I agree with the sentiment of your post, but the details are a little off. don't forget the other four titans Universal, EMI and Warner are conspicuosly absent from this article. From the article: "Spitzer has asked for documents from three other major recording industry names -- EMI, Warner Music Group and Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group. While Spitzer would not talk specifically about investigations into those companies, he said the payola problem goes "way beyond Sony BMG.""
With regards to the 10 mil, IANAL and I am not an Accountant, but I don't think that settlement money counts as a tax-write off in anyone's books. "The $10 million will be distributed to not-for-profit entities and earmarked for music education programs, Spitzer said."
"1. Which of the two browsers is simpler / less bulky, Mozilla, or Firebox? I don't want something slow loading, bloated with features, and overcomplicated. You know, IE." Firefox is a piece of Mozilla in much the same way that Word is a piece of MS Office. So, by default, Firefox alone is simpler.
"2. Can either of them merge with Windows the way IE does? Running URLs from the Run box, for instance. I don't want to accidentally launch IE by the old methods." No. They are not part of the operating system. However, that integration is part of the reason why bugs in IE can be so severe. Running URLs... I don't know what to tell you. To the best of my knowledge it won't work.
"3. Does Mozilla still have that stupid "download manager"? How do I turn it off? Every time I wanted to save a file that thing would pop up when I just wanted the simple windows of an IE download that go away when done." It is still there, but it disappears when done. There is also an option to turn it off.
"Until recently the FBI's database was a green-screen application that would take days to search properly. Assuming what you were looking for was in it. And your search didn't require more than one word at a time."
It still is a green screen app. They promised congress they would have the upgrade in by the end of the year. We'll see how that turns out.
I'll assist in shooting myself down (I wrote the grandparent) with a quote from the article: "...we admit that E3 is about appearances, games that were shown at E3 last year were--by and large--less impressive to us the second time around, unless of course they've made significant strides since then. That is to say, at E3, we naturally favor never-before-seen games."
That said, yet another quote would seem to indicate that World of Warcraft should have been mentioned: "...the games we've listed as winners and finalists represent the absolute best games of the show within their category."
So, I decided to use google as an arbiter of popularity. Google counts: "World of Warcraft" 877,000 results. "The Matrix Online" 203,000 results. "Tabula Rasa" 152,000 results. "Auto Assault" 73,700 results. "Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed" 58,600 results.
Disclaimers: The above numbers are more for fun than anything else. WoW has had a good headstart on many of these titles. SWG: Lightspeed is an expansion pack; however, SWG itself (an already published game) only shows 634,000 results.
"Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop"
This set off alarm bells in my head.
Joe user can now search for screensavers both on his computer and on the internet without thinking about where the results come from.
In other news, Claria stock went up 3 points today.
All of those screenshots you linked to are of women. Is it really suprising that the programmers took a little extra time to make the female avatars look good?
I interpreted the original comment that the game looks ghastly to be a reflection on the "style" of the game.
Basically I see this as a problem I had when I was taking art classes: I'm a perfectionist. I love everything to have nice sharp lines.
That's the EQ2 way (from what I've seen).
Conversly I can't describe the WoW way (I sucked at art, thus I can't pick out what is right). But I know that it doesn't look like a static computer generated world.
Oh NO. NOOO!
I just read what I wrote. Somewhere in those lines up there I became a WoW zealot. GAH! HELP!
Ok, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Right?... right?
"You forgot Fort Detrick Right between Washington D.C. and Baltimore."
Check your geography.
Here is a map showing frederick county in relation to Baltimore and DC http://www.elainekoehl.com/Map.htm
If you picture an inverted right triangle with the 90 degree angle in the top right then Baltimore is the 90 degree, and Frederick and DC are the corners,
Responses in line:) Before reading, please not the tone of this response: Amused but not angry/flamethrowing.
"If you are using VBA in your spread sheet you need to move to a better solution - a dbms and a decent programming language."
I'm not in an IT department. I just make my life (and my co-workers lives) easier with some code here and there.
"You are doing the equivilant of using a table knife for a screwdriver."
I'll use the same metaphor. In a lot of cases I'm using 30 lines of code to copy files, move values and perform simple calculations... Using dlls and dbms systems for something like that would be akin to using a industrial-mammoth-XOBX sized screw driver for a microscopic screw. It can do a lot better than the table knife, but only in the appropriate situation.
"I've used spread sheets in the fashion that you state."
I didn't say how I used it.
"I've also written dll's to be called by said spreadsheet. It's MUCH faster (performance wise) to use a programming language (Delphi, Kylix, C/C++) and a dbms to achieve your results."
Since I didn't say how I used it, this is a rather unqualified statement.
"The learning curve of programming is a language is a little steeper but the payoffs are well worth the effort."
VBA is not: the best programming language perfect fast
But, I've saved hundreds (if no thousands) of hours of my co-workers time (which directly translates into $$$ for my employer).
Anyhow, thanks to Trelane's response to my prior post, I'll now investigate StarOffice/OpenOffice's StarBASIC language.
