The "3) Stupid account management" problems maybe come from that silly 'beta' status.
No, they are produced by the complete inability to code a web front end to a database. I would have entered and even validated an email address, there simply was no fscking way of doing so. There obviously is that field in the database, but it can supposedly only be accessed during signup.
They are also caused by changing the account identifier after the fact, which is an absolute no-no. But hey, it's free, so I can decide to play or not, and I won't play any more. I'm too old and slow for Quake anyway.;)
I am among those with the "Waiting In Line" achievement (or whatever it was called) and was playing from the early days on. IMO it lacks in some pretty basic things:
1) The matching system doesn't work for casual players (like myself)
I'm around for long enough to have played Wolf 3D when it came out, so I know rocket jumping, bunny hopping and so on. Yet I'm thrown into games with "matched" difficulty where I don't stand the lightest chance. I don't think I've ever completed a "matched" match ranking higher than last or second-to-last. This persists; no matter how many times I end up being last, my skill assessment isn't changed. Ever.
Yeah, I could spend weeks practicing, but if they announce they know my skill, they better know it. But they don't. You can guess how much 'fun' it is to play that way.
2) No voice chat
This one is a deal breaker really. At 35, I find Quake Live to be at the limit of what I can take reaction-wise, and typing stuff to communicate is simply out of the question. I'm a fast typist, but you're thrown back into the game in moments and I won't stand around and get my ass handed to me even to type "lol nice shot" or something.
OTOH, when I play the casual game of Counter-Strike: Source, no matter on which public server I play, no matter if I know the people playing there, there's voice chatting going on, people having a good time, commenting on the game, talking about whatsoever. It feels like being with other people, not like sitting around alone shooting bots. It's a bit like a night at the pub with the guys, only we're also playing a game.
Gaming is a social thing (at least for me), and QL just doesn't support that.
3) Stupid account management
So I registered waaaaay back when all you needed to login was a nickname and a password. I don't play regularly (because it just isn't fun) but check back every few weeks/months to see whether something changed for the better. When I showed QL to a friend who might like it better, I noticed that logging in now needs an email address and a PW. So I fired up my FF (which was still logged in because it still held the cookie) and wanted to add an email address to my profile so that I could login from another computer or when my cookie expired.
Guess what? There was no way of adding an email address to the profile. Now guess again. Yes, the cookie is expired by now and no, I cannot login any more.
I don't feel like starting everything from scratch again, so I simply abandoned QL. After all, CS:S might be old hat, but it's fun to just drop in, play some games, joke around with the guys, show and see some funny and/or awesome moves - all in a friendly atmosphere. The same goes for DoD:S, TF2, you name it.
Actually the woman has sued his family, claiming that it was really her who wrote the books (after his ideas) because he had so shoddy writing skills. Given the books are gorgeously well written (or translated *g*) that might actually be true.
The Millennium series is wildly popular over here in Germany, and I discarded it because of that - wrongfully. A friend handed me the books and they were really, really good, at least as enjoyable as Stephenson, really.
FWIW, the German titles translate to "Blindness", "Perdition" and "Absolution", which I actually find better than the original titles, because it's following a scheme and doesn't give away so much while fitting the books.
I would advise you read the threads here where people ask how to build a "time capsule" to preserve digital data for 20 years or so. The essence is that preserving digital data is *hard*. Once the power goes off, 20 years later you'll probably have difficulties getting the stuff to run again, under *optimal* conditions, leave alone with stuff getting wet, rusting, heating up because of lack of A/C...
We are talking about archeology here. If we somehow manage to go extinct, and power goes off, "The Cloud" will be lost pretty soon. You can bet if somebody/something were to find our heritage even only some hundred years later, there will be nothing left of "The Cloud".
I mean hey, this article talks about stuff only 20-30 years old and how it's getting lost already.
That said, you're correct that copying preserves stuff. If the copies last.
If he had actually THOUGHT about what he's going to do, he might have discovered this strange concept of "focal length" and how it might affect lens placement.
This must be among the most stupid "efforts" I've seen on Slashdot.
No. Atari 2600 joysticks are not serial; they're 5-bit parallel.
