Lots of people who grew up playing NES don't play any more because of the dreaded "blinking" problem near all NES systems experienced. What most people didn't realize what it had little to do with dust and dirt, and more to do with faulty contacts in the NES system itself. New contacts can be had for $6. Buy a few dozen new contacts and set up a service where you will "repair" someone's NES for $20 (or some reasonable price, once you do it a few times, as I have, it really only takes 10 minutes to "fix" an NES system so it works like the day it was taken out of the box) If you can get in on the retro gaming ticket you stand to make some decent money. If you can get NES systems working like new again, people may come to you to fix their systems so they can re-live all the classics, and then they may leave your store with a few more games for that NES that they meant to pick up as kids but never did (there is more than half a dozen mega-man games, for example)
This can also be done with other systems. SNES, game boy. Although the problem is much less of an issue with other systems, replacement contacts can be purchased for them. See if you can figure out how to repair other systems and do it realatively cheap (I.E. don't charge the same price as a new system to rapair the old). Most "broken" systems only have something simple wrong with them and can be repaired. Hell I figured out how to fix an N64 controller's analog stick that had that "sloppy stick" problem that was so common with 20 minutes of my time and a small piece of shrink tube.
If comeone comes in with a problem with a system you have not experienced yet. Tell them you will do the repair for free (but they have to pay for parts, if any) so you can spend some time looking the problem up with your good friend google, or just tinkering with it. If you fix it, then the customer is happy and you now know how to fix another problem. If you can't then oh well the customer couldn't use it anyway (but specify when you take it that you have not encountered this problem before, and it may not be fixable)
I suspect that kind of stuff will bring you SOME business, at least.
Q: Are there any features of Windows Vista that the U.S. antitrust settlement is keeping you from including, that you would otherwise want to include?
Gates: We're not being prevented from including features, and that's the strength of the settlement that we reached with the Justice Department and others.
actually, I would argue that that is the WEAKNESS of the settlement that was reached with the Justice Department.
Gates: Software in general, whether it was from Microsoft or somebody else, was not set up for an environment where all the computers were connected together.
While it is true that Windows was originally built to run on machines not expected to be on networks. But that does NOT mean that all software, or even "software in general" was built with the same expectations.
As an iRiver h340 owner, I can probably answer the question of why they do not include FM tuners.
reception. It's terrible. It uses the headphone wires as the antenna and no matter what you do the reception is horrible. There is basically no way you are going to pull in a solid signal unless you actually find your favorite radio station, climb up their tower, and sit on top of it. And even then you might have to wrap your headphone wires around it a few times to get stereo instead of mono. I love my iRiver, I really do. I considered an iPod but ultimately went with the iRiver because I did not want to be tied to iTunes to put my music onto the unit. With my iRiver I plug in, click and drag, disconnect and go. Even works nicely in Linux without hacks.
In all honesty, the FM tuner is the least used feature of my iRiver. Even at the gym where I can SEE the transmitters (they transmit the audio feeds from several TV stations over different radio frequencies so you can watch whatever channel you like while you work out), I STILL can't pull in the signal. It just doens't work well.
Been doing that for a few years now. I have not purchased an RIAA affiliated CD in quite some time. At least not new.
I buy indie CDs all the time though, either from CDBaby, or from the artist's site directly.
When a new mainstream CD comes out that I want to get my hands on I keep a list, if I happen to see a copy floating around my local used music store I pick it up. It's cheaper for me (usually $6-8 an album). I support a local small business, which in these days of Wal-Mart I am all too happy to do. And NONE of the money goes to the RIAA.
If I could get an album super cheap and "donate" money ($5??) directly to the artist, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I think that some artists are finally starting to realize that they don't really NEED the RIAA anymore, they can distribute their music online on their own and do much better for themselves than the...what?...$0.32 they make form each CD sale form the RIAA?
Those "Know your roots" T-shirts can be had at Target for about $10. I have one, and wear it proudly.
For me, Nintendo IS where my gaming roots lie. NES was my first console, and I am still a die hard fan of it. I realize that there were consoles before it. And I realize some were popular. For me, however, NES is where it all started.
Vista will be Windows XP with a skin...........which was windows 2000 with a skin. Right? Seriously, does anyone see anything NEW among those "new features"?
Oh right, it's gonna require a p4-4.0ghz and 2gb RAM to run slowly with constant hard drive grinding. I'll keep my Suse box, thanks.
