I usually slam people who don't make an effort to figure things out themselves before asking, and I must admin that I haven't done a lot of research, but...
Is it not true that VirtualDub does not have any MPEG-1 filters, to save movies as normal MPEG-1 movies? (Or was that MPEG-2?)
I must agree that VirtualDub is a great program otherwise, though.
"Are you on Earthlink? Fact: that ISP was started (and is still operated) by Scientologists."
I dislike the Scientologists and their methods as much as anyone, and I'm not saying that what you are claiming cannot be true. However, I've found sites claiming that it isn't:
I didn't look that deeply into this, but it seems people disagree about Earthlink being run by Scientologists or even used for their purpose.
It seems to be fairly clear that the company was started by a Scientologist, but unless the company somehow supports or is a tool for Scientology today, I don't think it should matter. And I guess it's too big for it to make any difference anyway.
But bear in mind that Star Fox and Donkey Kong were developed with cooperation from Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto himself oversaw the development of these and other Rare games.
Your childish comments aside, I think both Nintendo and Microsoft are gaining something from this.
Nintendo are getting some cash to start focusing more on third-party support, and pulling out of a relationship which was no longer as healthy to them (Rare's games apparently made up a whopping 1.5 per cent of Nintendo's total sales last year, steadily going down). Don't forget that the Stamper brothers are pulling out, and that many of the original developers that helped to build the Rare brand name have left to create their own company.
Microsoft are buying a brand name which has a good ring in most hardcore gamers' ears, including the gaming press. They also get a few licenses (although some of the ones you mention no longer belong to Rare, AFAIK)
But remember that much of Rare's success with their games was due to the heavy involvement of geniuses like Shigery Miyamoto (Nintendo's not-so-secret weapon). He oversaw the development of several smash hits, including Star Fox and Donkey Kong.
And when you consider the fact that the Stamper brothers are pulling out, and large part of the original development teams have moved on to other companies, what Microsoft is left with is basically a brand name and a few licenses. Rare will still be able to create nice games I think, but will they be able to make the same impact as they did in the past?
I seriously doubt it.
You are talking about how Nintendo fanboys raved about Rare in the past. This is true. Rare was once a force to be reckoned with. However, have you noticed how silent the fanboys have been about Rare lately? I think they realize that Rare is no longer the same as it used to be.
All in all, it looks like Nintendo have made a smart move. They have lost little - the ones that quit Rare are now working on GameCube games, it seems. The licenses aren't half as strong as Nintendo's own.
Microsoft have bough the brand recognition of a company which currently is struggling hard to live up to its past glory, but not quite succeeding.
I wouldn't call it a ripoff, because gaming fans have fond memories of Rare's games. But then I wouldn't exactly call it a major breakthrough for Microsoft either.
But that remains to be seen. Maybe Rare can start doing their magic again, without the people who have already left and are leaving.
It was my understanding that Nintendo actually make money off their hardware.
It looks like Nintendo are very much interested in making hardware. They dominate the handheld gaming market at the moment, and they apparently don't like the way the other consoles are trying to do everything. Nintendo just want to create a simple gaming machine.
I would be surprised if the GameCube was Nintendo's last console.
Unfortunately, Dillo doesn't quite cut it in the real world, IMHO. It doesn't seem to support a lot of the things that make Opera and Mozilla winners. Mozilla, at least partially, sacrifices speed for features and usability (on slower machines - newer systems shouldn't notice much). Dillo sacrifices features and usability for speed. Opera goes somewhere in-between them.
But I never quite got the hang of Dillo. Perhaps you should try Opera 3.62 instead. It seems to be incredibly fast, and it still supports JavaScript, CSS, and everything. But not DOM of course.
Episode 1 wasn't too bad. It was entertaining enough. It was a nice intro to the new trilogy.
You should expect episode 2 to take place in more "shiny" environments. After all, the people we are dealing with are politicians and their helpers. They don't generally hang out in dirty caves. They have clean clothes, clean rooms, everything. The OT takes place among the rebels - and they are a rag-tag bunch of, well, rebels, who don't have the same "polish" as the politicians you see in the current movies.
What tale were you expecting? It is about Anakin's journey towards the dark side, and Palpatine's rise to power. It told those stories nicely.
Episode 3 should be very nice. It will apparently be darker and more violent.
