Just for those of you who are not old enough or, like me, not American enough to immediately understand what exactly is an Speak and Spell device which that guy modded, here some clarification (ripped from the first or second google hit):
Plenty of toys become hits, but only a select few make history. One of the finest examples in the historical arena is Speak & Spell. Not only did this toy educate its users, it spoke to them using brand-new computer technology. Simply put, this toy managed to pack a computer's worth of top-flight technology into a plastic shell that was small enough to conveniently fit in a backpack. As a result, it became a favorite with kids and one of the most successful educational toys of all time.
Texas Instruments, a company best known at the time for its calculators, introduced Speak & Spell in 1978. This electronic marvel was design to teach its users spelling skills with vocalized lessons. What made this toy impressive was that it pulled this off without using a tape recorder or other conventional recording device. Speak & Spell created convincing speech sounds through a method called digital speech synthesis. In other words, it used computerized circuits to create a replica of the human vocal tract that would synthetically "speak" words aloud when prompted. This was the first use of this kind of technology, making Speak & Spell a toy for the history books.
Speak & Spell offered five different spelling games to occupy the user. For the most part, these games revolved around Speak & Spell's saying a word aloud for the user to spell. This was accomplished by punching in the proper combination of letters on the toy's alphabetical keypad. As each letter was pressed, Speak & Spell would say it aloud so the l'il speller could hear his choice. Other buttons allowed the user to hear a word repeated, retype the answer before entering it, or even receive a clue.
Another nice thing about Speak & Spell was that its electronic brain could be expanded to keep up with its users as they grew older. Speak & Spell pulled this off through new learning modules--little cartridges inserted in the back of the machine that could add new words to the games to increase the level of learning up to an 8th grade level.
Speak & Spell's unique combination of technology and fun made it an instant hit with kids. Its popularity with its target audience was given a further boost when a certain adorable alien used it to help him "phone home" in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Both parents and educators appreciated its value as a teaching tool, and their combined seals of approval made Speak & Spell a common sight in homes and schools alike. Its popularity also led to sequel electronic games for other areas of learning like Speak & Math and Speak & Read.
Speak & Spells are not made today, but their popularity continues to live on. It has become a popular possession for Generation X adults who want to relive their youth, and musicians often sample Speak & Spell's vocal sounds to create trippy yet oddly familiar effects in their music. Having already outlived its own shelf life, there is no doubt that Speak & Spell will long occupy a place in the hearts of the grownups it once educated.
Well, we've got kind of a higher-end low-end system here, a dual P90 with 64MB EDO. works great as mail and firewall/masq server, and with about 10 users it can also handle some file serving/sharing, plus rsync backups, cvs and CD burning (4x, SCSI). Plus, with this crate I learned wha the "EISA Bus Configuration" in the linux kernel is for...
I have also had a 486DX/2 100 for the same purpose, ran great too, but had to decommission it because it wouldn't take larger HDs.
(On a side note, I was able to recycle the 30-pin SIMMs from the 486 by putting them into the cache expansion slots on the P90s EISA SCSI controller card. I miss the old times.)
Hmm, even though you are right in a way, the story *always* comes before the movie (exceptions: porn and john woo movies), and those "imitations" certainly aren't cheap. Not for the producers, and neither for us movie-goers...
Actually, to show a friend the power of linux, the gentoo live cd with UT2003 leaves more people impressed.
Yes, this is a live CD and yes, you put it in and it boots into UT2003, and yes, you can play over the internet with this. No. no installation required.
I think our marketing is geared toward that issue, toward long-term customer value.
Well, I can't comment on the marketing, but the products certainly are. In the long-term, I put a lot of "value" into MS products once I as a customer have become dependent of them (think Exchange server and upgrade costs).
IMO the absolute fscking all-time number-one of really annoying "innovation" that Linux(...) desktop application programmers so happily copy from Windows is the Start Button.
Why the heck do I have to move the mouse to one of the most obscure position, the lower left corner, just to start a program, which is easily the most used desktop operation of all?