My GF loves to play games that we can play together, in particular, the RPGs where you can fight goblins and such cooperatively. Baldur's Gate for example, we blew through both BG's in a week's time. when a new one comes out she gets instantly obsessed and we HAVE to play every hour we are home together. I just got Everquest: Champions of Norrath from Gamefly on Friday and we played all weekend. I am a big RPG fan and *I* am sick of them by the time we are done. She wants to start over and play again. I have to walk away or I would be stuck in a vicious cycle of playing BG over and over.
I have had my Gamefly account now for about 6 months and I have been LOVING it. When a game comes out I am willing to try but am not willing to fork over $50 for, I simply rent it, and play until I get tired of it, then I send it back, no harm, no foul. They almost never are out of copies of games I want to rent (even the new ones). So really, a hike likely would not bother me much.
COULD compromise election results? COULD? COULD!?!?!?!?! How about DID compromise election results? It's disgusting that the media in this country has nothing to say about hos nov 2 was a complete an utter failure.
"Microsoft executives defended Internet Explorer, saying it is no less secure than any other browser and doesn't lack any important features"
And yes, I realise most everyone who has replied to this post has commented on this phrase alone. But hey, who am I not to jump on the bandwagon?
I got two words for "doesn't lack any important features" and those are Tabbed Browsing, and just one word for "is no less secure" and that is SPYWARE
I work for a university fixing computers for students. These days, "fixing computers" generally means "get computer, run virus scan, run spyware scans, clean up the mess, return to student". After a month or so of seeing the same students time and time again for the same problems I got fed up and started installing Firefox on their computers. When they show up to pick up their computer and I tell them about Firefox, explain to them that Firefox does not allow spyware to get onto their machines (at least the ones that would normally go through IE), and show them tabbed browsing, they are SOLD. Now I get students coming in with their computers regularly asking me to install Firefox for them. Not one of the students whose computer I installed Firefox on has returned to me for virus or spyware related problems. Not one.
On an only slightly related note, some have asked me if there is a way to get tabbed chatting for their AIM conversations, at which point I simply uninstall AIM and install the windows port of GAIM. Again, once I show them tabbed chatting, and the ability to see their "buddies" away messages by just hovering the mouse cursor over the buddy name, they will never turn back. It doesn't take much to convince a user to switch, just show them the little things that kill and they will go for it.
This ride is completely weak in that it is almost an exact copy of Cedar Point's ride. only 8 mph faster (ooohh) and 30 odd feet higher (aahh). I went to Cedar Point a few weeks back and passed on the dragster. You are literally on the ride for 30 seconds, if that. And this is what you get for standing in line for an hour? two? I think not. We opted to go on Millenium Force and that was much more of a ride, it topped out at a "lousy" 390 feet, but the ride lasted for nearly 2 minutes. No thanks 6 flags, I'm gonna pass.
I have an all in wonder and I wanna watch TV dammit!
How about a version of the ATI-MMC for Linux? hmmm?
Yes I know that the gatos project has a setup available but I have tried using it a few times and I either 1) could not convince it to work or 2) If it worked and I got a TV image I could not change the channel. And the image was crappy. And there was no sound.
I found it, apparently, on the list of diffrent base configurations for the nx5000, Suse is only an option on select setups, out of the 5 or so. Please disreguard all of this.
Perhaps I am a complete and utter idiot. Which is entirely possible. Does anyone see the option on the web site to include Suse in place of WinXP? I can't find it anywhere. I wanted to customize a system to see what it would cost. Possibly even consider buying one 1) because my Compaq 1800t is starting to show it's age, and 2) to help show that there IS a market out there for Linux desktops/laptops.
When it comes to replacing my laptop, an HP would not have been my first choice, but if I can get it WITHOUT paying the MSFT tax, that's a HUGE plus for them. (for those who may point out HP/Compaq are the same, yes, but I bought my laptop shortly BEFORE the merger was announced).
It doesn't just apply to individuals, but businesses as well. I can't believe ANYONE has fallen for this scheme and paid for these fake licenses to begin with, much less falling for this "fees are going up, better get 'em while you can" farce. It's the oldest trick in the book.
Slow DOWN guys!
You just released FC2 a few months ago. To be honest, it was lackluster. Bugs and problems are rampant. Really guys, fix up FC2, release FC2.1,2.2,etc first. Then move on to FC3. You guys cannot stay bleeding edge, and noone is expecting you to. That kind of thing is better left to the likes of Gentoo. You just worry about staying a version or two behind bleeding edge, and release a really solid OS that people can move into from Windows and have realatively few problems. Remember, the less problematic a first timer's (n00b, whatever) experience is with Linux, the more likely they will be to sticking around and finding out what this "open source" thing is really all about.
This happened to me. I have an 80-gig WinXP drive as my hda, and a 40-gig FC2 drive as hdb.
