I disagree. Although many of today's titles are just rehashes of old ideas with up to date graphics, I think we're currently at the start of a whole new generation of gaming in one field in particular: the MMO genre.
The technology has now been developed which allows several thousand players to play simultaneously in a persistent world. Many people are already addicted to the current generation of MMORPG games, but RPGs are only the start: Sony released the world's first MMOFPS (Planetside last year, taking online tactical warfare to whole new levels. In a good team like the Renegade Legion the list of tactics you can deploy in the field is almost endless.
I think this is just the start. Bringing massive player cooperation into many different genres could add a whole new dimension to those games. We're riding the first wave of the MMO tide and I think it's going to be as revolutionary as the switch from offline multiplayer gaming to online gaming.
Vice City wasn't all about being 'the ultimate badass in town'. That's just about the most boring way to play the game, and certainly leaves little room for multiplayer gaming. The fun in Vice City is in setting up incredibly stupid stunts, spending hours trying to pull them off and then recording it to show your mates when you finally manage it. Having your mates online with you opens up no end of possibilities for crazy multi-person stunts.:D
e.g. the 5 PCJ bikes up two vertically-stacked packers leaping over a bridge we managed on Saturday...;)
To be fair, CVS was never designed for the kind of mass distribution that many WineX users expect from it. A lot of people seem to checkout the source, build it, and delete the old source - if they fancy a new version, they just reget the entire source tree from the CVS server. It's put the Sourceforge CVS server under a lot of strain (or at least contributed heavily to it), which has made it almost unusable at times for other projects, where users genuinely need CVS checkouts to build and update from.
I think Transgaming took the right step in discouraging automated checkouts, but I still think they should consider releasing nightly tarball snapshots of CVS for users to download. Sourceforge has a lot of bandwidth available for file distribution, and the majority of users wouldn't care whether their WineX came from the CVS server or from a tar.bz2.
(If you'd like to see evidence of this, wander in to #winex on irc.freenode.net - note the number of completely clueless people who ask for help with CVS throughout the day. They're just looking for free WineX, they're not interested in testing/development at all)
Re:FreeBSD 5.0 as a lower-level enhancement?
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I sincerely hope they didn't. FreeBSD 5.0 was not a production release, it was meant for early adopters only. 5.0 contained many serious bugs which have since been fixed in the 5.x tree (for example, the new DevFS system was still causing kernel panics in many core drivers at the time of release, one of which I fixed myself), and there are still more left to squash.
I wonder what the reasoning behind this move was?
It sounds like a good idea in theory, but how would you go about implementing such a simulator?
You couldn't simply program in situations in which the inmates have an oppurtunity to escape, because then you would have to already know about them. OTOH, developing a simulation which would truly simulate the prison and give the player complete freedom to move around and interact with it, would require tremendous attention to detail. Given our current level of technology, it doesn't seem practical.
Also, although I'm not a particular expert in the field;), I would imagine a significant percentage of attempts to escape a "prison" would be opportunistic - maybe the guard opens your cell, turns his back quickly as somebody in the opposite cell screams and the prisoner knocks him down from behind. You certainly couldn't program in situations on that level of detail, not without an incredible (read: unfeasible) amount of effort on the part of the developers.
It's a nice idea in theory, as I say, but I think the money would be better spent on real assessments of prison security by experts, and on staff training to minimise the risk of such incidents.
Any web site not using port 80 could not be blocked in this way, unless they redirected that port as well.
I can set up a proxy on a box somewhere running on any port but 80, and connect through that to *any* website on *any* port (including port 80). They can't filter every single port for proxy traffic (and if it were encrypted through an SSH tunnel you wouldn't be able to find it anyway).
This is just one of those laws intended to discourage the general public from trying to access child pornography, but would do nothing to stop the determined individual. In fact, it's next to impossible to stop people from accessing this stuff.
The solution (if there is a solution, my guess is that you could only push this further underground) is to combat the source of the problem. Find the people and providers hosting child pornography and stop them at the source; if they refuse, or are in one of those hard to control countries, then just cut off their link to your network.
Then you have P2P, another whole kettle of fish...
Well, it would be quite a biggie if you met me. I run a site distributing third party maps for Urban Terror (a Quake 3 mod), and at the moment I'm eating up my 50GB/month cap. If I let it go uncapped, I'd be doing 100GB/month and maybe more (this is without being linked from the mod's website, with a link that'd easily be 200GB/month).
