so when does it come out for PC?..... If the Xbox is just a PC it shouldn't take that much....
If I had any mod points, I'd mod this as funny.
The original Halo was ported to PC, but it was horrible. While the X-Box is (for all intents and purposes) an outdated x86 PC in a fancy box, the PC port would run horrible on machines that were many times faster than the X-Box.
For example, have a high-end video card and a 2.6 GHz P4 ran Halo at a very choppy frames per second, even at 800x600 or 1024x768. Even after the video card manufacturers optimized their drivers for the game, it still ran like garbage.
Meanwhile the X-Box, if I'm not mistaken, is a 700MHz P3 with a Geforce 3 video card and a very small amount of RAM; yet it ran halo pretty well considering.
I don't know what the problem was with Halo. It was either a very bad porting job or the X-Box had a lot of optimization going for it.
But after that blunder, I'm sure they'll want to get it right this time.
But, North Korea isn't sitting on 10% of the world's known oil reserves, and neighbours to a good chunk of the rest.
Another big deal about North Korea is that they have an Army much more formidable than Iraq's.
North Korea puts a HUGE majority of its budget into military, and they have the weapons and man-power to be a threat. Yeh, we overthrew Iraq pretty quickly, but look at the hard time we're having now. And these are just militias.
Going against North Korea would be inifinely more difficult, not to mention we'd piss off China and lord knows who else.
I'm not saying oil wasn't a major motivation for Iraq (I'm not naive). But the lack of oil is not the reason for going up against North Korea. Personally, it would be a war we couldn't win easily (if at all) unless we had WORLD support (not just England, Poland, and Australia).
Though there were a few flops, Lucas has had a great track record with their games.
Many of them actually had more depth to their stories than any of the movies.
At one point, a friend of mine bought a laptop. The manufacturer escapes me at this point (maybe Toshiba, maybe Dell, I don't know). He was unfortunate enough to have dead pixels.
Anyway, they're threshold was horrible. It wasn't just the number, but they all had to be within the same area.
It was like "more than 3 pixels in the same 4 square inches" or something like that.
The place gave him a real hard time taking it back.
The story is a re-hash of Halflife, the scenery tedious.
LOL. Are you serious?
You realize Half-Life's story is pretty much a rehash of DOOM's, right? The only difference was they chose to use an alien dimension instead of a hellish one.
The story was well known back in the DOOM days. Scientists play with portal technology on Mars. Things get out of hand. Bad guys enter our dimension and infect the personel/soldiers. It's up to you to stop it.
The game was alright, but not AMAZING like some people make it out to be.
The big thing is the games that will follow, using its engine. However, the engine was pretty resource-hungry, and I can see FarCry's or Half-Life 2's engine being more popular.
You mean they're just *now* getting a demo out? Doesn't that usually come *before* the game is released?
That used to be the case. First the demo, then the game. The demo would drive sales.
But recent events have proven the Demo is either un-necessary or can even hurt sales.
If a game has such a major fan base, like the people drooling over DOOM 3, then you have their sales already without the demo. They're going to buy the game opening day whether they've played a demo or not.
Besides, nowadays there are so many sites with screenshots and video clips of betas, not to mention the sheer number of reviews, the demo isn't AS necessary to make the decision.
After the first couple of weeks, you have to then draw in future purchases, and a demo is a good way to attract them (assuming the game is any good).
Now, look at "Deus Ex: Invisible War." People were drooling over that game because of the greatness the first one possessed. However, the "DX: IW" demo showed a lot of people how horrible it was. It came nowhere near meeting their (our) expectations, so a lot of people decided not to buy the game.
Yeh, demos are great for the consumer. But for the seller, sometimes they are useless in the beginning, or can hurt sales.
I just installed SP2 on my personal laptop that I use for work. I reformatted it yesterday, and I had a CD with SP2 on it. I figured I would rather just install it off the CD that worry about downloading all of those frigging security updates and what-not.
Anyway, I could have sworn the laptop ran faster before I put SP2 on there. I never bothered to benchmark it, but it seems slugish now. And it's not a weak machine (as far as laptops go). 2.4GHz with 1GB Ram.
I'm not about to undo everything I've done. I've installed way too much, and don't want to worry about breaking those apps by removing the patch.
