I remember playing pong on a game computer a friend of my parents had built himself.
yeah, after pong came out in the arcades a couple different companies released Integrated Circuits with Pong games on them. Then later there were other chips released that also had pong variants on them (most of which sucked, a few were cool though). I think you can still find them around if you look, but they aren't a regularly available IC anymore.
Not the first
on
High Score
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· Score: 4, Informative
The article on "SpaceWar" (probably the first graphical computer game) was fascinating.
Spacewar was not the first graphical computer game, the first graphical game was created by Willy Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Labs over ten years prior to Spacewar. He made it to entertain tour groups going through the labs, it was written for an analog computer and was displayed on an oscilloscope. It was supposed to be a simulation of tennis, but unlike pong it was from a side view, the only displayed elements were the ball and a net. It wasn't really a skill game because the only controls were two buttons (one for each player) and you could hit the ball back to the other player regardless of the ball's position on your side (I don't know if it even had to be on your side!).
A lot of videogame books don't talk about it or just brush over it because it was never seen or played by anyone except for the people that visited or worked at Brookhaven National Labs. Spacewar on the other hand was passed around all over the country by the hackers who wrote it (the real deal hackers, it was a product of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, members of which were the type of people that coined the phrase "hacker").
The problem is that there are parts other than the glass in a nudie booth that can be subject to jizz, thus ensuring the jizzmopper's heroic place in the workforce for a few more years at least.
I had over 4000 MP3s before Napster was even a glimmer in anyone's eye. I've lost count now because they're all spread out across CDs and there's been so many times where I don't have an MP3 I want nearby, or forget that I have it so I download it again. I know I have something like 40 CDs so I figure that's like at least 25,000 and then I've got a bunch on my computer too.
I think what the world really needs is asexual connectors, connectors where there is only one gender. Obviously these wouldn't be good for power or probably for most data purposes either, but it would be a godsend for audio connectors and would work well for phones too (but I doubt the phone company would ever change their standard jacks).
I have to say, out of all the connectors BNC connectors are my favorite because they click in easily and solidly. The problem is that they can only be used with two conductor cables. The cable companies really should switch to BNC connectors instead of F connectors because F connectors are not easy to get on or off and have a very fiddly center conductor.
I read this story a couple of days ago because I was pointed to it by a friend of mine. I really liked it and I think that some of you are kind of not looking at it the right way, the 1337 5P34K was obviously meant to be tongue in cheek, I do it with computer people all the time, it's just a little joke "oh I'll update your page if you want, I'll just SSH in and 0wn j00".
There's nothing that everybody likes so I guess it doesn't really matter, but whatever.
I firmly believe in the tenet that 'geeks should train geeks'. Moreover, I think that the geeks themselves have to take a more active role in the whole process.
Hold it right there, this is slashdot, news for nerds, if you want to ask a question about geeks you need to find somewhere else to do it.
Re:Jeez... hasn't this been going on for ever?
on
MIT vs. Las Vegas
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· Score: 1
The name of the book isn't "Geeks 2.0" it's "Nerds 2.0.1"
well yeah, the Mandrake CD is bootable too, but he meant "requires" as in "if you're booting with a boot disk it requires".
I also had the problem of a CD-ROM drive that I couldn't boot off of and let me tell you, the one Mandrake boot disk was way easier to deal with than the four Win2k disks.
Oh yeah, I also did a similar thing installing Mandrake and win2k on a desktop recently, Mandrake was pretty easy but I'm spent about 3 times longer installing win2k and it's still not on there yet.
I'm not very much surprised by this at all. About two months ago I installed Windows 2000 and Mandrake Linux on my brother's laptop, the Linux installation was rediculously easy while the Windows 2000 was a pain because (1) it took longer and (2) I had to download a couple of drivers (Linux worked fine!). Also once I had Windows installed I had to run Windows update like 8 times and restart like 3 before I was even REALLY done.
I know the Mandrake installer now is much easier than most the distributions, but I believe that other distributions will be similarly easy soon. I know that the Debian installer is/was supposed to get a revamp so that it would be way easier, which is good because Debian is sexy.
However, an easier installer doesn't mean much because hardly any of the regular computer users of the world actually installed their OS. If Linux really wants to crack into "the regular user" (does it?) what really needs to happen is they need to infiltrate the companies selling ready-to-run systems.