Fück! I already called an electronics store and asked the exact question, and the guy told me that joysticks are serial and should work, no problem. It's a good thing I haven't ordered already. Looks as if I either have to see whether I can get some of the mentioned adaptors here in Germany or go the DIY way. Given that I haven't soldered in 20 years, I'd rather do the former.;-)
I just called the local computer store and they said they'd give me an adaptor for testing. I'll report back later, after a trip to the basement.:-D
BTW, most adaptors support bidirectional xfer.
What is this Windows 7 thing you're talking about? Is that what they did after XP? I upgraded from Windows 2000 to Linux and OSX.;-)
Ordinarily I'd be thinking to myself "get your ___ the ____ up out of Brazil already", based on my experiences on nesdev.com/bbs, but now it appears Brazil isn't the only place with prohibitive import duties.
Well, it seems Germany isn't any better. Plus, it seems to be like pure chance whether you make it through customs only with VAT + customs handling fee (which would make a combined 30-40%) or if other charges apply. It doesn't usually make any sense, really.
Thank you for the ammo that I can use against LAN-party fanboys in future Slashdot discussions.
Had you ever hosted one, it would have been easy for you, too.;-) Once you're married with three children, you don't happily re-arrange the furniture to invite a handful of mid-aged geeks to put their boxen in your house, drink soda and beer, watch porn, trade warez and order buttloads of pizza. Instead, you tell the wife "we're just playing in front of the TV", which will be approved, whereas the first variant, well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Being married is great in many aspects, really. But not in all.;-) Plus, I'd really be too lazy to organize a LAN these days.
With a plasma, you see afterimages of the 8-bit games' HUD. The burn-in effect, though it's apparently less pronounced than with older plasma, is one reason why I prefer LCD.
I hope that wont be too prominent. My plasma is pretty recent, I got it as a present two years ago and don't even have burn-in from the stations' logos.
And most home PCs are next to a desk, not in a TV cabinet.
Ha. My TV cabinet is self-contained (running off DVB-T, all media stuff in it, but only 1 power cord coming out, nothing more) and has wheels so that I can push it wherever I want. Also, my computer is an iMac which can be put anywhere easily, too. And finally, my office is next to the living room, and they share huge sliding doors (the house is from 1914 and has some fancy features indeed *g*). So I'll just open the doors, connect the Mac and the TV via HDMI and enjoy.
I'm off, looking for an ancient joystick to test with VICE, Stella and MAME.:-)
That would be fun, two Competition Pros would be even better as I'm a leftie and the button on the Atari joysticks was always a bit clunky to operate for me as I use my right hand for the stick and the left hand for the buttons.
As the submitter, may I say (for many more people, I'm sure): Thank you so much for your time and love in making a great emulator. Many people tend to forget about the 2600 because in its later days there was just *so* much crap, but it was my first home gaming experience, and I loved it. I still own my 2600 and some games (got some more via ebay), but both the console and the games tend to stop working, so Stella is probably going to be the only way of preserving those games in a decade or two.
Again, thanks so much.:-)
As for the Stelladaptor - do I need it if I don't want to use my paddles? Won't any USB-to-serial do? The former will be at least EUR 80 (shipping, taxes, customs, fees...), while the latter will be 4.50.
I'm not interested in paddles (even though I have a pair lying around in the basement), can I just use any old USB-to-serial (USB Sub-D 9 pin) adapter? Those come at 4,50 without tripling their price for taxes and customs and fees, and I guess most of the price for the retroUSB thing comes for a logic board detecting paddles and converting them to something usable.
Slashdot users have recommended a LAN party
That would require me to set up electricity, networking (apart from the 10-port switch on my desk), tables... when all I want to do is sit on the couch in front of the plasma and enjoy some 8-bit goodness.:-)
Submitter here. I have bought my PS2-USB adapter from Lik-Sang a few years ago, and while that adapter was only 10 USD, it cost me about thrice as that because of all the taxes, customs and fees.
Good point about just using original controllers, I hadn't thought of that because I don't have mine any more. I just had a look at eBay, there are pairs of original Competition Pros going out for 15-25 EUR, plus 2 adapters at 4,50 each, that would be really cheap.:-)
Thanks for the hint about the Mac, indeed I'm typing this from one of those newfangled iMacs. Was that under OSX only? (I.e. do you think it's a software or a hardware problem? I have a boot camp partition for gaming, that could run the emulators just as well.)
Wow, that look insanely great. Unfortunately, as a leftie I can't just use the other hand for the stick like I can with an old-school joystick. A pity, really, those things look pretty awesome.
