(Actually, for the US, Afghanistan was relatively "nice," as wars go. If we'd kept our focus there, Bush's legacy could potentially look different now.)
I am so thrilled not to live in your tiny musical world. Some of the greatest artists around, IMNSHO, can make an excellent concert out of pushing a few buttons; and indeed, may have little choice, as oftentimes much of their music is generated by computers. I've paid good money to see such performances, and doubtless will many times to come.
I've played several FPS games using the dual-analog scheme consoles have relied on to this point, and it always destroyed the immersive effect that is the FPS game's chief advantage. No matter how good you get with the sticks, the resultant motions on-screen are always jerky and mechanical. Robotic. It's a grating difference from the much more organic WASD + mouse scheme.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the closest to that organic movement I've experienced. It's still not perfect; the aim is a smidge twitchy, and it would be nice to be able to spin a bit more quickly. Those faults aside, it's deeply intuitive. No, it's not light-gun aiming, but neither is any other successful FPS scheme (rail shooters are the only games I've seen with light-gun aiming), so I don't know why anyone who's an FPS fan would complain about that. As I said, the slight jumpiness of the aiming means sniping isn't really do-able, but relative aiming is what anyone who has used a mouse control system is used to. Just hold the Wiimote at your side, where you're not tempted to look down the barrel, and let your wrist do the work...you'll adapt to it in an instant.
And yes, using the motion control for the grapple and combination locks and the like is *very* satisfying. Really, I highly recommend any FPS gamers out there to give this game a look. I think you'll like what you see.
You know, as buggy and outright crappy as portions of that game are (I'm looking at you, hovercraft piloting and GTO driving!), the hacking minigame is actually pretty well done, IMO.
The clause is to prevent, say, a vacuum cleaner company from requiring used of their own brand of bags (unless they provide them free). It doesn't mean you can modify your car for more horsepower, and expect the manufacturer to cover the engine under warranty when it breaks.
This is...mostly correct, but somewhat incomplete. If you install some aftermarket part in your vehicle, and there is evidence that the installation of that part resulted in the vehicle damage that you are seeking to repair under warranty, then the manufacturer is within their rights to refuse warranty service. However, if you install a cold air intake, and then you suffer from a failure in the suspension or electrical system, there would be no grounds for refusal of warranty service because your modification could not reasonably shown to be at fault.
How far this analogy extends to the iPhone clearly depends on the extent and nature of the modifications being performed, IMO.
(IANAL, but this is the collective wisdom of the auto-modding community as I have received it)
Enh. I bought one yesterday, after seeing that they were all over the Targets in the North Dallas area. According to that, there's still several to be had the day after...I was the last of my group of friends who wanted one to get one, and its largely because I was just too lazy to bother finding one.
All the stories I've seen on this have just used the vague tag "Internet Addiction," but it seems like most of the individual stories I've seen described involve addiction to an online strategy or RPG game of one sort or another. This imprecision bugs me intensely, since addiction to online gaming seems like quite a different beast from, say,/. addiction.
Has anyone seen accounts of "addiction" that weren't gaming related?
Isn't this (more or less) exactly the way Amazon's Recommendation Engine works? I've got gobs of items I own/have read/watched/played/whatever, and a 1-to-5-star rating thereof, registered on the site, and its picks for books/movies/games/whatever tend to be remarkably accurate.
You didn't read the full article, did you? Chad doesn't claim to have scientifically proven anything, and I don't even recall him calling this a "study." It was a project, a play-experiment. If Chad's language and methodologies are science-like, well, gosh...maybe it's because he's a scientist?
This was the first thing I wondered about when I heard about the new release, and I've now seen it confirmed on several relevant forums. I've held back from upgrading iTunes for over a year now so it would be possible to easily strip the DRM from the music I purchased. I guess there's no reason not to install the new version, now, but I'm deeply disappointed in this development, and it will certainly alter my song purchasing decisions in the future.
Glen Dahlgren was Lead Designer on the sadly under-promoted and underrated FPS game Wheel Of Time (based on the series of the same name by Robert Jordan), which had defensive aspects to the Multiplayer game that are still unparalleled in the genre. He's a really nice guy and an excellent developer (IMNSHO). Only a fraction of his original vision for that game was realized, but it foretold many things that would later be integrated into MMO games. If I were an MMO player, I'd certainly be picking this up on his credentials alone.
Sounds exactly like the complaints of someone who didn't watch the last two seasons of Enterprise.
Yeah, the first season sucked. Guess what, the unforgiving nature of "die-hard" fans screwed the rest of us out of what became one of the best SF series of recent years. If ever a show deserved a second chance, it was that one.
Fake cameras would seem to be an utterly ignorant deterrent against armed robbery, and your neighborhood jeweler was an idiot for attempting something like that in such a high profile business.
A comic-book or card shop, like the grandparent's example, however, has a pretty slim chance of being held up...they're going to be much more concerned about shoplifters, and that is exactly the behavior this story is discussing prevention of.
Except for the cube geek characters, this could easily be a snippet of dialogue from the excellent Science Fiction/Fantasy book Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (better known for writing horror). At one point the main character compliments a nearby building's AI for altering its lighting and color patterns to complement the unique pattern his malfunctioning smart-fabric pants had settled on that morning.
A fun and utterly unique book. I have a review of it on my booklog.
Slashdot Mirror
And that war was so nice, he did it twice!
(Actually, for the US, Afghanistan was relatively "nice," as wars go. If we'd kept our focus there, Bush's legacy could potentially look different now.)
I am so thrilled not to live in your tiny musical world. Some of the greatest artists around, IMNSHO, can make an excellent concert out of pushing a few buttons; and indeed, may have little choice, as oftentimes much of their music is generated by computers. I've paid good money to see such performances, and doubtless will many times to come.
