"Well then, I guess Nintendo will be all over this like white on rice! I can't wait to see another 56 Mario games, 27 Metroid games, and 34 Donkey Kong variants."
Yeah because you know how all Mario, Metroid, and Donkey Kong games are alike. Whatever.
"If you buy a book and find it sucks midway, a merchant shouldn't be expected to take it back either"
Sorry, I disagree. It's much more convenient to just go to your local library if you have no intention of actually buying the book. Merchants aren't going to be ripped off that way. As a matter of fact, aren't book returns allowed?
In any case, I don't mind the merchant deciding that. But to force it upon every merchant is ridiculous.
"You just need to find a better record store."
You had me up intil this comment. The truth of the matter is that I can't make it to a record store while they're open (or while I'm up to it, my company likes to overwork me), and even if I could there's still the whole matter of the time involved in finding music. The nice thing about P2P is not only it's search capability, but I can also have it bring the music down while I'm off doing stuff. When Im in the mood to hunt something down, I can peek through what's come down and get a feel for songs/albums I might be interested in. Then, I have a list of stuff I want so I can make a lunch-time trip to quickly pick that CD up.
The best record store in the world wouldn't help me a whole lot.
I don't really care how much the markup is on a CD. That's not an issue with me. If it costs them a penny a CD, and they sell it for $15, that doesn't bother me one bit. The truth of the matter is that they're charging what people are willing to pay, not based on what they actually cost to make.
What does bother me is their reluctance to satisfy me as a customer. If an album sucks, I want a refund. Forget it, open it == bought it. They don't even want me sampling the music to alleviate their no returns policy. The way I see it, if they're going to charge a premium for this crap, shouldn't I become a happy customer?
So yeah, they can charge what they want as long as I find the price reasonable, but I demand better customer satisfaction if they're getting such a ridiculous markup on it.
"I think this is great news for all who like video games... More competitors = (Better Games + Better Prices + More Options)."
Actually it means dilluted market share and that eventually nobody can make money except those companies that keep churning out endless cookiecutter games. Though I agree that competition is good, but there's a point of diminishing returns. That's why Sega fell out of the hardware market. In today's state, only 2-3 consoles can really survive.
"Someday in the future, you might use your MS PC to send e-mail through your MS ISP that contains a picture encoded with your MS codec to your friend who better be using a MS capable machine in order to see anything you wrote or produced.
Later that day you are interested in their thoughts, so you call on your MS phone on your way to work, where you use more MS products and services. You wind down at the end of the day with a game or two, maybe some pay per view media with your MS entertainment console.
Your bank is intergrated with your MS computer so the fat MS bill comes out at just the right time each month.
That's why I will not ever buy an X-box..."
Okay... so you're not going to buy an XBOX because you watched Robocop, right? Heh.
Your imagination's a bit over-active there, bud. Your 'principle' isn't measuring up to common sense. The reason I'm saying this is not because I'm in denial about MS's over-estimated power, but because I don't assume people are stupid.
Let me put it this way: If MS were really capable of that, Linux would be unheard of. The real reason you're afraid of MS is because you listen to too many stories and 'what if' scenarios.
I'm not trying to be insulting, but I am being honest. I don't think your fears are rational or justified. Lots of things about MS have been blown out of proportion to ridiculous levels, and you're willing to risk damaging the gaming industry because of it.
"Again it relates to Microsoft using money obtained from one monopoly and using it to crush competition in another which is illegal under the sherman anti trust act."
So why isn't anybody bitching when Sony does it? *cough*Square*cough*
"What really sucks is the drm signed code that is required to run a game. This makes ms the gatekeeper."
This is absolutely no different than what Nintendo or Sony does. Game consoles enjoy a monpoly. This is nothing new Microsoft is doing. You cannot make your own Playstation game, burn it to CDR, and then sell it. Sony'll sue you into oblivion.
You're twisting common gaming business practices around as if MS is 'infecting it' somehow. They're not. If you're going to be upset at what's happening here, then you have even more reason to hate Nintendo, Sony, Sega, or even Atari.
On a final note, if the XBOX had anything at all to do with MS's monopoly, don't you think it'd do a little more than just play games?