Oh well. I'll just live with it. It's not my main machine anyway, just something to do some DB work with.
You can get the OEM version of Windows XP Pro full-install for $150 USD. You can get the "upgrade" version of XP Home for $99 USD at just about any computer store.
The OEM version traditionally has to be purchased with hefty hardware (motherboard, CPU, harddrive, etc). It used to be ANY hardware, in which case I'd pick mine up with 16MB Ram if I needed it in a pinch.
The upgrade version can be used to perform a full install, so long as you have a valid CD for a previous version of Windows for verification. So you don't really lose anything except the inconvenience of having to dig up that old copy of Windows 9x or Me.
I work for a Windows-based company writing applications. It just makes sense for me to have a good windows machine on hand at home for when I need to take something home. It's also good for gaming.
Sure, I use my PowerBook 70% of the time, but a windows machine is currently a necessity for many of us in the IT field.
And as for being bug ridden, none of the XP machines I own / use have had any major problems. I've only blue-screend once, and that was when I was overclocking way to much. Say what you want about MS's past software, but XP is pretty decent.
For my literature requirement in college, I took Science Fiction. It was my favorite class through my 4 years of college and 1.5 years of grad school.
The theme for the whole semester was "What makes us human? What is alive?"
We read a lot of stories, as well as watched movies: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Frankenstein. We also saw some key episodes of The X-Files.
Everything we saw or read focused on this theme. I remember sitting there watching Ghost in the Shell all the way through, and discussing it for the rest of the class (Saturday class = 3 hours).
Man, I miss that class. It was one of those true college classes I had hoped on taking; the kind that made you think and do cool things.
LOL.
But seriously, in Jersey, it's rare we get big snows. For the last few years, we've gotten 2 or 3 a year, and it's odd for us to see anything near a foot.
Further north, it gets worse.
But I'll take a foot of snow over coyotes, mudslides, fires, earth quakes, and "the Governator" any day:)
During Hurricane Frances, I was playing City of Heroes with a Super Group. One of our members lives down in Miami, and he was able to play through just about all of it.
He was worried that he'd get disconnected at some point, but we played for like 6 hrs straight on a Task Force that day, and I saw him online a couple of times throughout the hurricane days.
I guess he was lucky. I was surprised he was able to be online all of that time down there. We knew he was based in Miami since before the hurricanes, so it wasn't like he was trying to get attention.
Personally, I'm glad to be living on the upper-East coast. Our weather is mild, we have no earthquakes, mudslides, or raging fires to worry about (though my state is in the top 5 for largest forest coverage).
It would take A LOT for me to want to move down to Florida (though Spring Breaks are tempting).
Personally, I'll definately go see Hines's version, probably ebfore Spielbergs (assuming they came out at the same time, which the article suggests might not be the case).
I think there's room for both. Sure, the Joe Sixpack will probably line up in front of Spielberg's simply because they know the name, but I have no problem seeing both.
Spielberg used to be pretty dang good. However, his "updated" version of ET was laughable; I particularly like South Park's spoof about "Saving Private Ryan" with all guns replaced by walkie-talkies.
Let's take "I, Robot" for example. It didn't really capture the complexities of Asimov's short stories, but for what it was, it was an alright flick. It was a summer action flick with some parallels to the themes in Asimov's book, particularly the end. Yeh, it was obvious, dumbed down, and action-packed; but what else would you expect from a Summer movie with Will Smith?
Depending on how it looks, I might go see it, or at least wait until it's available "On-Demand." Will I expect the quality of story-telling from the original? No. Will I expect something visually stunning with perhaps some decent directing? Probably.
I'll have to wait and see, but I'm not going to put it down simply because Spielberg cannot possibly live up to the expectations of movie-buffs everywhere. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
I can never understand this B.S. At least with Lindows, they purposely chose that name in competition with Windows (a Linux that's so much like Windows, it's scary... AHHH). So I can understand MS being pissed/
Apple isn't making money by the association with Apple Records or the Beatles. They're just Apple, and they decided to expand into a lucrative market. A market that only makes sense for a tech savvy company to get into in the beginning.
I think the contract was an asshat thing to do. Oh no! 2 companies are called Apple, one publishes music, the other has recently started selling music. Apple is such a unique and creative word, it's not even in the dictionary. I know, I'll start a new company called "Creative," because I just made that word up!
