I think I actually love DNA.
I've just come back from holidays where I re-read the full 5-part H2G2 trilogy that, despite being extremely familiar with, I enjoyed hugely.
Douglas should go down in the annals of literature because reading his stuff is as much about enjoying his words as it is about enjoying the story. You could read it 100 times and still smirk at his amazing sense of humour and wordplay.
Like a good wine, it's not just about getting merry.
To (mis)quote an excellent and early example:
"The jump through hyperspace is like being drunk."
"What's so bad about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."
Absolute bloody genius, the like of which I don't think we've ever seen before or will ever see again.
I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting Douglas back in 1998 when I was studying at Oxford and he did an evolution lecture with Richard Dawkins (there was an evening!). He was a really, really lovely guy with loads of time for the geeks around him. Mention your love of the Mac to him and he was yours for the night!
I still miss him loads.
... as I'm away on business for the first half of next week.
You asshole. Obviously you're not working flipping burgers, and can afford a forty dollar piece of software. Buy the damn thing if you're gonna play it.
a) > Burger Flipper but < what exactly?
Being 'away on business' does not qualify me as a super-earner. Maybe I've been sent of a shelf-stacking course by my DIY superstore employer (I haven't, but hey...)
b) Dollars don't buy a great deal over here in England (small country outside of the US).
c) Didn't I expressly state that I would buy the game if I was going to play it?
So I've just BT'ed the movie and - well - quite honestly, from this new (and, I admit) short sneak preview, I am underimpressed.
Of course I realised that Doom3 was gonna be Old Skool stlyee, but until I saw this clip of prolongued in-game footage, I didn't realise just how 'run backwards through tight corridors shooting at things' is was likely to be.
Answer (given this trailer) is: a huge, big amount of very lots.
Call me a traitor but I'm much more looking forward to HL2 with it's human militia, Eastern European country setting and all-round greater immersion.
I'll give D3 a warez bash and purchase it if I'm still playing after Day 3 (really, I will), but I have a feeling it may be rather short-lived on my hard disk (not to mention the fact that I'm gonna have to endure it on my laptop (pretty sexy, but still...) as I'm away on business for the first half of next week).
Oh timing - you cruel, cruel fate (possibly).
Rubbish site with everything opening in a popup or a _blank.
I saw pictures of the 'new' batmobile about a year ago and it looks like a sporty version of a farmer's tractor.
I've always been severely let down by the Batman movies. Each one seems to claim that it's true to the darkness of the original 'The Batman' story, but they never are.
There's so much potential in a Batman movie as he's the only 'superhero' who actually isn't.
He's merely a vigilante with the cash to develop some seriously cool anti-crime gadgets.
Ah, if only....
Am I the only one getting a little bored of all these 'MS patents this', 'MS patents that' articles and subsequent endless discussions trying to pintpoint prior art?
C'mon... enough already.
I was about to order this CD and read about the silent DRM installation just before I did.
Now as a matter of principal (it doen't matter that I can effortlessly get around the auto install) I am not giving the label/distributor my money.
It's on a.b.sounds.mp3.indie for anyone who's interested.
Go ch-check it out...
Reinforces the video-capable iPod rumours
on
60GB iPod Coming?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Rumours of a truly next gen multimedia iPod have been circulating for some time now.
People asking who could possibly need 60GB for music storage (by the way, I can't fit all my music library on my 40GB model) are possibly missing the point of the need for greater storage capacity.
Sure, 60GB is a lot of 6MB music files, but it it's a whole lot fewer movie files.
Personally, I think a fully multimedia iPod would no longer be an iPod, but I'm sure that Apple would find it hard not to capitalise on its mega-brand if the potential market for such devices ever became widespread enough.
As one option is to pay Napster GBP9.99 for a month's worth of unlimited streams, what's to stop me from ripping them with a system sound recorder and making my own MP3s, Oggs etc.?
I reckon of Napster's library of 500,000 tracks, I could probably find everything I like (and don't already have) and record it in this way in a month. That's gotta be worth a tenner of anyone's money;)
It's just as well that I'm apparently not missing much...