"Now that she's stepped down, maybe she's available for a Slashdot Interview?
But then again, maybe not. I can see the questions now... "
Look guys, she's not the enemy anymore. Let's pool our money together and send her a T-shirt or something to prove there's no hard feelings. She seems to like this one.
"Wrong.. Why do you think a dual 500mhz would be better than a 1.6ghz?"
Because you're not maxing out the processor at 500mhz, let alone 1.6ghz. But even at 1.6, processes have a way of stepping on each other's toes and causing lag. Since the video needs to be captured in real time, this lag can cause problems with the video. I know, I've had this happen.
A better threading model would be nice, but the simplest solution is to have multiple independent CPU's each with their own resources. I know this from practice, not from theory.
"Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?
If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time. "
Geez I didn't realize Dale Gribble frequented Slashdot.
There's a very simple reason why Lucas would release this format to the world: So it'll get included in other commercial packages. If Gimp, FilmGimp, and eventually Photoshop start supporting this format, then it's a win for everybody. This "They're doing it for greed!" paranoia is ignorant. Of course they're doing it for their benefit, they're paying for it by making it benefit everybody else. Damn them!
Whatever. I'm a little tired of this attitude that every time a giant takes a step, he kills innocent children, then he laughs like Beavis.
A dual 500 machine is more valuable as a PVR than a single 1.6 gig machine. Ideally you'd want 1 processor for playback and one to handle the other stuff (compression, etc...)
16 channels? Err. Okay. If you really want to capture that many at once, you'd likely be better off having one computer per card. You don't need expensive/new hardware to do that. If the card does the processing and funnels the compressed data down to the hard disk, then the processor is little more than a manager. Last I checked, a P3 500 would easily handle a PVR card with hardware compression.
If you have space considerations, go with a dual I suppose. But I wouldn't do more than 2-channels per PC.
I was just curious if anybody out there uses HDR imagery (like the OpenEXR format) for anything besides global illumination?
I've been fiddling with the.HDR format (similar to OpenEXR, I imagine) in Lightwave's various texture channels and have gotten interesting results. (Especially the diffuse channel.) It strikes me that you could lose the diffuse channel all together in favor of a floating point color channel. In english, that means that you have one texture that responds properly to light, as opposed to having to assign the color of the surface in one channel and it's light reflectance in a seperate one.
That's seriously cool, but I'm in my infancy here with regards to these floating point formats. I'm just curious, who's using HDR in ways besides global lighting? It seems like there's a whole new door opening here.
"So.. it's silicon based then? Well, that means they can colonize radioactive worlds, but their population growth is half. "
No no, it's the first silicon based pussy that anybody cared about.
Hmm. You know, it's just like poker. You can't beat a Master of Orion reference with a porn reference, even with the double meaning bonus. My only ace would be if I could find a surprisingly appropriate Doctor Who reference.
Uh, no. When they see a dip in sales, they'll start looking into how spam filters work and how to get around them.
This costs money. Thus making it less attractive to spam.
Are you listening to what the AC is saying? Filters are easy to bypass, and nobody will want a system that punts e-mails because somebody happens to trip one of those filters.
It's like the RIAA's attempts to prevent CDs from playing in computers. Because of the nature of music, there's no way to restrict it without making it unusuable to their customers. Email is exactly the same way because it is fundamentally flawed.
You should listen to the guy, he knows what he's talking about. He's helped me set up my e-mail to be spam free. The only way a spam can get through is if somebody hijacks the computer of one of my friends.
Slashdot Mirror
"It's their own fault for using Dos as a server."
More specifically: DrDOS. IIS probably barfed when it detected that it wasn't MS.
"Man I'm tempted to make a rude Kenny Baker joke."
I'll give that a +1, Obscure Star Wars Reference.
I bet somebody could cook up a hilarious caption for this picture.
"The bionic dorsal fins aren't what scares me, it's the frickin laser beam attched to it's head!"
"Doubtful, the game's being developed by Silicoids."
They should have sent some Darlok spies over to Blizzard to steal some research then.
I hope this game's released before my Colony Ship is finished.
"Well then, I guess Nintendo will be all over this like white on rice! I can't wait to see another 56 Mario games, 27 Metroid games, and 34 Donkey Kong variants."