But Anyway...
A contract is a contract, and Apple violated their's. Yeh, it was a contract that was stupid as heck in the first place, but a contract none-the-less.
Both sides should just settle and move on.
Then, Apple should make a game called "Squash the Silver Beatles" or something:)
Yeh, the most that would happen to me if they delete my PC's home directory is my settings, bookmarks, and a few other minor things. At most, I might need to perform a repair on SOME installs to get an app working correctly.
But I don't store anything in "My Documents," "My Pictures," or the like. Sure, some games default their saved games there, but boo hoo.
My Powerbook on the other hand, I'd have to kill someone. Seriously, I'd wring their little necks.
But I don't pirate software. I make enough money that if I need software X, I buy it, ESPECIALLY if it was designed / published by a small house.
Personally, I hate it when someone pirates software from a small software company. I mean, is it that friggin hard to pay $27 USD for "Gish" or some other delightful game gauranteed to keep you happy for days on end, or $30 USD for TextPad if you use it every day? MS Ofice I could understand (though I paid for mine), but little apps like Textpad are usually worth it.
I've read some EULA's, and many of them say something along the lines:
We are not responsible for any damage done to your system or data as a result of this software package. It is advised this software not be installed on misison-critical systems.
Combining that with a statement about using pirated CD keys will delete your home directory or something like that might back you up legally enough.
Half-Life 2D (now called Codename: Gordon) was foruntately able to get permission from Valve (and whoever) to do their little project. Hell, it's available through Steam.
But that's gotta suck, man. Maybe if you wrote an actual letter to their legal department or called the legal department, you might have gotten somewhere. Then again, they might have blown you off as well.
But I used java once, and it took forever to print Hello World. Java is slow. Java is stupid.
Maybe this will lay waste to claims that java is slow, bloated, and sucks.
I've only recently started doing heaving Java programming, and I have to say that the language is a dream to code with (provided you use a decent IDE). There're so many classes in place already, there's nothing you can't do. I'll take it over C++ any day, and MS's MFC is horrible on comparison.
My only problem with it is the deployment; screwing with class paths and what not.
People need to realize that most of the overhead they experience with their "hello world" experience has to do with loading the classes in the beginning. Once that is done, Java performs nicely.
Sure, straight C is faster, but Java isn't the turtle everyone makes it out to be.
I look at the Enterprise intro, and I say '35 years and we've never been back', 'two out of five of those have blown up', and 'that will never be finished now'.
It wasn't just the present. Looking at the old ships and their maps, the Wright Brothers, the Lindenburg flight, etc. I'm not saying everyone should like the intro, I just think it's nice, and the theme and pictures combine nicely. Most people hate it because it's not a bunch of trumpets and violins.
Star Trek is fiction. It involves Spaceships that will probably never be built, exploring planets that don't exist, using science that is probably utter BS. And yet, you have a problem with the opening credits showing a space station that will probably never be complete in real life, and space shuttles that have exploded.
*cough*open source*cough* think about dual licensing, open source GPL and a commercial license.
Hell, here's an idea! Let's made a game called Jedi Knight. It will be an FPS shooter. Our main characters will be "Kyle Katar" and "Luke Skywalker!" The story will revolve around... hell, let's just copy the story and levels from this game over here! And, because it's open source, nobody will be able to stop us!
Please.
Making it open source wouldn't make it legal. Lawsuits would still happen, and even SourceForge would cave. Squareonic would still set out to screw those contributing to it.
And if you're simply complaining about Open Source because you feel the game should be done that way, it's the authors choice. Sure, I think Open Source is great, but even I wouldn't open everything I work on.
Maybe he would like to sell it down the line. Or maybe, he wants to be able to look back at it and say "See, I made this!"
Sure, Suare is being an a$$hat, but it's their copyright and it's therefore their call as to whether someone can do something with it.
The guy should have talked with a lawyer first, or tried to contact Square for permission.
1) I think the opening theme is pretty good, when combined with the scenes they show. Sure, it isn't another orchestra piece, but it fits in well to show how we got where we're going.
2) While much of the show is superficial, and they rely on sex way too much (decontamination gel rubdown time! woohoo!), it has it's deep moments.
