Let's take a flight simulator for example. I play Flight Simulator 2000 as an escape from writing drivers all day and dealing with life. (I love to travel, so pretending to be on a cross-country trip really appeals to me.)
Anyway, I appreciate the realism of all of the necessary movements, adjustments, and number of steps involved to get the hulking 777 off the ground, and that's one of the game's strong points--the flight dynamics and actions required to achieve flight are incredibly accurate. However, I don't have the four or five real-time hours every night to devote to flying LGA-LAX. That's where the non-realism, the fantasy if you will, comes into play. With FS2000, I can set the simulation speed to 8x real-time, so my flight takes less than an hour. When I approach the airport, I turn the time back to normal. That way, I have got the best of both worlds--the realism of getting to taxi, takeoff and land a 777, and the fantasy that is being able to travel cross-country between getting home from work and making dinner, and that's what I think makes a most compelling argument for the enjoyment. In other words, getting a good mix of both, I think, is critical to the success of any game.
If the Israelis kill Arafat, which they so desperately want to do, they will trigger a war that will engulf the entire Middle East. First Egypt, then Syria, Jordan, and even the Iraqis will all join in and, though they may be defeated, inflict massive casualties on Israeli.
BTW, the only way the US will care about it is if gas prices skyrocket to $5.00/gallon, making it expensive for them to fill up their land barges and SUVs. Then you might see a few more Yanks paying attention.
I'm tired of waltzing for pancakes. - Gwen Mezzrow
Stopping light altogether?
on
Stopping Light
·
· Score: 2
But what happens when light stops? It just doesn't sit there patiently for the next command, does it? I'm not a physics guy, but if light is energy, you just can't stop energy.
Kurt Skauren(sp?), progenitor of AtheOS, cannot be too pleased about this. I remember the first mailing list discussion where this had been announced and he replied with a sad smiley.
The AtheOS kernel has always been Kurt's baby; his goal of developing an OS targetted solely to desktop applications where the kernel remains under tight control is severely compromised with this split.
I like AtheOS and have even contributed a couple drivers to it, and it just kinda saddens me to think of Kurt's reaction.
Great if you've got security clearance...
on
The Post 9/11 Tech Boom
·
· Score: 3, Flamebait
And it's hard to get one of those without being a US citizen, let alone a permanent resident.
A lot of my fellow coworkers are H1-B holders and are thus shut out from government jobs due to a lack of security clearance or the unwillingness to hire anything but US citizens. The funny thing, however, is that there are fewer and fewer US college graduates with CS and engineering degrees, the very disciplines that will continue to serve the post-9/11 security needs. US high-school students don't want CS or Engineering degrees--they're geeky and 'hard'. Instead, they graduate with Communications or Marketing degrees and end up fighting for the same job at IHOP. Meanwhile, the tech jobs needed to build the systems that shore up federal and state security go unfilled.
When will the government grant security clearance to foreigners so we can get much-needed talent on these critically important homeland security tasks?
Zed bills itself as 'open source TV, v1.1'. (Was v1.0 mothballed?) Anyway, Canadians send in music, film clips, little productions, etc., and they are shown on the show. The Web site has clips of some of the entries.
Definitely a step in the right direction. I think you could only see this on public or semi-public (like the CBC) television. Networks out to make money would never dare put anything like this on the air--the airtime is only for the big stars that pull in ratings. Kudos to my home and native land!
I'm not a huge expert in the realm of physics (dammit, Jim, I'm a computer scientist!), but is this anything like a massive Faraday cage, which would prevent electromagnetic waves for entering and exiting?
I shudder to think of the day when we will work in protective buildings like these, keeping company secdrets safe from Van Eck phreakers and war drivers, but also keeping out the mellow, smooth sounds of Office Light Jazz 94.7.:-)
Audience: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry: OK, settle down! Welcome to the show! Today we're talking to computer users who are secretly using better processors on the side! Audience: Ooooh! Jerry: Let's meet Dan-0411. Dan says that's his work machine has a PIII in it, but there's something going on. Dan-0411? Dan-0411: Yeah. PIII, I've been using an Athlon in a laptop on the side, and it's over, Intel boy! She divides better than you any day! PIII chip: You (expletive)! (lashes out at Dan, throwing a punch) Audience: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Dan-0411. Get it? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Does anyone else find it funny that the meeting were held in Ghana, which is relatively proximate to another area where democratic elections were 'spurned'--that's right, Zimbabwe.
ICANN is no better than Mugabe and his henchman--hell, at least they gave the impression that the election was fair.
<steam>Anyone want to join me in a holy crusade against ICANN?</steam>
Building one's roller coaster is like building an operating system: You might be able to do it, but is it worth all the work that you put in to come up with something that's essentially duplicated effort?