Sorry to break it to you, but classic gaming *was* 8-directional on-or-off with clicks. Actually that's pretty exactly what I'm looking for.
As for Joust and Gyruss, I have no idea what you're talking about, we played both just fine with our standard Atari controllers.
Of course the best joystick was the Competition Pro (apart from The Arcade, obviously), but the remake has shitty switches and even manages to have so much latency that it's impossible to use.
Submitter here. I'm mainly going for 2600, C-64 and some MAME (alas, my childhood's games and those of my friends), and if you remember early home gaming, there were only a handful of joysticks every one had, and it was no problem, ever, for any game. They were made for 8-direction digital joysticks, and if you had one, you were ready to go.
I already have an adapter to use my PS2 pads via USB, but it just feels wrong, plus the obvious downside of being a pre-pad gamer who never started to actually like pads.
As for your keyboard suggestion - I'd like to see you gaming with the guys, playing multiplayer games with just one keyboard.;-)
OP here. I have seen the stick you offer (and many like it) on Amazon, but those a) usually are analog (digital sticks are much easier to operate) and b) can only be used standing on a desk etc., not hand-held. I'm going to connect the 'puter to my plasma and want to go for the "living room style" gaming. Even the old Quickshots were shitty in this respect because you'd need a book or something to put them on.
And you're spot on - I want a stick, not a pad. At 35, I'm in the pre-pad gaming generation and despise pads to the very day. No matter how much I practice, I just don't get the level of control of a nice, handy digital joystick.
I was just writing a reply to someone else guessing your situation, and seeing this response of yours, I was right.
I was the CTO of a 40 people company in print media production, so I know exactly where you're coming from. If your IT guys don't feel comfortable with writing database applications, you should really consider getting other people. Really. If you need 1 or 2 coders instead of helpdesk monkeys (which is what you appear to have if they refuse to write DB code), you should consider exchanging parts of your team. It might not be nice, or easy, but as Director of IT it's your job to provide the IT your company needs. That includes layoffs and hiring if necessary.
If it's a one-shot project, however, you may want to consider using a freelancer. There's many really good ones (and also pretty bad ones), so be sure to have an in-depth conversation and insist on having code and live projects shown.
Other people might want to add some questions to ask in that talk, I don't have the time now. But asking "what is 2NF and 3NF" and how s/he models DB's is a good start. It's also a good thing if you understand the code without being a DB specialist. In fact, that's the best sign you've good a good freelancer.
Actually Mackay concentrates on the negative and criminal aspect of crowds. The standard book in that field would be Gustave Le Bons's "The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind". You can see that he had something there as several Fascist leaders in WWII reportedly modeled much of their propaganda after Le Bon. (Whatever reference that is.)
I am just reading this and I have problems with his frequent use of the concept of races, but one has to remember that racism was part of the scientific landscape at that time. Apart from that, he has some amazing insights that very obviously still apply today.
Chrome's adblock didn't actually stop the elements from being loaded on the page, it just hid them via CSS
Which is the only true way to do it as it makes your adblocking impossible to detect, *plus* it still rewards those sites that use pay-per-view advertising.
I don't get why adblock doesn't implement optional ad "clicking" by loading the linked pages (including images!) and simply piping the data into/dev/null. That way sites get their revenue while people get their ad-free content.
Actually if someone really were so stupid to even *want* to speak for Anonymous, he would be in for some of the worst harassment you can imagine, apart from all the things they'd do just to make him and them look bad.
OTOH, it would probably lead to one or more trials with defendants telling the judge ITIFTL. Which would be lulz indeed.
Xing has over 8 million members and is the #1 B2B social network in Europe. It isn't irrelevant or exotic just because you haven't heard of it. Duh. Yes, I'm a member. Yes, I made quite a nice amount of business (=money) because of Xing.
It's obvious that the iPad is meant for consumption because it has no input devices meant for creation.
Um. They offer a keyboard dock as an accessory (scroll down, there's no anchor to link to), and of course the wireless keyboards and mice also work with the iPad.
But really, it's meant as a couch computer, nothing more, nothing less. If it doesn't appeal to you (as it doesn't to me), don't buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
The "3) Stupid account management" problems maybe come from that silly 'beta' status.
No, they are produced by the complete inability to code a web front end to a database. I would have entered and even validated an email address, there simply was no fscking way of doing so. There obviously is that field in the database, but it can supposedly only be accessed during signup.
