Your comments about RenderWare are staggeringly incorrect. There are over 500 games in development with RenderWare at the moment. RenderWare works on Xbox, GameCube, PS2, PSP, (many) mobile devices including N-Gage, PCs DX9 & OpenGL, Macs, and Linux! (WoooHooo go/.), not to mention many protype non consumer devices.
Clipping happens in hardware on most platforms. Whilst on the PS2 it happen in the micro programs, and RenderWare has some of the most sophisticated micro programs written.
Their collision detection system is mathematically correct for determining primitive, triangle, and ray intersections. It's up to the application to use this data correctly.
But this is just technology - if you want to really understand what Microsoft is looking at - check out RenderWare Studio.
Just browse around their site and see the full spectrum of their technology and partners - you'll be surprised. But developing with RenderWare isn't the same as planting magic beans - crap in still means crap out...
For reference, the source of the BBC report can be found at www.ban.org
I think two points are worth noting - firstly, for better or worse, the source of the report and its tone are set firmly within the environmentalist camp.
Secondly - this problem is probably the tip of the iceberg, and is certainly a very real threat to the environment in the next few decades. I personally believe we should take significant action now to prevent the need for another Kyoto (where this would be a serious issue) ten years from now.
Can there ever be a perfect digital shredder?
on
Self-Shredding E-Mail
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Document destruction is very topical at the moment - but the question must ultimately be whether it is possible to destroy digital documents as easily as their paper counterparts?
With a traditional document (esp. in the case of sensitive items) versioning is kept to a minimum, and hence the total destruction of a 'mail chain' would be possible. With digital documents it is too easy for multiple versions to exist - using the email example you could have multiple vendors and multiple sysadmins with mailbox backups, many of which could be unknown to the individuals concerned.
With digital documents there will always be an tension between the desire to be able to fix a system that breaks (using backups) and to digitally shred sensitive items. This will probably mean that there will never be as much certainty with digital shredding as traditional shredding.
This is nothing new, although this is a topical subject at the moment - corporate influence on everyday life.
There are numerous examples of bias within the games reviewing industry. It is common knowledge that some magazine publishers have a higher standing with certain games publishers *cough* M$ *cough* - it's the way the system works.
By giving favourable reviews, the magazines get more inside scoops, get the review bundles earlier and make more on circulation numbers.
I guess many of you are questioning why the magazines aren't just favourable to all publishers, but the answer would be that they need to maintain a modicum of journalistic integrity to 'sell' reviews in the first place.
It won't be long before the house robots on robot wars join forces with this creation to form an unstoppable force. As long as the enemy forgets to dig a flame pit, and are slower than 5 mph.....
As someone who has dabbled with OOP and can appreciate the scope of achievements it has facilitated, I am sure that this award is well deserved.
What is a shame is that this award is relatively unknown (I had never heard of it until today) and I strongly believe that people who make such a fundamental contribution to society should have a greater profile awards wise. The Nobel prizes are a classic example of high profile 'achievement awards' which have been extended in the past (Economics in 1968) - maybe there should be a 'nobel prize' for computing science or, alternatively, the industry should work to promte an existing award (such as this) in the minds of the public.
The review for EpII is quite informative from a storyline perspective. Anyone interested in viewing the final script (which ties in with this review) should go to www.supershadow.com where there are also (preliminary) scripts for episodes III and VII.
What is interesting from looking around the supershadow site and reading reviews such as this one is that Lucas is, if nothing else, a very smart business man. EpI was designed to attract a new generation of fans and epII was designed to build on this base and reinvigorate the older generations. This is obviously contrary to the utopian desires of the older generation, but if this movie is as much of a success within that demographic as it could be, would you have done anything different?
While it is fair to give Lucas respect for being such a astute profiteer, it is a great disappointment that a man with such wealth would feel the need to have to use characters like JaJa to make more quick bucks. Surely there is a line to be drawn between a new ivory back-scratcher and a creative legacy?
Further to the comments posted above, some of which mention the game theory elements of the Swedish research, I would just like to clarify some of the economics behind the research.
Fundamentally the game is based around an infinitely repeated prisoners dilemma game, in which scenario the rational choice is to collude (i.e. work together for a greater payoff). This is different from a one shot game where the Nash equilibirium (named after the economist who discovered this effect) is to not collude (given the invcentive for the others to do the same). There are different outcomes in these two scenarios as in the infinitely repeated game the prospect of punishment for the rest of the game is enough to force collusion, whereas in the one shot game this prospect carries no weight.
The only thing new about this research is the fact that people will actually positively act to punish the offenders (as opposed to effectively punishing them by choices in later iterations of the game).
As such this study has just found that humans can have a collective sense of fariness that they are willing to enforce.
This article is very interesting - although there are a number of insider reports out there, this one gives the opinion of someone who, on the surface at least, didn't get bogged down in all the politics.
I think it is disappointing that the majority of people will jump on the bandwagon and knock Ion and/or Romero. As the old adage goes, you are never as good as they say but never as bad as they proclaim.
Yes, Daikatana was crap, and it was a great waste of money and a temple of excess. So? You could probably argue that the only money wasted was the money of those industry luminaries who have made their millions on the back of underappreciated tech workers and overpriced games. Personally I also think Ion would have been a great place to work at the start - pool tables, hard-core office etc. It was just the politics that fucked up what was probably a flair call on the part of the founders.
Knock the company for making a crap game yes, but when it comes to personal stuff and how companies operate I say to each his own.
Further to the laptop quality debate, having used a wide range of laptops from multiple vendors, and IMHO Thinkpads are by far the most robust and well built.
However, the real value of this is not to be found in the reliability or solidity of the thinkpad, but rather in its application under times of crisis.