If I signed up for your service and used 100G in one month, are you seriously saying you'd be happy with that? Of course not, and I wouldn't expect you to be able to afford it. You can't afford to offer "unlimited bandwidth", and you shouldn't advertise as such. It may seem unlimited for an average user's website, but it isn't unlimited in any sense of the word (it's not even big, regular websites can do > 10GB/month).
What is the Amiga spirit? Read the post to which I replied, it explained it perfectly.
But let me quote one part:
All that's left now are some real die-hards who are happy to just now get Quake II, a company that has salvaged the Amiga name from the post-Commodore disaster, and an outdated operating system
There was more to the Amiga than some hardware or an OS. There was the community which supported the Amiga, and made it worth being there; and I don't believe that will ever come back. The remaining Amiga users, for me, just aren't the same people that made the community a great place to be involved in. Maybe they are for you, I don't know; but if they are, then you didn't experience the Amiga the way I did.
Amiga Inc may do as they please with the Amiga's name, but they will never create another true Amiga in any sense; just another platform of minority interest...
Jagapen, you just summed up everything the Amiga ever meant to me, in fine, fitting words. My hat off to you, sir.:)
I left the Amiga scene in Summer 2001, finally putting my A1200T to rest. I've since moved on to Linux and, although initially hard to adjust to, I'm finding it more and more to be the OS that belonged on my system all along. It doesn't have the magic that the Amiga brought to the home computing market, nor the exciting, enthusiastic community that was so active and full of hope only a few years ago, but it gives me the freedom that I longed for throughout my Amiga-owning days.
But now every piece of news I read about the Amiga brings me closer to sadness. Everything the Amiga ever stood for, which you so well described in your post, is now gone. Stamping the Amiga name on a piece of PC hardware, with an OS that no longer has what AmigaOS stood for in its time, and with a small community of remaining diehard hacks; this hurts the very fond memories I have of the Amiga.
Many people have commented that we should not keep saying "The Amiga is dead, move on". My response to that: "Don't destroy the memories we have of the Amiga, by pushing its name onto a product that no longer has the Amiga spirit."
*sniff*. Getting all emotional now.:P
JayC (proud ex-op of #AmiHelp, irc.arcnet.vapor.com)
Monkey Island III works fine under WineX (http://www.transgaming.com/). You have to fiddle the installation a bit as explained on the site, but it works a treat when it's installed.
It's also useful to copy the 'resource' directory and 'comi.la*' files from the CDs into the directory you installed to, rather than just linking them, to speed up loading times. (and for a quieter experience, for those with fast CDROM drives)
BT's ADSL service gives you 256kbps upstream, which is twice that offered by Telewest and NTL, and at only £5/month more. The extra bandwidth comes in very handy if you want to run a small server on your system.
It's just a shame they don't offer more upstream bandwidth at a higher price, as I (and quite a few other people I know) would be willing to pay an extra £10-15/month for 512kbps upstream.
Slashdot Mirror
The technology has now been developed which allows several thousand players to play simultaneously in a persistent world. Many people are already addicted to the current generation of MMORPG games, but RPGs are only the start: Sony released the world's first MMOFPS (Planetside last year, taking online tactical warfare to whole new levels. In a good team like the Renegade Legion the list of tactics you can deploy in the field is almost endless.
I think this is just the start. Bringing massive player cooperation into many different genres could add a whole new dimension to those games. We're riding the first wave of the MMO tide and I think it's going to be as revolutionary as the switch from offline multiplayer gaming to online gaming.
Vice City wasn't all about being 'the ultimate badass in town'. That's just about the most boring way to play the game, and certainly leaves little room for multiplayer gaming. The fun in Vice City is in setting up incredibly stupid stunts, spending hours trying to pull them off and then recording it to show your mates when you finally manage it. Having your mates online with you opens up no end of possibilities for crazy multi-person stunts. :D
;)
e.g. the 5 PCJ bikes up two vertically-stacked packers leaping over a bridge we managed on Saturday...
I think Transgaming took the right step in discouraging automated checkouts, but I still think they should consider releasing nightly tarball snapshots of CVS for users to download. Sourceforge has a lot of bandwidth available for file distribution, and the majority of users wouldn't care whether their WineX came from the CVS server or from a tar.bz2.