The OT isn't very spectacular if you think about it. The story is a bog-standard "good vs. bad" thing, the acting is bad, etc. It does have its charm, and despite its flaws, it drags you in. Most people today view it through rose-tinted glasses.
You aren't supposed to compare the two trilogies in this way, because they are completely different kinds of movies.
You do realize that what you are seeing when watching episode 1 and 2 are Anakin's journey towards the dark side? You also see the schemes cooked up by Palpatine in his attempt to gain power. Episode 2 is a lot better at this than episode 1, as it really shows you how Anakin starts moving towards the dark side. It also shows us how Palpatine carefully planned the fall of the Republic.
If you watch episode 1 and 2 expecting the usual basic plot with "Good vs. Bad", you will be disappointed. That's not what they are about at all. They operate on another level than the standard adventure story seen in the Original Trilogy.
Episode 2 is a lot more subtle most of the time, and you will see a lot of foreshadowing. This is a good thing, and one really should watch the OT before watching episode 1 and 2.
If you don't understand the motives behind people's actions in episode 2, you should perhaps consider looking beyond the basic plot playing out on the screen. You need to gather the threads to get a bigger picture of what is really going on.
To me, it sounds like you are expecting a new OT, when this is clearly not what the new movies are about.
"Of course, it was only a matter of time before hackers showed an interest in this OS."
You make it sound like this is the first security hole to appear in open-source software. It isn't. And guess what, as someone has already pointed out, the ones writing open-source software are often hackers themselves. OSS has been exposed to hackers and crackers since day 1. How does this change now? What is happening now isn't that more hackers are showing an interest in OSS at all. What is happening is that more mainstream users are starting to use such software. But they wouldn't know how to read code if their lives depended on it!
"I'm surprised it took so long"
What took so long? Some of your comments don't really make sense.
How incredibly ironic. You are using science to disprove science. Make up your mind: Blind faith in God or science? If you are clever, you will do neither.
What did you expect him to say? "Yes, you are absolutely right, we will lower our prices immediately"? You complained that they were too expensive, and got information back about their pricing. Perhaps they even had alternative pricing for you, in case you wanted to change your subscription or whatever?
Sorry, but your example was a poor one. Do you really think support people can do anything about prices? Or did you just want a bullshit answer like "thank you for the feedback, we appreciate it"? Such answers piss me off a lot more than honest information about what's going on. So, do you want them to treat you like a gullible idiot or as someone who would perhaps like to change your subscription or whatever the options were?
"Being a geek, I tend to avoid people, yet often when I want to a non-FAQ-type question I don't want to diddle with long-path phone menus, I would rather talk with a real human who can search their grey index for answers faster."
The problem is not few the clever people who have looked through the documentation and FAQ without finding the answer, but the helpless ones, whose first action is to call up the company. They bog down the lines and prevent those who have actually made an effort from getting help. These people are the ones forcing companies to cut down costs, because they overload their support people and make them hire more. Or take action in some other way. Don't blame the companies. Blame the fools.
I don't think you understand what you are asking for. The very reason why they hire people specifically to take care of end-user contact is so the other people can get some work done.
People working as tech support people in software companies often seem to get demands from customers: They want to talk to the developer in charge of whatever they have a problem with. Somehow, a lot of people think that they are so much more important than everyone else that it warrants pulling the developer away from an important project to do customer service instead. It just doesn't make sense.
If one customer is allowed to talk to a developer, why shouldn't all of them? And what would the result be?
The developer wouldn't get any work done, and you would basically have a hideously expensive support person.
I ask you to think about the consequences of what you are asking for. Have you?
It's not that the companies have something to hide. It's that they have hired people specifically so the others can get some work done.
People tend to jump to conclusion when they don't know what they are talking about. I ask you to think about it, just for a few minutes. I am sure you will understand what I am saying, if you haven't already.
I fail to see the validity of your comparison between Sun Java vs. MS Java and English vs. French. It has got nothing to do with this article. Of course English is the language of choice on the Internet. After all, it started out in the US. And why is English spoken all over the world? Well, imperialism is a big part of this. Of course, France did much the same, which is why Frech is also very widespread across the world.
However, this is completely irrelevant for the discussion about Java. The simple fact of the matter is that Microsoft made their own implementation of Java which wasn't compatible with Sun Java. They basically used their market share to "take over". They have done this before.
