I read about this the other day on El Reg. As much as I love Nintendo, I have to wonder about what they might do with these patents. Sony and MS might become some major targets for YEPW (yet another patent war). On the flipside, it'd be nice if they finally got some decent online gaming going since they already have the adapters out for 56K and broadband.
No chance for prior art on this one either from what I can tell I'm afraid. These were amended to previous patents and refer specifically to consoles. It looks like these predate the Dreamcasts online gaming and with the console specifically mentioned they could easily avoide the PC Prior Art argument.
Do 500 listeners on a radio station strain the broadcast equipment more than 100? All the GPS sats do is broadcast the time. The GPS unit itself calculates position according to the latency produced by the distance of multiple sats from the unit itself.
The GPS data will probably be stored on the unit until it's read by the insurance company.
I just found the section I was looking for in the updates that refers to instanced outdoor missions. It seems to have been part of the last update, "Through the Looking Glass", but I haven't encountered any of these yet.
Outdoor Mission Maps:
* The villains of Paragon City have taken the fight to the streets. Battle your foes in instanced outdoor missions within the city itself, or journey to bizarre alternate worlds and spread justice throughout the multiverse.
Well that and like in the Clockwork King task force mission set, after one of the last few missions the giant clockwork Babbage spawns right when you get out of the door who you have to defeat before you can continue. The one thing annoying about that, however, is when a high level team has to do a patrol and decides to just leave the "ambush" spawns alone and go do the rest of the missions. They tend to run rampant and kill the lower levels in the area.
Your ARG looks really interesting. I kindof want to join it but I'll have to see what my girlfriend thinks of it before I do. She's into roleplaying, however, so I don't think it'll be a hard sell.
It was one of the first, and I liked that about it. I found AO a very interesting game and it kindof appealed to me, but it was just too buggy on release. I'm not sure what they've done since then but their reputation was damaged too early on to get back easily.
I'm hooked on City of Heroes now, too, and they have instanced dungeons. In fact, I thought I remember hearing that they were supposed to be doing instanced *outdoor* missions. Now that would be something new.
The Cradle.... *shudder*.. I haven't even gotten halfway through that level.. I get the chills playing it. I've never played a game that has gotten me that freaked out in a single level. It doesn't help that I've got 5.1 surround going with the old 500 watt Klipsch ProMedias.
I agree though, the Thief series is one of the most well thought-out set of FPS games I've played. My all-time favorite FPS games are Thief 1-3, System Shock 1-2, and of course, Deus Ex. Intelligence, cleverness, sneaky bastardness, atmosphere and a sprinkling of firefights here and there are way better than the usual run n gun FPS games in my opinion.
Ahh but also sometimes it just -doesn't- work. I've seen many a good console game ruined by bugs the developer didn't find before shipping, or didn't fix because they didn't think it would affect enough gamers to put a dent in their profits. Case in point is the recent release of Thief: Deadly Shadows. I have the game for PC and love it, as I'm sure a lot of console owners love it as well. The problem is, there's a nasty bug that resets the difficulty level to Normal when you save/load.
On PC this isn't a problem (Ion Storm just released a patch for it), however, on console it's a BIG problem. You used to never be able to fix the problem, but I do know that it's somewhat possible now. The problem is that while IS could come up with a patch in a heartbeat, it's up to MS to let them release it over their Live service to fix the problem. But they don't want to let them even if it would satisfy the people that bought the game. Also, what about the consoles that don't come with built-in hard drives? PS2 has one available as a purchase, but out of the box, no drive. The 'Cube hasn't had any sign of a storage device release. The one hope I had for it, which was the SD card adapter is cancelled because of the limited way the memory slot works.
But yes, I agree with you somewhat. For the most part, consoles 'just work', and I like that about them. But when they don't just work.. it's a bitch to fix.
Odd, I can sit for much longer periods of time in the kitchen chair I use for my computer than the couch not ten feet away. While I love console games and PC games equally, I find that the controllers, no matter which ones, always make my hands hurt after using them for less time than I use my mouse/keyboard/joystick/throttle for PC gaming. Yes, not every game is an FPS. I play rts, fps, stealth fps (Thief 3 at the moment), puzzle, platform, shooters, etc, and still find my PCs interface devices more comfortable and useful in the long run.
I keep forgetting Gmail has ads, I just don't really notice them very often. Unlike Hotmail where all I see is tons of graphics and ads, not to mention the format changing every few months so I have to go looking for which button takes me to the friggin inbox.
I don't think anybody has mentioned this so far, but there are in fact 6mm airsoft paintballs available. A bit more expensive then the regular airsoft pellets, but way easier to tell when someone has been shot.
If it wasn't for the tech, I probably still wouldn't have much of a social life. I have my share of friends, sure, but we all pretty much just hung out at each others places or went to the pool hall once a month or so. I met my girlfriend, love of my life, online and moved 1500 miles to be with her. I still keep in touch with my friends, we arrange to meet whenever I'm in town. I've met her friends and found out the boyfriend of one of them has a great blues band, and also I talk about 10x as much as I used to.
