The first is cool because the game had no z-level -- there could be raised floors, but there could never be anything under them. For a game with no z-level to make me believe it enough to crane my neck is impressive.
DOOM *did* have a Z-level, obviously. It is a common misconception that it didn't. There was a technical limit in the virtual representation of a level, but it would've been the same even if a game used three-dimensional coordinates for all vertices but for rendering or clipping reasons didn't allow two rooms above each other.
It appears to me that a tiny percentage of all programmers know a bit about user interface, while the most of them don't have a clue. Programs that perform well but are hard to use because of an illogical interface aren't cool.
Here's a hint: before you start making the software, ask your would-be users for screenshot mockups how they would like it. You can learn a lot that way.
In the conclusion, the author mentions GIF. But what about.PNG? Yes, I know that JPEG as a rule of thumb is better than PNG for photo-like images. But for many images... indeed for anything smaller than ~100x100 pixels, but also in random cases for bigger images,.PNG is better than JPEG. Even images that appear to be very complex, and images that don't do well at all as.GIF's, sometimes turn out EXCELLENT as.PNG's, way smaller than JPEGs and with perfect quality.
This is not the case for their sample image, but, umm, I'd just like have said anyway that some people are way too quick to save their pics as blurry JPEGs without trying the alternatives.
There was definitely secret money involved when Squaresoft abandoned Nintendo for Sony and the PS.
The official argument was that their games would not fit on cartridges, so they chose a CD-based console. But why did they choose the PlayStation? Why not Sega's Saturn? At that time, every other newcomer console had failed, why would Sony's be any different? Sega was quite well established in the console business at the time, Sony was not, everything indicated that Saturn would make a success.
It is a bit pointless by Geocities to shut down the page due to "exceeded data transfer quota" since the "temporarily unavailable" page in this case is three times bigger...
The ultimate solution by far would be a decompression algorithm that, instead of some screwed up checksum and data mapping crap, randomly generates different sets of outputs and lets the user select which is correct.
Slashdot Mirror
The first is cool because the game had no z-level -- there could be raised floors, but there could never be anything under them. For a game with no z-level to make me believe it enough to crane my neck is impressive.
DOOM *did* have a Z-level, obviously. It is a common misconception that it didn't. There was a technical limit in the virtual representation of a level, but it would've been the same even if a game used three-dimensional coordinates for all vertices but for rendering or clipping reasons didn't allow two rooms above each other.
Advanced mechanical clockwork is basically the same thing as program code, just physically, and therefore much more complex.
You gotta be kidding! My old 486 always beats me, and that damned thing is generally slower than a dead rock!
It appears to me that a tiny percentage of all programmers know a bit about user interface, while the most of them don't have a clue. Programs that perform well but are hard to use because of an illogical interface aren't cool.
Here's a hint: before you start making the software, ask your would-be users for screenshot mockups how they would like it. You can learn a lot that way.
In the conclusion, the author mentions GIF. But what about .PNG? Yes, I know that JPEG as a rule of thumb is better than PNG for photo-like images. But for many images... indeed for anything smaller than ~100x100 pixels, but also in random cases for bigger images, .PNG is better than JPEG. Even images that appear to be very complex, and images that don't do well at all as .GIF's, sometimes turn out EXCELLENT as .PNG's, way smaller than JPEGs and with perfect quality.
This is not the case for their sample image, but, umm, I'd just like have said anyway that some people are way too quick to save their pics as blurry JPEGs without trying the alternatives.
There was definitely secret money involved when Squaresoft abandoned Nintendo for Sony and the PS.
The official argument was that their games would not fit on cartridges, so they chose a CD-based console. But why did they choose the PlayStation? Why not Sega's Saturn? At that time, every other newcomer console had failed, why would Sony's be any different? Sega was quite well established in the console business at the time, Sony was not, everything indicated that Saturn would make a success.
I do smell conspiracy...Could it be that Napster & co made people discover new music to buy?
I buy twice as many CD's today as I did before I discovered Internet-based music sharing.
.deen uoy noitpyrcne eht all is sihT
Not really. Lead all the heat it generates into a steam engine and it'll generate enough energy to power the whole comp.
I dunno which of Linux/Windows is better, so I run Cygwin in Win4Lin.
...that TV shows get broadcasted once or twice, and that's what you get (it's not like everything gets released on video tapes...).
...splitting Microsoft in two companies? Yeah, they could use a separate corporation of lawyers only!
I've always wanted to read the core source code files of Windows! mem_eat.c rndcrash.c bsod.c
...is it weird that Slashdot doesn't have a specific Google topic yet?
It is a bit pointless by Geocities to shut down the page due to "exceeded data transfer quota" since the "temporarily unavailable" page in this case is three times bigger...
The ultimate solution by far would be a decompression algorithm that, instead of some screwed up checksum and data mapping crap, randomly generates different sets of outputs and lets the user select which is correct.