know it) I have found though that the primary uses I have for my Ipaq is for wathing episodes of some of my favorite shows (when ripped properly a movie tends to look pretty decent, at least enough to be able to enjoy an episode or two of my favorite shows at lunch) and suprisingly enough reading. The screen is just the right brightness that I harldy ever read a physical book anymore. The vast majority of books are available somewhere out there in ebook form, and there's nothing like the ability to read at night without a fancy booklight while the wife is asleep. To be honest the only game I've spent any signifigant time playing is Nethack, whose free PPC version is quite enjoyable. Oh and it keeps my bookwork and appoints too... yeah thats it.
Frankly I'm all for them never releasing an IPO. Sure it brings in extra cash in the short term but in the long term, your buisness focus shifts from your product and customers to the whims of your shareholders. One of the primary reasons people use google that I've seen isn't the qualit of searches, it's the lack of abusive adds, and genereal "customer friendly" enviroment that google provides. So the longer they put off selling stock the longer they don't have shareholders breathing down their necks for better profit margins.
For those of us that feel the government is not as out to get us as big corporations here is a link to the CIA account of the event.
Anyone who has read Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" knows that the events which kick off the 3rd World War are indeed a Siberean oil line being blown up, thus damaging their oil reserves unrepairably. Knowing Clancy's tendency to discover little details like this, and his incredibly acurate rendering of "What if" I can't say it would supprise me at all if this were a true event. Indeed the funniest thing to me is that Clancy except for a few years of ROTC never served in the military at all. (I believe he was an insurance salesman but I could eb wrong about that detail) When he first published his books the government tried to courtmarshall him only to find he had no military experience.
Not to step outside the Slashdot standard but remember, we do live in an open market. If Microsoft and intel try to pull this kind of stunt, even the most basic computer user is going to notice. ("Why can't I download my mp3's of the net etc.") Then along comes a company that sells a board that's compatible with the newer processors but lacks the DRM and guess what all the computer manufacturers will chose. Before you put on your tin hats remember that we still control what we purchase, and we only put up with what we allow big business to get away with.
I would say this is directly linked to our obesity problems
badum DUM
I'm sure many people will flame over this but I think the economy is generaly on it's way up anyways. A lot of the early warning signs have started to show up (Real estate is at a 60 year high, manufacturing is showing vastly increased earnings etc.) I've often been suprised that many people blame the current administration for the downturn in the economy when to signifigantly change the path of the economy takes at least 3 years of work, in my opinion this is just the initial effects of the current economy plan coming in to action.
:-)
Flame if you want but remember, getting the economy to work has never been a set in stone progress... maybe Bush's plan really will work
Sounds like the writer is just pissed he hasn't seen a lot of innovation in the most hyped games. True there are a lot of sequels and rehashes but that's true of any art form (art form in the literal definintion not asthetic) We all complain about the massive number of movie sequels books sequels (Harry Potter anyone?) but we tend to forget that innovation requires time, after all the addage "nothing new under the sun" is the rule more than a guidline. In games we get two types of innovation engine innovations (The new engines on Doom III and Half-Life are a real step to a truely interactive immersive world) and then we get gameplay inovation, which is much harder. After all gameplay doesn't require better graphics and we've had a long time to come up with new ideas. However I would say that there have been some very interesting gameplay innovations of late, what with planetside, which takes the MMO concept in a dirrection away from the lvl grind of an RPG to real world concept. Then we have GTA which while not new was a MAJOR change in the way we play games. So no not every new game coming out is highly innovative, they do use concepts we know to be fun.
:-)
IN SUMMARY
Quit Whining and be patient
I seem to recall reading this somewhere... oh here ooops :-)
On another note I got to watch one of these do there thing a while back, and while the concept seems cool they tend to bump into feet a litle too much. It's like a dog trying to hump your leg
am I the only one that finds it Ironic that one of the videos that really kicked off the VHS craze is the last to DVD?
Yes but any credit the Acadamy gets for recognizing this was lost when they gave eminem the award for best soundtrack over Chicago
That gets my vote for the WTF?!?! catagory
Actually what the patent says is the delivery of a gift when the purchaser did not provide enough mailing information. But that's nothing more than your basic mail correction software like what we use here at my office. So the patent is still crap but it's not as stupid as it first sounds
To be honest I can't say I can see this.
When I decided to set up a linux server here at work I had near 0 experience at *nix minus the basic ls cp etc. After snagging a copy of Mandrake (mock all you want It's damn good) I covered the basics in the help files that came with Mandrake and had a samba server, apache server and a nice ssh server running on our little intranet in less then a week, now all I've ever really had to do is check the logs every once in a while, change the passwords, and play a little Amatage Tron ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H run a couple tests. It's now been up and running for a little over 10 months without a single reboot needed. The TCO on my admin of that server is next to nothing. On the other hand the XP ME 2k etc boxes are where I spend my time.
Noah was a drunk. Look what he accomplished. And no one's even asking you to build an ark. All you have to do is go to New Jersey.
-Metatron (Dogma)
Now that we have quantum cyptography it looks like we finally have reached the "uncrackable" code.