The layout is all over the place when viewed with Opera 7.5 on a PC.
FF and (surprise, surprise) IE check out fine.
It hasn't changed 4 times, it's changed twice, and they have been necessary changes to avoid conflicts with other Open Source projects.
Remember, FF is not yet out of Beta so a name change is trivial.
That said, it needs to start building a brand name and that brand will be Firefox. I believe the developers have said clearly that it will not change again.
Anyway, I love the new FF icon. Much nicer than Moz;)
I remember reading an interview with the director(?) of Star Trek Enterprise over the problems faced when trying to make a modern TV show with tech that was supposed to pre-date that of TOS.
I must admit that I haven't watched many eps of Enterprise but from what I have seen they didn't bother trying. It was always going to be difficult, granted, but the idea that that ship and crew were from a whole generation before Kirk et al is hard to swallow - and I don't just mean the sfx.
The subject line is an old reply to an even older English joke related to picking carpet or something, but it relates well to the perception of laptops/notebooks for the 'home' market today.
If you're a mobile professional like me, then you probably make the most of your 'not too heavy, not too light, reasonably powerful' (invariably) Dell laptop your company supplies you with.
However, a lot of laptops these days are sold on their size rather than their power/capacity.
I recently helped my sister-in-law buy a laptop that she is going to 'write a book on' (yeah, right!). But the point is that although she has no plans to ever take it 'on the road', she wanted a laptop purely for its footprint in her smallish London apartment.
Many of us are geeky enough to demand that we live in a house where we can occupy a whole room for our server and four workstations (not to mention the other three over the house, but I digress).
News flash! Not everyone is like this! They want a computer that is as pack-away as the ironing board and that's why high spec notebooks are a good idea from the point of the vendor, almost regardless of their weight.
The problem for Microsoft is that Average Joe home users, by and large, do not upgrade their OS.
If you think back a few years to when the public were really starting to get turned on to the Internet - this would be the time of Win98 or its SE sequel.
It was also at this time that PCs started to reach the speed and capacity that gave most people what they would want for ever more - Web, Email, Word etc.
Quite a few of my friends and family bought computers for the first time around this period and not a single one of them is even thinking about upgrading. It's just not something that comes into their heads. They switch their computers on, check email, write a letter, book a ticket etc. and then switch them off again.
Ergo, the home user market for Win98/SE is huge and will probably remain so for a long time to come.
Paramount ain't gonna like this...
on
Star Wreck Trailer
·
· Score: 1, Informative
Knowing how closely the Star Trek imagery is guarded, I can't imagine it will be too long before Paramount force this off the web, especially as about 25% of the trailer is made up of clips from ST episodes.
If a few fragments of moon rock are worth this much money, I am one seriously wealthy person.
A couple of years ago someone bought me a whole acre of the moon for my birthday!
I'm doing the financial calculations now but it's making my head hurt.
Seems they've thought of this.
Upon installation you are asked to supply your connection speed for streaming purposes.
The maximum available is 96 so stream capturing isn't really an option.
> 10 hours playtime for all 3 campaigns
Damn! There must be a lot of people better than me then - or that's based on 'Normal' mode (easiest)
> uncounted number of bugs
See above. Been playing for >10 hours (inc. skirmish) and no apparent bugs yet.
As for the critisisms about poor AI and no cut scenes (and lack of single player gaming time for that matter), I think EA realise that this will mostly be played as a multiplayer game - much like most FPSs.
My main whinge would be on system spec requirements. I don't see it as being any more of an advanced engine than, say, Ago of Mythology (i.e. multiple polygon characters viewed at distance etc.) but I can't get it to play satisfactorily on my second PC (PII 700, GF2) at *any* res or stripped down effects meaning multiplayer action on my LAN is out - boo! AOM runs fine.
C&C Gens is, as has been suggested, essentially C&C Original built around a full 3D engine.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I actually love DNA.
I've just come back from holidays where I re-read the full 5-part H2G2 trilogy that, despite being extremely familiar with, I enjoyed hugely.
Douglas should go down in the annals of literature because reading his stuff is as much about enjoying his words as it is about enjoying the story. You could read it 100 times and still smirk at his amazing sense of humour and wordplay.