In almost all Linux(...) window managers including my favorite gnome-incompatible WindowMaker, the application menu can be reached just by clicking on the desktop, which is IMO the easiest and fastest way to do this by far.
KDE and Gnome developers what were you thinking? (This is not a rethorical question, please reply). How anyone can compare those two methods and go for the Button completely elludes me.
And why would they? IBM didn't even hype it and it was their thing...
No, at the start it was a joint project by MS and IBM. Read more about the history of OS/2 Warp here
BTW, one reason why OS/2 died was that its Windows emulation was too good, so no-one would care to develop natively for the OS. Think about it, WINE fans/coders!
Personnally, I would have liked the words "last year" and "running linux" to be hyperlinked in the post, because IMveryhumbleO, that would have been the info to make the post valuable.
there is no environment to flourish in. ("/usr/local? Hell, I'm trying to find C:\windows\system")
Except for the worm, or any other program, there is a C:\Windows\System, no matter if c:\ is actually/mnt/win, or/usr/local/winefs or/opt/fake-windows.
Slashdot Mirror
Falcon's Eye does have a brother in glHack.
Although top-down instead of isometric view, I find it much nicer.
Thank you for not saying "virii".
Just for those of you who are not old enough or, like me, not American enough to immediately understand what exactly is an Speak and Spell device which that guy modded, here some clarification (ripped from the first or second google hit):
Plenty of toys become hits, but only a select few make history. One of the finest examples in the historical arena is Speak & Spell. Not only did this toy educate its users, it spoke to them using brand-new computer technology. Simply put, this toy managed to pack a computer's worth of top-flight technology into a plastic shell that was small enough to conveniently fit in a backpack. As a result, it became a favorite with kids and one of the most successful educational toys of all time.
Texas Instruments, a company best known at the time for its calculators, introduced Speak & Spell in 1978. This electronic marvel was design to teach its users spelling skills with vocalized lessons. What made this toy impressive was that it pulled this off without using a tape recorder or other conventional recording device. Speak & Spell created convincing speech sounds through a method called digital speech synthesis. In other words, it used computerized circuits to create a replica of the human vocal tract that would synthetically "speak" words aloud when prompted. This was the first use of this kind of technology, making Speak & Spell a toy for the history books.
Speak & Spell offered five different spelling games to occupy the user. For the most part, these games revolved around Speak & Spell's saying a word aloud for the user to spell. This was accomplished by punching in the proper combination of letters on the toy's alphabetical keypad. As each letter was pressed, Speak & Spell would say it aloud so the l'il speller could hear his choice. Other buttons allowed the user to hear a word repeated, retype the answer before entering it, or even receive a clue.
Another nice thing about Speak & Spell was that its electronic brain could be expanded to keep up with its users as they grew older. Speak & Spell pulled this off through new learning modules--little cartridges inserted in the back of the machine that could add new words to the games to increase the level of learning up to an 8th grade level.
Speak & Spell's unique combination of technology and fun made it an instant hit with kids. Its popularity with its target audience was given a further boost when a certain adorable alien used it to help him "phone home" in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Both parents and educators appreciated its value as a teaching tool, and their combined seals of approval made Speak & Spell a common sight in homes and schools alike. Its popularity also led to sequel electronic games for other areas of learning like Speak & Math and Speak & Read.
Speak & Spells are not made today, but their popularity continues to live on. It has become a popular possession for Generation X adults who want to relive their youth, and musicians often sample Speak & Spell's vocal sounds to create trippy yet oddly familiar effects in their music. Having already outlived its own shelf life, there is no doubt that Speak & Spell will long occupy a place in the hearts of the grownups it once educated.
Now with that subject line (the news, not this post) it is for sure.
Gosh, they even threw in an @!!!
Does anyone here remenber Antitrack?
And probably even his misery resulting from old-scool (but nonetheless impressive) phone phreaking?
as for me, I bow for you, antitrack.
Oh yeah.
And he even threw in a microsoft program.
You know. slashdot. crap. microsoft. get it?
