ATI drivers used to be BAD. My old Radeon 7500 couldn't even handle glxgears without crashing. ATI drivers have gotten remarkably better since the AMD merger, and my radeon HD4850 handles compiz just as well as my Geforce 8800GTX.
In windows, I'm seeing more stability in games with the ATI card. Anecdotal, yes, but I believe that ATI's drivers have certainly improved on both Windows and Linux and no longer deserve their former reputation.
Several of those airports already had free wifi. I know firsthand that I used free wifi in Orlando (MCO), Ft. Lauderdale (FLL), Portland (PWM)- I'm sure there are others. Not complaining, but Google should have saved its money for those places or offered wifi somewhere else.
Not complaining- I'm happy to have internet on all of my layovers this holiday season.:)
Board members are elected by shareholder vote. If they knowingly break the law yet increase value for shareholders, I don't see why they'd lose their jobs.
Get a lawyer. If you show up to fight in court, you will likely lose. Have a traffic lawyer argue, it's a different story. Under most state laws, radar guns must be tested every so often- usually with tuning forks. Larger municipalities are keen enough to do this, sometimes daily, but small towns do not. Depending on their own logs, evidence may be inadmissible.
You can reschedule these "hearings" to another date- chances are they won't show- but if they do, keep in mind that you're inconveniencing them even more. If the cop doesn't show up to court, it's thrown out.
In many states, even if you're guilty, the lawyer can cut a deal with the DA and reduce the charge to a non-moving violation (I know they do this in Missouri). Downside is, you pay a larger fine (on top of lawyer fees), but you don't lose points on your license.
Not an ideal world. The system is broken, but you can find loopholes.
As an AT&T customer I hope Verizon wins this one. In fact, I believe that AT&T's map is OVERSTATING their 3G coverage. I live in the middle of a supposedly heavy 3G area, yet I often see my data drop down to EDGE, even if I have 5 bars of HDSPA on my phone.
It didn't use to be this way... maybe the numbers of iPhone 3G/3GS users may be oversaturating the network. But I'm getting very spotty coverage (dropped calls, incoming calls go straight to voicemail often, EDGE data only, etc) in the middle of metropolitan centers with solid 3G in every direction for 50+ miles (according to their map), while my friends on Verizon have more reliable service, even out in the middle of nowhere.
The service is getting to be so bad that it's affecting non-3G service. Voice calls on non-3G phones are getting dropped like crazy. Couple weeks ago, I got a text message stating that AT&T just added another cell tower in my vicinity, but I see no difference.
I've been a customer for 10+ years, but when my contract expires in March, I'm out.
The mainstream media only notices it when someone's already being prosecuted for violating it.
I agreed completely until this statement. Mainstream media isn't that oblivious- they simply don't have YOUR best interests at heart.
I'm sure most news networks themselves do notice it, but their parent companies are the very entities lobbying/pushing for more legislation. CNN = Time Warner, NBC = Vivendi Universal, FoxNews = News Corp, ABC = Disney, etc... These news companies (either through affiliates or parent corps) own most of our music, movies, TV shows, and other media, so it's only natural for them to protect their interests by trying to distract us from the draconian laws they're currently pushing through the governments of the world.
Sadly, it seems that blogs and independent news are our only hope.
If automakers wanted you to drive slower and safer, they would set the speedometer to read high- ie, it reports 60 when you're really doing 55. The upside is that your mpg may improve as well.
And while the odometer isn't directly tied to the speedometer, they're usually driven by the same shaft- I've fixed both in several vehicles. Changing tire diameter will affect both. Changing shaft itself can affect both as well, but typically, the gears that break and need replacing are the ones connecting the shaft to the odometers/speedometers. Aside- it's funny how legally you cannot roll back an odometer, but nothing legally prevents one from inserting a high ratio gear to report much lower mileage for future drives (not that I'd do that- I'm extremely careful about maintenance scheduling on my vehicles).
