I teach a "switching to Linux" course as part of my job as an IT trainer. My audience is mostly guys who work blue-collar jobs in steel mills, NOT guys with tons of computer knowledge and experience.
For myself, I have 10 years of working with RedHat and its children, and I'm fine with that, but I like SuSE for the less technical types. I *really* like it. The administration tool, YaST, has pretty much everything you'd actually need to actually manage the system, in one place. SuSE has windows-like auto-updating. The SuSE default desktops are polished and professional-looking, and not over-cluttered.
In the time I've taught the class, I've tried to show my students Mandrake, SuSE and Ubuntu. The only people I know who actually have made the full-time switch are guys whom I started with SuSE.
That's great, if you downloaded the game to begin with (and where would a modem user do *that*?). If you're like the modem users I know, you probably bought the useless CD/DVD box from a store, took it home and thought you'd be able to install and play from that.
Which, of course, isn't how the CD/DVD works. You still have to download a bunch of shit from steam to do anything with your CD/DVD (I recall it taking about 70 minutes to install over my previous DSL connection, with a then top of the line A64/3500 with 2GB RAM).
To my mind, Steam ruins some of the basic assumptions of gaming. I bought it because I liked the storyline to the first game so much. I played my DVD copy of the second one for about 10 minutes before I realized how much data was being sent upstream while it was running (I had a 16k/sec outbound pipe, and HL2/Steam was using 100% of it), then closed the program. I haven't reopened it. There's just no fucking reason for a single player game to behave that way; at least make people ASK to have their network connections fucked with a knife.
I'd like to play HL2, still. Does anyone know where I can get a copy that's hacked enough that I don't need steam?
There ARE good audio chips available. Sometimes they even make it on to motherboards. Albatron ships a few boards with the sounds-better-than-Creative Via Envy chipset. They even throw in a daughterboard with both types of digital input and output.
Via Envy is the same sound chip on most $50ish sound cards that aren't made by Creative.
If you want computer sound to get better, vote with your wallet and buy something better. Turtle Beach will happily sell you an Envy-based card, or you can get a PCI X-Mystique, which does exactly what Soundstorm used to do.
That wasn't a soundstorm-capable chip. Soundstorm mixes everything into 5.1 Dolby Digital when given a digital path to a 5.1 Dolby decoder. AFAIK Asus is the only company that included it on their boards (or more precisely, the only company that included it and actually added the digital out needed for it to work). Everyone else just shipped CMedia or Realtek AC97 crap.
If you're happy with AC97, good for you, but Soundstorm was a whole different experience, since it actually creates LFE and rear surround (well, in games anyway; for music I think it just echos the front speakers) from PCM sources. Anyone who has had a home theater setup connected to their computer has probably tried the "Dolby Pro Logic II" setting (also available on some Intel Motherboards, I think), which does sort-of create surround, but surround that's limited to primarily the center channel and front speakers. DPLII barely touches the surrounds and never fires your sub, making it rather less impressive.
X Mystique, Dolby Digital Live-encoding PCI sound card. I have three of them. They rock. Best hardware I've purchased in years, since they let me junk shitty Asus boards (AFAIK Asus is the only company that ever fully implemented soundstorm to begin with) for Gigabyte and Soltek hardware that I'm much more comfortable with.
Here's a good summary of my experiences with the first card I got.
Gah. I played the original. Still have the 5 1/4" disks. My father's an EE and thought it would be "fun" for me. Yeah... I played with it for about a year (about age 10). My old man gave me $100 when I finally finished the damned thing, since it said on the box that only some tiny, tiny fraction of people can get all the way through it. I worked and worked and worked for that money.
Both, actually. Admittedly more for the people in MY area who always seem to pop up every time there's some disaster to collect for, but it's certainly fair to say that anyone whose idea of "Aid" might include shipping in Bibles ought to be given several additional layers of scrutiny....and it's kind of funny to hear about "anti-religion knee-jerk response" from someone whose.sig mentions Cthulhu.
... and Operation Blessing is run by Pat "the Assassinator" Robertson, who apparently missed the day in bible study when they talked about "Thou shalt not kill."
Forgive me if I'm a little less than inclined to give someone like him any money. Do we know for sure that 98% of the money that's given to his organization goes anywhere but his televangelism?