Like, when T'Pol essentially gets an STD which is looked upon as a stigmata by the Vulcans. She's immediately outcast, and you find that the Vulcans aren't in any hurry to find a cure because it will get rid of the "undesirables."
Some of the tough moral decisions Archer has had to make. Should we clone someone just to save a man's life? Saving this man would save the ship, which would save Earth, but it is right to clone something just to kill it?
Should we give this race a cure to a plague, even though the plague is giving ground to another species becomming the dominant species of a planet? Which species do we favor, as the dying species treats the "younger" species like cr@p and the "younger" species show much promise? Is it our place to interfere with the course of evolution of an entire species or the natural order of another planet?
W'ere screwed. We need an engine part to continue the mission, or Earth is doomed. We can't build another one. But LOOK! There's one, but they won't give it to us! Should we simply take it? It's just a ship of 30 people vs an entire planet, and we'll help them out if we can?
Yeh, at lot of the episodes are pretty horrible, especially the one where it was pretty much a "zombie movie" set on a Vulcana ship. But it has its moments.
The entire show started out centered around a "temporal cold war" for heaven's sake. And now, it's all about saving Earth. But, within the dreck, there are a few little gems that follow the themes of TOS and TNG.
In any case, I think this should be the last season of Enterprise, and another Star Trek show shouldn't come back for years. Then, maybe it'll be "fresh" and "new" again.
The Rio Karma also has dual processors in there, somehting I don't THINK the iPod has.
I had the Karma, and loved it... until the battery died after the warranty expired.
Before that happened, it was great. The only thing I didn't like about it was they purposely made it hard to connect to. You had to use proprietary software, and couldn't simply treat it like a USB drive (without 3rd party drivers).
Some motherboard manufacturers supply a BIOS Update program that works within Windows. I've used it a couple of times in the past, and I've never had any problems with it.
Personally, I didn't even bothering installing a Floppy drive into my gaming PC. I leave 1 harddrive Fat32, and have various methods of booting to CD (even my old Windows 98 SE CD). If I need to do something (like flash my bios), I just put what I need on my Fat32 partition and boot using a CD.
Between my network, USB thumbdrives, and CD-R's I have little need for a floppy. Hell, my USB thumbdrives transfer a hell of a lot faster than a floppy, hold a lot more data, and fit on my keychain.
The floppy is dead. Apple made the right choice in just not supplying them anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had any mod points, I'd mod this as funny.
The original Halo was ported to PC, but it was horrible. While the X-Box is (for all intents and purposes) an outdated x86 PC in a fancy box, the PC port would run horrible on machines that were many times faster than the X-Box.
For example, have a high-end video card and a 2.6 GHz P4 ran Halo at a very choppy frames per second, even at 800x600 or 1024x768. Even after the video card manufacturers optimized their drivers for the game, it still ran like garbage.
Meanwhile the X-Box, if I'm not mistaken, is a 700MHz P3 with a Geforce 3 video card and a very small amount of RAM; yet it ran halo pretty well considering.
I don't know what the problem was with Halo. It was either a very bad porting job or the X-Box had a lot of optimization going for it.
But after that blunder, I'm sure they'll want to get it right this time.
Another big deal about North Korea is that they have an Army much more formidable than Iraq's.
North Korea puts a HUGE majority of its budget into military, and they have the weapons and man-power to be a threat. Yeh, we overthrew Iraq pretty quickly, but look at the hard time we're having now. And these are just militias.
Going against North Korea would be inifinely more difficult, not to mention we'd piss off China and lord knows who else.
I'm not saying oil wasn't a major motivation for Iraq (I'm not naive). But the lack of oil is not the reason for going up against North Korea. Personally, it would be a war we couldn't win easily (if at all) unless we had WORLD support (not just England, Poland, and Australia).
I got a Powerbook a few months ago. The serial number is higher than the most recent one they have listed. There are NO white spots.
Personally, it's the best laptop I've ever owned; work or personal.
Every company has defects. I had a dell Inspiron that was recalled. I've had friends who's other-brand laptops were recalled. SUch is a fact of life.
My 15" AlBook is great. If it wasn't for "City of Heroes," I'd use it 24/7.
At one point, a friend of mine bought a laptop. The manufacturer escapes me at this point (maybe Toshiba, maybe Dell, I don't know). He was unfortunate enough to have dead pixels.