Gift or not, it's the same points off your license, and therefore you pay the same increased premiums for car insurance. Still, the cop was simply being a dick. A difference of 5mph can easily be explained by different wheels than stock or different tires. Or a speedometer that reads too low even for stock tires. Or a radar gun that hasn't been calibrated recently. Or the temperature that day (which affects the expansion of air inside the tire). There are too many variables for such a small variance in speed readings.
Any judge with a brain would dismiss such a small offense (at least the first time) if you plead not guilty. Also, it won't hurt to get a traffic attorney (if your state has them)- only cost me $100 to get out of a 41-in-a-35 ticket, but it saved me many times that down the road in insurance costs.
My PS3 handles 1080p non-BD video just fine, and will handle a 1080p mp4 file on a USB drive- though there is a limitation in the movie file size due to FAT32. Also, you can rent and buy HD movies on the PSN store and download/stream them.
I believe the Netflix BD is required for the interim because Sony isn't planning on updating the firmware for a while.
Doom actually did have a story, and it was far more drawn out than Robotron. Not very necessary to enjoy the game, but some of us were wondering why there are dead marine bodies scattered around the base and how we ended up on Phobos in the first place. You just had to read the manual (or readme.txt) in order to find it:
You're a marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action military group. Three years ago you assaulted a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while you were transfered to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corperation. The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
With no action for fifty million miles, your day consisted of suckin' dust and watchin' restricted flicks in the rec room.
For the last four years the militaty, UAC's biggest supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and Deimos to conduct varios secret projects, including reaserch on inter-dimensional travel. So far they have been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos, throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out the other. Recently however, the Gateways have grown dangerously unstable. Military "volunteers" entering them have either disappeared or been stricken with a strange form of insanity - babbleing vulgarities, bludgeoning anything that breathes, and finally suffering an untimely death of full-body explosion. Matching heads with torsos to send home to the folks became a full-time job. Latest military reports state that the reserch is suffering a small set-back, but everything is under control.
A few hours ago, Mars recieved a garbled message from Phobos. "We require immediate military support. Something fraggin' evil is coming out of the Gateways! Computer systems have gone berserk!" The rest was incoherent. Soon afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky. Since then, attempts to establish contact with either moon have been unsuccessful.
You and your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally, silence. Seems your buddies are dead.
Things aren't looking too good. You'll never navigate off the planet on your own. Plus, all the heavy weapons have been taken by the assault team leaving you with only a pistol. If only you could get your hands around a plasma rifle or even a shotgun you could take a few down on your way out. Whatever killed your buddies deserves a couple of pellets in the forehead. Securing your helmet, you exit the landing pod. Hopefully you can find more substantial firepower somewhere within the station.
As you walk through the main entrance to the base, you hear animal-like growls echoing throughout the distant corridors.
They know you're here. There's no turning back now.
Compelling stuff. Then again, like Wolfenstein3D and Quake, backstory was never really essential. The endstory mattered more. Quake's story was absolutely terrible IMO (basically copied Doom but left out Mars and used a different dimension), and the game itself served merely as a long techdemo for id's first true 3D (as in polygonal) engine.
I believe Quake II was id's first serious attempt at FPS storytelling. It even had an intro movie, and you could hear voices/commands over the radio that helped remind you that you were part of a failed invasion force.
Then Doom III came out years later and borrowed the audio log mechanism from System Shock and in-game cutscenes as well as passive dialog from NPCs, though you're still a mute like Gordon Freeman. It simply retold the Doom story, but made it more detailed and added a human antagonist (Betruger).
Now that's just funny -- trading one potentially financially-expensive-in-a-short-time activity for a potentially time-expensive one. ('Course, there are people who spend a considerable amount of their time playing e.g. slots as well; I just enjoyed the contrast.)
Time-expensive? People buy entertainment (movies, video games) because they have free time and want to enjoy it. If you buy a video game for $50, and provides 20 hours of entertainment, I would argue that it is a much better value than the hour spent losing that $50 at the casino.
"Loser always pays" will mean less class-action lawsuits and pro-bono cases. Attorneys don't want to pay each others' fees- they're supposed to be colluding against the rest of us, remember?
