"This doesn't work with Linux? From what I read, they are assuming I run Windows;)"
That's the great thing about Linux! You can write all the software to make the stereo display work yourself!!! Make sure to release it so we can all have it too.:)
"..was that in that hefty 30 line writeup, nowhere is the cost of all of this stuff mentioned. I bet it's still all out of my price range.:-("
This is typical of new technology. Comes out expensive, gets popular, then gets relatively cheap. Early adopters that pay lots of $$$ for the new stuff help pay for the R&D that goes into it. Don't be discouraged, rather just expect to wait another year or two.
"This would be extremely useful, especially in the CAD community. While I only know a little about the area of CAD and manufacturing, this combined with the inkjet plastics printing (I forget the term for it) or rapid prototyping machines would be really neat. Imagine designing something, and being able to view it in 3D from all angles (instead of a render), and then sending it to be printed off."
Figured since I'm a 3D artist, you wouldn't mind if I chimed in. Would a stereoscopic display help me? If the display is convincing enough, yes! Right now, while I'm modelling, I'm constantly rotating the model around, sometimes just slightly, just to get a sense of the parallax. This gives me a clue as to what vertices are where. A stereo display could potentially relieve me from needing to rotate it as much. If that's true, I could get more detail on the screen without worrying about the vid card not being powerful enough for what I'm doing.
I wish I could tell you for a fact that it would or wouldn't work, but I've yet to experience stereoscopic work-flow. I am rather curious, though.
"The main reason to introduce a new format, is to bring the control of DVD's to the music realm."
I've always wondered why the music industry doesn't hire one of these companies to make a new 'music standard' that doesn't have a PC readable drive. Seems like that would be more effective in 'curbing piracy' than trying to outwit crackers. Sony's Mini-disc comes to mind. Can't pop that in my laptop.
The voice recorder feature of the Pocket PC is very underrated. I used it when beta testing a video system my previous company made to keep track of bugs since I couldn't sit in front of my desktop to log them. Voice recorded all the notes, went to my desk, played them back and logged them. Much better workflow than using pencil/paper.
"Slashdot is for the most part, the ultimate pickmeup for the members of the herd when the individual members feel insecure, and need a pickmeup that's only a few clicks away."
Kinda like watching Married with Children, iddnt it?
"I mean, how hard is it to just swipe a card?... Using RFID for security badges and charge cards seems to me like a solution in search of a problem..."
Oh please. All one has to do is imagine the difference between using RFID and going through all the steps to remove the card from your wallet and put it back to understand that this is kinda neat. Okay, not Earth shattering, but it's still kinda neat. Can you honestly tell me that you've never been driving home and had that paranoid "OMG!! Did I forget to get my card back?!" moment? Well I'll be a man and admit that I have. If I could just wave my watch-arm over a scanner thingy and have it figure out the rest, I'd save some time, effort, and piece of mind nearly every single day of my life. Is it dramatic enough that I'd spend hundreds of dollars for? No. But for my next watch in 2-3 years, if it's available and useful in my life, I'd certainly consider it.
I dunno why everybody has to be so skeptical when new little gadgets like these show up. We're supposed to embrace technology, I mean that's the definition of geek, right? But in that grande effort to get that insightful mod, we all suddenly become minimalists. C'mon guys, use your imagination.
"Who will the be the first to buy a watch with a watch I wonder?"
I have a Casio watch that tells time from 24 different time zones. You can even set in your own time zone complete with a different hours AND minutes setup.
"Does anyone happen to know where one could obtain the original concept art? I would love to have something like this to spice up my drab apartment."
I can't help you there, but go see http://www.cgtalk.com. VERY talented professionals there doing 2D and 3D art. It's all posted in the forums. Here's something I made to give you an idea of what the work-in-progress pieces are like. I wouldn't say I'm exactly at the top of the talent pool here, either. You'll see what I mean.
Well I have to admit, I'm STUNNED to see this story posted on Slashdot. Are a lot of you interested in concept/3d work?
I ask because I'm a 3D artist, and every month I have new stuff from concept to finished 3D added to my portfolio. One day, I'll have enough for a book if I decide to go that route. Have a peek here, here, and here
So I have to ask, is this the type of thing some of you would buy? If so, besides pretty pictures, what would you want out of it? Anything? Lots of text explaining in great detail what I did and why I did it?
I'm not so much asking "would you guys buy my book if I made one?", but I would be curious what is behind the decision to buy one? Is it for informational purposes, or is it just cool to see how a game you like is made? I guess I'm just stunned that Slashdot would find it that interesting. I'm curious if it's because art is appreciated, or if there is some general curiosity about how one goes from a paper drawing to a realistic 3d rendered model. Man I'd be happy to share what I know about that topic, for the most part I really have only been able to talk to fellow artists about it.