Well, we've got kind of a higher-end low-end system here, a dual P90 with 64MB EDO. works great as mail and firewall/masq server, and with about 10 users it can also handle some file serving/sharing, plus rsync backups, cvs and CD burning (4x, SCSI).
Plus, with this crate I learned wha the "EISA Bus Configuration" in the linux kernel is for...
I have also had a 486DX/2 100 for the same purpose, ran great too, but had to decommission it because it wouldn't take larger HDs.
(On a side note, I was able to recycle the 30-pin SIMMs from the 486 by putting them into the cache expansion slots on the P90s EISA SCSI controller card. I miss the old times.)
Hmm, even though you are right in a way, the story *always* comes before the movie (exceptions: porn and john woo movies), and those "imitations" certainly aren't cheap. Not for the producers, and neither for us movie-goers...
you stole my .sig
I feel very angry and depressed now. Perhaps I should break one of your toys.
I must be dreaming.
The person responsible for that word should be electrocuted right now.
Oh well, at least I know how to call that stuff in the recycle bin on my desktop.
Actually, to show a friend the power of linux, the gentoo live cd with UT2003
leaves more people impressed.
Yes, this is a live CD and yes, you put it in and it boots into UT2003, and yes, you can play over the internet with this. No. no installation required.
I think our marketing is geared toward that issue, toward long-term customer value.
Well, I can't comment on the marketing, but the products certainly are. In the long-term, I put a lot of "value" into MS products once I as a customer have become dependent of them (think Exchange server and upgrade costs).
There are a couple of solutions for that situation. Switching virtual desktop was made for that, and of course window shading comes into mind too.
IMO the absolute fscking all-time number-one of really annoying "innovation" that Linux(...) desktop application programmers so happily copy from Windows is the Start Button.
Why the heck do I have to move the mouse to one of the most obscure position, the lower left corner, just to start a program, which is easily the most used desktop operation of all?
In almost all Linux(...) window managers including my favorite gnome-incompatible WindowMaker, the application menu can be reached just by clicking on the desktop, which is IMO the easiest and fastest way to do this by far.
KDE and Gnome developers what were you thinking? (This is not a rethorical question, please reply). How anyone can compare those two methods and go for the Button completely elludes me.
And why would they? IBM didn't even hype it and it was their thing...
No, at the start it was a joint project by MS and IBM.
Read more about the history of OS/2 Warp here
BTW, one reason why OS/2 died was that its Windows emulation was too good, so no-one would care to develop natively for the OS. Think about it, WINE fans/coders!
Hmm, the Apple Newton was released in 1993 , but Palm&co were only able to make a profit in the (very) late nineties...
Well, they did't hype OS/2 a lot, did they.
Personnally, I would have liked the words "last year" and "running linux" to be hyperlinked in the post, because IMveryhumbleO, that would have been the info to make the post valuable.
Hey, my linux box has a SAK too!
Does it do the same thing that MS SAK does?
In case this is relevant, in Doom 3 there will be 8 light sources at any given point. Thus, er, wait. No.
Oh, yes, and the parent, too. Okay, 5, Interesting will suffice.
yeah, like i always have to do a "chmod u+x foo.exe" to be able to "wine foo.exe".
.jpg files so nautilus can "execute" them...
think again, before you chmod +x all your
even more clearly, english latin (US or other) is different from latin (or Roman) latin.
there is no environment to flourish in. ("/usr/local? Hell, I'm trying to find C:\windows\system")
/mnt/win, or /usr/local/winefs or /opt/fake-windows.
Except for the worm, or any other program, there is a C:\Windows\System, no matter if c:\ is actually
Exactly.
Plus, again very interesting for the geeky, even with a (lets be frank) stupid project like SETI, there is still the WHAT-IF factor.
It may be an infinitesimal chance, but just imagine YOU were "the one". Rather alluring.
Anyway, if we're going to have an odd number major version, then all I can say is
"Get ready for a ride"...
Even worse, and I may quote Alan Cox here, as "you definitely should avoid dot-zero releases of Open Source Software."