So yeah.. I think all this tech has helped improve my social life, as well as allow me to keep better in touch with my old good friends without spending more money than I make.
Right but that's not the point. The point was now there are Linux solutions that the developers are dedicated to. Rather than a hacked together driver that loses half it's function because the vendor is Windows only.
I sincerely wish you good luck. Always makes me happy to see someone spark an interest in Linux. I've been living with my girlfriend for over a year now and slowly she's beginning to get more and more annoyed with Windows and thinking of Linux as an alternative thanks to me. Once I can get all the programs she wants to use running in Linux, or find suitable replacements for, I'm going to try to get her to make the switch.
Because the more companies that focus more on Linux and OSS systems than they do on Windows systems, the more people will be attracted.
I know you'll probably say that the market for Linux devices is tiny.. and I'll agree with you on that, however, it's growing incrementally every day as more and more people are introduced to it in a friendly way. Working in electronics retail I've come upon many people who want to try Linux but are afraid of it because of horror stories, or someone closeby tries to scare them away by saying "oh it can't do that, I tried it and it was crap". I always get a smile from the look on their face when I say "it can do it now and it's been able to for a few years now. When was the last time you looked at Linux?"
Same thing happens with a local "independent" station in our area where one of the jockeys plugs the iPod every 3 songs and plays a song from his while doing it. Whenever that guy gets on I just change the station.. it's damned annoying.
But I just "built" myself a MythTV PVR using KnoppMyth. TCO = almost zero. Honestly all I did was use the old Gateway computer my girlfriend used to use before I built her a new system (which we were planning to do anyways) with a bit of extra money and a lot of the parts I still had hanging around. The only thing I really added to the old system was the video cap card I had in my system anyways.
I figured if I wasn't using the cap card or the old machine, why not do something handy with it that would keep me from spending a couple hundred on a PVR and service charges.
Why not make the mouse type an option at time of purchase? Instead of either forcing everyone to use the same stupid "zero"(actually one, the entire mouse is really a big button) button mouse or taking the mouse out and making everyone buy it, give them the one they want included in the cost.
Those who want the traditional Mac single button mouse gets it and those who request a multiple or scroll version gets one.
I think you were thinking of urban or suburban. Rural is like the other poster said. Usually the farmland areas where neighbors are few and far between.
The Dune personal shield was almost exactly like this stuff. The Holtzman effect field would prevent higher velocity objects from penetrating. The higher the speed, the tougher it is to penetrate the field, the lower the speed, the easier it was for something to pass through. So yeah, the trick was to slow your attacks at the right moment to penetrate the field and injure your opponent.
So yeah, if you moved the needle slowly enough, it would easily penetrate the armor with no additional force than "dry" armor.
Here's an analogy I think is good. Jump out over a swimming pool about a foot above it laterally so you do a soft belly flop. Doesn't sting too much does it? Now do a belly flop from 50 ft;)
I have an agenda vr3 sitting around somewhere too. But I have more fun running around with my Familiar Linux loaded iPaq running kismet. Of course both of those are dust collectors now since I use my phone (Danger Hiptop) for basic pim applications.
I'm not trying to say everyone who downloaded this program had a legit purpose in mind, however, I've known several people in the past (and present) who've purchased software legitimately and the key will simply not work. I remember when purchasing Anarchy Online (I can't believe I wasted time on that game... ugh..) that I was warned by the register jockey at EnB that the keycode may not work.
Slashdot Mirror
No chance for prior art on this one either from what I can tell I'm afraid. These were amended to previous patents and refer specifically to consoles. It looks like these predate the Dreamcasts online gaming and with the console specifically mentioned they could easily avoide the PC Prior Art argument.
The grandparent was talking about x86 OSs. Apple has/always will have a monopoly on their own proprietary hardware.
The GPS data will probably be stored on the unit until it's read by the insurance company.
Outdoor Mission Maps:
* The villains of Paragon City have taken the fight to the streets. Battle your foes in instanced outdoor missions within the city itself, or journey to bizarre alternate worlds and spread justice throughout the multiverse.
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/updates.html
Well that and like in the Clockwork King task force mission set, after one of the last few missions the giant clockwork Babbage spawns right when you get out of the door who you have to defeat before you can continue. The one thing annoying about that, however, is when a high level team has to do a patrol and decides to just leave the "ambush" spawns alone and go do the rest of the missions. They tend to run rampant and kill the lower levels in the area.
Your ARG looks really interesting. I kindof want to join it but I'll have to see what my girlfriend thinks of it before I do. She's into roleplaying, however, so I don't think it'll be a hard sell.
I'm hooked on City of Heroes now, too, and they have instanced dungeons. In fact, I thought I remember hearing that they were supposed to be doing instanced *outdoor* missions. Now that would be something new.
I agree though, the Thief series is one of the most well thought-out set of FPS games I've played. My all-time favorite FPS games are Thief 1-3, System Shock 1-2, and of course, Deus Ex. Intelligence, cleverness, sneaky bastardness, atmosphere and a sprinkling of firefights here and there are way better than the usual run n gun FPS games in my opinion.