"Okay, isn't that what GMail is doing but to ADD a small advert, and everyone goes bonkers..
Comcast does it to 'stop spam' and they're a hero...?"
This doesn't make sense? Ads suck, they're intrusive, and it means Google is gathering personal data. Comcast is taking a step to make email more reliable in general, so they are a hero. I guess I just don't understand where you are seeing the wrong behaviour happening. I hope I'm not being dense, but can you please explain in a little more detail what the problem you see is? Please, don't forget, Comcast is giving them a chance to call and get re-activated if they are blocked.
"For those who do operate home mail servers, why can't such people just configure their outgoing SMTP server to pass all outgoing mail through the ISP's SMTP server to get around such blocks, and therefore have a more "trustwrothy" and less likely to be blocked IP address in the headers?"
A.) It'd probably raise a red flag sooner. "Hey! This guy's mail account is passing hundreds of megs through!"
B.) You'd lose your anonyminity (sp?). If I sent a complaint to Comcast, they'd know from your username who you are and would shut you down. I might even be able to file charges, though I admit I'm not sure what the laws are about that.
"Largest in the nation? Oh.. your nation.. not my nation"
Man I don't know whether to chuckle or be annoyed with that comment. Either you're making a rather funny parody of somebody trying to hard to make Americans appear self-centered, or you have a rather irrational complaint.
Either way, it's an entertaining joke for both sides. Kudos.:)
"Nice to see a large soulless corporation not just shaft its customers wholesale."
This story is interesting timing for me. Today (as in like an hour ago) I had cable modem service from Comcast installed. "Large soul-less corporation" was the last thing on my mind. Not only were they pleasant on the phone when I called yesterday, but they also provided next day service *and* called when they got there so I could drive on over. (I'm staying at a friend's house until the stuff gets moved over.) Previously to this move, I've been a customer of theirs for... well I guess a year, I'm not sure when AT&T was purchased by them. I have YET to hear the phrase "it is our policy..." from them.
So, yeah, I agree, they do seem to understand that making the customer happy is important. This is in stark contrast to Washington Mutual. I tried to open a checking account there, but since I was moving out of my 'permenant address' in two weeks, and I hadn't gotten my new apartment yet, they wouldn't give me an account. "Well it's not our policy to.." yeah yeah.
I guess my point isn't really going anywhere. Your post just kind of reminded me that the phrase 'policy' has made me grit my teeth a number of times. I just hope this type of "we can be reasonable" service catches on with the bigger corps.
"I still don't understand how spam exists economically. I guess people are dumber than I thought:"
Hehe.
I know you're being funny here, but I think there is a general misconception that the people recieving spam actually have to buy stuff. The spammers are paid to get the messages out to x number of people. Their success is not dependent on the actual return rate on the advertising money. It will, however, affect reoccurring business.
To put it another way, I doubt that lack of customers will make the spam go away. I mean, geez, there are still N-Gage commercials on TV.
"I'm perfectly within my rights to withdraw some of their cashflow as a consequence."
Sure you are. The problem is, you're withdrawing your cashflow as a consequence of your own actions.
"Nice job on the ad hominem."
If you cannot acknowledge your own contribution to your dissatisfaction, then you cannot expect anybody there to take you seriously. You never ever needed to pay them money. It's yo fault. Grow up.
"...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care."
Heh you think Michael did it? Doubtful.
A.) You should just email him or the staff directly.
B.) Bitching about it here can only cause other people to bitch, and really the discussion is about the armor. Go through the right channels before making a public stink. This little lesson in life will help you down the road.
"But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe."
Why is one story pissing you off? I mean, yeesh, it's not like you cancel cable because Will and Grace is on. Lighten up, man.
"By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash."
Why did you even subscribe in the first place? It's not like Slashdot was misrepresented to you. It's not like you paid to have access here. It's not like new content was revealed to you as a result of it. Honestly man, calm down.
I agree with some of the complaints you have about Slashdot, but you threw money at them out of your own stupidity. Retard.
Slashdot Mirror
"This doesn't work with Linux? From what I read, they are assuming I run Windows ;)"
:)
That's the great thing about Linux! You can write all the software to make the stereo display work yourself!!! Make sure to release it so we can all have it too.
"..was that in that hefty 30 line writeup, nowhere is the cost of all of this stuff mentioned. I bet it's still all out of my price range. :-("
This is typical of new technology. Comes out expensive, gets popular, then gets relatively cheap. Early adopters that pay lots of $$$ for the new stuff help pay for the R&D that goes into it. Don't be discouraged, rather just expect to wait another year or two.