I am also surprised to see that in your text, there are no arguments to explain why you don't want "pure Java". You go on about how Microsoft's action weren't so bad after all and how Sun was actually the one doing all the mistakes. Without supporting these claims. You also don't seem to explain why you prefer MS Java.
That's part of the spoofing. It's intended to trick scripts that check for "document.all" and/or UA string. Emulating IE takes a bit more than supporting a couple of proprietary extensions for spoofing purposes.
In Opera, you can toggle images using the G key on your keyboard. It actually has a huge list of keyboard shortcuts, which is really nice. Ctrl+G to apply your own style sheet, etc.
Their bug tracking system is "read-only". It only goes in, not out. It also says that you shouldn't expect a reply unless they need more info from them. Try to visit the opera.linux newsgroup on news.opera.no instead! Developers hang out there as well. They are very responsive, too.
"Mozilla does not attempt to cater to the IE crap-nuances. Opera does. They actually write code that basically says 'click here to emulate IE f0rk-ups.'"
Actually, the browser identification settings is purely there to access sites that block browsers based on what they report themselves as. It is not an attempt to emulate MSIE. In fact, Opera often seems to be more strict than Mozilla. Mozilla accepts CSS colors without #, while Opera does not. This is just one of many examples.
Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla's startup script is 4979 bytes? That's interesting. But what does that say about the actual size of the program?
Before I started using Opera's MDI I thought it was laughable to use it in a web browser.
Oh how wrong I was.
"Eat shit -- billions of flies can't be wrong."
Is it not true that VirtualDub does not have any MPEG-1 filters, to save movies as normal MPEG-1 movies? (Or was that MPEG-2?)
I must agree that VirtualDub is a great program otherwise, though.
Or is it not actually a problem?
http://bernie.cncfamily.com/earthlink.htm
http://bernie.cncfamily.com/earthlink.htm
I didn't look that deeply into this, but it seems people disagree about Earthlink being run by Scientologists or even used for their purpose.
It seems to be fairly clear that the company was started by a Scientologist, but unless the company somehow supports or is a tool for Scientology today, I don't think it should matter. And I guess it's too big for it to make any difference anyway.
But bear in mind that Star Fox and Donkey Kong were developed with cooperation from Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto himself oversaw the development of these and other Rare games.
- Nintendo are getting some cash to start focusing more on third-party support, and pulling out of a relationship which was no longer as healthy to them (Rare's games apparently made up a whopping 1.5 per cent of Nintendo's total sales last year, steadily going down). Don't forget that the Stamper brothers are pulling out, and that many of the original developers that helped to build the Rare brand name have left to create their own company.
- Microsoft are buying a brand name which has a good ring in most hardcore gamers' ears, including the gaming press. They also get a few licenses (although some of the ones you mention no longer belong to Rare, AFAIK)
But remember that much of Rare's success with their games was due to the heavy involvement of geniuses like Shigery Miyamoto (Nintendo's not-so-secret weapon). He oversaw the development of several smash hits, including Star Fox and Donkey Kong.And when you consider the fact that the Stamper brothers are pulling out, and large part of the original development teams have moved on to other companies, what Microsoft is left with is basically a brand name and a few licenses. Rare will still be able to create nice games I think, but will they be able to make the same impact as they did in the past?
I seriously doubt it.
You are talking about how Nintendo fanboys raved about Rare in the past. This is true. Rare was once a force to be reckoned with. However, have you noticed how silent the fanboys have been about Rare lately? I think they realize that Rare is no longer the same as it used to be.
All in all, it looks like Nintendo have made a smart move. They have lost little - the ones that quit Rare are now working on GameCube games, it seems. The licenses aren't half as strong as Nintendo's own.
Microsoft have bough the brand recognition of a company which currently is struggling hard to live up to its past glory, but not quite succeeding.
I wouldn't call it a ripoff, because gaming fans have fond memories of Rare's games. But then I wouldn't exactly call it a major breakthrough for Microsoft either.
But that remains to be seen. Maybe Rare can start doing their magic again, without the people who have already left and are leaving.
It looks like Nintendo are very much interested in making hardware. They dominate the handheld gaming market at the moment, and they apparently don't like the way the other consoles are trying to do everything. Nintendo just want to create a simple gaming machine.
I would be surprised if the GameCube was Nintendo's last console.