Yeah because you know how all Mario, Metroid, and Donkey Kong games are alike. Whatever.
"If you buy a book and find it sucks midway, a merchant shouldn't be expected to take it back either"
Sorry, I disagree. It's much more convenient to just go to your local library if you have no intention of actually buying the book. Merchants aren't going to be ripped off that way. As a matter of fact, aren't book returns allowed?
In any case, I don't mind the merchant deciding that. But to force it upon every merchant is ridiculous.
"You just need to find a better record store."
You had me up intil this comment. The truth of the matter is that I can't make it to a record store while they're open (or while I'm up to it, my company likes to overwork me), and even if I could there's still the whole matter of the time involved in finding music. The nice thing about P2P is not only it's search capability, but I can also have it bring the music down while I'm off doing stuff. When Im in the mood to hunt something down, I can peek through what's come down and get a feel for songs/albums I might be interested in. Then, I have a list of stuff I want so I can make a lunch-time trip to quickly pick that CD up.
The best record store in the world wouldn't help me a whole lot.
I don't really care how much the markup is on a CD. That's not an issue with me. If it costs them a penny a CD, and they sell it for $15, that doesn't bother me one bit. The truth of the matter is that they're charging what people are willing to pay, not based on what they actually cost to make.
What does bother me is their reluctance to satisfy me as a customer. If an album sucks, I want a refund. Forget it, open it == bought it. They don't even want me sampling the music to alleviate their no returns policy. The way I see it, if they're going to charge a premium for this crap, shouldn't I become a happy customer?
So yeah, they can charge what they want as long as I find the price reasonable, but I demand better customer satisfaction if they're getting such a ridiculous markup on it.
... bailing the artists out of jail.
Hmm, this comment'd be funnier if we were talking about the Portland Trailblazers.
"I think this is great news for all who like video games... More competitors = (Better Games + Better Prices + More Options)."
Actually it means dilluted market share and that eventually nobody can make money except those companies that keep churning out endless cookiecutter games. Though I agree that competition is good, but there's a point of diminishing returns. That's why Sega fell out of the hardware market. In today's state, only 2-3 consoles can really survive.
"i'd print myself a girl."
"A woman complete in every way."
"Why don't you do it now?"
"I don't know how! I wouldn't even know how to make the nose!"
"Expect more executives to be be forced out as more and more people get tired of their crap, and stop buying CDs. [dontbuycds.org] "
Any revenue lost by a boycott of the RIAA will be accounted to 'piracy'. They already blamed Kazaa for the loss of revenue following 9-11.
Find a better solution.
"Someday in the future, you might use your MS PC to send e-mail through your MS ISP that contains a picture encoded with your MS codec to your friend who better be using a MS capable machine in order to see anything you wrote or produced.
Later that day you are interested in their thoughts, so you call on your MS phone on your way to work, where you use more MS products and services. You wind down at the end of the day with a game or two, maybe some pay per view media with your MS entertainment console.
Your bank is intergrated with your MS computer so the fat MS bill comes out at just the right time each month.
That's why I will not ever buy an X-box..."
Okay... so you're not going to buy an XBOX because you watched Robocop, right? Heh.
Your imagination's a bit over-active there, bud. Your 'principle' isn't measuring up to common sense. The reason I'm saying this is not because I'm in denial about MS's over-estimated power, but because I don't assume people are stupid.
Let me put it this way: If MS were really capable of that, Linux would be unheard of. The real reason you're afraid of MS is because you listen to too many stories and 'what if' scenarios.
I'm not trying to be insulting, but I am being honest. I don't think your fears are rational or justified. Lots of things about MS have been blown out of proportion to ridiculous levels, and you're willing to risk damaging the gaming industry because of it.
"Again it relates to Microsoft using money obtained from one monopoly and using it to crush competition in another which is illegal under the sherman anti trust act."
So why isn't anybody bitching when Sony does it? *cough*Square*cough*
"What really sucks is the drm signed code that is required to run a game. This makes ms the gatekeeper."
This is absolutely no different than what Nintendo or Sony does. Game consoles enjoy a monpoly. This is nothing new Microsoft is doing. You cannot make your own Playstation game, burn it to CDR, and then sell it. Sony'll sue you into oblivion.