"This would be extremely useful, especially in the CAD community. While I only know a little about the area of CAD and manufacturing, this combined with the inkjet plastics printing (I forget the term for it) or rapid prototyping machines would be really neat. Imagine designing something, and being able to view it in 3D from all angles (instead of a render), and then sending it to be printed off."
Figured since I'm a 3D artist, you wouldn't mind if I chimed in. Would a stereoscopic display help me? If the display is convincing enough, yes! Right now, while I'm modelling, I'm constantly rotating the model around, sometimes just slightly, just to get a sense of the parallax. This gives me a clue as to what vertices are where. A stereo display could potentially relieve me from needing to rotate it as much. If that's true, I could get more detail on the screen without worrying about the vid card not being powerful enough for what I'm doing.
I wish I could tell you for a fact that it would or wouldn't work, but I've yet to experience stereoscopic work-flow. I am rather curious, though.
"The main reason to introduce a new format, is to bring the control of DVD's to the music realm."
I've always wondered why the music industry doesn't hire one of these companies to make a new 'music standard' that doesn't have a PC readable drive. Seems like that would be more effective in 'curbing piracy' than trying to outwit crackers. Sony's Mini-disc comes to mind. Can't pop that in my laptop.
"As a note-taker, appointment maker it sucks."
The voice recorder feature of the Pocket PC is very underrated. I used it when beta testing a video system my previous company made to keep track of bugs since I couldn't sit in front of my desktop to log them. Voice recorded all the notes, went to my desk, played them back and logged them. Much better workflow than using pencil/paper.
"Who the fuck want to carry around the huge bricks called pocketpc?"
Huge brick? WTF are you talking about? HP/Compaq and Toshiba have them at Palm V sizes.
"public outcry is the (only)way to make a difference, you might not agree but that's how it works around here!"
Really? So how many years does it take to bitch about dupes before something's done about them? It's been 2 already. How much longer?
"But they probably would want it at least in the language, so it would be:
"
Hah, got you all beat!
?> Hello World. <?
"maybe i'm one of the people that would score low on these tests but how, exactly, do you test for humor?"
You failed. Thank you for testing for humor. Come back soon!
"Slashdot is for the most part, the ultimate pickmeup for the members of the herd when the individual members feel insecure, and need a pickmeup that's only a few clicks away."
Kinda like watching Married with Children, iddnt it?
"I mean, how hard is it to just swipe a card? ... Using RFID for security badges and charge cards seems to me like a solution in search of a problem..."
Oh please. All one has to do is imagine the difference between using RFID and going through all the steps to remove the card from your wallet and put it back to understand that this is kinda neat. Okay, not Earth shattering, but it's still kinda neat. Can you honestly tell me that you've never been driving home and had that paranoid "OMG!! Did I forget to get my card back?!" moment? Well I'll be a man and admit that I have. If I could just wave my watch-arm over a scanner thingy and have it figure out the rest, I'd save some time, effort, and piece of mind nearly every single day of my life. Is it dramatic enough that I'd spend hundreds of dollars for? No. But for my next watch in 2-3 years, if it's available and useful in my life, I'd certainly consider it.
I dunno why everybody has to be so skeptical when new little gadgets like these show up. We're supposed to embrace technology, I mean that's the definition of geek, right? But in that grande effort to get that insightful mod, we all suddenly become minimalists. C'mon guys, use your imagination.
"Who will the be the first to buy a watch with a watch I wonder?"
I have a Casio watch that tells time from 24 different time zones. You can even set in your own time zone complete with a different hours AND minutes setup.
That count?
" Somebody should tell the (female) exec who runs that channel that penis enlargement pills don't work."
Aye but she's looking at a check from that company with a lot of 0's on it.
"Does anyone happen to know where one could obtain the original concept art? I would love to have something like this to spice up my drab apartment."
I can't help you there, but go see http://www.cgtalk.com. VERY talented professionals there doing 2D and 3D art. It's all posted in the forums. Here's something I made to give you an idea of what the work-in-progress pieces are like. I wouldn't say I'm exactly at the top of the talent pool here, either. You'll see what I mean.
Well I have to admit, I'm STUNNED to see this story posted on Slashdot. Are a lot of you interested in concept/3d work?
I ask because I'm a 3D artist, and every month I have new stuff from concept to finished 3D added to my portfolio. One day, I'll have enough for a book if I decide to go that route. Have a peek here, here, and here
So I have to ask, is this the type of thing some of you would buy? If so, besides pretty pictures, what would you want out of it? Anything? Lots of text explaining in great detail what I did and why I did it?