I like roller coasters, don't get me wrong, but if I want the thrill of riding one of my own design, I simulate it. Much like I don't build my own planes and fly them for real--I just fire up MSFS2002 and release some tensions flying those jumbo jets filled with co-workers into the ground.:-)
Beside the TV/entertainment centre/etc. is a PII-300, running Win2K, picked up from a surplus shop locally for under $100. It is headless--there's no monitor or keyboard. There's an SB Live 128 in there with the line-level output signal going to the stereo system and the line-level ins coming from the TV's extra line-level audio outs. Of course, it has a network card in it and I administer it with VNC.
I can play MP3s from any machine on the home network. Furthermore, I run the ShoutCast server on the box so I can listen to TV from other rooms in the house (handy when I have to be on the dev machine in the bedroom but a game is on). With the addition of a bit more technology (a AllInWonder card or somesuch), I could have some snazzy video caps too.
Now all of this, including the cards, cost just under $200. Please tell me, a geek, why I could go buy the item costing over seven times what I put together my box for? I'm not dissing it; I'm just saying that on my own, I can get a much more flexible system that I control and configure. Sorry, Rio, nice idea, but a little too expensive for this humble driver writer.
The society with the greatest lust for cellphones is still stuck with old technology. So, what that means is geeks like me living in the US who desperately want to ditch their crappy Audiovox cellies for something that I can develop on (like the Nokia Java phones) have to wait because the big cellular providers/FCC/government spooks/whoever won't go GSM like the rest of the world.
Oh well--I guess that still provides me with an opportunity to ask: Are there any US-capable cell phones (not Nextel--those guys are evil) that are developer friendly? I'd love to spend time writing little phone apps, and I remember seeing an article in Game Developer magazine about the coming craze of mobile gaming. Is there a phone which will let me get in on this here?
...if I wasn't so worried that the tariffs might help the Republicans in November. The only reason Bush did this was to secure votes in states that were in the balance (West Virginia, for example, to whom he promised these tariffs to win the state in 2000). The type of steel that WV traditional produces was one of the few types tariffed at the maximum 30%.
Up until he announced the tariffs, I was feeling pretty good about the Democrats controlling both Houses in November, but now I'm not so sure. And not that one party is that much different from the other, but do you really want Bush's judicial nominees to breeze through Senate confirmations? No way! If he had his way, all of his jurists would make it a crime to be black or poor...
That's really a cool idea, actually. Are there any publically available software or hardware development specs for these things, i.e., can you get GCC for iPods yet?
I have to admit that I'm not an Apple person and thus my knowledge lags behind the x86 world (sorry), but I'd be glad to throw myself behind such a project.
Anyway, did anyone catch the target price on this thing? I won't pay upwards of $500 for it, but in the $200-$250 range, it would be a near-perfect alternative to high-end cellphones that can't boast half of those capabilities.
And does anyone know what the service charges would be for GPRS? I have to admit I'm not too up on GPRS. If access would be any cheaper than Palm.Net ($50/month for unlimited transfer? Forget that noise!), I'd be willing to sign up.
When the reviewer says there's "little to be desired", to whom is he referring? A more geeky, tech-savvy audience or the everyday user? It has SMS, GPRS, and a whole host of other features that will soon be standard in all portable communications equipment. Sure, you can't run Linux on it or create a Beowulf cluster of them, but I can't see what's left "to be desired". I think this is a great combination of a portable communications device with PDA-like functionality. Can anyone point me to anything better that has these so-called desired features?
See, I don't know about you guys, but just looking at the specs and the picture of it made me want it. (I'm impulsive that way.:-) )
Does this mean I'm going to have to gouge out my own eyeballs or risk violating the DMCA when I go for job interviews and see the lights on the companies' hubs?
I write video drivers for a living, and we have had nothing but problems with our software on the Dragon series of motherboards. In certain cases, the chipset is rejecting known configuration registers for AGP bus width, etc., which on some of our products causes the beta-level drivers we provide to bluescreen.
Some of our senior engineers have been in contact with their engineers, and they seem to be telling us the problem is ours, though we are following their specs to a tee.
Why can't it be easy like it did in the days where you supported a few int 10h BIOS calls? (sigh) Now that was cutting-edge for 1989!;-)
Slashdot Mirror
when we shot the girls they were over the age of 18
;-)
What? They have to be of age to be murdered? What is this country coming to?
(tongue firmly in cheek)
That's pretty funny, and I'm sure it's not because I'm stoned out of my gourd right now. ;-)
Let's take a flight simulator for example. I play Flight Simulator 2000 as an escape from writing drivers all day and dealing with life. (I love to travel, so pretending to be on a cross-country trip really appeals to me.)