Putting that particular prejudice aside, I bring the issue up after finding out that the collection my office took up for Tsunami victims ended up in the hands of our local branch of Evangelical Something-or-others. Maybe it got to Asian Tsunami victims. Maybe it bought them comfortable bibles or some missionaries. Or maybe that church just bought a new sound system.
According to give.org, the United Way is 95% efficient in use of its donations. I'll stick with secular charities, thanks.
Why not just stop at the United Way or Red Cross? Why even list the rest?
I see a whole bunch of Churches on your list and frankly I can't trust that any of them would do anything terribly useful under the circumstances.
'Cause, you know, if I gave $100 to the "Southen Baptist Convention" or "Operation Blessing", I strongly suspect that money would end up building some new mega-Church or making one of Reverend LePew's boat payments.
One of the really shitty things about disasters is the sheer number of unctious bastards that come out shaking a cup. Everything I've read about these things is that a lot of the time, your whole donation goes to "Administrative Costs". Keep that in mind when you open your wallet.
I find it hard to place much credence in that article.
One of my students is an Indiana State Trooper undergoing computer forensics training. Since he's enthusiastic about his classes, I get to hear about what he's being taught at all his Homeland Security-sponsored courses.
And it turns out that he's learning some pretty complex things, at least as far as examining the contents of hard drives. He has programs that can analyze Windows or *nix systems with a good level of accuracy. He talks about looking at partition tables to ensure that the drive geometry matches with the size of formatted space on a hard disk, and how to poke around in unpartitioned space or oddball filesystems or file types with a hex editor. He can dissect the contents of Linux or Windows swap space and he's fairly unpeturbed about sitting in front of unfamiliar operating systems on PC or Apple hardware.
Granted, that's one guy, but he's not really a computer nerd, just someone who has been taught to do computer forensics work. And given that he seems fairly competent, I don't think something like a Firefox History would hinder him much at all.
Funny, but true story: When I got out of college, I had a hard time finding full time employment. I did contracting work, six weeks here and four weeks there. Nothing permanent, but I could pay my bills. I saw lots of job postings requiring an MCSE or CNA. So what the hell? I went and certified.
I have no doubt that my MCSE got my resume put in front of a lot more PHBs. I got fewer contracts, but the pay I got more than made up for it. Still nothing full time.
This went on for a couple years. I picked up a certification, got a better contract. I didn't WANT contract work, it's just that it was all I could get.
Here's the funny part: One day someone called, completely at random. She'd seen a three-year-old version of my resume from a resume service I had never heard of, and wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching IT certification courses. When she found out that I had more certs than were on my resume, she offered to hire me full time, on the spot. That was it. Now I teach the useless crap I know to anyone with $1500 and 40 hours of free time.
OK, that's my funny certification story.
The truth is, certs work for and against you. PHBs and HR bimbos get impressed by credentials, but also balk at the salary credentials typically imply. Techies usually aren't impressed by your 'leet paper credentials; most of them have met a moron with the same pieces of paper.
Still, in my experience, I've found that certs relevant to a particular job usually put your resume in the upper part of the stack that Kandi Melonsmuggler, Queen of HR, will call back. And that's really about as much as you can hope for. If you have another way to get to the same place (degree from a well-regarded school, military service, boning Kandi), maybe you don't need the certs.
Also, be aware that it's possible to be overcertified, and that employers sometimes see that as a sign of overqualification.
The best thing I can suggest is, if you're going to get certified in something, stay away from generic certs and lean toward something modestly specific. Everyone and his brother has A+ and an MCSE./A+, N+, Server+, HTI+, Security+, Linux+, MCP, MCSE NT4, 2000, 2003, MCSA 2000, 2003, MCDST, CCNA, SCSA...
I don't know what the poster's requirements for fileserving are, but many miniITX solutions have only one IDE port on-board. Granted, these days you can stick a couple 500GB drives on something and call it a day, but that's the thing that keeps me away from it as a platform.
If the disk subsystem is an issue, I'd suggest something in an Athlon mobile or Athlon64 mobile. Low power, noise and heat, combined with modern and full-featured system boards AND a CPU that's up for real work if need be (and if not, it'll throttle back to 500ish MHz). Plus the mobile chips are surprisingly cheap.