Anyway, they're threshold was horrible. It wasn't just the number, but they all had to be within the same area.
It was like "more than 3 pixels in the same 4 square inches" or something like that.
The place gave him a real hard time taking it back.
I've been pretty lucky lately with LCD's.
LOL. Are you serious?
You realize Half-Life's story is pretty much a rehash of DOOM's, right? The only difference was they chose to use an alien dimension instead of a hellish one.
The story was well known back in the DOOM days. Scientists play with portal technology on Mars. Things get out of hand. Bad guys enter our dimension and infect the personel/soldiers. It's up to you to stop it.
The game was alright, but not AMAZING like some people make it out to be.
The big thing is the games that will follow, using its engine. However, the engine was pretty resource-hungry, and I can see FarCry's or Half-Life 2's engine being more popular.
That used to be the case. First the demo, then the game. The demo would drive sales.
But recent events have proven the Demo is either un-necessary or can even hurt sales.
If a game has such a major fan base, like the people drooling over DOOM 3, then you have their sales already without the demo. They're going to buy the game opening day whether they've played a demo or not.
Besides, nowadays there are so many sites with screenshots and video clips of betas, not to mention the sheer number of reviews, the demo isn't AS necessary to make the decision.
After the first couple of weeks, you have to then draw in future purchases, and a demo is a good way to attract them (assuming the game is any good).
Now, look at "Deus Ex: Invisible War." People were drooling over that game because of the greatness the first one possessed. However, the "DX: IW" demo showed a lot of people how horrible it was. It came nowhere near meeting their (our) expectations, so a lot of people decided not to buy the game.
Yeh, demos are great for the consumer. But for the seller, sometimes they are useless in the beginning, or can hurt sales.
I just installed SP2 on my personal laptop that I use for work. I reformatted it yesterday, and I had a CD with SP2 on it. I figured I would rather just install it off the CD that worry about downloading all of those frigging security updates and what-not.
Anyway, I could have sworn the laptop ran faster before I put SP2 on there. I never bothered to benchmark it, but it seems slugish now. And it's not a weak machine (as far as laptops go). 2.4GHz with 1GB Ram.
I'm not about to undo everything I've done. I've installed way too much, and don't want to worry about breaking those apps by removing the patch.
Oh well. I'll just live with it. It's not my main machine anyway, just something to do some DB work with.
You can get the OEM version of Windows XP Pro full-install for $150 USD. You can get the "upgrade" version of XP Home for $99 USD at just about any computer store.
The OEM version traditionally has to be purchased with hefty hardware (motherboard, CPU, harddrive, etc). It used to be ANY hardware, in which case I'd pick mine up with 16MB Ram if I needed it in a pinch.
The upgrade version can be used to perform a full install, so long as you have a valid CD for a previous version of Windows for verification. So you don't really lose anything except the inconvenience of having to dig up that old copy of Windows 9x or Me.
I work for a Windows-based company writing applications. It just makes sense for me to have a good windows machine on hand at home for when I need to take something home. It's also good for gaming.
Sure, I use my PowerBook 70% of the time, but a windows machine is currently a necessity for many of us in the IT field.
And as for being bug ridden, none of the XP machines I own / use have had any major problems. I've only blue-screend once, and that was when I was overclocking way to much. Say what you want about MS's past software, but XP is pretty decent.
For my literature requirement in college, I took Science Fiction. It was my favorite class through my 4 years of college and 1.5 years of grad school. The theme for the whole semester was "What makes us human? What is alive?" We read a lot of stories, as well as watched movies: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Frankenstein. We also saw some key episodes of The X-Files. Everything we saw or read focused on this theme. I remember sitting there watching Ghost in the Shell all the way through, and discussing it for the rest of the class (Saturday class = 3 hours). Man, I miss that class. It was one of those true college classes I had hoped on taking; the kind that made you think and do cool things.
LOL. But seriously, in Jersey, it's rare we get big snows. For the last few years, we've gotten 2 or 3 a year, and it's odd for us to see anything near a foot. Further north, it gets worse. But I'll take a foot of snow over coyotes, mudslides, fires, earth quakes, and "the Governator" any day :)
During Hurricane Frances, I was playing City of Heroes with a Super Group. One of our members lives down in Miami, and he was able to play through just about all of it.
