One word: Robot Arm . Sure, the Russians or Americans can get you to space, but if you actually want to do something once you get there, you need the Candarm, or awesome Canadarm2. Our friends to the north also made the boom that will inspect the Shuttle for damage once it's in orbit.
The Canadarm is one of the greatest things to come from the Shuttle program.
Yeah, I was just reading my Lonely Planet: Moon guide, and they said specifically to watch out for drinks that didn't have a listed price, and foreign space agencies that promised you the moon, but not a landing on the moon...
Don't forget Sly Cooper, Ratchet & Clank, and Jak & Dakster! There are tons of E rated games out there for kids (Lego Star Wars was a great game too); and practically ever big budget kids movie has a kid-focused licensed game attached to it.
Lots of kids are into sports games and RPGs too. Kids a) have the time to play RPGS and b) appreciate the long game time of an RPG more than an adult.
Is there less that's specifically target to kids as a percentage of total software? Maybe so. But the actual number of kid focused games has really not gone down much.
You're right! Although the comprable MSN Virual Earth pick of the same spot was higher scale / resolution, it was in crappy black and white. I guess both apps have data sets that vary widely in quality and age. I swear that shot still looks like a satellite image, but it may be aerial photography; it's been a long time since I spent a semester analyzing LandSat images of cranberry bogs in my remote sensing class...
It's not like, super cheap, or easy to get high resolution, cloud-free shots of the Earth. At MSN's Virtual Earth's highest resolution, it the pictures are clearly taken by a plane, not a satellite (a LandSat or similar image would never have the resolving power to detect the hedge in my front yard). The USGS just doesn't do that crap everyday. Or rather they do, but it's a big country to take such large scale images of. I'm not surprised some images are years out of date.
On Google Maps, the highest resolution pix appear to be taken by satellite and are significantly lower resolution, although they probably are newer. (In either case, both services draw roads in Oakland, CA that no longer exist, and conflict with the photographic data...)
I didn't d/l the Google Earth app, because, that would require work, but I remember testing it when it was the old Keyhole technology and it was about the same quality as the MSN app.
Actually for me, I don't even noticed it after the first 15 minutes. Do you travel to different time zones? Do you have the same trouble then? Maybe it's more the SAD than the time change itself...
Strictly speaking, regolith isn't dirt. Dirt has organic stuff in it -- broken down bits of plants and animals, bacteria, fungus, chewing gum -- while regolith is just crumbled, eroded rocks. But, you know, close enough for government work!
It takes about three days to get used to DST, max. The sleep disruption is far smaller than you get from one day of "oh, look Seinfeld's on..."-sleeplessness.
They frequently calibrate them so that they pictures when the light is still yellow. People have gotten out of tickets by demonstrating the brokenness of the cameras.
Right on. If you feel that way, you shouldn't shop there. Personally I'd rather pay higher prices at Target than Wal-Mart because a) the Targets in my area are well maintained, not dirty pits like the local Wal-Marts; b) Target pays health benefits, so I don't have to subsize worker visits to the ER with my tax dollars; c) Target has much cooler ads and merchandise, and you can occaisionally find something there that wasn't manufactured in China. I know, it's rare, but it happens.
It reminds me of Chris Crawfords geopolitical game Balance of Power, in which the key to victory when playing the US was always to treat the USSR with kid gloves and detente. Or, alternately, an "educational" BASIC Berline Blockade game which continued endlessly until you threatened the Russians militarily, at which point they immediately ended the blockade. Spinnaker/Springboard had a game where you played the leader of a central American "republic" that seemed pretty balanced though. You could win by entering the Soviet sphere or the American sphere. Man I wish I could remember the name of that game.
The thing I don't understand from the conventional wisdowm at Slashdot, is if the City of Oakland decides to put a free wireless hotspot downtown, that's good, and anyone who tells them not to is an asshole. But if I have a free wireless hotspot in my house, I'm a total moron. Can't people make an intelligent decision to not encrypt their access points?
Those particular EB guys are horrified by non-gamers. In their opinion -- and I can't really disagree -- non-gamers should not shop at EB.
Re:Bad questions, what did they expect?
on
Spy Girl In Game Stores
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Two things I know for sure: 1) The author of the story is very cute. I know this because she is my girlfiend. 2) I also know she asked the exact same questions, the exact same way, in each store, because I listened to the tapes in the car.
Obviously it's just a short, anecdotal piece; I recognized most of the people she talked to (she went to stores in the neighborhood), and personality definitely played a factor. But the main thing is: if you want a game for a present, make sure you give uninformed consumers (non-gaming girlfriends, mothers, etc) a freaking *list* so they don't ask any half-baked questions and get you like a Genesis or something...
College is okay because it can be a great socialization experience. Learn to fend for yourself, learn there's no safety net if you screw up, and no one to keep you from screwing up, etc. But other than that it's worthless. A bunch of "if you can't do, teach" academics instilling bad habits that will need to immediately be broken to actually produce useful work. There may be degrees where this isn't the case -- like the hard sciences, I guess -- but generally I find a college education in and of itself to be next to worthless in a job candidate. It's nice to see someone graduated though, because it shows they finished something they started.
I always heard it was because one of the first stations, like WWJ or something, was sponsored by something that started with a W. It was just an acronym, but it stuck.
yahoo feels differently, but they don't seem to know any more about it than me.
My company had a combo programmer / sys admin. As we grew -- which you gotta hope your company does -- the sysadmin stuff grew bigger and bigger, and no matter how he tried to get out, he kept getting dragged back in. Without a ton of formal training, he did things his way, which worked, but maybe weren't best industry practices. Eventually he had to quit, because he knew no matter what, he'd be called on to do sysadmin stuff for the rest of his tenure. It's kind of sad story, because he was a cool guy.