I really stunned by the Samsung 550N. I bought one for $430 that does above-average cover prints, has 100Mbit LAN and DUPLEX PRINTING right out of the box. The box advertises the quietness of the print engine - most inkjet printers are louder.
Not trying to be a shill for Samsung, but for anyone who has the room for a laser printer I'd say it's the way to go.
IM is useless unless you use software that's compatible with what everyone else uses. That might mean YIM, AIM, ICQ, Jabber or MSNIM. If I get a "universal client" like GAIM, I *still* have to configure five different protocols and hope none of the providers go through a "We won't let unauthorized clients on our network" phase. That's fucking stupid, and I especially wouldn't want to walk someone else through configuring all that crap.
I only need one program to read and send email. I only need one program to browse the web. I only need one phone to send or receive calls from anyone else with a telephone number.
There are these things called RFCs; standards for internet communication. Since the widespread commercialization of the internet, no major types of communication protocols have been standardized. If STMP hadn't been finalized 12 years ago, before Black September, Microsoft and fucking Yahoo and AOL would probably still be arguing over it, and it wouldn't be a worthwhile tool for communication, either.
When the swinging dick internet companies finally figure out who gets to be top and who gets to be bitch, and IM gets an RFC and standard software, it might be useful. Until then, I don't see any point in having it.
Trillian has to be changed every goddamned time an IM provider decides to lock it out.
Re:Different technologies, different purpose
on
E-mail Is For Old People
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
IM is for conversation, email is for documentation. IM is for communication in real-time, email is for communication any time. IM is for communication with someone online, email is for communication with someone online or offline. IM is for temporary messaging, email is for permanent messaging. IM is for instant messaging, email is for persistent messaging.
IM is for none of the above. At least, it isn't until there is a single standard IM protocol. As things presently stand there are, what? Four protocols? Five? I wouldn't consider a telephone network that required me to have four or five different phones, and I won't consider IM usable until there is only one IM standard.
Honestly, someone who has decided to have an abortion is someone who has taken responsibility for her life, and for the potential life inside her. She's decided that she would not make a good parent, or that 18 years of caring for an child is not something she is interested in, or willing to do. From a pragmatic standpoint, the world is better off when mommies actually want to keep their babies, and not as well off when mommies are forced to have babies they don't want.
If you're sitting there thinking "What about adoption!?!", 1.) Not every woman wants to spend nine months being pregnant - unless you want to think of her state as punishment for fucking - 2.) There are too many people in the world to begin with, and particularly too many Americans (Who use vastly more energy than anyone else on the planet) and 3.) There are only some fixed number of people who want to adopt at any one time. Had I to guess, the "market" for adoptive children would saturate fairly quickly, and then we'd be right back to having kids that no one wants... only these would have developed nervous systems and provable, not-in-the-realm-of-theological-argument-type life.
There are no limitations, not since October of 2000. (USB ports on the PS2)
Yes, but that equipment is not standard. Hey, PS2s can have hard drives, too. See how well that went over? Oh, and last time I checked, NTSC wasn't something I'd want to spend long periods of time staring at. Interlaced 640x480 != high quality.
Consoles have had stereo sound as the default since the late 80's when the Genesis came out.
Yes, but there are millions and millions of people - people who also have game consoles - who don't have stereo TVs or their consoles hooked up to receivers. A close friend of mine bought a TV a couple weeks ago that didn't even have stereo or S-video inputs.
As for the 2D jumping games you must be thinking of the 16 bit consoles and earlier because 3D games have been the norm for about a decade.
Whatever. Sonic and Mario walk and jump in THREE dimensions. That's a HUGE gameplay improvement. Pardon me if I'm not turgid with excitement.
It's always been an afterthought, except for that short time after the fall of the 2600 and the rise of the NES, from about 84 to 86 when the C64 was the "in" gaming device. (that most people who owned one used just like a console)
Bullshit. I think that if you looked back, you'd find that there were a large number of gaming companies that made games exclusively for personal computers. Origin, LucasArts, SSI. Interplay. Certainly none of them were making console games that they ported to PC. PCs (and for a time, Apple and C64/128/Amiga) were their market. That market was distinct, and there was virtually no crossover between console and computer games. Nowadays, PC games have the serious limitations of consoles thrust on them (e.g. Deus Ex 2), but it was not always so.