He was worried that he'd get disconnected at some point, but we played for like 6 hrs straight on a Task Force that day, and I saw him online a couple of times throughout the hurricane days.
I guess he was lucky. I was surprised he was able to be online all of that time down there. We knew he was based in Miami since before the hurricanes, so it wasn't like he was trying to get attention.
Personally, I'm glad to be living on the upper-East coast. Our weather is mild, we have no earthquakes, mudslides, or raging fires to worry about (though my state is in the top 5 for largest forest coverage).
It would take A LOT for me to want to move down to Florida (though Spring Breaks are tempting).
Oops, I hit "Submit" by accident.
Personally, I'll definately go see Hines's version, probably ebfore Spielbergs (assuming they came out at the same time, which the article suggests might not be the case).
I think there's room for both. Sure, the Joe Sixpack will probably line up in front of Spielberg's simply because they know the name, but I have no problem seeing both.
Spielberg used to be pretty dang good. However, his "updated" version of ET was laughable; I particularly like South Park's spoof about "Saving Private Ryan" with all guns replaced by walkie-talkies.
Let's take "I, Robot" for example. It didn't really capture the complexities of Asimov's short stories, but for what it was, it was an alright flick. It was a summer action flick with some parallels to the themes in Asimov's book, particularly the end. Yeh, it was obvious, dumbed down, and action-packed; but what else would you expect from a Summer movie with Will Smith?
Depending on how it looks, I might go see it, or at least wait until it's available "On-Demand." Will I expect the quality of story-telling from the original? No. Will I expect something visually stunning with perhaps some decent directing? Probably.
I'll have to wait and see, but I'm not going to put it down simply because Spielberg cannot possibly live up to the expectations of movie-buffs everywhere. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Hey, at least Lucas isn't involved.
Please...
:)
As if when I think "Apple," I think "Beatles."
I can never understand this B.S. At least with Lindows, they purposely chose that name in competition with Windows (a Linux that's so much like Windows, it's scary... AHHH). So I can understand MS being pissed/
Apple isn't making money by the association with Apple Records or the Beatles. They're just Apple, and they decided to expand into a lucrative market. A market that only makes sense for a tech savvy company to get into in the beginning.
I think the contract was an asshat thing to do. Oh no! 2 companies are called Apple, one publishes music, the other has recently started selling music. Apple is such a unique and creative word, it's not even in the dictionary. I know, I'll start a new company called "Creative," because I just made that word up!
But Anyway...
A contract is a contract, and Apple violated their's. Yeh, it was a contract that was stupid as heck in the first place, but a contract none-the-less.
Both sides should just settle and move on.
Then, Apple should make a game called "Squash the Silver Beatles" or something
Yeh, the most that would happen to me if they delete my PC's home directory is my settings, bookmarks, and a few other minor things. At most, I might need to perform a repair on SOME installs to get an app working correctly.
But I don't store anything in "My Documents," "My Pictures," or the like. Sure, some games default their saved games there, but boo hoo.
My Powerbook on the other hand, I'd have to kill someone. Seriously, I'd wring their little necks.
But I don't pirate software. I make enough money that if I need software X, I buy it, ESPECIALLY if it was designed / published by a small house.
Personally, I hate it when someone pirates software from a small software company. I mean, is it that friggin hard to pay $27 USD for "Gish" or some other delightful game gauranteed to keep you happy for days on end, or $30 USD for TextPad if you use it every day? MS Ofice I could understand (though I paid for mine), but little apps like Textpad are usually worth it.
These jerks had it coming.
Half-Life 2D (now called Codename: Gordon) was foruntately able to get permission from Valve (and whoever) to do their little project. Hell, it's available through Steam. But that's gotta suck, man. Maybe if you wrote an actual letter to their legal department or called the legal department, you might have gotten somewhere. Then again, they might have blown you off as well.
With all of the trouble he gets into, it's only a matter of time until his last 3 hairs are plucked.
Maybe this will lay waste to claims that java is slow, bloated, and sucks.
I've only recently started doing heaving Java programming, and I have to say that the language is a dream to code with (provided you use a decent IDE). There're so many classes in place already, there's nothing you can't do. I'll take it over C++ any day, and MS's MFC is horrible on comparison.
My only problem with it is the deployment; screwing with class paths and what not.