While the Windows drive won't boot anymore the file system was not scrambled. I was able to mount the ntfs volume from a knoppix session (will someone tell me why the hell Fedora decided *NOT* to include the ntfs read driver in their kernel?) and copied all my my important stuff to another drive I had laying around.
Some here on/. are saying that data is bein lost left and right, that's true if you just assume your entire partition is gone and you re-install Windows. But for those who have been holding out hope. burn yourself a knoppix cd and fire it up.
on a side note (and rather off-topic, so feel free to stop reading) has anyone noticed how Linux is actually *better* at reading ntfs than Windows is? I fix computers for a living, it's not the most glorious job, but it pays the bills. Sometimes I get XP boxen in that are so loaded with viruses and spyware that ntfs chokes and therefore Windows does. I had one box that was so bad, Windows would blue screen whenever the ntfs driver would try to read the file system, even when I plugged the drive into a perfectly working system (yes, yes, about as "perfectly" working as Windows gets) ntfs.dll would BSOD the system. When stuff like this happens, I just fire up my trusty knoppix CD and mount the ntfs partition. Bingo, 95% of the time I am able to pull the owner's data off the drive before I do the re-install. It's just funny to me that Linux does better than Windows at it's own game. Ok, ok, long winded blab over with now. Back to your regularly scheduled program.
"The only sites they can't reach are those that require Internet Explorer. And while they can't play Shockwave games..."
Why not? there is a shockwave plugin avilable that works with Mozilla and Konqueror (that I know of). Granted the plugin sucks royal ass and runs about half the speed it would on a comparable Windows box, that is shockwave's fault, however. But it still works.
Also a little useragent tweaking should get most of those "IE required" sites working too.
I am glad to see this. It seems libraries are having enough trouble these days with budget cuts without having to worry about how they are going to pay expensive software licenses.
Slashdot Mirror
you are right, I stand corrected.
It doesn't matter then right?
My name, address, phone number, credit card number, pin number and social security number are as follows...
Lots of people who grew up playing NES don't play any more because of the dreaded "blinking" problem near all NES systems experienced. What most people didn't realize what it had little to do with dust and dirt, and more to do with faulty contacts in the NES system itself. New contacts can be had for $6. Buy a few dozen new contacts and set up a service where you will "repair" someone's NES for $20 (or some reasonable price, once you do it a few times, as I have, it really only takes 10 minutes to "fix" an NES system so it works like the day it was taken out of the box) If you can get in on the retro gaming ticket you stand to make some decent money. If you can get NES systems working like new again, people may come to you to fix their systems so they can re-live all the classics, and then they may leave your store with a few more games for that NES that they meant to pick up as kids but never did (there is more than half a dozen mega-man games, for example)
This can also be done with other systems. SNES, game boy. Although the problem is much less of an issue with other systems, replacement contacts can be purchased for them. See if you can figure out how to repair other systems and do it realatively cheap (I.E. don't charge the same price as a new system to rapair the old). Most "broken" systems only have something simple wrong with them and can be repaired. Hell I figured out how to fix an N64 controller's analog stick that had that "sloppy stick" problem that was so common with 20 minutes of my time and a small piece of shrink tube.
If comeone comes in with a problem with a system you have not experienced yet. Tell them you will do the repair for free (but they have to pay for parts, if any) so you can spend some time looking the problem up with your good friend google, or just tinkering with it. If you fix it, then the customer is happy and you now know how to fix another problem. If you can't then oh well the customer couldn't use it anyway (but specify when you take it that you have not encountered this problem before, and it may not be fixable)
I suspect that kind of stuff will bring you SOME business, at least.
The software maker will compete 'the good old-fashioned way, with innovation,'
And when, exactly, does Ballmer and co plan on starting this new business practice of comming up with their own ideas?
To them I say GOOD DAY. MS lost my respect, and all possibilities of earning my money, years ago.
The real marketing question is how many units to ship to make sure there are just enough so that almost everyone gets one.
I suspect around 5 or 6 units would be pretty close.
Q: Are there any features of Windows Vista that the U.S. antitrust settlement is keeping you from including, that you would otherwise want to include?
Gates: We're not being prevented from including features, and that's the strength of the settlement that we reached with the Justice Department and others.
actually, I would argue that that is the WEAKNESS of the settlement that was reached with the Justice Department.
Gates: Software in general, whether it was from Microsoft or somebody else, was not set up for an environment where all the computers were connected together.
While it is true that Windows was originally built to run on machines not expected to be on networks. But that does NOT mean that all software, or even "software in general" was built with the same expectations.