(If you'd like to see evidence of this, wander in to #winex on irc.freenode.net - note the number of completely clueless people who ask for help with CVS throughout the day. They're just looking for free WineX, they're not interested in testing/development at all)
I sincerely hope they didn't. FreeBSD 5.0 was not a production release, it was meant for early adopters only. 5.0 contained many serious bugs which have since been fixed in the 5.x tree (for example, the new DevFS system was still causing kernel panics in many core drivers at the time of release, one of which I fixed myself), and there are still more left to squash. I wonder what the reasoning behind this move was?
You couldn't simply program in situations in which the inmates have an oppurtunity to escape, because then you would have to already know about them. OTOH, developing a simulation which would truly simulate the prison and give the player complete freedom to move around and interact with it, would require tremendous attention to detail. Given our current level of technology, it doesn't seem practical.
Also, although I'm not a particular expert in the field ;), I would imagine a significant percentage of attempts to escape a "prison" would be opportunistic - maybe the guard opens your cell, turns his back quickly as somebody in the opposite cell screams and the prisoner knocks him down from behind. You certainly couldn't program in situations on that level of detail, not without an incredible (read: unfeasible) amount of effort on the part of the developers.
It's a nice idea in theory, as I say, but I think the money would be better spent on real assessments of prison security by experts, and on staff training to minimise the risk of such incidents.
Linux Client || Windows Client
And for anyone without a subscription, save your trolling and go find a freebie mirror. :o)
I can set up a proxy on a box somewhere running on any port but 80, and connect through that to *any* website on *any* port (including port 80). They can't filter every single port for proxy traffic (and if it were encrypted through an SSH tunnel you wouldn't be able to find it anyway).
This is just one of those laws intended to discourage the general public from trying to access child pornography, but would do nothing to stop the determined individual. In fact, it's next to impossible to stop people from accessing this stuff.
The solution (if there is a solution, my guess is that you could only push this further underground) is to combat the source of the problem. Find the people and providers hosting child pornography and stop them at the source; if they refuse, or are in one of those hard to control countries, then just cut off their link to your network.
Then you have P2P, another whole kettle of fish...
If I signed up for your service and used 100G in one month, are you seriously saying you'd be happy with that? Of course not, and I wouldn't expect you to be able to afford it. You can't afford to offer "unlimited bandwidth", and you shouldn't advertise as such. It may seem unlimited for an average user's website, but it isn't unlimited in any sense of the word (it's not even big, regular websites can do > 10GB/month).
But let me quote one part:
All that's left now are some real die-hards who are happy to just now get Quake II, a company that has salvaged the Amiga name from the post-Commodore disaster, and an outdated operating system
There was more to the Amiga than some hardware or an OS. There was the community which supported the Amiga, and made it worth being there; and I don't believe that will ever come back. The remaining Amiga users, for me, just aren't the same people that made the community a great place to be involved in. Maybe they are for you, I don't know; but if they are, then you didn't experience the Amiga the way I did.
Amiga Inc may do as they please with the Amiga's name, but they will never create another true Amiga in any sense; just another platform of minority interest...
I left the Amiga scene in Summer 2001, finally putting my A1200T to rest. I've since moved on to Linux and, although initially hard to adjust to, I'm finding it more and more to be the OS that belonged on my system all along. It doesn't have the magic that the Amiga brought to the home computing market, nor the exciting, enthusiastic community that was so active and full of hope only a few years ago, but it gives me the freedom that I longed for throughout my Amiga-owning days.
But now every piece of news I read about the Amiga brings me closer to sadness. Everything the Amiga ever stood for, which you so well described in your post, is now gone. Stamping the Amiga name on a piece of PC hardware, with an OS that no longer has what AmigaOS stood for in its time, and with a small community of remaining diehard hacks; this hurts the very fond memories I have of the Amiga.
Many people have commented that we should not keep saying "The Amiga is dead, move on". My response to that: "Don't destroy the memories we have of the Amiga, by pushing its name onto a product that no longer has the Amiga spirit."
*sniff*. Getting all emotional now. :P
JayC (proud ex-op of #AmiHelp, irc.arcnet.vapor.com)
It's also useful to copy the 'resource' directory and 'comi.la*' files from the CDs into the directory you installed to, rather than just linking them, to speed up loading times. (and for a quieter experience, for those with fast CDROM drives)
It's just a shame they don't offer more upstream bandwidth at a higher price, as I (and quite a few other people I know) would be willing to pay an extra £10-15/month for 512kbps upstream.