One thing to be aware of when purchasing a Mac (I use MacOS X/9.x exclusively -- X exclusively once Photoshop/Flash/Director run natively):
The "consumer" level models do, in fact, offer VGA out -- however it's mirrored video of the main display ONLY. This includes the iBook and iMac series.
The "pro" level models (TiBook, G4 tower) allow you to tile displays, and the TiBook also allows for s-video out (which can also be had on the consumer models via USB converters).
If you're worried about the overhead of the GUI/Aqua, you'll be happy to know that you can launch into "single-user mode" -- command line only, if you'd like. That said, the 10.1.2 version of the Finder, etc. does a great job of being friendly to CPU cycles.
As mentioned above, OS X is a "real" unix -- but several directories (etc, bin ad nauseum) are hidden from the Finder (hidden from Grandma, actually -- who'd throw them away on accident if given the opportunity). You can make them visible with an indispensible little piece of shareware called Tinkertool which can also customize (or turn off) several extraneous features of the Aqua interface.
You still have access to those directories via the command-line/Terminal, though.
My first week under OS X, I was able to download and compile all the latest versions of Apache, PHP, mySQL, SSH with minimal problems.
Today, most of the popular packages are available as double-clickable installs, FWIW.
If you're an Apache user who is considering to move to OS X, do yourself a favor and check out Tenon's iTools.
That allows for full customization of the httpd.conf from the GUI, with a few extra goodies thrown in.
You can cut & bend a staple to the appropriate size, if it's a real emergency. I wouldn't recommend this even for a short-term solution, though, unless you're really desperate.
Most of us have equipment we can loot for jumpers (old 2x CD-ROMs, 20MB Hard Drives etc), but your best bet is really a local ma-and-pop shop and just offer $5 or so for some mismatched jumpers they've got in the back. You'll get more than you're likely to need (even if you're paying 2x retail), and you might just make a friend:)
--dr00g
Re:Will they play on your machines?
on
Star Trek TNG DVDs
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There will be a separate set for the UK for a variety of reasons, but there's one reason in particular that comes to mind.
The episode (I forget the title) dealing with Tasha's homeworld and terrorism was banned in the UK because it contains a line stating that terror attacks lead to Irish independence.
So, in effect, there's a season that's one episode shorter in the UK.
FWIW...
Sorry, bud. Lucas ceased showing even a touch of creativity since A New Hope, and even that was subject to many, many massive overhauls before it was filmed -- a probably would've been a stinky turd had it not been for the guys in Proto-ILM that helped with the art direction and story polish.
Lucas couldn't get a good performance out of Olivier (Sir Lawrence, that is) -- because they're secondary to the film. If it was up to him, we wouldn't have actors at all. It seems that they get in the way of the effects for him -- the stuff he enjoys -- the stuff we enjoyed as kids.
The man is a complete gear-head, and obsessed so much with the fact that he CAN (Jar-Jar (make that damned near all of EP I), the Worse-than-claymation Jabba in ANH:SE, Ewoks, etc) that he spends very little time wondering if he should.
There's no coincidence in the fact that Empire was the best (IMO) and "realest" in terms of acting and tone of the series. Lucas wrote a draft, and didn't direct it. Period.
For fun, fire up hotline/carracho/gnutella and search for some movie script servers. You can find all of the original Star Wars scripts if you look hard enough. It's quite worthwhile for a few reasons -- from just being a fanboy and seeing the evolution of the films to seeing how disasterously the storyline could have gone had George gone unchecked (which is happening now).
I loved the entire series as a kid -- they were beautiful, they were fantastical, and they were based on archetypal characters I knew, there were no subtleties in the acting, everything was black or white, and the story was derivative of most mythic/fantasyish kids stories -- perfect for kids, less perfect for gr'ups.
You're absolutely right in your summation, though. Star Wars is pure nostalgia -- it's a memory of most of my childhood spent playing with my huge toy collection and praying that someday I'd get to fly away, train with Yoda and be just like Luke.
Those were, in fact, The Good Old Days:)
And I am keeping my Beta SP masters of the original trilogy in a vault to some day burn to a permanent format, because once the "even more special" editions come out, and the ones following those, I won't even recognize my childhood playground anymore.
From the early-90's beginnings of DV editing, I realized that I was going behind my workstations/beta decks/etc. at least twice a day... and up against a wall, that just lags.
My solution was to simply face the desk outward from the wall, or (more usually) set the desk two feet from the wall to allow walking space.
Helps a bit with heat dispersal from montiors and the like as well, FWIW.
Pax Imperia (and the sequel, eminent domain) was an awesome game that required huge amounts of resource management, and actual strategy which changed on a per-game AND per-race basis.
It was basically a combination of Risk, Civ, Tradewars, Spaceward Ho! and more.
A lot of the routine day-to-day paper/money shuffling was done by AI characters you chose to me Minister of Finance, War, etc... except they actually managed for you, unlike the Civ avatars.
In that game, you couldn't mass for an attack and cream the entire universe because:
A: It was too damned big. Mind-bogglingly big.
B: You needed supply lines to refuel and repair your ships in transit
C: Having a fleet required upkeep. Sure you could build 50 dreadnaughts and gain a couple of systems quickly, but you'd go broke and have to decommision them soon afterward.
It wasn't exactly a RTS... more of a hybrid RT and turn-based. A lot of resource allocation tech-tree stuff, like Civ, but combat was real time.
And a successful campaign would take weeks if you created a decent sized galaxy.
It had multi-player options as well.
I may just have to dust that one off and try it again. It's been quite a while...
Slashdot Mirror
One thing to be aware of when purchasing a Mac (I use MacOS X/9.x exclusively -- X exclusively once Photoshop/Flash/Director run natively):
The "consumer" level models do, in fact, offer VGA out -- however it's mirrored video of the main display ONLY. This includes the iBook and iMac series.