From http://www.snopes.com/business/deals/pepsije t.asp
Claim: A jocular Pepsi "offer" obligated them to provide a $33.8 million Harrier jet to a consumer who claimed it for $700,000.
Status: False.
"...On 28 March 1996, Leonard forked over 15 original points plus a check for $700,008.50" (Individual Pepsi points were sold for 10 cents)
Pepsi laughed at him He took Pepsi to court Judge told him "No objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier jet..."/. even ran a story on it back in '99 http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/06/1422214 .shtm l
UGH... owned by the html format. Try this instread:
camecube? *chuckle*
You base your choice of system on the uptime at the local walmart?
When I bought my system I based the decision on: price of games popular games # of good games available upcomming releases backward compatability (ps1 games on ps2) sideways compatability (gba on gamecube) retailer rating (amazon, etc...) what friends & family own (play my saved games at their place)
camecube? *chuckle*
You base your choice of system on the uptime at the local walmart?
When I bought my system I based the decision on:
price of games popular games
# of good games available
upcomming releases
backward compatability (ps1 games on ps2)
sideways compatability (gba on gamecube)
retailer rating (amazon, etc...)
what friends & family own (play my saved games at their place)
"I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Chinese government to fully inspect any operating system it may run."
Perfectly reasonable for the Chinese, but not the US?
how about corporations?
customers?
By that logic, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable for us all to inspect our computers for NSA backdoors?
I agree with the sentiment of your post, but the details are a little off.
don't forget the other four titans Universal, EMI and Warner are conspicuosly absent from this article.
From the article:
"Spitzer has asked for documents from three other major recording industry names -- EMI, Warner Music Group and Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group. While Spitzer would not talk specifically about investigations into those companies, he said the payola problem goes "way beyond Sony BMG.""
With regards to the 10 mil, IANAL and I am not an Accountant, but I don't think that settlement money counts as a tax-write off in anyone's books.
"The $10 million will be distributed to not-for-profit entities and earmarked for music education programs, Spitzer said."
"1. Which of the two browsers is simpler / less bulky, Mozilla, or Firebox? I don't want something slow loading, bloated with features, and overcomplicated. You know, IE."
Firefox is a piece of Mozilla in much the same way that Word is a piece of MS Office. So, by default, Firefox alone is simpler.
"2. Can either of them merge with Windows the way IE does? Running URLs from the Run box, for instance. I don't want to accidentally launch IE by the old methods."
No. They are not part of the operating system. However, that integration is part of the reason why bugs in IE can be so severe.
Running URLs... I don't know what to tell you. To the best of my knowledge it won't work.
"3. Does Mozilla still have that stupid "download manager"? How do I turn it off? Every time I wanted to save a file that thing would pop up when I just wanted the simple windows of an IE download that go away when done."
It is still there, but it disappears when done. There is also an option to turn it off.
IMHO, GalCiv (www.galciv.com) is better than MOO3. That said, MoO2 is a fantastic game.
"Until recently the FBI's database was a green-screen application that would take days to search properly. Assuming what you were looking for was in it. And your search didn't require more than one word at a time."
r ticle.j html?articleID=20300290/ geeknews/2004May/gee20040 512025108.htm/ story/0,1282,-4 075785,00.html
It still is a green screen app. They promised congress they would have the upgrade in by the end of the year. We'll see how that turns out.
Relevant links (sorry, just plain text)
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showA
http://www.geek.com/news
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest
"What Would You Do With a 92 TBps Router?"
Pinky : "Gee, Brain what do you want to do tonight?"
Brain : "The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the world!"
I'll assist in shooting myself down (I wrote the grandparent) with a quote from the article:
"...we admit that E3 is about appearances, games that were shown at E3 last year were--by and large--less impressive to us the second time around, unless of course they've made significant strides since then. That is to say, at E3, we naturally favor never-before-seen games."
That said, yet another quote would seem to indicate that World of Warcraft should have been mentioned:
"...the games we've listed as winners and finalists represent the absolute best games of the show within their category."
So, I decided to use google as an arbiter of popularity. Google counts:
"World of Warcraft" 877,000 results.
"The Matrix Online" 203,000 results.
"Tabula Rasa" 152,000 results.
"Auto Assault" 73,700 results.
"Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed" 58,600 results.
Disclaimers:
The above numbers are more for fun than anything else.
WoW has had a good headstart on many of these titles.
SWG: Lightspeed is an expansion pack; however, SWG itself (an already published game) only shows 634,000 results.
Please forgive the side of me that is about to emerge.
:)
Their category of "Best Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game"
Winner: EverQuest II
Finalists:
Auto Assault (PC)
Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (PC)
The Matrix Online (PC)
Tabula Rasa (PC)
Anyone else notice a VERY conspicuous abscense fro m this list?
World of Warcraft anyone?
Ok, got that out of my system.
The fact that so many people have taken it seriously should be an indication of how little faith they have in Lucas.
Besides, the fight has to take place near lava for Vader to get his burns. This is not that far fetched.