They are also caused by changing the account identifier after the fact, which is an absolute no-no. But hey, it's free, so I can decide to play or not, and I won't play any more. I'm too old and slow for Quake anyway. ;)
I am among those with the "Waiting In Line" achievement (or whatever it was called) and was playing from the early days on. IMO it lacks in some pretty basic things:
1) The matching system doesn't work for casual players (like myself)
I'm around for long enough to have played Wolf 3D when it came out, so I know rocket jumping, bunny hopping and so on. Yet I'm thrown into games with "matched" difficulty where I don't stand the lightest chance. I don't think I've ever completed a "matched" match ranking higher than last or second-to-last. This persists; no matter how many times I end up being last, my skill assessment isn't changed. Ever.
Yeah, I could spend weeks practicing, but if they announce they know my skill, they better know it. But they don't. You can guess how much 'fun' it is to play that way.
2) No voice chat
This one is a deal breaker really. At 35, I find Quake Live to be at the limit of what I can take reaction-wise, and typing stuff to communicate is simply out of the question. I'm a fast typist, but you're thrown back into the game in moments and I won't stand around and get my ass handed to me even to type "lol nice shot" or something.
OTOH, when I play the casual game of Counter-Strike: Source, no matter on which public server I play, no matter if I know the people playing there, there's voice chatting going on, people having a good time, commenting on the game, talking about whatsoever. It feels like being with other people, not like sitting around alone shooting bots. It's a bit like a night at the pub with the guys, only we're also playing a game.
Gaming is a social thing (at least for me), and QL just doesn't support that.
3) Stupid account management
So I registered waaaaay back when all you needed to login was a nickname and a password. I don't play regularly (because it just isn't fun) but check back every few weeks/months to see whether something changed for the better. When I showed QL to a friend who might like it better, I noticed that logging in now needs an email address and a PW. So I fired up my FF (which was still logged in because it still held the cookie) and wanted to add an email address to my profile so that I could login from another computer or when my cookie expired.
Guess what? There was no way of adding an email address to the profile. Now guess again. Yes, the cookie is expired by now and no, I cannot login any more.
I don't feel like starting everything from scratch again, so I simply abandoned QL. After all, CS:S might be old hat, but it's fun to just drop in, play some games, joke around with the guys, show and see some funny and/or awesome moves - all in a friendly atmosphere. The same goes for DoD:S, TF2, you name it.
Actually the woman has sued his family, claiming that it was really her who wrote the books (after his ideas) because he had so shoddy writing skills. Given the books are gorgeously well written (or translated *g*) that might actually be true.
The Millennium series is wildly popular over here in Germany, and I discarded it because of that - wrongfully. A friend handed me the books and they were really, really good, at least as enjoyable as Stephenson, really.
FWIW, the German titles translate to "Blindness", "Perdition" and "Absolution", which I actually find better than the original titles, because it's following a scheme and doesn't give away so much while fitting the books.
The Cloud? Are you kidding?
I would advise you read the threads here where people ask how to build a "time capsule" to preserve digital data for 20 years or so. The essence is that preserving digital data is *hard*. Once the power goes off, 20 years later you'll probably have difficulties getting the stuff to run again, under *optimal* conditions, leave alone with stuff getting wet, rusting, heating up because of lack of A/C...
We are talking about archeology here. If we somehow manage to go extinct, and power goes off, "The Cloud" will be lost pretty soon. You can bet if somebody/something were to find our heritage even only some hundred years later, there will be nothing left of "The Cloud".
I mean hey, this article talks about stuff only 20-30 years old and how it's getting lost already.
That said, you're correct that copying preserves stuff. If the copies last.
If he had actually THOUGHT about what he's going to do, he might have discovered this strange concept of "focal length" and how it might affect lens placement.
This must be among the most stupid "efforts" I've seen on Slashdot.
No. Atari 2600 joysticks are not serial; they're 5-bit parallel.
Fück! I already called an electronics store and asked the exact question, and the guy told me that joysticks are serial and should work, no problem. It's a good thing I haven't ordered already. Looks as if I either have to see whether I can get some of the mentioned adaptors here in Germany or go the DIY way. Given that I haven't soldered in 20 years, I'd rather do the former. ;-)
I just called the local computer store and they said they'd give me an adaptor for testing. I'll report back later, after a trip to the basement. :-D
BTW, most adaptors support bidirectional xfer.