The "pro" level models (TiBook, G4 tower) allow you to tile displays, and the TiBook also allows for s-video out (which can also be had on the consumer models via USB converters).
If you're worried about the overhead of the GUI/Aqua, you'll be happy to know that you can launch into "single-user mode" -- command line only, if you'd like. That said, the 10.1.2 version of the Finder, etc. does a great job of being friendly to CPU cycles.
As mentioned above, OS X is a "real" unix -- but several directories (etc, bin ad nauseum) are hidden from the Finder (hidden from Grandma, actually -- who'd throw them away on accident if given the opportunity). You can make them visible with an indispensible little piece of shareware called Tinkertool which can also customize (or turn off) several extraneous features of the Aqua interface.
You still have access to those directories via the command-line/Terminal, though.
My first week under OS X, I was able to download and compile all the latest versions of Apache, PHP, mySQL, SSH with minimal problems.
Today, most of the popular packages are available as double-clickable installs, FWIW.
If you're an Apache user who is considering to move to OS X, do yourself a favor and check out Tenon's iTools.
That allows for full customization of the httpd.conf from the GUI, with a few extra goodies thrown in.
--dr00g
php also has built-in PDF editing and creation functions as well, FWIW.
LXXIV. PDF functions (PHP)
And here's the PDFlib for Perl which allows much of the same functionality (create/modify)
CPAN PDFLib
Also, last time I checked, I could still edit PDF files in Acrobat (authoring suite) or Illustrator.
I also remember programming a bit of Postscript in college as well... do PDF/PS really qualify as closed architectures?
You can cut & bend a staple to the appropriate size, if it's a real emergency. I wouldn't recommend this even for a short-term solution, though, unless you're really desperate.
:)
Most of us have equipment we can loot for jumpers (old 2x CD-ROMs, 20MB Hard Drives etc), but your best bet is really a local ma-and-pop shop and just offer $5 or so for some mismatched jumpers they've got in the back. You'll get more than you're likely to need (even if you're paying 2x retail), and you might just make a friend
--dr00g
There will be a separate set for the UK for a variety of reasons, but there's one reason in particular that comes to mind. The episode (I forget the title) dealing with Tasha's homeworld and terrorism was banned in the UK because it contains a line stating that terror attacks lead to Irish independence. So, in effect, there's a season that's one episode shorter in the UK. FWIW...
Sorry, bud. Lucas ceased showing even a touch of creativity since A New Hope, and even that was subject to many, many massive overhauls before it was filmed -- a probably would've been a stinky turd had it not been for the guys in Proto-ILM that helped with the art direction and story polish.
:)
Lucas couldn't get a good performance out of Olivier (Sir Lawrence, that is) -- because they're secondary to the film. If it was up to him, we wouldn't have actors at all. It seems that they get in the way of the effects for him -- the stuff he enjoys -- the stuff we enjoyed as kids.
The man is a complete gear-head, and obsessed so much with the fact that he CAN (Jar-Jar (make that damned near all of EP I), the Worse-than-claymation Jabba in ANH:SE, Ewoks, etc) that he spends very little time wondering if he should.
There's no coincidence in the fact that Empire was the best (IMO) and "realest" in terms of acting and tone of the series. Lucas wrote a draft, and didn't direct it. Period.
For fun, fire up hotline/carracho/gnutella and search for some movie script servers. You can find all of the original Star Wars scripts if you look hard enough. It's quite worthwhile for a few reasons -- from just being a fanboy and seeing the evolution of the films to seeing how disasterously the storyline could have gone had George gone unchecked (which is happening now).
I loved the entire series as a kid -- they were beautiful, they were fantastical, and they were based on archetypal characters I knew, there were no subtleties in the acting, everything was black or white, and the story was derivative of most mythic/fantasyish kids stories -- perfect for kids, less perfect for gr'ups.
You're absolutely right in your summation, though. Star Wars is pure nostalgia -- it's a memory of most of my childhood spent playing with my huge toy collection and praying that someday I'd get to fly away, train with Yoda and be just like Luke.
Those were, in fact, The Good Old Days
And I am keeping my Beta SP masters of the original trilogy in a vault to some day burn to a permanent format, because once the "even more special" editions come out, and the ones following those, I won't even recognize my childhood playground anymore.
And that would be a shame.
Precisely my solution.
From the early-90's beginnings of DV editing, I realized that I was going behind my workstations/beta decks/etc. at least twice a day... and up against a wall, that just lags.
My solution was to simply face the desk outward from the wall, or (more usually) set the desk two feet from the wall to allow walking space.
Helps a bit with heat dispersal from montiors and the like as well, FWIW.
--dr00g
Pax Imperia (and the sequel, eminent domain) was an awesome game that required huge amounts of resource management, and actual strategy which changed on a per-game AND per-race basis.
It was basically a combination of Risk, Civ, Tradewars, Spaceward Ho! and more.
A lot of the routine day-to-day paper/money shuffling was done by AI characters you chose to me Minister of Finance, War, etc... except they actually managed for you, unlike the Civ avatars.
In that game, you couldn't mass for an attack and cream the entire universe because:
A: It was too damned big. Mind-bogglingly big.B: You needed supply lines to refuel and repair your ships in transit
C: Having a fleet required upkeep. Sure you could build 50 dreadnaughts and gain a couple of systems quickly, but you'd go broke and have to decommision them soon afterward.
It wasn't exactly a RTS... more of a hybrid RT and turn-based. A lot of resource allocation tech-tree stuff, like Civ, but combat was real time.
And a successful campaign would take weeks if you created a decent sized galaxy.
It had multi-player options as well.
I may just have to dust that one off and try it again. It's been quite a while...
--droog