I do not enjoy most online games. I like City of Heroes, due by the fact that I've been able to find people who like comic books and I get to PLAY as a hero, but I seriously feel that the automatic assumption that every game on a PC (or any other platform, but I don't like consoles either) needs to be "online" or "high resolution" is a very poor one.
Instead, I'd like to suggest the limitations of console input devices limit the sorts of games that can be played on them, and THAT is the biggest single reason I see for gaming as it's meant to be, on a PC.
I could also mention the fact that a PC Game developer can ASSUME a high quality display, stereo sound and a couple of complex input devices.
I might also put forward that I strongly dislike the cultural influences of two of the three console makers. I've played Computer RPGs and adventure games since the mid-80s - the console versions of those things just aren't the same thing - as well as simulators and wargames (think Avalon Hill, not RTS). Those are types of games that simply do not exist on consoles. Console makers apparently think "fun" = 2D jumping puzzles, rehashing sports titles and "RPGs" that are as linear as a train track.
I also see the more open development of PC games as an advantage. Yes, yes, I know, all games are big-budget enterprises by multinational entertainment conglamorates. Still, it's easier to get ahold of a C compiler, 3D Studio or whatever the hell it is that spews forth Flash than it is to get a PS2 development kit. I'd put forth that a couple kids might be able to come up with an awesome game on their own, using nothing but tools they can buy at Best Buy. I don't think that could happen on any current console system.
And then there's the fact that almost every popular PC game ends up with a modding community.
All in all, the more PC Gaming looks like it was an afterthought (afterbirth?) of console gaming, the less I want to do with gaming generally.
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I teach a "switching to Linux" course as part of my job as an IT trainer. My audience is mostly guys who work blue-collar jobs in steel mills, NOT guys with tons of computer knowledge and experience.
For myself, I have 10 years of working with RedHat and its children, and I'm fine with that, but I like SuSE for the less technical types. I *really* like it. The administration tool, YaST, has pretty much everything you'd actually need to actually manage the system, in one place. SuSE has windows-like auto-updating. The SuSE default desktops are polished and professional-looking, and not over-cluttered.
In the time I've taught the class, I've tried to show my students Mandrake, SuSE and Ubuntu. The only people I know who actually have made the full-time switch are guys whom I started with SuSE.
That's great, if you downloaded the game to begin with (and where would a modem user do *that*?). If you're like the modem users I know, you probably bought the useless CD/DVD box from a store, took it home and thought you'd be able to install and play from that.
Which, of course, isn't how the CD/DVD works. You still have to download a bunch of shit from steam to do anything with your CD/DVD (I recall it taking about 70 minutes to install over my previous DSL connection, with a then top of the line A64/3500 with 2GB RAM).
To my mind, Steam ruins some of the basic assumptions of gaming. I bought it because I liked the storyline to the first game so much. I played my DVD copy of the second one for about 10 minutes before I realized how much data was being sent upstream while it was running (I had a 16k/sec outbound pipe, and HL2/Steam was using 100% of it), then closed the program. I haven't reopened it. There's just no fucking reason for a single player game to behave that way; at least make people ASK to have their network connections fucked with a knife.
I'd like to play HL2, still. Does anyone know where I can get a copy that's hacked enough that I don't need steam?
It works as a Cmedia-whatever-the-hell; no Dolby encoding in Linux.
Soundstorm didn't work under Linux, either.
I'd suggest a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for you. They work just fine under Linux.
There ARE good audio chips available. Sometimes they even make it on to motherboards. Albatron ships a few boards with the sounds-better-than-Creative Via Envy chipset. They even throw in a daughterboard with both types of digital input and output.
Via Envy is the same sound chip on most $50ish sound cards that aren't made by Creative.
If you want computer sound to get better, vote with your wallet and buy something better. Turtle Beach will happily sell you an Envy-based card, or you can get a PCI X-Mystique, which does exactly what Soundstorm used to do.
