I ran across a plugin for the web that claimed it could be inserted with a single line of HTML code!!! Being truthful, they should have said "..inserted with only a single line of HTML code that's roughly 150 characters long!"
"I know it's slightly offtopic, but what TabletPC do you have that hits 1600x1200 and is still cheaper than a 15" Cintiq?"
I communicated poorly. I have a 1400 by 1050 (still better than 1280...) Toshiba M-200. It cost me $1,800. The price of the 15" version recently dropped from $1800 to $1,500, making it a bit cheaper, but it only does 1024 by 768.
The bare minimum I would have needed was the 1280 version, but I'm much happier with the M-200. Plus it's a great little laptop.
"WACOM is discontinuing the Cintiq line. So, lot of good this is..."
That's a pity. Oh well. I nearly bought one of those. Unfortunately, the resolution was too low (I really like my 1600 by 1200) and the price was too high. I bought a TabletPC instead, no regrets there, and it was cheaper and higher res than the Cintiq.
I guess what I'm saying is I'm not all that surprised.
"Of course, we must also realize that the popularity of the PS1 compared to the N64 was probably due to this 'feature'..."
Um, I worked at a game retailer when the PS1 was released. If people were buying PS1s to easily pirate games, they were spending a hell of a lot of legit money on top of it.
"In the same way that gravity purposely decides what's balanced, and what will topple."
Doubtful as gravity's goals don't change like evolution's does.
Don't get me wrong, I understand your point. But likening evolution to physics is a bit uneven. I mean, name something other than evolution that strives to become better or more advanced. Gravity? No. It just sits there attracting mass. (Note: I'm not trying to 'debate and be right' with my post here. Rebuttals invited and considered. I'm feeling open minded tonight.)
"*it's equally likely we were created out of mud 6000 years ago and fossils are the result of God's sense of humour."
Heh. If one were to debate with you, they could point out that the oil we have to day has.. pardon the experession.. fueled a lot of conflict that started at the turn of the millineum.
"One strange thing I've noticed when teaching and attending Emergency Medical Services (read 'ambulance service') classes is that there are a higher number of lefties then the general population."
It's a lot harder to run with left-handed scissors than the general populace realizes.
Well maybe I answered a little too hastily. My mouse did try to take out my cat once. I have a little velcro tie on it so I can neatly coil it up for trips in the laptop bag. One day, my kitten thought a fuzzy velcro strip was too much of a temptation to resist. He hopped several times, taking a swipe each time. Success! He grabbed it and pulled the cable. The mouse slid over the edge of the desk. In the moment it lost contact with the desk, the red light suddenly flared up, causing the "deer in the headlights" effect in my poor kitten before *WHAP*, he saw stars.
The N-64 ran on a 64-bit 93 mhz MIPS processor by Silicon Graphics. 64 bits was not only not a marketing ploy, but it resulted in superior graphics to boot. Nobody's challening Nintendo's 64-bit-claim-to-fame.
I read that as "Disturbing In-House Engineering Code". Any chance we can talk about that, too?
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
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· Score: 1
"With a good PDA, you get better resolution than normal text,"
Man, I remember thinking MS's (or whoever it was that originally developed it) ClearText was a gimmick until I read an ebook.
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
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· Score: 1
"don't see ebooks catching on unless there's a sensible way to read them. Reading from a screen just isn't conducive to enjoyment of a book."
Depends on what tickles your fancy, I suppose. I'm actually quite enamored with the idea of e-books. A few years ago I purchased a PocketPC and read Tom Sawyer on it. It was great! I could hold the unit with one hand instead of having to force the pages to stay open. Page turning was a matter of using the little thumb wheel. When I shut it off, it remembered my place. I didn't need to have a light on in the bedroom because the screen was backlit. I could highlight passages and make a note of them. Though I doubt most would find that interesting, I do dog-ear my books fairly regularly when something I want to look at later appears. On top of all that, it fit easily in my pocket and I could store a bunch of books there.