More legal costs. Let's say you were sued and won. Congratulations, you win the lawsuit but now have to pay $20k (hypothetically) in legal fees. You don't feel that's justified, so you countersue for legal damages and lose. Now you owe $40k.
Lawyers ain't cheap. They bill hundreds of dollars per each hour they spend on your case. Even calling them or emailing and asking a simple legal question can will often result in a hefty bill. I personally witnessed firsthand, and a 20 minute phone call ended up costing $180.
Key audience: investors and analysts. While WM6.x does work fine for typical smartphone usage, it lacks an appstore, which has been a real moneymaker for Apple. This will be standard in WM7.
Unless you're an internal tester, you do not have a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't even out yet. The first phones with it are slated to ship in late October.
There are people out there with hacked ROMs running leaked builds of 6.5, but you can hardly judge the final OS based on hacked ROMs running leaked builds...WinMo 6.5 is still rather crappy. WinMo 6.5.1 is getting decent, and its UI doesn't look like it was from 2001...
I'm puzzled by this self-contradictory post.
The leaked 6.5 roms are the same builds that testers are currently using, so provided which build is going to be the official WM6.5, it's fair to assume that the official one is already leaked, and you may or may not have tried it already.
The WM 6.5 builds showing up in hacked roms now are actually based on later revisions than what will come out next month. Builds 23052 and higher show off a new interface which gives a fair indication of what WinMo will look/feel like as it evolves into WM7. The "stable" WM6.5 to be released next month will likely be based on one of the 22xxx builds.
Most of the 22xxx-based WM6.5 roms I've used are much more stable IMO than the stock WM6.1 build that came on my phone.
But I understand Ballmer's frustration. WM6.5 is simply to appease manufacturers who are releasing WM-based devices that cannot wait for WM7.
I don't think they discourage left-handedness anymore. I went to catholic school (in the 80s), and I was taught cursive by ruler-wielding nuns, but no one seemed to care that I was a lefty. Except when I left smudges all over my paper.
Even my mother, who attended catholic all-girls schools in 1950s, writes left-handed.
Laptops have generally kept up with their desktop in terms of speed- as long as you're willing to pay. There are already quad-core laptops with dual GPUs (SLI or Crossfire) that would mop the floor with the majority of desktops. The only problem is, battery life is crap, and they're too hot to actually use on your lap (while gaming at least). Oh, and they cost 2-3 times as much as an equivalent desktop.
Obviously, older systems are nowhere as complex as newer systems. Newer systems have more components that can fail, plus moving parts inside them (hard drives, optical drives, etc), along with a number of extra features like radio transmission (bluetooth, wifi) that are standard on the current gen. Add a recent trend to go green with fewer toxic components (lead, cadmium, etc), prices of other materials skyrocketing (gold, silver, etc), and reduced costs (the original NES cost $249, back in 1985- the Wii cost the same at launch, despite inflation). I'm surprised the failure rates are as low as they are (except for the Xbox360).
Comparing current-gen systems reliability to systems produced 10-20 years ago is hardly a valid comparison. Plus I don't think Atari really planned on/anticipated so many 2600s would last 30 years.
Apple wasn't looking to screw over their employees. They merely wished to make the Apple employment experience more simple and elegant. With other employers, employees must make complicated and confusing decisions about raises and other job opportunities, resolve conflicts between competing employers,
By colluding with competitors? If a certain employee is so valuable, then Apple should be willing to compensate the employee enough to stay there. Not make backroom deals with other companies.
At Apple, it's a simple "You work here" interface.
And what if you quit, get fired, or laid off? Why should some backroom deal between Jobs and some other CEOs prevent you from landing on your feet?
This goes beyond non-compete clauses. At least with a non-compete, the employees sign a form acknowledging trade secrets and agreeing not to work for competitors. Deals like these, they have no say or control over.