Well, for one, your computer isn't simply running 12V -- you need 5V and in most cases 3V as well. (Possibly others.) Additionally, some components (AMD processors in particular) have very narrow operational ranges in terms of how much juice they get, and battery levels fluctuate.
You can buy voltage regulator ICs for 5V (7408 IC I think?) and also I believe for 12V. I've only worked with the 5V ones, but they all work the same, they have three pins, one for voltage source, one for ground and one for the output voltage (5V, etc.) the input voltage on a 5V one can be something like anywhere between 7V and 15V and you get a perfect 5V out. These ICs are about a buck, plus without a whole lot of trouble you can build one yourself (if you wanted a tricky voltage like 3.3V or something).
I have to say that I believe I was robbed because now that first post has a 5 and my post commenting on his has a "respectable" 3. I really did think of that and according to the times I was <2 minutes late for posting it first.
If there are any mods still reading this article I would like my other post pushed up to "(4: Seconds Short)" and this one pushed up to "(2: Off-topic, Insightful)"
I'll bet everyone on slashdot finds your expression of gratitude very Insightful I'm not sure how I feel about his post, but I find the original post interesting!
While it's true that a lot of people are ignoring the compact fluorescent bulbs right now despite their obvious advantages, I believe that the case will not be the same for organic LEDs. Because these lights will use even less power and last even longer than compact fluorescents, I think the advantages will be too extreme for consumers to ignore.
Even if they don't catch on in (or aren't well developed for) home lighting they will still be very functional in other places. Laptop screens for example will require less power, have sharper images and be viewed more evenly from different angles.
Also, I think that the comparison to wallpaper was meant to just be an example of how big the sheets could be, not to suggest that houses will be actually wallpapered with the sheets. I would think that if large sheets were made for home use they would probably be meant to cover the ceiling and I definitely think that this would be a lighting choice in the office.
I think though, that the main home use would be for mounting in standard light sockets because it would be more familiar to people, less expensive and also because light from above is a lot different (some might even say, uncomfortable or impersonable) from light that comes from lamps.
Side note about compact fluorescents: Two things that compact fluorescents have working against them besides peoples' resistance to change is that it's hard to find bulbs with brightness equivalents higher than 75W and hard to find 3-way fluorescent bulbs (I'm not even sure 3-ways exist!).
I think when they talk about competing with the new Imac, they meant that it is aimed at a similar section of the market, not that it's competing through aesthetic design.
Slashdot Mirror
Spacewar was not the first graphical computer game, the first graphical game was created by Willy Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Labs over ten years prior to Spacewar. He made it to entertain tour groups going through the labs, it was written for an analog computer and was displayed on an oscilloscope. It was supposed to be a simulation of tennis, but unlike pong it was from a side view, the only displayed elements were the ball and a net. It wasn't really a skill game because the only controls were two buttons (one for each player) and you could hit the ball back to the other player regardless of the ball's position on your side (I don't know if it even had to be on your side!).
A lot of videogame books don't talk about it or just brush over it because it was never seen or played by anyone except for the people that visited or worked at Brookhaven National Labs. Spacewar on the other hand was passed around all over the country by the hackers who wrote it (the real deal hackers, it was a product of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, members of which were the type of people that coined the phrase "hacker").
You're right, it's THREE words! Laughing Out Loud
The problem is that there are parts other than the glass in a nudie booth that can be subject to jizz, thus ensuring the jizzmopper's heroic place in the workforce for a few more years at least.
I had over 4000 MP3s before Napster was even a glimmer in anyone's eye. I've lost count now because they're all spread out across CDs and there's been so many times where I don't have an MP3 I want nearby, or forget that I have it so I download it again. I know I have something like 40 CDs so I figure that's like at least 25,000 and then I've got a bunch on my computer too.
I think this has been a long time coming, the fighting has to stop.
I think what the world really needs is asexual connectors, connectors where there is only one gender. Obviously these wouldn't be good for power or probably for most data purposes either, but it would be a godsend for audio connectors and would work well for phones too (but I doubt the phone company would ever change their standard jacks). I have to say, out of all the connectors BNC connectors are my favorite because they click in easily and solidly. The problem is that they can only be used with two conductor cables. The cable companies really should switch to BNC connectors instead of F connectors because F connectors are not easy to get on or off and have a very fiddly center conductor.