"Longhorn users will no longer think about where information is stored; they will instead see a unified view of documents stored on both the Internet and on the desktop"
This set off alarm bells in my head.
Joe user can now search for screensavers both on his computer and on the internet without thinking about where the results come from.
In other news, Claria stock went up 3 points today.
You missed the point.
The grandparent is saying that a smaller fan would be fine due to lower processor heat. Thus the fan would not have to move as much air.
Gravity Dreams on Amazon by L.E. Modesitt.
It isn't a great book, but i enjoy it for the ideas/thoughts it provokes.
Be careful though, as some of the amazon reviewers note, it can drag quite a bit.
All of those screenshots you linked to are of women. Is it really suprising that the programmers took a little extra time to make the female avatars look good?
I interpreted the original comment that the game looks ghastly to be a reflection on the "style" of the game.
For example:
EQ2 trees
WoW trees
Basically I see this as a problem I had when I was taking art classes: I'm a perfectionist. I love everything to have nice sharp lines.
That's the EQ2 way (from what I've seen).
Conversly I can't describe the WoW way (I sucked at art, thus I can't pick out what is right). But I know that it doesn't look like a static computer generated world.
Oh NO. NOOO!I just read what I wrote. Somewhere in those lines up there I became a WoW zealot. GAH! HELP!
Ok, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Right?
help me!
That confused me too, but I think that was supposed to be 2.5 to 2.6 million.
The Ideal woman: ;)
1. smart
2. Doesn't know she is hot
3. Is my fiancee (neener neener
"EtherPEG is a free program for the Macintosh that shows you all the JPEGs (and GIFs) going by on your network."
"TurboTax for the Web does not work with the Web browser you are using."
Using Firebird 0.6
"You forgot Fort Detrick Right between Washington D.C. and Baltimore."
Check your geography.
Here is a map showing frederick county in relation to Baltimore and DC
http://www.elainekoehl.com/Map.htm
If you picture an inverted right triangle with the 90 degree angle in the top right then Baltimore is the 90 degree, and Frederick and DC are the corners,
Personally, I liked the CPU stat
Below 200 Mhz 9
I think my parent's wordprocessor could run HL2 better than a 200 mhz.
Responses in line :) Before reading, please not the tone of this response: Amused but not angry/flamethrowing.
"If you are using VBA in your spread sheet you need to move to a better solution - a dbms and a decent programming language."
I'm not in an IT department. I just make my life (and my co-workers lives) easier with some code here and there.
"You are doing the equivilant of using a table knife for a screwdriver."
I'll use the same metaphor. In a lot of cases I'm using 30 lines of code to copy files, move values and perform simple calculations... Using dlls and dbms systems for something like that would be akin to using a industrial-mammoth-XOBX sized screw driver for a microscopic screw.
It can do a lot better than the table knife, but only in the appropriate situation.
"I've used spread sheets in the fashion that you state."
I didn't say how I used it.
"I've also written dll's to be called by said spreadsheet. It's MUCH faster (performance wise) to use a programming language (Delphi, Kylix, C/C++) and a dbms to achieve your results."
Since I didn't say how I used it, this is a rather unqualified statement.
"The learning curve of programming is a language is a little steeper but the payoffs are well worth the effort."
VBA is not:
the best programming language
perfect
fast
But, I've saved hundreds (if no thousands) of hours of my co-workers time (which directly translates into $$$ for my employer).
Anyhow, thanks to Trelane's response to my prior post, I'll now investigate StarOffice/OpenOffice's StarBASIC language.
I'm in the same boat.
None of the open source alternatives can do what I need - VBA. That alone shoots down anything non MS (afaik).
Frome t.asp
/. even ran a story on it back in '994 .shtm l
http://www.snopes.com/business/deals/pepsij
Claim: A jocular Pepsi "offer" obligated them to provide a $33.8 million Harrier jet to a consumer who claimed it for $700,000.
Status: False.
"...On 28 March 1996, Leonard forked over 15 original points plus a check for $700,008.50" (Individual Pepsi points were sold for 10 cents)
Pepsi laughed at him
He took Pepsi to court
Judge told him "No objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier jet..."
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/06/142221
I'll second that.
Best AI in a game that I've played in a long time.... frickin genius computers keep annihilating me
UGH... owned by the html format. Try this instread:
camecube? *chuckle*
You base your choice of system on the uptime at the local walmart?
When I bought my system I based the decision on:
price of games popular games
# of good games available
upcomming releases
backward compatability (ps1 games on ps2)
sideways compatability (gba on gamecube)
retailer rating (amazon, etc...)
what friends & family own (play my saved games at their place)
camecube? *chuckle* You base your choice of system on the uptime at the local walmart? When I bought my system I based the decision on: price of games popular games # of good games available upcomming releases backward compatability (ps1 games on ps2) sideways compatability (gba on gamecube) retailer rating (amazon, etc...) what friends & family own (play my saved games at their place)
"I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Chinese government to fully inspect any operating system it may run." Perfectly reasonable for the Chinese, but not the US? how about corporations? customers? By that logic, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable for us all to inspect our computers for NSA backdoors?