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ATI drivers used to be BAD. My old Radeon 7500 couldn't even handle glxgears without crashing. ATI drivers have gotten remarkably better since the AMD merger, and my radeon HD4850 handles compiz just as well as my Geforce 8800GTX.
In windows, I'm seeing more stability in games with the ATI card. Anecdotal, yes, but I believe that ATI's drivers have certainly improved on both Windows and Linux and no longer deserve their former reputation.
Duh, we can clone him!
Videogames are a form of free speech (according to recent court case precedents). Banning them would be a violation of the 1st amendment.
States have tried, and lost.
Several of those airports already had free wifi. I know firsthand that I used free wifi in Orlando (MCO), Ft. Lauderdale (FLL), Portland (PWM)- I'm sure there are others. Not complaining, but Google should have saved its money for those places or offered wifi somewhere else.
:)
Not complaining- I'm happy to have internet on all of my layovers this holiday season.
Board members are elected by shareholder vote. If they knowingly break the law yet increase value for shareholders, I don't see why they'd lose their jobs.
Get a lawyer. If you show up to fight in court, you will likely lose. Have a traffic lawyer argue, it's a different story. Under most state laws, radar guns must be tested every so often- usually with tuning forks. Larger municipalities are keen enough to do this, sometimes daily, but small towns do not. Depending on their own logs, evidence may be inadmissible.
You can reschedule these "hearings" to another date- chances are they won't show- but if they do, keep in mind that you're inconveniencing them even more. If the cop doesn't show up to court, it's thrown out.
In many states, even if you're guilty, the lawyer can cut a deal with the DA and reduce the charge to a non-moving violation (I know they do this in Missouri). Downside is, you pay a larger fine (on top of lawyer fees), but you don't lose points on your license.
Not an ideal world. The system is broken, but you can find loopholes.
As an AT&T customer I hope Verizon wins this one. In fact, I believe that AT&T's map is OVERSTATING their 3G coverage. I live in the middle of a supposedly heavy 3G area, yet I often see my data drop down to EDGE, even if I have 5 bars of HDSPA on my phone.
It didn't use to be this way... maybe the numbers of iPhone 3G/3GS users may be oversaturating the network. But I'm getting very spotty coverage (dropped calls, incoming calls go straight to voicemail often, EDGE data only, etc) in the middle of metropolitan centers with solid 3G in every direction for 50+ miles (according to their map), while my friends on Verizon have more reliable service, even out in the middle of nowhere.
The service is getting to be so bad that it's affecting non-3G service. Voice calls on non-3G phones are getting dropped like crazy. Couple weeks ago, I got a text message stating that AT&T just added another cell tower in my vicinity, but I see no difference.
I've been a customer for 10+ years, but when my contract expires in March, I'm out.
The mainstream media only notices it when someone's already being prosecuted for violating it.
I agreed completely until this statement. Mainstream media isn't that oblivious- they simply don't have YOUR best interests at heart.
I'm sure most news networks themselves do notice it, but their parent companies are the very entities lobbying/pushing for more legislation. CNN = Time Warner, NBC = Vivendi Universal, FoxNews = News Corp, ABC = Disney, etc... These news companies (either through affiliates or parent corps) own most of our music, movies, TV shows, and other media, so it's only natural for them to protect their interests by trying to distract us from the draconian laws they're currently pushing through the governments of the world.
Sadly, it seems that blogs and independent news are our only hope.
If automakers wanted you to drive slower and safer, they would set the speedometer to read high- ie, it reports 60 when you're really doing 55. The upside is that your mpg may improve as well.
And while the odometer isn't directly tied to the speedometer, they're usually driven by the same shaft- I've fixed both in several vehicles. Changing tire diameter will affect both. Changing shaft itself can affect both as well, but typically, the gears that break and need replacing are the ones connecting the shaft to the odometers/speedometers. Aside- it's funny how legally you cannot roll back an odometer, but nothing legally prevents one from inserting a high ratio gear to report much lower mileage for future drives (not that I'd do that- I'm extremely careful about maintenance scheduling on my vehicles).