As an iRiver h340 owner, I can probably answer the question of why they do not include FM tuners.
reception. It's terrible. It uses the headphone wires as the antenna and no matter what you do the reception is horrible. There is basically no way you are going to pull in a solid signal unless you actually find your favorite radio station, climb up their tower, and sit on top of it. And even then you might have to wrap your headphone wires around it a few times to get stereo instead of mono.
I love my iRiver, I really do. I considered an iPod but ultimately went with the iRiver because I did not want to be tied to iTunes to put my music onto the unit. With my iRiver I plug in, click and drag, disconnect and go. Even works nicely in Linux without hacks.
In all honesty, the FM tuner is the least used feature of my iRiver. Even at the gym where I can SEE the transmitters (they transmit the audio feeds from several TV stations over different radio frequencies so you can watch whatever channel you like while you work out), I STILL can't pull in the signal. It just doens't work well.
Been doing that for a few years now. I have not purchased an RIAA affiliated CD in quite some time. At least not new.
I buy indie CDs all the time though, either from CDBaby, or from the artist's site directly.
When a new mainstream CD comes out that I want to get my hands on I keep a list, if I happen to see a copy floating around my local used music store I pick it up. It's cheaper for me (usually $6-8 an album). I support a local small business, which in these days of Wal-Mart I am all too happy to do. And NONE of the money goes to the RIAA.
If I could get an album super cheap and "donate" money ($5??) directly to the artist, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I think that some artists are finally starting to realize that they don't really NEED the RIAA anymore, they can distribute their music online on their own and do much better for themselves than the...what?...$0.32 they make form each CD sale form the RIAA?
Those "Know your roots" T-shirts can be had at Target for about $10. I have one, and wear it proudly.
For me, Nintendo IS where my gaming roots lie. NES was my first console, and I am still a die hard fan of it. I realize that there were consoles before it. And I realize some were popular. For me, however, NES is where it all started.
Vista will be Windows XP with a skin...........which was windows 2000 with a skin. Right?
Seriously, does anyone see anything NEW among those "new features"?
Oh right, it's gonna require a p4-4.0ghz and 2gb RAM to run slowly with constant hard drive grinding.
I'll keep my Suse box, thanks.
Anyone see that ep of the simpsons where Mr. Burns blocked out the sun so that the people of Springfield would have to use more electricity?
I wonder if the energy companies are behind this...
My GF loves to play games that we can play together, in particular, the RPGs where you can fight goblins and such cooperatively. Baldur's Gate for example, we blew through both BG's in a week's time. when a new one comes out she gets instantly obsessed and we HAVE to play every hour we are home together. I just got Everquest: Champions of Norrath from Gamefly on Friday and we played all weekend. I am a big RPG fan and *I* am sick of them by the time we are done. She wants to start over and play again. I have to walk away or I would be stuck in a vicious cycle of playing BG over and over.
I have had my Gamefly account now for about 6 months and I have been LOVING it. When a game comes out I am willing to try but am not willing to fork over $50 for, I simply rent it, and play until I get tired of it, then I send it back, no harm, no foul. They almost never are out of copies of games I want to rent (even the new ones). So really, a hike likely would not bother me much.
COULD compromise election results? COULD? COULD!?!?!?!?!
How about DID compromise election results?
It's disgusting that the media in this country has nothing to say about hos nov 2 was a complete an utter failure.
I swear Canada looks a little better every year.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/20/ 2351253&tid=207&tid=137
"Microsoft executives defended Internet Explorer, saying it is no less secure than any other browser and doesn't lack any important features"
And yes, I realise most everyone who has replied to this post has commented on this phrase alone. But hey, who am I not to jump on the bandwagon?
I got two words for "doesn't lack any important features" and those are Tabbed Browsing, and just one word for "is no less secure" and that is SPYWARE
I work for a university fixing computers for students. These days, "fixing computers" generally means "get computer, run virus scan, run spyware scans, clean up the mess, return to student". After a month or so of seeing the same students time and time again for the same problems I got fed up and started installing Firefox on their computers. When they show up to pick up their computer and I tell them about Firefox, explain to them that Firefox does not allow spyware to get onto their machines (at least the ones that would normally go through IE), and show them tabbed browsing, they are SOLD. Now I get students coming in with their computers regularly asking me to install Firefox for them. Not one of the students whose computer I installed Firefox on has returned to me for virus or spyware related problems. Not one.
On an only slightly related note, some have asked me if there is a way to get tabbed chatting for their AIM conversations, at which point I simply uninstall AIM and install the windows port of GAIM. Again, once I show them tabbed chatting, and the ability to see their "buddies" away messages by just hovering the mouse cursor over the buddy name, they will never turn back. It doesn't take much to convince a user to switch, just show them the little things that kill and they will go for it.