That wasn't a soundstorm-capable chip. Soundstorm mixes everything into 5.1 Dolby Digital when given a digital path to a 5.1 Dolby decoder. AFAIK Asus is the only company that included it on their boards (or more precisely, the only company that included it and actually added the digital out needed for it to work). Everyone else just shipped CMedia or Realtek AC97 crap.
If you're happy with AC97, good for you, but Soundstorm was a whole different experience, since it actually creates LFE and rear surround (well, in games anyway; for music I think it just echos the front speakers) from PCM sources. Anyone who has had a home theater setup connected to their computer has probably tried the "Dolby Pro Logic II" setting (also available on some Intel Motherboards, I think), which does sort-of create surround, but surround that's limited to primarily the center channel and front speakers. DPLII barely touches the surrounds and never fires your sub, making it rather less impressive.
X Mystique, Dolby Digital Live-encoding PCI sound card.
I have three of them. They rock. Best hardware I've purchased in years, since they let me junk shitty Asus boards (AFAIK Asus is the only company that ever fully implemented soundstorm to begin with) for Gigabyte and Soltek hardware that I'm much more comfortable with.
Here's a good summary of my experiences with the first card I got.
Gah. I played the original. Still have the 5 1/4" disks. My father's an EE and thought it would be "fun" for me. Yeah... I played with it for about a year (about age 10). My old man gave me $100 when I finally finished the damned thing, since it said on the box that only some tiny, tiny fraction of people can get all the way through it. I worked and worked and worked for that money.
Gonna have to try this remake...
Both, actually. Admittedly more for the people in MY area who always seem to pop up every time there's some disaster to collect for, but it's certainly fair to say that anyone whose idea of "Aid" might include shipping in Bibles ought to be given several additional layers of scrutiny. ...and it's kind of funny to hear about "anti-religion knee-jerk response" from someone whose .sig mentions Cthulhu.
... and Operation Blessing is run by Pat "the Assassinator" Robertson, who apparently missed the day in bible study when they talked about "Thou shalt not kill."
Forgive me if I'm a little less than inclined to give someone like him any money. Do we know for sure that 98% of the money that's given to his organization goes anywhere but his televangelism?
Putting that particular prejudice aside, I bring the issue up after finding out that the collection my office took up for Tsunami victims ended up in the hands of our local branch of Evangelical Something-or-others. Maybe it got to Asian Tsunami victims. Maybe it bought them comfortable bibles or some missionaries. Or maybe that church just bought a new sound system.
According to give.org, the United Way is 95% efficient in use of its donations. I'll stick with secular charities, thanks.
Why not just stop at the United Way or Red Cross? Why even list the rest?
I see a whole bunch of Churches on your list and frankly I can't trust that any of them would do anything terribly useful under the circumstances.
'Cause, you know, if I gave $100 to the "Southen Baptist Convention" or "Operation Blessing", I strongly suspect that money would end up building some new mega-Church or making one of Reverend LePew's boat payments.
One of the really shitty things about disasters is the sheer number of unctious bastards that come out shaking a cup. Everything I've read about these things is that a lot of the time, your whole donation goes to "Administrative Costs". Keep that in mind when you open your wallet.
I find it hard to place much credence in that article.
One of my students is an Indiana State Trooper undergoing computer forensics training. Since he's enthusiastic about his classes, I get to hear about what he's being taught at all his Homeland Security-sponsored courses.
And it turns out that he's learning some pretty complex things, at least as far as examining the contents of hard drives. He has programs that can analyze Windows or *nix systems with a good level of accuracy. He talks about looking at partition tables to ensure that the drive geometry matches with the size of formatted space on a hard disk, and how to poke around in unpartitioned space or oddball filesystems or file types with a hex editor. He can dissect the contents of Linux or Windows swap space and he's fairly unpeturbed about sitting in front of unfamiliar operating systems on PC or Apple hardware.
Granted, that's one guy, but he's not really a computer nerd, just someone who has been taught to do computer forensics work. And given that he seems fairly competent, I don't think something like a Firefox History would hinder him much at all.
At least Master of Orion got a "2". I'm still waiting for my Master of Magic sequel. /Life Magic + Warlord + Halfling Slingers for the win!
Funny, but true story:
/A+, N+, Server+, HTI+, Security+, Linux+, MCP, MCSE NT4, 2000, 2003, MCSA 2000, 2003, MCDST, CCNA, SCSA...