Gift or not, it's the same points off your license, and therefore you pay the same increased premiums for car insurance. Still, the cop was simply being a dick. A difference of 5mph can easily be explained by different wheels than stock or different tires. Or a speedometer that reads too low even for stock tires. Or a radar gun that hasn't been calibrated recently. Or the temperature that day (which affects the expansion of air inside the tire). There are too many variables for such a small variance in speed readings.
Any judge with a brain would dismiss such a small offense (at least the first time) if you plead not guilty. Also, it won't hurt to get a traffic attorney (if your state has them)- only cost me $100 to get out of a 41-in-a-35 ticket, but it saved me many times that down the road in insurance costs.
My PS3 handles 1080p non-BD video just fine, and will handle a 1080p mp4 file on a USB drive- though there is a limitation in the movie file size due to FAT32. Also, you can rent and buy HD movies on the PSN store and download/stream them.
I believe the Netflix BD is required for the interim because Sony isn't planning on updating the firmware for a while.
Maybe they will get George Lucas to direct it and the franchise will implode.
Fixed that for you.
You're a marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action military group. Three years ago you assaulted a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while you were transfered to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corperation. The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos. With no action for fifty million miles, your day consisted of suckin' dust and watchin' restricted flicks in the rec room.
For the last four years the militaty, UAC's biggest supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and Deimos to conduct varios secret projects, including reaserch on inter-dimensional travel. So far they have been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos, throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out the other. Recently however, the Gateways have grown dangerously unstable. Military "volunteers" entering them have either disappeared or been stricken with a strange form of insanity - babbleing vulgarities, bludgeoning anything that breathes, and finally suffering an untimely death of full-body explosion. Matching heads with torsos to send home to the folks became a full-time job. Latest military reports state that the reserch is suffering a small set-back, but everything is under control.
A few hours ago, Mars recieved a garbled message from Phobos. "We require immediate military support. Something fraggin' evil is coming out of the Gateways! Computer systems have gone berserk!" The rest was incoherent. Soon afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky. Since then, attempts to establish contact with either moon have been unsuccessful.
You and your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally, silence. Seems your buddies are dead.
Things aren't looking too good. You'll never navigate off the planet on your own. Plus, all the heavy weapons have been taken by the assault team leaving you with only a pistol. If only you could get your hands around a plasma rifle or even a shotgun you could take a few down on your way out. Whatever killed your buddies deserves a couple of pellets in the forehead. Securing your helmet, you exit the landing pod. Hopefully you can find more substantial firepower somewhere within the station.
As you walk through the main entrance to the base, you hear animal-like growls echoing throughout the distant corridors.
They know you're here. There's no turning back now.
Compelling stuff. Then again, like Wolfenstein3D and Quake, backstory was never really essential. The endstory mattered more. Quake's story was absolutely terrible IMO (basically copied Doom but left out Mars and used a different dimension), and the game itself served merely as a long techdemo for id's first true 3D (as in polygonal) engine.
I believe Quake II was id's first serious attempt at FPS storytelling. It even had an intro movie, and you could hear voices/commands over the radio that helped remind you that you were part of a failed invasion force.
Then Doom III came out years later and borrowed the audio log mechanism from System Shock and in-game cutscenes as well as passive dialog from NPCs, though you're still a mute like Gordon Freeman. It simply retold the Doom story, but made it more detailed and added a human antagonist (Betruger).
Now that's just funny -- trading one potentially financially-expensive-in-a-short-time activity for a potentially time-expensive one. ('Course, there are people who spend a considerable amount of their time playing e.g. slots as well; I just enjoyed the contrast.)
Time-expensive? People buy entertainment (movies, video games) because they have free time and want to enjoy it. If you buy a video game for $50, and provides 20 hours of entertainment, I would argue that it is a much better value than the hour spent losing that $50 at the casino.
I accidentally replied to the wrong post. My reply was meant for GP, not yours.
My apologies.
"Loser always pays" will mean less class-action lawsuits and pro-bono cases. Attorneys don't want to pay each others' fees- they're supposed to be colluding against the rest of us, remember?