Like a good wine, it's not just about getting merry.
To (mis)quote an excellent and early example:
"The jump through hyperspace is like being drunk."
"What's so bad about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."
Absolute bloody genius, the like of which I don't think we've ever seen before or will ever see again.
I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting Douglas back in 1998 when I was studying at Oxford and he did an evolution lecture with Richard Dawkins (there was an evening!). He was a really, really lovely guy with loads of time for the geeks around him. Mention your love of the Mac to him and he was yours for the night!
I still miss him loads.
... am I the only one who thinks this was a publicity stunt? That's the first thing that came into my head when I read this.
... as I'm away on business for the first half of next week.
You asshole. Obviously you're not working flipping burgers, and can afford a forty dollar piece of software. Buy the damn thing if you're gonna play it.
a) > Burger Flipper but < what exactly?
Being 'away on business' does not qualify me as a super-earner. Maybe I've been sent of a shelf-stacking course by my DIY superstore employer (I haven't, but hey...)
b) Dollars don't buy a great deal over here in England (small country outside of the US).
c) Didn't I expressly state that I would buy the game if I was going to play it?
So I've just BT'ed the movie and - well - quite honestly, from this new (and, I admit) short sneak preview, I am underimpressed.
Of course I realised that Doom3 was gonna be Old Skool stlyee, but until I saw this clip of prolongued in-game footage, I didn't realise just how 'run backwards through tight corridors shooting at things' is was likely to be.
Answer (given this trailer) is: a huge, big amount of very lots.
Call me a traitor but I'm much more looking forward to HL2 with it's human militia, Eastern European country setting and all-round greater immersion.
I'll give D3 a warez bash and purchase it if I'm still playing after Day 3 (really, I will), but I have a feeling it may be rather short-lived on my hard disk (not to mention the fact that I'm gonna have to endure it on my laptop (pretty sexy, but still...) as I'm away on business for the first half of next week).
Oh timing - you cruel, cruel fate (possibly).
Rubbish site with everything opening in a popup or a _blank.
I saw pictures of the 'new' batmobile about a year ago and it looks like a sporty version of a farmer's tractor.
I've always been severely let down by the Batman movies. Each one seems to claim that it's true to the darkness of the original 'The Batman' story, but they never are.
There's so much potential in a Batman movie as he's the only 'superhero' who actually isn't.
He's merely a vigilante with the cash to develop some seriously cool anti-crime gadgets.
Ah, if only....
In real life...
And in real life we have Spiderman, right?
Am I the only one getting a little bored of all these 'MS patents this', 'MS patents that' articles and subsequent endless discussions trying to pintpoint prior art?
C'mon... enough already.
I was about to order this CD and read about the silent DRM installation just before I did.
Now as a matter of principal (it doen't matter that I can effortlessly get around the auto install) I am not giving the label/distributor my money.
It's on a.b.sounds.mp3.indie for anyone who's interested.
Go ch-check it out...
Rumours of a truly next gen multimedia iPod have been circulating for some time now.
People asking who could possibly need 60GB for music storage (by the way, I can't fit all my music library on my 40GB model) are possibly missing the point of the need for greater storage capacity.
Sure, 60GB is a lot of 6MB music files, but it it's a whole lot fewer movie files.
Personally, I think a fully multimedia iPod would no longer be an iPod, but I'm sure that Apple would find it hard not to capitalise on its mega-brand if the potential market for such devices ever became widespread enough.
I also found this link the other day.
Somebody has actually built a full scale replica of The Simpsons' house.
As one option is to pay Napster GBP9.99 for a month's worth of unlimited streams, what's to stop me from ripping them with a system sound recorder and making my own MP3s, Oggs etc.?
I reckon of Napster's library of 500,000 tracks, I could probably find everything I like (and don't already have) and record it in this way in a month. That's gotta be worth a tenner of anyone's money ;)
... is one of the standard library items that ship with MM Flash.
Still, can't wait for the movie.
It's just as well that I'm apparently not missing much...
The layout is all over the place when viewed with Opera 7.5 on a PC.