Anyway, I appreciate the realism of all of the necessary movements, adjustments, and number of steps involved to get the hulking 777 off the ground, and that's one of the game's strong points--the flight dynamics and actions required to achieve flight are incredibly accurate. However, I don't have the four or five real-time hours every night to devote to flying LGA-LAX. That's where the non-realism, the fantasy if you will, comes into play. With FS2000, I can set the simulation speed to 8x real-time, so my flight takes less than an hour. When I approach the airport, I turn the time back to normal. That way, I have got the best of both worlds--the realism of getting to taxi, takeoff and land a 777, and the fantasy that is being able to travel cross-country between getting home from work and making dinner, and that's what I think makes a most compelling argument for the enjoyment. In other words, getting a good mix of both, I think, is critical to the success of any game.
The apartment complex that I am about to move into allows satellite dishes for an additional $75 deposit for damage. Seems reasonable to me...
...except that by Texas state law, the apartment renter must carry $100,000 of insurance on the dish and the unit in case of damage.
Sounds to me like the cable companies paid for that one. Vive la révolution!
I'm tired of waltzing for pancakes. -- Gwen Mezzrow
If the Israelis kill Arafat, which they so desperately want to do, they will trigger a war that will engulf the entire Middle East. First Egypt, then Syria, Jordan, and even the Iraqis will all join in and, though they may be defeated, inflict massive casualties on Israeli.
BTW, the only way the US will care about it is if gas prices skyrocket to $5.00/gallon, making it expensive for them to fill up their land barges and SUVs. Then you might see a few more Yanks paying attention.
I'm tired of waltzing for pancakes. - Gwen Mezzrow
But what happens when light stops? It just doesn't sit there patiently for the next command, does it? I'm not a physics guy, but if light is energy, you just can't stop energy.
Colour me confused.
While gobeProductive isn't as full-featured as OfficeXP
Then it's not an Office killer. Don't get your hopes up.
Kurt Skauren(sp?), progenitor of AtheOS, cannot be too pleased about this. I remember the first mailing list discussion where this had been announced and he replied with a sad smiley.
The AtheOS kernel has always been Kurt's baby; his goal of developing an OS targetted solely to desktop applications where the kernel remains under tight control is severely compromised with this split.
I like AtheOS and have even contributed a couple drivers to it, and it just kinda saddens me to think of Kurt's reaction.
And it's hard to get one of those without being a US citizen, let alone a permanent resident.
A lot of my fellow coworkers are H1-B holders and are thus shut out from government jobs due to a lack of security clearance or the unwillingness to hire anything but US citizens. The funny thing, however, is that there are fewer and fewer US college graduates with CS and engineering degrees, the very disciplines that will continue to serve the post-9/11 security needs. US high-school students don't want CS or Engineering degrees--they're geeky and 'hard'. Instead, they graduate with Communications or Marketing degrees and end up fighting for the same job at IHOP. Meanwhile, the tech jobs needed to build the systems that shore up federal and state security go unfilled.
When will the government grant security clearance to foreigners so we can get much-needed talent on these critically important homeland security tasks?
Zed bills itself as 'open source TV, v1.1'. (Was v1.0 mothballed?) Anyway, Canadians send in music, film clips, little productions, etc., and they are shown on the show. The Web site has clips of some of the entries.
Definitely a step in the right direction. I think you could only see this on public or semi-public (like the CBC) television. Networks out to make money would never dare put anything like this on the air--the airtime is only for the big stars that pull in ratings. Kudos to my home and native land!
I'm not a huge expert in the realm of physics (dammit, Jim, I'm a computer scientist!), but is this anything like a massive Faraday cage, which would prevent electromagnetic waves for entering and exiting?
:-)
I shudder to think of the day when we will work in protective buildings like these, keeping company secdrets safe from Van Eck phreakers and war drivers, but also keeping out the mellow, smooth sounds of Office Light Jazz 94.7.
Today on Jerry: 'Caught Cheating'!
Audience: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Jerry: OK, settle down! Welcome to the show! Today we're talking to computer users who are secretly using better processors on the side!
Audience: Ooooh!
Jerry: Let's meet Dan-0411. Dan says that's his work machine has a PIII in it, but there's something going on. Dan-0411?
Dan-0411: Yeah. PIII, I've been using an Athlon in a laptop on the side, and it's over, Intel boy! She divides better than you any day!
PIII chip: You (expletive)! (lashes out at Dan, throwing a punch)
Audience: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Dan-0411. Get it? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Quoth the Raven, "Everquest".
Don't know why that just popped up...
Does anyone else find it funny that the meeting were held in Ghana, which is relatively proximate to another area where democratic elections were 'spurned'--that's right, Zimbabwe.
ICANN is no better than Mugabe and his henchman--hell, at least they gave the impression that the election was fair.
<steam>Anyone want to join me in a holy crusade against ICANN?</steam>
When scanning electron microscopes are outlawed, only outlaws will have scanning electron microscopes.