If only at the time there had been more e-books, I would have been quite the happy camper. Sadly, my PocketPC has moved on. But when the higher resolution PPCs come down in price, I'm quite looking forward to reading ebooks again. Paperbacks are a pain in the ass in comparison. (Note: At least with my reading habits. I don't read in the tub.:P)
"This treads a dangerous line where students attempt to solve problems with green screens and special effects, ignoring simple blocking and story-telling."
We're talking about student films here. I don't mean that in a deragatory way, but rather in a "damn it's hard to acquire a set" way. The difference? Well, without some of the foundation costs associated with most decent budget movies, all the good blocking and story telling in the world isn't going to eliminate the drag caused by inadequate sets.
In other words, the "but fx don't make the movie!" speech is better directed at George Lucas than Joe SoonToBeGraduate.
"That's great and all, but this whole story is just an ad for USC. The link on the submitter's name even goes to a USC email address! The school is woring itself out by submitting a non-story for the sole purpose of drawing attention to themselves. Unfortunately, the slashdot editors are cooperating, as they always do with advertisement stories."
Whoop-de-fucking-doo. Explain to me how the same story would be better if somebody unaffiliated with them (who, by a bizarre coincidence, would be less knowledgable about the topic) were to post it?
Honestly guys, news for nerds. Obviously the topic is of some interest to people. Whoring. Right.
"The PS hurt nintendo, but so did their refusal to launch a disc based console."
That isn't all that clear. The fact is, Nintendo got 30 million units out the door while Sega... well their Saturn was a huge flop despite being CD based. Nintendo could not have released a CD based system to compete with the Playstation and survived. In order to get a reasonable cost, they'd have to toss the 64-bit processor and go with something less distinct than Sony's offerings. Additionally, they would have made less money on media royalties going with a CD based system. The gamers out there may not care, but look what happened to Sega.
A lot of people keep saying that the N64 failed. 30 million units is not a failure. A lot of people keep saying that the N64 lost out due to a lack of a CD-ROM drive. I can sort of agree with that. It would have been cool for that machine to have an optical drive. But not if the machine ended up costing $350 dollars. Nintendo would still have had a huge uphill battle. They did the right thing by making a cheaper machine that had better graphic capabilities.
The real key to Sony's success wasn't so much the hardware, though that helped. Rather, it was that it flooded store shelves with titles. Yes, many of them were awful. But when it came time to decide which machine to get, it was hard to ignore that the Playstation was where the action was. That is where Nintendo 'failed'. They're just not getting the developer volume they need.
Fortunately, though, Nintendo has created its own audience. Nintendo has loyalty that Sony just cannot have until they start creating their own AAA titles. In other words, Sony's boat could easily be rocked by another company with whiz-bang technology. It could be Nintendo. It could be Microsoft. Heck, it could be IBM if they were so inclined.
"To say that Sony would be even a player in the conole market if Nintendo didn't drop that project is pure speculation."
That point defeats what you're saying as well. Sony has always shown interest in entertainment devices. It's not all that reasonable to assume they wouldn't have tried it in one form or another at some point. At best, Nintendo caused it to happen a little sooner. There's a difference between cause and influence.
Slashdot Mirror
I ran across a plugin for the web that claimed it could be inserted with a single line of HTML code!!! Being truthful, they should have said "..inserted with only a single line of HTML code that's roughly 150 characters long!"
"Then again I suppose my G4 iBook counts too. ;-)"
Why? Can you buy an iBook without MacOS?
Seems to me that Apple'd be in even deeper shit than MS around here if forcing bundled stuff was really the issue that twisted up everybody's panties.
"I know it's slightly offtopic, but what TabletPC do you have that hits 1600x1200 and is still cheaper than a 15" Cintiq?"