The (awesome) Halo books by Eric Nylund don't exactly have a love story sub-plot, but they do feature a lot more strong female characters. I hope they make it into the movie.
Seriously, I was very wary of the books, but I was blown away by Fall of Reach and First Strike. The Flood, by William Dietz was only okay, but he was forced to directly follow the plot of Halo 1, so he had a lot more limitations.
Slashdot Mirror
The Canadarm is one of the greatest things to come from the Shuttle program.
Yeah, I was just reading my Lonely Planet: Moon guide, and they said specifically to watch out for drinks that didn't have a listed price, and foreign space agencies that promised you the moon, but not a landing on the moon...
Lots of kids are into sports games and RPGs too. Kids a) have the time to play RPGS and b) appreciate the long game time of an RPG more than an adult.
Is there less that's specifically target to kids as a percentage of total software? Maybe so. But the actual number of kid focused games has really not gone down much.
You're right! Although the comprable MSN Virual Earth pick of the same spot was higher scale / resolution, it was in crappy black and white. I guess both apps have data sets that vary widely in quality and age. I swear that shot still looks like a satellite image, but it may be aerial photography; it's been a long time since I spent a semester analyzing LandSat images of cranberry bogs in my remote sensing class...
On Google Maps, the highest resolution pix appear to be taken by satellite and are significantly lower resolution, although they probably are newer. (In either case, both services draw roads in Oakland, CA that no longer exist, and conflict with the photographic data...)
I didn't d/l the Google Earth app, because, that would require work, but I remember testing it when it was the old Keyhole technology and it was about the same quality as the MSN app.
Actually for me, I don't even noticed it after the first 15 minutes. Do you travel to different time zones? Do you have the same trouble then? Maybe it's more the SAD than the time change itself...
Strictly speaking, regolith isn't dirt. Dirt has organic stuff in it -- broken down bits of plants and animals, bacteria, fungus, chewing gum -- while regolith is just crumbled, eroded rocks. But, you know, close enough for government work!
Give me a break.
I appreciate the outrage, but why would you let someone store encrypted data on your PC? I mean, honestly, wtf? -Chris
Not paying the fine for a civil infraction is a crime. Funny, isn't it?
They frequently calibrate them so that they pictures when the light is still yellow. People have gotten out of tickets by demonstrating the brokenness of the cameras.
Right on. If you feel that way, you shouldn't shop there. Personally I'd rather pay higher prices at Target than Wal-Mart because a) the Targets in my area are well maintained, not dirty pits like the local Wal-Marts; b) Target pays health benefits, so I don't have to subsize worker visits to the ER with my tax dollars; c) Target has much cooler ads and merchandise, and you can occaisionally find something there that wasn't manufactured in China. I know, it's rare, but it happens.
It reminds me of Chris Crawfords geopolitical game Balance of Power, in which the key to victory when playing the US was always to treat the USSR with kid gloves and detente. Or, alternately, an "educational" BASIC Berline Blockade game which continued endlessly until you threatened the Russians militarily, at which point they immediately ended the blockade. Spinnaker/Springboard had a game where you played the leader of a central American "republic" that seemed pretty balanced though. You could win by entering the Soviet sphere or the American sphere. Man I wish I could remember the name of that game.
Nazi should be capitalized, you moron!
Microsoft already is licensing games for the DS. Majesco is bring out Age of Kings this Christmas.
The thing I don't understand from the conventional wisdowm at Slashdot, is if the City of Oakland decides to put a free wireless hotspot downtown, that's good, and anyone who tells them not to is an asshole. But if I have a free wireless hotspot in my house, I'm a total moron. Can't people make an intelligent decision to not encrypt their access points?
Those particular EB guys are horrified by non-gamers. In their opinion -- and I can't really disagree -- non-gamers should not shop at EB.
Obviously it's just a short, anecdotal piece; I recognized most of the people she talked to (she went to stores in the neighborhood), and personality definitely played a factor. But the main thing is: if you want a game for a present, make sure you give uninformed consumers (non-gaming girlfriends, mothers, etc) a freaking *list* so they don't ask any half-baked questions and get you like a Genesis or something...
College is okay because it can be a great socialization experience. Learn to fend for yourself, learn there's no safety net if you screw up, and no one to keep you from screwing up, etc. But other than that it's worthless. A bunch of "if you can't do, teach" academics instilling bad habits that will need to immediately be broken to actually produce useful work. There may be degrees where this isn't the case -- like the hard sciences, I guess -- but generally I find a college education in and of itself to be next to worthless in a job candidate. It's nice to see someone graduated though, because it shows they finished something they started.
Dual Analog player would win if they both played DA, because it's a tougher control scheme to master.
Great link, thanks. After reading, I'm more convinced that the original publication order is the way to go.
It kills me that the box sets now label Magician's Nephew #1. My son will read them in the proper order.
yahoo feels differently, but they don't seem to know any more about it than me.
My company had a combo programmer / sys admin. As we grew -- which you gotta hope your company does -- the sysadmin stuff grew bigger and bigger, and no matter how he tried to get out, he kept getting dragged back in. Without a ton of formal training, he did things his way, which worked, but maybe weren't best industry practices. Eventually he had to quit, because he knew no matter what, he'd be called on to do sysadmin stuff for the rest of his tenure. It's kind of sad story, because he was a cool guy.
Seriously, I was very wary of the books, but I was blown away by Fall of Reach and First Strike. The Flood, by William Dietz was only okay, but he was forced to directly follow the plot of Halo 1, so he had a lot more limitations.