For example, there exists the possiblility that, someday, despite overwhelming the enemy with repeated dDoS attacks, they might eventually decide to invade using physical force. Unfortunately I doubt the average/.er combined hand to hand combat 101 with learning perl, so in that case what are you going to do?
The answer is obvious - use whatever is in hand, and I ask this question - do you want a Dell which would break with one good blow to your opponent (granted Dell customer service might replace the brokern machine quicker, but by that time they'll probably have your ethernet cable sticking out of you a$$)? Or do you want a hard edged, linear wrecking machine, which will probably still churn out Quake 3 after you have seen off the advancing hoards? Exactly.
N.B Thinkpads are no use against insults or bullets.
Slashdot Mirror
Clipping happens in hardware on most platforms. Whilst on the PS2 it happen in the micro programs, and RenderWare has some of the most sophisticated micro programs written.
Their collision detection system is mathematically correct for determining primitive, triangle, and ray intersections. It's up to the application to use this data correctly.
But this is just technology - if you want to really understand what Microsoft is looking at - check out RenderWare Studio.
Just browse around their site and see the full spectrum of their technology and partners - you'll be surprised. But developing with RenderWare isn't the same as planting magic beans - crap in still means crap out...
I think two points are worth noting - firstly, for better or worse, the source of the report and its tone are set firmly within the environmentalist camp.
Secondly - this problem is probably the tip of the iceberg, and is certainly a very real threat to the environment in the next few decades. I personally believe we should take significant action now to prevent the need for another Kyoto (where this would be a serious issue) ten years from now.
With a traditional document (esp. in the case of sensitive items) versioning is kept to a minimum, and hence the total destruction of a 'mail chain' would be possible. With digital documents it is too easy for multiple versions to exist - using the email example you could have multiple vendors and multiple sysadmins with mailbox backups, many of which could be unknown to the individuals concerned.
With digital documents there will always be an tension between the desire to be able to fix a system that breaks (using backups) and to digitally shred sensitive items. This will probably mean that there will never be as much certainty with digital shredding as traditional shredding.
There are numerous examples of bias within the games reviewing industry. It is common knowledge that some magazine publishers have a higher standing with certain games publishers *cough* M$ *cough* - it's the way the system works.
By giving favourable reviews, the magazines get more inside scoops, get the review bundles earlier and make more on circulation numbers.
I guess many of you are questioning why the magazines aren't just favourable to all publishers, but the answer would be that they need to maintain a modicum of journalistic integrity to 'sell' reviews in the first place.
It's all part of the machine!
As someone who has dabbled with OOP and can appreciate the scope of achievements it has facilitated, I am sure that this award is well deserved. What is a shame is that this award is relatively unknown (I had never heard of it until today) and I strongly believe that people who make such a fundamental contribution to society should have a greater profile awards wise. The Nobel prizes are a classic example of high profile 'achievement awards' which have been extended in the past (Economics in 1968) - maybe there should be a 'nobel prize' for computing science or, alternatively, the industry should work to promte an existing award (such as this) in the minds of the public.
What is interesting from looking around the supershadow site and reading reviews such as this one is that Lucas is, if nothing else, a very smart business man. EpI was designed to attract a new generation of fans and epII was designed to build on this base and reinvigorate the older generations. This is obviously contrary to the utopian desires of the older generation, but if this movie is as much of a success within that demographic as it could be, would you have done anything different?
While it is fair to give Lucas respect for being such a astute profiteer, it is a great disappointment that a man with such wealth would feel the need to have to use characters like JaJa to make more quick bucks. Surely there is a line to be drawn between a new ivory back-scratcher and a creative legacy?
Fundamentally the game is based around an infinitely repeated prisoners dilemma game, in which scenario the rational choice is to collude (i.e. work together for a greater payoff). This is different from a one shot game where the Nash equilibirium (named after the economist who discovered this effect) is to not collude (given the invcentive for the others to do the same). There are different outcomes in these two scenarios as in the infinitely repeated game the prospect of punishment for the rest of the game is enough to force collusion, whereas in the one shot game this prospect carries no weight.
The only thing new about this research is the fact that people will actually positively act to punish the offenders (as opposed to effectively punishing them by choices in later iterations of the game).
As such this study has just found that humans can have a collective sense of fariness that they are willing to enforce.
I think it is disappointing that the majority of people will jump on the bandwagon and knock Ion and/or Romero. As the old adage goes, you are never as good as they say but never as bad as they proclaim.
Yes, Daikatana was crap, and it was a great waste of money and a temple of excess. So? You could probably argue that the only money wasted was the money of those industry luminaries who have made their millions on the back of underappreciated tech workers and overpriced games. Personally I also think Ion would have been a great place to work at the start - pool tables, hard-core office etc. It was just the politics that fucked up what was probably a flair call on the part of the founders.
Knock the company for making a crap game yes, but when it comes to personal stuff and how companies operate I say to each his own.
However, the real value of this is not to be found in the reliability or solidity of the thinkpad, but rather in its application under times of crisis.
For example, there exists the possiblility that, someday, despite overwhelming the enemy with repeated dDoS attacks, they might eventually decide to invade using physical force. Unfortunately I doubt the average /.er combined hand to hand combat 101 with learning perl, so in that case what are you going to do?
The answer is obvious - use whatever is in hand, and I ask this question - do you want a Dell which would break with one good blow to your opponent (granted Dell customer service might replace the brokern machine quicker, but by that time they'll probably have your ethernet cable sticking out of you a$$)? Or do you want a hard edged, linear wrecking machine, which will probably still churn out Quake 3 after you have seen off the advancing hoards? Exactly.
N.B Thinkpads are no use against insults or bullets.