But I never quite got the hang of Dillo. Perhaps you should try Opera 3.62 instead. It seems to be incredibly fast, and it still supports JavaScript, CSS, and everything. But not DOM of course.
You should expect episode 2 to take place in more "shiny" environments. After all, the people we are dealing with are politicians and their helpers. They don't generally hang out in dirty caves. They have clean clothes, clean rooms, everything. The OT takes place among the rebels - and they are a rag-tag bunch of, well, rebels, who don't have the same "polish" as the politicians you see in the current movies.
What tale were you expecting? It is about Anakin's journey towards the dark side, and Palpatine's rise to power. It told those stories nicely.
Episode 3 should be very nice. It will apparently be darker and more violent.
The OT isn't very spectacular if you think about it. The story is a bog-standard "good vs. bad" thing, the acting is bad, etc. It does have its charm, and despite its flaws, it drags you in. Most people today view it through rose-tinted glasses.
You aren't supposed to compare the two trilogies in this way, because they are completely different kinds of movies.
You do realize that what you are seeing when watching episode 1 and 2 are Anakin's journey towards the dark side? You also see the schemes cooked up by Palpatine in his attempt to gain power. Episode 2 is a lot better at this than episode 1, as it really shows you how Anakin starts moving towards the dark side. It also shows us how Palpatine carefully planned the fall of the Republic.
If you watch episode 1 and 2 expecting the usual basic plot with "Good vs. Bad", you will be disappointed. That's not what they are about at all. They operate on another level than the standard adventure story seen in the Original Trilogy.
Episode 2 is a lot more subtle most of the time, and you will see a lot of foreshadowing. This is a good thing, and one really should watch the OT before watching episode 1 and 2.
If you don't understand the motives behind people's actions in episode 2, you should perhaps consider looking beyond the basic plot playing out on the screen. You need to gather the threads to get a bigger picture of what is really going on.
To me, it sounds like you are expecting a new OT, when this is clearly not what the new movies are about.
What took so long? Some of your comments don't really make sense.
How incredibly ironic. You are using science to disprove science. Make up your mind: Blind faith in God or science? If you are clever, you will do neither.
Sorry, but your example was a poor one. Do you really think support people can do anything about prices? Or did you just want a bullshit answer like "thank you for the feedback, we appreciate it"? Such answers piss me off a lot more than honest information about what's going on. So, do you want them to treat you like a gullible idiot or as someone who would perhaps like to change your subscription or whatever the options were?
People working as tech support people in software companies often seem to get demands from customers: They want to talk to the developer in charge of whatever they have a problem with. Somehow, a lot of people think that they are so much more important than everyone else that it warrants pulling the developer away from an important project to do customer service instead. It just doesn't make sense.
If one customer is allowed to talk to a developer, why shouldn't all of them? And what would the result be?
The developer wouldn't get any work done, and you would basically have a hideously expensive support person.
I ask you to think about the consequences of what you are asking for. Have you?
It's not that the companies have something to hide. It's that they have hired people specifically so the others can get some work done.
People tend to jump to conclusion when they don't know what they are talking about. I ask you to think about it, just for a few minutes. I am sure you will understand what I am saying, if you haven't already.
Microsoft have used their position in the market to prevent competitors from, for example, being preinstalled on PCs.
However, this is completely irrelevant for the discussion about Java. The simple fact of the matter is that Microsoft made their own implementation of Java which wasn't compatible with Sun Java. They basically used their market share to "take over". They have done this before.
I am also surprised to see that in your text, there are no arguments to explain why you don't want "pure Java". You go on about how Microsoft's action weren't so bad after all and how Sun was actually the one doing all the mistakes. Without supporting these claims. You also don't seem to explain why you prefer MS Java.
That's part of the spoofing. It's intended to trick scripts that check for "document.all" and/or UA string. Emulating IE takes a bit more than supporting a couple of proprietary extensions for spoofing purposes.
In Opera, you can toggle images using the G key on your keyboard. It actually has a huge list of keyboard shortcuts, which is really nice. Ctrl+G to apply your own style sheet, etc.
Their bug tracking system is "read-only". It only goes in, not out. It also says that you shouldn't expect a reply unless they need more info from them. Try to visit the opera.linux newsgroup on news.opera.no instead! Developers hang out there as well. They are very responsive, too.