I read this story a couple of days ago because I was pointed to it by a friend of mine. I really liked it and I think that some of you are kind of not looking at it the right way, the 1337 5P34K was obviously meant to be tongue in cheek, I do it with computer people all the time, it's just a little joke "oh I'll update your page if you want, I'll just SSH in and 0wn j00". There's nothing that everybody likes so I guess it doesn't really matter, but whatever.
The name of the book isn't "Geeks 2.0" it's "Nerds 2.0.1"
well yeah, the Mandrake CD is bootable too, but he meant "requires" as in "if you're booting with a boot disk it requires". I also had the problem of a CD-ROM drive that I couldn't boot off of and let me tell you, the one Mandrake boot disk was way easier to deal with than the four Win2k disks.
Oh yeah, I also did a similar thing installing Mandrake and win2k on a desktop recently, Mandrake was pretty easy but I'm spent about 3 times longer installing win2k and it's still not on there yet.
I'm not very much surprised by this at all. About two months ago I installed Windows 2000 and Mandrake Linux on my brother's laptop, the Linux installation was rediculously easy while the Windows 2000 was a pain because (1) it took longer and (2) I had to download a couple of drivers (Linux worked fine!). Also once I had Windows installed I had to run Windows update like 8 times and restart like 3 before I was even REALLY done.
I know the Mandrake installer now is much easier than most the distributions, but I believe that other distributions will be similarly easy soon. I know that the Debian installer is/was supposed to get a revamp so that it would be way easier, which is good because Debian is sexy.
However, an easier installer doesn't mean much because hardly any of the regular computer users of the world actually installed their OS. If Linux really wants to crack into "the regular user" (does it?) what really needs to happen is they need to infiltrate the companies selling ready-to-run systems.
THIRD POST!
sorry, I typed that post on my laptop on my lawn via wireless ethernet so I forgot that some people would be reading my posts INSIDE.
I remember reading about a similar report a long time ago (like a while before Napster was shut down)....
WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN TO SHARE?!?!?!?! THEY TEACH YOU THAT IN KINDERGARTEN STILL, RIGHT!?!?!?
That link is wrong. See the REAL BSA here:
http://www.bsa.scouting.org/
I have to say that I believe I was robbed because now that first post has a 5 and my post commenting on his has a "respectable" 3. I really did think of that and according to the times I was <2 minutes late for posting it first.
If there are any mods still reading this article I would like my other post pushed up to "(4: Seconds Short)" and this one pushed up to "(2: Off-topic, Insightful)"
that was exactly what I was thinking. An alternate obvious witty comment would be "I didn't even know they made JPEG2 through JPEG 1999!"
I'll bet everyone on slashdot finds your expression of gratitude very Insightful
I'm not sure how I feel about his post, but I find the original post interesting!
I had a copy of "man on the moon" that did that, I thought it was pretty funny.
at the top of the links section of that page there's a link to that Digital report thing-ama-doodle.
/ ht ml/TN-13/
http://www.research.digital.com/wrl/techreports
While it's true that a lot of people are ignoring the compact fluorescent bulbs right now despite their obvious advantages, I believe that the case will not be the same for organic LEDs. Because these lights will use even less power and last even longer than compact fluorescents, I think the advantages will be too extreme for consumers to ignore.
Even if they don't catch on in (or aren't well developed for) home lighting they will still be very functional in other places. Laptop screens for example will require less power, have sharper images and be viewed more evenly from different angles.
Also, I think that the comparison to wallpaper was meant to just be an example of how big the sheets could be, not to suggest that houses will be actually wallpapered with the sheets. I would think that if large sheets were made for home use they would probably be meant to cover the ceiling and I definitely think that this would be a lighting choice in the office.
I think though, that the main home use would be for mounting in standard light sockets because it would be more familiar to people, less expensive and also because light from above is a lot different (some might even say, uncomfortable or impersonable) from light that comes from lamps.
Side note about compact fluorescents: Two things that compact fluorescents have working against them besides peoples' resistance to change is that it's hard to find bulbs with brightness equivalents higher than 75W and hard to find 3-way fluorescent bulbs (I'm not even sure 3-ways exist!).
I think when they talk about competing with the new Imac, they meant that it is aimed at a similar section of the market, not that it's competing through aesthetic design.