I communicated poorly. I have a 1400 by 1050 (still better than 1280...) Toshiba M-200. It cost me $1,800. The price of the 15" version recently dropped from $1800 to $1,500, making it a bit cheaper, but it only does 1024 by 768.
The bare minimum I would have needed was the 1280 version, but I'm much happier with the M-200. Plus it's a great little laptop.
"WACOM is discontinuing the Cintiq line. So, lot of good this is..."
That's a pity. Oh well. I nearly bought one of those. Unfortunately, the resolution was too low (I really like my 1600 by 1200) and the price was too high. I bought a TabletPC instead, no regrets there, and it was cheaper and higher res than the Cintiq.
I guess what I'm saying is I'm not all that surprised.
"Of course, we must also realize that the popularity of the PS1 compared to the N64 was probably due to this 'feature'..."
Um, I worked at a game retailer when the PS1 was released. If people were buying PS1s to easily pirate games, they were spending a hell of a lot of legit money on top of it.
"They use it to show Windows and MS products."
AMD is pushing MS's products?
"It might as well not even have a keyboard or monitor port. Yeesh."
Didja read the bit about who the target audience is and what it does do?
"no thanks.. am vegetarian.."
He don't eat meat, but he sure likes the bone.
"Active-X control required? So now we're giving websites direct control of our hardware?"
Yeah!! They should use stand-alone apps which are inherently very secure!
"In the same way that gravity purposely decides what's balanced, and what will topple."
Doubtful as gravity's goals don't change like evolution's does.
Don't get me wrong, I understand your point. But likening evolution to physics is a bit uneven. I mean, name something other than evolution that strives to become better or more advanced. Gravity? No. It just sits there attracting mass.
(Note: I'm not trying to 'debate and be right' with my post here. Rebuttals invited and considered. I'm feeling open minded tonight.)
"My girlfriend is left handed and her manner of speech can be at times... difficult. She tends to mix up words, even stuff like yes/no, did/didn't."
I want to know why a gender who uses the toilet the same way every single time confuses 'lid up' and 'lid down'.
"*it's equally likely we were created out of mud 6000 years ago and fossils are the result of God's sense of humour."
;)
Heh. If one were to debate with you, they could point out that the oil we have to day has.. pardon the experession.. fueled a lot of conflict that started at the turn of the millineum.
I only bring that up playfully.
"One strange thing I've noticed when teaching and attending Emergency Medical Services (read 'ambulance service') classes is that there are a higher number of lefties then the general population."
It's a lot harder to run with left-handed scissors than the general populace realizes.
"Not yet."
Well maybe I answered a little too hastily. My mouse did try to take out my cat once. I have a little velcro tie on it so I can neatly coil it up for trips in the laptop bag. One day, my kitten thought a fuzzy velcro strip was too much of a temptation to resist. He hopped several times, taking a swipe each time. Success! He grabbed it and pulled the cable. The mouse slid over the edge of the desk. In the moment it lost contact with the desk, the red light suddenly flared up, causing the "deer in the headlights" effect in my poor kitten before *WHAP*, he saw stars.
"Think about a computer with a virus and then attaching that directly to your brain. Scary."
Uh, why? It's not like a malicious app has caused my mouse to turn on me.
The N-64 ran on a 64-bit 93 mhz MIPS processor by Silicon Graphics. 64 bits was not only not a marketing ploy, but it resulted in superior graphics to boot. Nobody's challening Nintendo's 64-bit-claim-to-fame.
"Distributing In-House Engineering Code?"
I read that as "Disturbing In-House Engineering Code". Any chance we can talk about that, too?
"With a good PDA, you get better resolution than normal text,"
Man, I remember thinking MS's (or whoever it was that originally developed it) ClearText was a gimmick until I read an ebook.
"don't see ebooks catching on unless there's a sensible way to read them. Reading from a screen just isn't conducive to enjoyment of a book."