What is this Windows 7 thing you're talking about? Is that what they did after XP? I upgraded from Windows 2000 to Linux and OSX. ;-)
Ordinarily I'd be thinking to myself "get your ___ the ____ up out of Brazil already", based on my experiences on nesdev.com/bbs, but now it appears Brazil isn't the only place with prohibitive import duties.
Well, it seems Germany isn't any better. Plus, it seems to be like pure chance whether you make it through customs only with VAT + customs handling fee (which would make a combined 30-40%) or if other charges apply. It doesn't usually make any sense, really.
Thank you for the ammo that I can use against LAN-party fanboys in future Slashdot discussions.
Had you ever hosted one, it would have been easy for you, too. ;-) Once you're married with three children, you don't happily re-arrange the furniture to invite a handful of mid-aged geeks to put their boxen in your house, drink soda and beer, watch porn, trade warez and order buttloads of pizza. Instead, you tell the wife "we're just playing in front of the TV", which will be approved, whereas the first variant, well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Being married is great in many aspects, really. But not in all. ;-) Plus, I'd really be too lazy to organize a LAN these days.
With a plasma, you see afterimages of the 8-bit games' HUD. The burn-in effect, though it's apparently less pronounced than with older plasma, is one reason why I prefer LCD.
I hope that wont be too prominent. My plasma is pretty recent, I got it as a present two years ago and don't even have burn-in from the stations' logos.
And most home PCs are next to a desk, not in a TV cabinet.
Ha. My TV cabinet is self-contained (running off DVB-T, all media stuff in it, but only 1 power cord coming out, nothing more) and has wheels so that I can push it wherever I want. Also, my computer is an iMac which can be put anywhere easily, too. And finally, my office is next to the living room, and they share huge sliding doors (the house is from 1914 and has some fancy features indeed *g*). So I'll just open the doors, connect the Mac and the TV via HDMI and enjoy.
I'm off, looking for an ancient joystick to test with VICE, Stella and MAME. :-)
That would be fun, two Competition Pros would be even better as I'm a leftie and the button on the Atari joysticks was always a bit clunky to operate for me as I use my right hand for the stick and the left hand for the buttons.
As the submitter, may I say (for many more people, I'm sure): Thank you so much for your time and love in making a great emulator. Many people tend to forget about the 2600 because in its later days there was just *so* much crap, but it was my first home gaming experience, and I loved it. I still own my 2600 and some games (got some more via ebay), but both the console and the games tend to stop working, so Stella is probably going to be the only way of preserving those games in a decade or two.
Again, thanks so much. :-)
As for the Stelladaptor - do I need it if I don't want to use my paddles? Won't any USB-to-serial do? The former will be at least EUR 80 (shipping, taxes, customs, fees...), while the latter will be 4.50.
Then plug your 2600 joystick into a USB port.
I'm not interested in paddles (even though I have a pair lying around in the basement), can I just use any old USB-to-serial (USB Sub-D 9 pin) adapter? Those come at 4,50 without tripling their price for taxes and customs and fees, and I guess most of the price for the retroUSB thing comes for a logic board detecting paddles and converting them to something usable.
Slashdot users have recommended a LAN party
That would require me to set up electricity, networking (apart from the 10-port switch on my desk), tables... when all I want to do is sit on the couch in front of the plasma and enjoy some 8-bit goodness. :-)
Submitter here. I have bought my PS2-USB adapter from Lik-Sang a few years ago, and while that adapter was only 10 USD, it cost me about thrice as that because of all the taxes, customs and fees.
Good point about just using original controllers, I hadn't thought of that because I don't have mine any more. I just had a look at eBay, there are pairs of original Competition Pros going out for 15-25 EUR, plus 2 adapters at 4,50 each, that would be really cheap. :-)
Thanks for the hint about the Mac, indeed I'm typing this from one of those newfangled iMacs. Was that under OSX only? (I.e. do you think it's a software or a hardware problem? I have a boot camp partition for gaming, that could run the emulators just as well.)
Wow, that look insanely great. Unfortunately, as a leftie I can't just use the other hand for the stick like I can with an old-school joystick. A pity, really, those things look pretty awesome.