This ride is completely weak in that it is almost an exact copy of Cedar Point's ride. only 8 mph faster (ooohh) and 30 odd feet higher (aahh). I went to Cedar Point a few weeks back and passed on the dragster. You are literally on the ride for 30 seconds, if that. And this is what you get for standing in line for an hour? two? I think not. We opted to go on Millenium Force and that was much more of a ride, it topped out at a "lousy" 390 feet, but the ride lasted for nearly 2 minutes. No thanks 6 flags, I'm gonna pass.
I have an all in wonder and I wanna watch TV dammit!
How about a version of the ATI-MMC for Linux? hmmm?
Yes I know that the gatos project has a setup available but I have tried using it a few times and I either 1) could not convince it to work or 2) If it worked and I got a TV image I could not change the channel. And the image was crappy. And there was no sound.
So how about it ATI?
okok, forgive me replying to my own post.
I found it, apparently, on the list of diffrent base configurations for the nx5000, Suse is only an option on select setups, out of the 5 or so. Please disreguard all of this.
Perhaps I am a complete and utter idiot. Which is entirely possible. Does anyone see the option on the web site to include Suse in place of WinXP? I can't find it anywhere. I wanted to customize a system to see what it would cost. Possibly even consider buying one 1) because my Compaq 1800t is starting to show it's age, and 2) to help show that there IS a market out there for Linux desktops/laptops.
When it comes to replacing my laptop, an HP would not have been my first choice, but if I can get it WITHOUT paying the MSFT tax, that's a HUGE plus for them. (for those who may point out HP/Compaq are the same, yes, but I bought my laptop shortly BEFORE the merger was announced).
It doesn't just apply to individuals, but businesses as well. I can't believe ANYONE has fallen for this scheme and paid for these fake licenses to begin with, much less falling for this "fees are going up, better get 'em while you can" farce. It's the oldest trick in the book.
Slow DOWN guys!
You just released FC2 a few months ago. To be honest, it was lackluster. Bugs and problems are rampant. Really guys, fix up FC2, release FC2.1,2.2,etc first. Then move on to FC3. You guys cannot stay bleeding edge, and noone is expecting you to. That kind of thing is better left to the likes of Gentoo. You just worry about staying a version or two behind bleeding edge, and release a really solid OS that people can move into from Windows and have realatively few problems. Remember, the less problematic a first timer's (n00b, whatever) experience is with Linux, the more likely they will be to sticking around and finding out what this "open source" thing is really all about.
This happened to me. I have an 80-gig WinXP drive as my hda, and a 40-gig FC2 drive as hdb.
/. are saying that data is bein lost left and right, that's true if you just assume your entire partition is gone and you re-install Windows. But for those who have been holding out hope. burn yourself a knoppix cd and fire it up.
While the Windows drive won't boot anymore the file system was not scrambled. I was able to mount the ntfs volume from a knoppix session (will someone tell me why the hell Fedora decided *NOT* to include the ntfs read driver in their kernel?) and copied all my my important stuff to another drive I had laying around.
Some here on
on a side note (and rather off-topic, so feel free to stop reading) has anyone noticed how Linux is actually *better* at reading ntfs than Windows is? I fix computers for a living, it's not the most glorious job, but it pays the bills. Sometimes I get XP boxen in that are so loaded with viruses and spyware that ntfs chokes and therefore Windows does. I had one box that was so bad, Windows would blue screen whenever the ntfs driver would try to read the file system, even when I plugged the drive into a perfectly working system (yes, yes, about as "perfectly" working as Windows gets) ntfs.dll would BSOD the system. When stuff like this happens, I just fire up my trusty knoppix CD and mount the ntfs partition. Bingo, 95% of the time I am able to pull the owner's data off the drive before I do the re-install. It's just funny to me that Linux does better than Windows at it's own game. Ok, ok, long winded blab over with now. Back to your regularly scheduled program.
"The only sites they can't reach are those that require Internet Explorer. And while they can't play Shockwave games..."
Why not? there is a shockwave plugin avilable that works with Mozilla and Konqueror (that I know of). Granted the plugin sucks royal ass and runs about half the speed it would on a comparable Windows box, that is shockwave's fault, however. But it still works.
Also a little useragent tweaking should get most of those "IE required" sites working too.
I am glad to see this. It seems libraries are having enough trouble these days with budget cuts without having to worry about how they are going to pay expensive software licenses.
Did anyone else notice that this was posted by "michael"?