People need to realize that most of the overhead they experience with their "hello world" experience has to do with loading the classes in the beginning. Once that is done, Java performs nicely.
Sure, straight C is faster, but Java isn't the turtle everyone makes it out to be.
It wasn't just the present. Looking at the old ships and their maps, the Wright Brothers, the Lindenburg flight, etc. I'm not saying everyone should like the intro, I just think it's nice, and the theme and pictures combine nicely. Most people hate it because it's not a bunch of trumpets and violins.
Star Trek is fiction. It involves Spaceships that will probably never be built, exploring planets that don't exist, using science that is probably utter BS. And yet, you have a problem with the opening credits showing a space station that will probably never be complete in real life, and space shuttles that have exploded.
It's fiction. Get over it.
Hell, here's an idea! Let's made a game called Jedi Knight. It will be an FPS shooter. Our main characters will be "Kyle Katar" and "Luke Skywalker!" The story will revolve around... hell, let's just copy the story and levels from this game over here! And, because it's open source, nobody will be able to stop us!
Please.
Making it open source wouldn't make it legal. Lawsuits would still happen, and even SourceForge would cave. Squareonic would still set out to screw those contributing to it.
And if you're simply complaining about Open Source because you feel the game should be done that way, it's the authors choice. Sure, I think Open Source is great, but even I wouldn't open everything I work on.
Maybe he would like to sell it down the line. Or maybe, he wants to be able to look back at it and say "See, I made this!"
Sure, Suare is being an a$$hat, but it's their copyright and it's therefore their call as to whether someone can do something with it.
The guy should have talked with a lawyer first, or tried to contact Square for permission.
I disagree on 2 points:
1) I think the opening theme is pretty good, when combined with the scenes they show. Sure, it isn't another orchestra piece, but it fits in well to show how we got where we're going.
2) While much of the show is superficial, and they rely on sex way too much (decontamination gel rubdown time! woohoo!), it has it's deep moments.
Like, when T'Pol essentially gets an STD which is looked upon as a stigmata by the Vulcans. She's immediately outcast, and you find that the Vulcans aren't in any hurry to find a cure because it will get rid of the "undesirables."
Some of the tough moral decisions Archer has had to make. Should we clone someone just to save a man's life? Saving this man would save the ship, which would save Earth, but it is right to clone something just to kill it?
Should we give this race a cure to a plague, even though the plague is giving ground to another species becomming the dominant species of a planet? Which species do we favor, as the dying species treats the "younger" species like cr@p and the "younger" species show much promise? Is it our place to interfere with the course of evolution of an entire species or the natural order of another planet?
W'ere screwed. We need an engine part to continue the mission, or Earth is doomed. We can't build another one. But LOOK! There's one, but they won't give it to us! Should we simply take it? It's just a ship of 30 people vs an entire planet, and we'll help them out if we can?
Yeh, at lot of the episodes are pretty horrible, especially the one where it was pretty much a "zombie movie" set on a Vulcana ship. But it has its moments.
The entire show started out centered around a "temporal cold war" for heaven's sake. And now, it's all about saving Earth. But, within the dreck, there are a few little gems that follow the themes of TOS and TNG.
In any case, I think this should be the last season of Enterprise, and another Star Trek show shouldn't come back for years. Then, maybe it'll be "fresh" and "new" again.
Give me FireFly any day.
The Rio Karma also has dual processors in there, somehting I don't THINK the iPod has.
I had the Karma, and loved it... until the battery died after the warranty expired.
Before that happened, it was great. The only thing I didn't like about it was they purposely made it hard to connect to. You had to use proprietary software, and couldn't simply treat it like a USB drive (without 3rd party drivers).
Some motherboard manufacturers supply a BIOS Update program that works within Windows. I've used it a couple of times in the past, and I've never had any problems with it.
Personally, I didn't even bothering installing a Floppy drive into my gaming PC. I leave 1 harddrive Fat32, and have various methods of booting to CD (even my old Windows 98 SE CD). If I need to do something (like flash my bios), I just put what I need on my Fat32 partition and boot using a CD.
Between my network, USB thumbdrives, and CD-R's I have little need for a floppy. Hell, my USB thumbdrives transfer a hell of a lot faster than a floppy, hold a lot more data, and fit on my keychain.
The floppy is dead. Apple made the right choice in just not supplying them anymore.