Sorry to break it to you, but classic gaming *was* 8-directional on-or-off with clicks. Actually that's pretty exactly what I'm looking for.
As for Joust and Gyruss, I have no idea what you're talking about, we played both just fine with our standard Atari controllers.
Of course the best joystick was the Competition Pro (apart from The Arcade, obviously), but the remake has shitty switches and even manages to have so much latency that it's impossible to use.
Submitter here. I'm mainly going for 2600, C-64 and some MAME (alas, my childhood's games and those of my friends), and if you remember early home gaming, there were only a handful of joysticks every one had, and it was no problem, ever, for any game. They were made for 8-direction digital joysticks, and if you had one, you were ready to go.
I already have an adapter to use my PS2 pads via USB, but it just feels wrong, plus the obvious downside of being a pre-pad gamer who never started to actually like pads.
As for your keyboard suggestion - I'd like to see you gaming with the guys, playing multiplayer games with just one keyboard. ;-)
OP here. I have seen the stick you offer (and many like it) on Amazon, but those a) usually are analog (digital sticks are much easier to operate) and b) can only be used standing on a desk etc., not hand-held. I'm going to connect the 'puter to my plasma and want to go for the "living room style" gaming. Even the old Quickshots were shitty in this respect because you'd need a book or something to put them on.
And you're spot on - I want a stick, not a pad. At 35, I'm in the pre-pad gaming generation and despise pads to the very day. No matter how much I practice, I just don't get the level of control of a nice, handy digital joystick.
I was just writing a reply to someone else guessing your situation, and seeing this response of yours, I was right.
I was the CTO of a 40 people company in print media production, so I know exactly where you're coming from. If your IT guys don't feel comfortable with writing database applications, you should really consider getting other people. Really. If you need 1 or 2 coders instead of helpdesk monkeys (which is what you appear to have if they refuse to write DB code), you should consider exchanging parts of your team. It might not be nice, or easy, but as Director of IT it's your job to provide the IT your company needs. That includes layoffs and hiring if necessary.
If it's a one-shot project, however, you may want to consider using a freelancer. There's many really good ones (and also pretty bad ones), so be sure to have an in-depth conversation and insist on having code and live projects shown.
Other people might want to add some questions to ask in that talk, I don't have the time now. But asking "what is 2NF and 3NF" and how s/he models DB's is a good start. It's also a good thing if you understand the code without being a DB specialist. In fact, that's the best sign you've good a good freelancer.
Actually Mackay concentrates on the negative and criminal aspect of crowds. The standard book in that field would be Gustave Le Bons's "The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind". You can see that he had something there as several Fascist leaders in WWII reportedly modeled much of their propaganda after Le Bon. (Whatever reference that is.)
I am just reading this and I have problems with his frequent use of the concept of races, but one has to remember that racism was part of the scientific landscape at that time. Apart from that, he has some amazing insights that very obviously still apply today.
So do the obvious and shoot at it already. Instant results guaranteed.
Dude, you've got the link to the speech wrong. It's this one.
Chrome's adblock didn't actually stop the elements from being loaded on the page, it just hid them via CSS
Which is the only true way to do it as it makes your adblocking impossible to detect, *plus* it still rewards those sites that use pay-per-view advertising.
I don't get why adblock doesn't implement optional ad "clicking" by loading the linked pages (including images!) and simply piping the data into /dev/null. That way sites get their revenue while people get their ad-free content.
Argh. IDIFTL, not ITIFTL.
Actually if someone really were so stupid to even *want* to speak for Anonymous, he would be in for some of the worst harassment you can imagine, apart from all the things they'd do just to make him and them look bad.
OTOH, it would probably lead to one or more trials with defendants telling the judge ITIFTL. Which would be lulz indeed.
Xing has over 8 million members and is the #1 B2B social network in Europe. It isn't irrelevant or exotic just because you haven't heard of it. Duh. Yes, I'm a member. Yes, I made quite a nice amount of business (=money) because of Xing.
http://corporate.xing.com/english/company/
Before they rebranded it, it was called OpenBC (Open Business Club). Maybe you've heard of that. ;)
Um. They offer a keyboard dock as an accessory (scroll down, there's no anchor to link to), and of course the wireless keyboards and mice also work with the iPad.
But really, it's meant as a couch computer, nothing more, nothing less. If it doesn't appeal to you (as it doesn't to me), don't buy it.
See subject. Nuff said.