:P)
Depends on what tickles your fancy, I suppose. I'm actually quite enamored with the idea of e-books. A few years ago I purchased a PocketPC and read Tom Sawyer on it. It was great! I could hold the unit with one hand instead of having to force the pages to stay open. Page turning was a matter of using the little thumb wheel. When I shut it off, it remembered my place. I didn't need to have a light on in the bedroom because the screen was backlit. I could highlight passages and make a note of them. Though I doubt most would find that interesting, I do dog-ear my books fairly regularly when something I want to look at later appears. On top of all that, it fit easily in my pocket and I could store a bunch of books there.
If only at the time there had been more e-books, I would have been quite the happy camper. Sadly, my PocketPC has moved on. But when the higher resolution PPCs come down in price, I'm quite looking forward to reading ebooks again. Paperbacks are a pain in the ass in comparison. (Note: At least with my reading habits. I don't read in the tub.
"because we all know that its a bad thing to make money.."
Well I don't know about you guys, but when I make a Spaceballs reference, I'm being absolutely serious!
"This treads a dangerous line where students attempt to solve problems with green screens and special effects, ignoring simple blocking and story-telling."
We're talking about student films here. I don't mean that in a deragatory way, but rather in a "damn it's hard to acquire a set" way. The difference? Well, without some of the foundation costs associated with most decent budget movies, all the good blocking and story telling in the world isn't going to eliminate the drag caused by inadequate sets.
In other words, the "but fx don't make the movie!" speech is better directed at George Lucas than Joe SoonToBeGraduate.
"That's great and all, but this whole story is just an ad for USC. The link on the submitter's name even goes to a USC email address! The school is woring itself out by submitting a non-story for the sole purpose of drawing attention to themselves. Unfortunately, the slashdot editors are cooperating, as they always do with advertisement stories."
Whoop-de-fucking-doo. Explain to me how the same story would be better if somebody unaffiliated with them (who, by a bizarre coincidence, would be less knowledgable about the topic) were to post it?
Honestly guys, news for nerds. Obviously the topic is of some interest to people. Whoring. Right.
" Plus, she needs to be able to convince my mom that she's only a phase I'm going through."
Heh. That put an image of an auto-sexual rights parade in my mind...
"The PS hurt nintendo, but so did their refusal to launch a disc based console."
That isn't all that clear. The fact is, Nintendo got 30 million units out the door while Sega... well their Saturn was a huge flop despite being CD based. Nintendo could not have released a CD based system to compete with the Playstation and survived. In order to get a reasonable cost, they'd have to toss the 64-bit processor and go with something less distinct than Sony's offerings. Additionally, they would have made less money on media royalties going with a CD based system. The gamers out there may not care, but look what happened to Sega.
A lot of people keep saying that the N64 failed. 30 million units is not a failure. A lot of people keep saying that the N64 lost out due to a lack of a CD-ROM drive. I can sort of agree with that. It would have been cool for that machine to have an optical drive. But not if the machine ended up costing $350 dollars. Nintendo would still have had a huge uphill battle. They did the right thing by making a cheaper machine that had better graphic capabilities.
The real key to Sony's success wasn't so much the hardware, though that helped. Rather, it was that it flooded store shelves with titles. Yes, many of them were awful. But when it came time to decide which machine to get, it was hard to ignore that the Playstation was where the action was. That is where Nintendo 'failed'. They're just not getting the developer volume they need.
Fortunately, though, Nintendo has created its own audience. Nintendo has loyalty that Sony just cannot have until they start creating their own AAA titles. In other words, Sony's boat could easily be rocked by another company with whiz-bang technology. It could be Nintendo. It could be Microsoft. Heck, it could be IBM if they were so inclined.
"To say that Sony would be even a player in the conole market if Nintendo didn't drop that project is pure speculation."
That point defeats what you're saying as well. Sony has always shown interest in entertainment devices. It's not all that reasonable to assume they wouldn't have tried it in one form or another at some point. At best, Nintendo caused it to happen a little sooner. There's a difference between cause and influence.