Ooh ooh me too! I'd love to see some pics if you get any mayonakaha at gmail .com
No I think they already went that way...
On PC this isn't a problem (Ion Storm just released a patch for it), however, on console it's a BIG problem. You used to never be able to fix the problem, but I do know that it's somewhat possible now. The problem is that while IS could come up with a patch in a heartbeat, it's up to MS to let them release it over their Live service to fix the problem. But they don't want to let them even if it would satisfy the people that bought the game. Also, what about the consoles that don't come with built-in hard drives? PS2 has one available as a purchase, but out of the box, no drive. The 'Cube hasn't had any sign of a storage device release. The one hope I had for it, which was the SD card adapter is cancelled because of the limited way the memory slot works. But yes, I agree with you somewhat. For the most part, consoles 'just work', and I like that about them. But when they don't just work.. it's a bitch to fix.
Odd, I can sit for much longer periods of time in the kitchen chair I use for my computer than the couch not ten feet away. While I love console games and PC games equally, I find that the controllers, no matter which ones, always make my hands hurt after using them for less time than I use my mouse/keyboard/joystick/throttle for PC gaming. Yes, not every game is an FPS. I play rts, fps, stealth fps (Thief 3 at the moment), puzzle, platform, shooters, etc, and still find my PCs interface devices more comfortable and useful in the long run.
I keep forgetting Gmail has ads, I just don't really notice them very often. Unlike Hotmail where all I see is tons of graphics and ads, not to mention the format changing every few months so I have to go looking for which button takes me to the friggin inbox.
I don't think anybody has mentioned this so far, but there are in fact 6mm airsoft paintballs available. A bit more expensive then the regular airsoft pellets, but way easier to tell when someone has been shot.
So yeah.. I think all this tech has helped improve my social life, as well as allow me to keep better in touch with my old good friends without spending more money than I make.
Right but that's not the point. The point was now there are Linux solutions that the developers are dedicated to. Rather than a hacked together driver that loses half it's function because the vendor is Windows only.
My old coworker and friend uses this card and loves it, he just wishes he had better reception to get the HD channels in his area.
I sincerely wish you good luck. Always makes me happy to see someone spark an interest in Linux. I've been living with my girlfriend for over a year now and slowly she's beginning to get more and more annoyed with Windows and thinking of Linux as an alternative thanks to me. Once I can get all the programs she wants to use running in Linux, or find suitable replacements for, I'm going to try to get her to make the switch.
Because the more companies that focus more on Linux and OSS systems than they do on Windows systems, the more people will be attracted.
I know you'll probably say that the market for Linux devices is tiny.. and I'll agree with you on that, however, it's growing incrementally every day as more and more people are introduced to it in a friendly way. Working in electronics retail I've come upon many people who want to try Linux but are afraid of it because of horror stories, or someone closeby tries to scare them away by saying "oh it can't do that, I tried it and it was crap". I always get a smile from the look on their face when I say "it can do it now and it's been able to for a few years now. When was the last time you looked at Linux?"
Same thing happens with a local "independent" station in our area where one of the jockeys plugs the iPod every 3 songs and plays a song from his while doing it. Whenever that guy gets on I just change the station.. it's damned annoying.
But I just "built" myself a MythTV PVR using KnoppMyth. TCO = almost zero. Honestly all I did was use the old Gateway computer my girlfriend used to use before I built her a new system (which we were planning to do anyways) with a bit of extra money and a lot of the parts I still had hanging around. The only thing I really added to the old system was the video cap card I had in my system anyways.
I figured if I wasn't using the cap card or the old machine, why not do something handy with it that would keep me from spending a couple hundred on a PVR and service charges.
Those who want the traditional Mac single button mouse gets it and those who request a multiple or scroll version gets one.
I think you were thinking of urban or suburban. Rural is like the other poster said. Usually the farmland areas where neighbors are few and far between.
The Dune personal shield was almost exactly like this stuff. The Holtzman effect field would prevent higher velocity objects from penetrating. The higher the speed, the tougher it is to penetrate the field, the lower the speed, the easier it was for something to pass through. So yeah, the trick was to slow your attacks at the right moment to penetrate the field and injure your opponent. So yeah, if you moved the needle slowly enough, it would easily penetrate the armor with no additional force than "dry" armor. Here's an analogy I think is good. Jump out over a swimming pool about a foot above it laterally so you do a soft belly flop. Doesn't sting too much does it? Now do a belly flop from 50 ft ;)
I have an agenda vr3 sitting around somewhere too. But I have more fun running around with my Familiar Linux loaded iPaq running kismet. Of course both of those are dust collectors now since I use my phone (Danger Hiptop) for basic pim applications.
I'm not trying to say everyone who downloaded this program had a legit purpose in mind, however, I've known several people in the past (and present) who've purchased software legitimately and the key will simply not work. I remember when purchasing Anarchy Online (I can't believe I wasted time on that game... ugh..) that I was warned by the register jockey at EnB that the keycode may not work.