When I got out of college, I had a hard time finding full time employment. I did contracting work, six weeks here and four weeks there. Nothing permanent, but I could pay my bills.
I saw lots of job postings requiring an MCSE or CNA. So what the hell? I went and certified.
I have no doubt that my MCSE got my resume put in front of a lot more PHBs. I got fewer contracts, but the pay I got more than made up for it. Still nothing full time.
This went on for a couple years. I picked up a certification, got a better contract. I didn't WANT contract work, it's just that it was all I could get.
Here's the funny part: One day someone called, completely at random. She'd seen a three-year-old version of my resume from a resume service I had never heard of, and wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching IT certification courses.
When she found out that I had more certs than were on my resume, she offered to hire me full time, on the spot. That was it. Now I teach the useless crap I know to anyone with $1500 and 40 hours of free time.
OK, that's my funny certification story.
The truth is, certs work for and against you. PHBs and HR bimbos get impressed by credentials, but also balk at the salary credentials typically imply. Techies usually aren't impressed by your 'leet paper credentials; most of them have met a moron with the same pieces of paper.
Still, in my experience, I've found that certs relevant to a particular job usually put your resume in the upper part of the stack that Kandi Melonsmuggler, Queen of HR, will call back. And that's really about as much as you can hope for. If you have another way to get to the same place (degree from a well-regarded school, military service, boning Kandi), maybe you don't need the certs.
Also, be aware that it's possible to be overcertified, and that employers sometimes see that as a sign of overqualification.
The best thing I can suggest is, if you're going to get certified in something, stay away from generic certs and lean toward something modestly specific. Everyone and his brother has A+ and an MCSE.
I don't know what the poster's requirements for fileserving are, but many miniITX solutions have only one IDE port on-board. Granted, these days you can stick a couple 500GB drives on something and call it a day, but that's the thing that keeps me away from it as a platform.
If the disk subsystem is an issue, I'd suggest something in an Athlon mobile or Athlon64 mobile. Low power, noise and heat, combined with modern and full-featured system boards AND a CPU that's up for real work if need be (and if not, it'll throttle back to 500ish MHz). Plus the mobile chips are surprisingly cheap.
I love porn. My love is measured in fives of terabytes. But even at that there is a massive amount of porn I dont like or approve of.
I recall there being a Postscript driver available, so yes, I think it does.
I really stunned by the Samsung 550N. I bought one for $430 that does above-average cover prints, has 100Mbit LAN and DUPLEX PRINTING right out of the box. The box advertises the quietness of the print engine - most inkjet printers are louder.
Not trying to be a shill for Samsung, but for anyone who has the room for a laser printer I'd say it's the way to go.
We are keepers of teh Internets, and of the LART. What more reason do you need?
IM is useless unless you use software that's compatible with what everyone else uses. That might mean YIM, AIM, ICQ, Jabber or MSNIM. If I get a "universal client" like GAIM, I *still* have to configure five different protocols and hope none of the providers go through a "We won't let unauthorized clients on our network" phase.
That's fucking stupid, and I especially wouldn't want to walk someone else through configuring all that crap.
I only need one program to read and send email.
I only need one program to browse the web.
I only need one phone to send or receive calls from anyone else with a
telephone number.
There are these things called RFCs; standards for internet communication. Since the widespread commercialization of the internet, no major types of communication protocols have been standardized. If STMP hadn't been finalized 12 years ago, before Black September, Microsoft and fucking Yahoo and AOL would probably still be arguing over it, and it wouldn't be a worthwhile tool for communication, either.
When the swinging dick internet companies finally figure out who gets to be top and who gets to be bitch, and IM gets an RFC and standard software, it might be useful. Until then, I don't see any point in having it.
Trillian has to be changed every goddamned time an IM provider decides to lock it out.
IM is for conversation, email is for documentation.
IM is for communication in real-time, email is for communication any time.
IM is for communication with someone online, email is for communication with someone online or offline.
IM is for temporary messaging, email is for permanent messaging.
IM is for instant messaging, email is for persistent messaging.
IM is for none of the above. At least, it isn't until there is a single standard IM protocol. As things presently stand there are, what? Four protocols? Five?