FF and (surprise, surprise) IE check out fine.
It hasn't changed 4 times, it's changed twice, and they have been necessary changes to avoid conflicts with other Open Source projects. ;)
Remember, FF is not yet out of Beta so a name change is trivial.
That said, it needs to start building a brand name and that brand will be Firefox. I believe the developers have said clearly that it will not change again.
Anyway, I love the new FF icon. Much nicer than Moz
That vid has been out for many weeks.
It's very cool though. Particularly the interview with Mitnick.
I remember reading an interview with the director(?) of Star Trek Enterprise over the problems faced when trying to make a modern TV show with tech that was supposed to pre-date that of TOS.
I must admit that I haven't watched many eps of Enterprise but from what I have seen they didn't bother trying. It was always going to be difficult, granted, but the idea that that ship and crew were from a whole generation before Kirk et al is hard to swallow - and I don't just mean the sfx.
It's all about the footprint, honey
The subject line is an old reply to an even older English joke related to picking carpet or something, but it relates well to the perception of laptops/notebooks for the 'home' market today.
If you're a mobile professional like me, then you probably make the most of your 'not too heavy, not too light, reasonably powerful' (invariably) Dell laptop your company supplies you with.
However, a lot of laptops these days are sold on their size rather than their power/capacity.
I recently helped my sister-in-law buy a laptop that she is going to 'write a book on' (yeah, right!). But the point is that although she has no plans to ever take it 'on the road', she wanted a laptop purely for its footprint in her smallish London apartment.
Many of us are geeky enough to demand that we live in a house where we can occupy a whole room for our server and four workstations (not to mention the other three over the house, but I digress).
News flash! Not everyone is like this! They want a computer that is as pack-away as the ironing board and that's why high spec notebooks are a good idea from the point of the vendor, almost regardless of their weight.
The problem for Microsoft is that Average Joe home users, by and large, do not upgrade their OS.
If you think back a few years to when the public were really starting to get turned on to the Internet - this would be the time of Win98 or its SE sequel.
It was also at this time that PCs started to reach the speed and capacity that gave most people what they would want for ever more - Web, Email, Word etc.
Quite a few of my friends and family bought computers for the first time around this period and not a single one of them is even thinking about upgrading. It's just not something that comes into their heads. They switch their computers on, check email, write a letter, book a ticket etc. and then switch them off again.
Ergo, the home user market for Win98/SE is huge and will probably remain so for a long time to come.
Knowing how closely the Star Trek imagery is guarded, I can't imagine it will be too long before Paramount force this off the web, especially as about 25% of the trailer is made up of clips from ST episodes.
If a few fragments of moon rock are worth this much money, I am one seriously wealthy person.
A couple of years ago someone bought me a whole acre of the moon for my birthday!
I'm doing the financial calculations now but it's making my head hurt.
Erm, surely the experience of what is 'best' has to be based on experience, doesn't it?
Yeah, not to mention the problems you would have trying to register something that is already owned!
Seems they've thought of this.
Upon installation you are asked to supply your connection speed for streaming purposes.
The maximum available is 96 so stream capturing isn't really an option.
I'm hoping that this release of OSX will perform sufficiently on my Apple Powerbook G4 Titanium 400.
All other releases have proven too sluggish.
Am I being too optimistic?
> 10 hours playtime for all 3 campaigns Damn! There must be a lot of people better than me then - or that's based on 'Normal' mode (easiest) > uncounted number of bugs See above. Been playing for >10 hours (inc. skirmish) and no apparent bugs yet. As for the critisisms about poor AI and no cut scenes (and lack of single player gaming time for that matter), I think EA realise that this will mostly be played as a multiplayer game - much like most FPSs. My main whinge would be on system spec requirements. I don't see it as being any more of an advanced engine than, say, Ago of Mythology (i.e. multiple polygon characters viewed at distance etc.) but I can't get it to play satisfactorily on my second PC (PII 700, GF2) at *any* res or stripped down effects meaning multiplayer action on my LAN is out - boo! AOM runs fine. C&C Gens is, as has been suggested, essentially C&C Original built around a full 3D engine.