I'm not so much asking "would you guys buy my book if I made one?", but I would be curious what is behind the decision to buy one? Is it for informational purposes, or is it just cool to see how a game you like is made? I guess I'm just stunned that Slashdot would find it that interesting. I'm curious if it's because art is appreciated, or if there is some general curiosity about how one goes from a paper drawing to a realistic 3d rendered model. Man I'd be happy to share what I know about that topic, for the most part I really have only been able to talk to fellow artists about it.
"Okay, isn't that what GMail is doing but to ADD a small advert, and everyone goes bonkers..
Comcast does it to 'stop spam' and they're a hero...?"
This doesn't make sense? Ads suck, they're intrusive, and it means Google is gathering personal data. Comcast is taking a step to make email more reliable in general, so they are a hero. I guess I just don't understand where you are seeing the wrong behaviour happening. I hope I'm not being dense, but can you please explain in a little more detail what the problem you see is? Please, don't forget, Comcast is giving them a chance to call and get re-activated if they are blocked.
"For those who do operate home mail servers, why can't such people just configure their outgoing SMTP server to pass all outgoing mail through the ISP's SMTP server to get around such blocks, and therefore have a more "trustwrothy" and less likely to be blocked IP address in the headers?"
A.) It'd probably raise a red flag sooner. "Hey! This guy's mail account is passing hundreds of megs through!"
B.) You'd lose your anonyminity (sp?). If I sent a complaint to Comcast, they'd know from your username who you are and would shut you down. I might even be able to file charges, though I admit I'm not sure what the laws are about that.
"Largest in the nation? Oh.. your nation.. not my nation"
:)
Man I don't know whether to chuckle or be annoyed with that comment. Either you're making a rather funny parody of somebody trying to hard to make Americans appear self-centered, or you have a rather irrational complaint.
Either way, it's an entertaining joke for both sides. Kudos.
"Nice to see a large soulless corporation not just shaft its customers wholesale."
This story is interesting timing for me. Today (as in like an hour ago) I had cable modem service from Comcast installed. "Large soul-less corporation" was the last thing on my mind. Not only were they pleasant on the phone when I called yesterday, but they also provided next day service *and* called when they got there so I could drive on over. (I'm staying at a friend's house until the stuff gets moved over.) Previously to this move, I've been a customer of theirs for... well I guess a year, I'm not sure when AT&T was purchased by them. I have YET to hear the phrase "it is our policy..." from them.
So, yeah, I agree, they do seem to understand that making the customer happy is important. This is in stark contrast to Washington Mutual. I tried to open a checking account there, but since I was moving out of my 'permenant address' in two weeks, and I hadn't gotten my new apartment yet, they wouldn't give me an account. "Well it's not our policy to.." yeah yeah.
I guess my point isn't really going anywhere. Your post just kind of reminded me that the phrase 'policy' has made me grit my teeth a number of times. I just hope this type of "we can be reasonable" service catches on with the bigger corps.
"I still don't understand how spam exists economically. I guess people are dumber than I thought:"
Hehe.
I know you're being funny here, but I think there is a general misconception that the people recieving spam actually have to buy stuff. The spammers are paid to get the messages out to x number of people. Their success is not dependent on the actual return rate on the advertising money. It will, however, affect reoccurring business.
To put it another way, I doubt that lack of customers will make the spam go away. I mean, geez, there are still N-Gage commercials on TV.
"(for those of you who have a excellent memory for the Far Side cartoons - the link is to Charlie Parker's private hell)"
I figured they'd just scroll a bunch of Slashdot stories about SCO.
"If it means a virtual Jar Jar Binks can be killed..."
Oh... I'm interested now..
"Very narrow minded that this has anything *just* to do with the *one* MS patent"
Heh. The whole point was that 'computer' is a defining change in the validity of a patent.
"I'm perfectly within my rights to withdraw some of their cashflow as a consequence."
Sure you are. The problem is, you're withdrawing your cashflow as a consequence of your own actions.
"Nice job on the ad hominem."
If you cannot acknowledge your own contribution to your dissatisfaction, then you cannot expect anybody there to take you seriously. You never ever needed to pay them money. It's yo fault. Grow up.
"...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care."
."
Heh you think Michael did it? Doubtful.
A.) You should just email him or the staff directly.
B.) Bitching about it here can only cause other people to bitch, and really the discussion is about the armor. Go through the right channels before making a public stink. This little lesson in life will help you down the road.
"But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe
Why is one story pissing you off? I mean, yeesh, it's not like you cancel cable because Will and Grace is on. Lighten up, man.
"By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash."
Why did you even subscribe in the first place? It's not like Slashdot was misrepresented to you. It's not like you paid to have access here. It's not like new content was revealed to you as a result of it. Honestly man, calm down.
I agree with some of the complaints you have about Slashdot, but you threw money at them out of your own stupidity. Retard.