That's been around forever!
It's called "Proctonumerology."
I've played several FPS games using the dual-analog scheme consoles have relied on to this point, and it always destroyed the immersive effect that is the FPS game's chief advantage. No matter how good you get with the sticks, the resultant motions on-screen are always jerky and mechanical. Robotic. It's a grating difference from the much more organic WASD + mouse scheme.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the closest to that organic movement I've experienced. It's still not perfect; the aim is a smidge twitchy, and it would be nice to be able to spin a bit more quickly. Those faults aside, it's deeply intuitive. No, it's not light-gun aiming, but neither is any other successful FPS scheme (rail shooters are the only games I've seen with light-gun aiming), so I don't know why anyone who's an FPS fan would complain about that. As I said, the slight jumpiness of the aiming means sniping isn't really do-able, but relative aiming is what anyone who has used a mouse control system is used to. Just hold the Wiimote at your side, where you're not tempted to look down the barrel, and let your wrist do the work...you'll adapt to it in an instant.
And yes, using the motion control for the grapple and combination locks and the like is *very* satisfying. Really, I highly recommend any FPS gamers out there to give this game a look. I think you'll like what you see.
You know, as buggy and outright crappy as portions of that game are (I'm looking at you, hovercraft piloting and GTO driving!), the hacking minigame is actually pretty well done, IMO.
This is...mostly correct, but somewhat incomplete. If you install some aftermarket part in your vehicle, and there is evidence that the installation of that part resulted in the vehicle damage that you are seeking to repair under warranty, then the manufacturer is within their rights to refuse warranty service. However, if you install a cold air intake, and then you suffer from a failure in the suspension or electrical system, there would be no grounds for refusal of warranty service because your modification could not reasonably shown to be at fault.
How far this analogy extends to the iPhone clearly depends on the extent and nature of the modifications being performed, IMO.
(IANAL, but this is the collective wisdom of the auto-modding community as I have received it)
I thought that comment was key, too.
So I incorporated it into a (requested by a third party) LOLCat Pivar.
Because, apparently, I don't have enough time on my hands.
I don't know what he meant, but usually when I say "Parisian" I mean someone from Paris...
Enh. I bought one yesterday, after seeing that they were all over the Targets in the North Dallas area. According to that, there's still several to be had the day after...I was the last of my group of friends who wanted one to get one, and its largely because I was just too lazy to bother finding one.
Where did you see a story saying that these Chinese folks were addicted to online porn?
All the stories I've seen on this have just used the vague tag "Internet Addiction," but it seems like most of the individual stories I've seen described involve addiction to an online strategy or RPG game of one sort or another. This imprecision bugs me intensely, since addiction to online gaming seems like quite a different beast from, say, /. addiction.
Has anyone seen accounts of "addiction" that weren't gaming related?
Well played, sir.
From July:
Ancient Reptile Had Wings Like a Fighter Jet
No couch? Chairs/loungers only==no snuggling.
It's almost like he never expects to have a woman over...
Isn't this (more or less) exactly the way Amazon's Recommendation Engine works? I've got gobs of items I own/have read/watched/played/whatever, and a 1-to-5-star rating thereof, registered on the site, and its picks for books/movies/games/whatever tend to be remarkably accurate.
You didn't read the full article, did you? Chad doesn't claim to have scientifically proven anything, and I don't even recall him calling this a "study." It was a project, a play-experiment. If Chad's language and methodologies are science-like, well, gosh...maybe it's because he's a scientist?
Zima Zuckz. Zo Doez Zune.
This was the first thing I wondered about when I heard about the new release, and I've now seen it confirmed on several relevant forums. I've held back from upgrading iTunes for over a year now so it would be possible to easily strip the DRM from the music I purchased. I guess there's no reason not to install the new version, now, but I'm deeply disappointed in this development, and it will certainly alter my song purchasing decisions in the future.
Glen Dahlgren was Lead Designer on the sadly under-promoted and underrated FPS game Wheel Of Time (based on the series of the same name by Robert Jordan), which had defensive aspects to the Multiplayer game that are still unparalleled in the genre. He's a really nice guy and an excellent developer (IMNSHO). Only a fraction of his original vision for that game was realized, but it foretold many things that would later be integrated into MMO games. If I were an MMO player, I'd certainly be picking this up on his credentials alone.
ObNitpick: the ST:E version of "In a Mirror, Darkly..." had the mirror-world NX-01 crew capturing the NCC-1706 Defiant, not the Enterprise.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go kill myself.
Yo' Mama's so fat, either definition of Pluton could apply!
Sounds exactly like the complaints of someone who didn't watch the last two seasons of Enterprise.
Yeah, the first season sucked. Guess what, the unforgiving nature of "die-hard" fans screwed the rest of us out of what became one of the best SF series of recent years. If ever a show deserved a second chance, it was that one.
Fake cameras would seem to be an utterly ignorant deterrent against armed robbery, and your neighborhood jeweler was an idiot for attempting something like that in such a high profile business.
A comic-book or card shop, like the grandparent's example, however, has a pretty slim chance of being held up...they're going to be much more concerned about shoplifters, and that is exactly the behavior this story is discussing prevention of.
I feel pretty confident in saying that, in regards to The Knight, you're not getting it.
Except for the cube geek characters, this could easily be a snippet of dialogue from the excellent Science Fiction/Fantasy book Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (better known for writing horror). At one point the main character compliments a nearby building's AI for altering its lighting and color patterns to complement the unique pattern his malfunctioning smart-fabric pants had settled on that morning.
A fun and utterly unique book. I have a review of it on my booklog.