More legal costs. Let's say you were sued and won. Congratulations, you win the lawsuit but now have to pay $20k (hypothetically) in legal fees. You don't feel that's justified, so you countersue for legal damages and lose. Now you owe $40k.
Lawyers ain't cheap. They bill hundreds of dollars per each hour they spend on your case. Even calling them or emailing and asking a simple legal question can will often result in a hefty bill. I personally witnessed firsthand, and a 20 minute phone call ended up costing $180.
Key audience: investors and analysts. While WM6.x does work fine for typical smartphone usage, it lacks an appstore, which has been a real moneymaker for Apple. This will be standard in WM7.
Unless you're an internal tester, you do not have a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't even out yet. The first phones with it are slated to ship in late October.
There are people out there with hacked ROMs running leaked builds of 6.5, but you can hardly judge the final OS based on hacked ROMs running leaked builds...WinMo 6.5 is still rather crappy. WinMo 6.5.1 is getting decent, and its UI doesn't look like it was from 2001...
I'm puzzled by this self-contradictory post.
The leaked 6.5 roms are the same builds that testers are currently using, so provided which build is going to be the official WM6.5, it's fair to assume that the official one is already leaked, and you may or may not have tried it already.
The WM 6.5 builds showing up in hacked roms now are actually based on later revisions than what will come out next month. Builds 23052 and higher show off a new interface which gives a fair indication of what WinMo will look/feel like as it evolves into WM7. The "stable" WM6.5 to be released next month will likely be based on one of the 22xxx builds.
Most of the 22xxx-based WM6.5 roms I've used are much more stable IMO than the stock WM6.1 build that came on my phone.
But I understand Ballmer's frustration. WM6.5 is simply to appease manufacturers who are releasing WM-based devices that cannot wait for WM7.
I don't think they discourage left-handedness anymore. I went to catholic school (in the 80s), and I was taught cursive by ruler-wielding nuns, but no one seemed to care that I was a lefty. Except when I left smudges all over my paper.
Even my mother, who attended catholic all-girls schools in 1950s, writes left-handed.
Laptops have generally kept up with their desktop in terms of speed- as long as you're willing to pay. There are already quad-core laptops with dual GPUs (SLI or Crossfire) that would mop the floor with the majority of desktops. The only problem is, battery life is crap, and they're too hot to actually use on your lap (while gaming at least). Oh, and they cost 2-3 times as much as an equivalent desktop.
Obviously, older systems are nowhere as complex as newer systems. Newer systems have more components that can fail, plus moving parts inside them (hard drives, optical drives, etc), along with a number of extra features like radio transmission (bluetooth, wifi) that are standard on the current gen. Add a recent trend to go green with fewer toxic components (lead, cadmium, etc), prices of other materials skyrocketing (gold, silver, etc), and reduced costs (the original NES cost $249, back in 1985- the Wii cost the same at launch, despite inflation). I'm surprised the failure rates are as low as they are (except for the Xbox360).
Comparing current-gen systems reliability to systems produced 10-20 years ago is hardly a valid comparison. Plus I don't think Atari really planned on/anticipated so many 2600s would last 30 years.
Please Microsoft, keep Apple at work, else they will become another lazy monopolist !
Will become?
HD also refers to the 720p HDMI-out capability.
Apple wasn't looking to screw over their employees. They merely wished to make the Apple employment experience more simple and elegant. With other employers, employees must make complicated and confusing decisions about raises and other job opportunities, resolve conflicts between competing employers,
By colluding with competitors? If a certain employee is so valuable, then Apple should be willing to compensate the employee enough to stay there. Not make backroom deals with other companies.
At Apple, it's a simple "You work here" interface.
And what if you quit, get fired, or laid off? Why should some backroom deal between Jobs and some other CEOs prevent you from landing on your feet?
This goes beyond non-compete clauses. At least with a non-compete, the employees sign a form acknowledging trade secrets and agreeing not to work for competitors. Deals like these, they have no say or control over.