Looks like it's time to confiscate all the SEMs out there.
Building one's roller coaster is like building an operating system: You might be able to do it, but is it worth all the work that you put in to come up with something that's essentially duplicated effort?
:-)
I like roller coasters, don't get me wrong, but if I want the thrill of riding one of my own design, I simulate it. Much like I don't build my own planes and fly them for real--I just fire up MSFS2002 and release some tensions flying those jumbo jets filled with co-workers into the ground.
Here's what I've got going at home:
Beside the TV/entertainment centre/etc. is a PII-300, running Win2K, picked up from a surplus shop locally for under $100. It is headless--there's no monitor or keyboard. There's an SB Live 128 in there with the line-level output signal going to the stereo system and the line-level ins coming from the TV's extra line-level audio outs. Of course, it has a network card in it and I administer it with VNC.
I can play MP3s from any machine on the home network. Furthermore, I run the ShoutCast server on the box so I can listen to TV from other rooms in the house (handy when I have to be on the dev machine in the bedroom but a game is on). With the addition of a bit more technology (a AllInWonder card or somesuch), I could have some snazzy video caps too.
Now all of this, including the cards, cost just under $200. Please tell me, a geek, why I could go buy the item costing over seven times what I put together my box for? I'm not dissing it; I'm just saying that on my own, I can get a much more flexible system that I control and configure. Sorry, Rio, nice idea, but a little too expensive for this humble driver writer.
Weird, isn't it?
The society with the greatest lust for cellphones is still stuck with old technology. So, what that means is geeks like me living in the US who desperately want to ditch their crappy Audiovox cellies for something that I can develop on (like the Nokia Java phones) have to wait because the big cellular providers/FCC/government spooks/whoever won't go GSM like the rest of the world.
Oh well--I guess that still provides me with an opportunity to ask: Are there any US-capable cell phones (not Nextel--those guys are evil) that are developer friendly? I'd love to spend time writing little phone apps, and I remember seeing an article in Game Developer magazine about the coming craze of mobile gaming. Is there a phone which will let me get in on this here?
...if I wasn't so worried that the tariffs might help the Republicans in November. The only reason Bush did this was to secure votes in states that were in the balance (West Virginia, for example, to whom he promised these tariffs to win the state in 2000). The type of steel that WV traditional produces was one of the few types tariffed at the maximum 30%.
Up until he announced the tariffs, I was feeling pretty good about the Democrats controlling both Houses in November, but now I'm not so sure. And not that one party is that much different from the other, but do you really want Bush's judicial nominees to breeze through Senate confirmations? No way! If he had his way, all of his jurists would make it a crime to be black or poor...
Gives an interesting perspective on what CN goes through to get certain anime on US TV
Do you even know what they have to go through to show CowboyNeal Bebop? It ain't pretty.
That's really a cool idea, actually. Are there any publically available software or hardware development specs for these things, i.e., can you get GCC for iPods yet?
I have to admit that I'm not an Apple person and thus my knowledge lags behind the x86 world (sorry), but I'd be glad to throw myself behind such a project.
D'oh! Two minute filter got me. :-|
Anyway, did anyone catch the target price on this thing? I won't pay upwards of $500 for it, but in the $200-$250 range, it would be a near-perfect alternative to high-end cellphones that can't boast half of those capabilities.
And does anyone know what the service charges would be for GPRS? I have to admit I'm not too up on GPRS. If access would be any cheaper than Palm.Net ($50/month for unlimited transfer? Forget that noise!), I'd be willing to sign up.
When the reviewer says there's "little to be desired", to whom is he referring? A more geeky, tech-savvy audience or the everyday user? It has SMS, GPRS, and a whole host of other features that will soon be standard in all portable communications equipment. Sure, you can't run Linux on it or create a Beowulf cluster of them, but I can't see what's left "to be desired". I think this is a great combination of a portable communications device with PDA-like functionality. Can anyone point me to anything better that has these so-called desired features?
:-) )
See, I don't know about you guys, but just looking at the specs and the picture of it made me want it. (I'm impulsive that way.
Does this mean I'm going to have to gouge out my own eyeballs or risk violating the DMCA when I go for job interviews and see the lights on the companies' hubs?
What is this world coming to?
I write video drivers for a living, and we have had nothing but problems with our software on the Dragon series of motherboards. In certain cases, the chipset is rejecting known configuration registers for AGP bus width, etc., which on some of our products causes the beta-level drivers we provide to bluescreen.
;-)
Some of our senior engineers have been in contact with their engineers, and they seem to be telling us the problem is ours, though we are following their specs to a tee.
Why can't it be easy like it did in the days where you supported a few int 10h BIOS calls? (sigh) Now that was cutting-edge for 1989!