You're twisting common gaming business practices around as if MS is 'infecting it' somehow. They're not. If you're going to be upset at what's happening here, then you have even more reason to hate Nintendo, Sony, Sega, or even Atari.
On a final note, if the XBOX had anything at all to do with MS's monopoly, don't you think it'd do a little more than just play games?
"Now that she's stepped down, maybe she's available for a Slashdot Interview?
But then again, maybe not. I can see the questions now... "
Look guys, she's not the enemy anymore. Let's pool our money together and send her a T-shirt or something to prove there's no hard feelings. She seems to like this one.
...by buying a CD!
Apple. Hrm.
Pixar. Oh.
Apple? Uhh.. Geez.
Pixar. Well okay.
Apple! NNnnn... mmm.. NNn...mm. No.
Pixar! Dammit.
Okay I just don't know guys. Help me out!
..a government official who'll break down the tough choices so that the American public will vote on which color they like better.
*hoping that comment's poke at the iMac isn't too obscure.*
"Wrong.. Why do you think a dual 500mhz would be better than a 1.6ghz?"
Because you're not maxing out the processor at 500mhz, let alone 1.6ghz. But even at 1.6, processes have a way of stepping on each other's toes and causing lag. Since the video needs to be captured in real time, this lag can cause problems with the video. I know, I've had this happen.
A better threading model would be nice, but the simplest solution is to have multiple independent CPU's each with their own resources. I know this from practice, not from theory.
"Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?
If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time. "
Geez I didn't realize Dale Gribble frequented Slashdot.
There's a very simple reason why Lucas would release this format to the world: So it'll get included in other commercial packages. If Gimp, FilmGimp, and eventually Photoshop start supporting this format, then it's a win for everybody. This "They're doing it for greed!" paranoia is ignorant. Of course they're doing it for their benefit, they're paying for it by making it benefit everybody else. Damn them!
Whatever. I'm a little tired of this attitude that every time a giant takes a step, he kills innocent children, then he laughs like Beavis.
A dual 500 machine is more valuable as a PVR than a single 1.6 gig machine. Ideally you'd want 1 processor for playback and one to handle the other stuff (compression, etc...)
16 channels? Err. Okay. If you really want to capture that many at once, you'd likely be better off having one computer per card. You don't need expensive/new hardware to do that. If the card does the processing and funnels the compressed data down to the hard disk, then the processor is little more than a manager. Last I checked, a P3 500 would easily handle a PVR card with hardware compression.
If you have space considerations, go with a dual I suppose. But I wouldn't do more than 2-channels per PC.
Hey dudes,
.HDR format (similar to OpenEXR, I imagine) in Lightwave's various texture channels and have gotten interesting results. (Especially the diffuse channel.) It strikes me that you could lose the diffuse channel all together in favor of a floating point color channel. In english, that means that you have one texture that responds properly to light, as opposed to having to assign the color of the surface in one channel and it's light reflectance in a seperate one.
I was just curious if anybody out there uses HDR imagery (like the OpenEXR format) for anything besides global illumination?
I've been fiddling with the
That's seriously cool, but I'm in my infancy here with regards to these floating point formats. I'm just curious, who's using HDR in ways besides global lighting? It seems like there's a whole new door opening here.
"So.. it's silicon based then? Well, that means they can colonize radioactive worlds, but their population growth is half. "
No no, it's the first silicon based pussy that anybody cared about.
Hmm. You know, it's just like poker. You can't beat a Master of Orion reference with a porn reference, even with the double meaning bonus. My only ace would be if I could find a surprisingly appropriate Doctor Who reference.
Are you listening to what the AC is saying? Filters are easy to bypass, and nobody will want a system that punts e-mails because somebody happens to trip one of those filters.
It's like the RIAA's attempts to prevent CDs from playing in computers. Because of the nature of music, there's no way to restrict it without making it unusuable to their customers. Email is exactly the same way because it is fundamentally flawed.
You should listen to the guy, he knows what he's talking about. He's helped me set up my e-mail to be spam free. The only way a spam can get through is if somebody hijacks the computer of one of my friends.
It sounds too much like Window pains.