I wouldn't consider a telephone network that required me to have four or five different phones, and I won't consider IM usable until there is only one IM standard.
Works for me.
Honestly, someone who has decided to have an abortion is someone who has taken responsibility for her life, and for the potential life inside her. She's decided that she would not make a good parent, or that 18 years of caring for an child is not something she is interested in, or willing to do. From a pragmatic standpoint, the world is better off when mommies actually want to keep their babies, and not as well off when mommies are forced to have babies they don't want.
If you're sitting there thinking "What about adoption!?!", 1.) Not every woman wants to spend nine months being pregnant - unless you want to think of her state as punishment for fucking - 2.) There are too many people in the world to begin with, and particularly too many Americans (Who use vastly more energy than anyone else on the planet) and 3.) There are only some fixed number of people who want to adopt at any one time. Had I to guess, the "market" for adoptive children would saturate fairly quickly, and then we'd be right back to having kids that no one wants... only these would have developed nervous systems and provable, not-in-the-realm-of-theological-argument-type life.
There are no limitations, not since October of 2000. (USB ports on the PS2)
Yes, but that equipment is not standard. Hey, PS2s can have hard drives, too. See how well that went over?
Oh, and last time I checked, NTSC wasn't something I'd want to spend long periods of time staring at. Interlaced 640x480 != high quality.
Consoles have had stereo sound as the default since the late 80's when the Genesis came out.
Yes, but there are millions and millions of people - people who also have game consoles - who don't have stereo TVs or their consoles hooked up to receivers. A close friend of mine bought a TV a couple weeks ago that didn't even have stereo or S-video inputs.
As for the 2D jumping games you must be thinking of the 16 bit consoles and earlier because 3D games have been the norm for about a decade.
Whatever. Sonic and Mario walk and jump in THREE dimensions. That's a HUGE gameplay improvement. Pardon me if I'm not turgid with excitement.
It's always been an afterthought, except for that short time after the fall of the 2600 and the rise of the NES, from about 84 to 86 when the C64 was the "in" gaming device. (that most people who owned one used just like a console)
Bullshit.
I think that if you looked back, you'd find that there were a large number of gaming companies that made games exclusively for personal computers. Origin, LucasArts, SSI. Interplay. Certainly none of them were making console games that they ported to PC. PCs (and for a time, Apple and C64/128/Amiga) were their market. That market was distinct, and there was virtually no crossover between console and computer games. Nowadays, PC games have the serious limitations of consoles thrust on them (e.g. Deus Ex 2), but it was not always so.
I do not enjoy most online games. I like City of Heroes, due by the fact that I've been able to find people who like comic books and I get to PLAY as a hero, but I seriously feel that the automatic assumption that every game on a PC (or any other platform, but I don't like consoles either) needs to be "online" or "high resolution" is a very poor one.
Instead, I'd like to suggest the limitations of console input devices limit the sorts of games that can be played on them, and THAT is the biggest single reason I see for gaming as it's meant to be, on a PC.
I could also mention the fact that a PC Game developer can ASSUME a high quality display, stereo sound and a couple of complex input devices.
I might also put forward that I strongly dislike the cultural influences of two of the three console makers. I've played Computer RPGs and adventure games since the mid-80s - the console versions of those things just aren't the same thing - as well as simulators and wargames (think Avalon Hill, not RTS). Those are types of games that simply do not exist on consoles. Console makers apparently think "fun" = 2D jumping puzzles, rehashing sports titles and "RPGs" that are as linear as a train track.
I also see the more open development of PC games as an advantage. Yes, yes, I know, all games are big-budget enterprises by multinational entertainment conglamorates. Still, it's easier to get ahold of a C compiler, 3D Studio or whatever the hell it is that spews forth Flash than it is to get a PS2 development kit. I'd put forth that a couple kids might be able to come up with an awesome game on their own, using nothing but tools they can buy at Best Buy. I don't think that could happen on any current console system.
And then there's the fact that almost every popular PC game ends up with a modding community.
All in all, the more PC Gaming looks like it was an afterthought (afterbirth?) of console gaming, the less I want to do with gaming generally.
I disagree. I still get paid from time to time to set up connection sharing for a dialup connection.
Broadband is not everywhere.