Yeah, I noticed that too. This same girl was huge into puzzle/adventure games like 7th Guest, 11th Hour, Myst, Riven and the like. Any girl I know that comes over and sees me playing Metal Gear or Ghost Recon will usually just zone out, but pull out Animal Crossing or Mario and suddenly your wrestling for the controller. Which can be a good thing too.:D
I think a lot more girls would actually enjoy playing games if they actually gave some of them a chance. A lot of girls balk at the game industry for being too male-centric, with all the violent first-person shooters, the D&D-style MMORPGs and the big-titted female stars of games like Tomb Raider. All are valid points -- D&D is kind of dorky, first person shooters are violent (gasp) and Lara Croft's hoo-hoos are quite becoming. This one girlfriend I had scoffed most games for a lot of those same reasons, but she still found games to play and enjoy. She thought Final Fantasy 7 was the lamest thing in the world (and hey, admittedly for some people it IS), until she actually saw it being played by me and picked up the controller to start her own game. Next thing I knew the PS1 controller was being fought over more than the TV remote.
Anyway, I just think a lot of girls out there who won't touch a lot of games because of external appearances and how they perceive the game to be are really missing out on games that have great gameplay, which is really what it's all about.
Somehow I don't think this is going to completely replace lasers in the operating rooms.:) However it might help to alleviate some of the costs of operating a laser system all the time.
I see a lot of people complaining (in essence, or literally) about this being YET ANOTHER video codec. Am I missing something? Is this, competition that is, a GOOD thing? Who gives a rat's ass if there's five, fifty or a hundred codecs out there in common use. Ok, so they can't all be standards and most will be flash-in-the-pan technologies, but at least there's competition.
I don't know why I thought of this, but you could also cut a slit on the side of that fan mouse and attach the business-end of a whoopie-cushion in it. That way whenever you really want to annoy your office cohorts, just hold your palm firmly down over the air vents.:D
I suppose the good thing is it's actually written somewhere that they're going to do it. Personally I'd rather see it called the Disclosure Policy rather than Privacy Policy. I don't care if it's some site's policy to fully disclose my information (I won't USE said site, though...) as long as their "privacy" policy reflects that.
Ok well, go back and read your own pasted definition. Lets focus on the last two words, "solidly uniform". If anything the article points out times in the past when things did not go so well. That implies that they're not "solidly uniform" and thus, not a "monolith".
How will they handle someone linking to a page well inside the site? I could see the cookie warning being a no-brainer to set up when people type in an url like www.swedishurl.com (or whatever) and get a page like on a porn site, warning you of the content (or in this case, the cookie usage) and giving you the option to bail out. But how can this be handled from users coming via links?
"They'd have to come up with some way to get the user to click on that file," said Stephen Toulouse of Microsoft's Security Response Center, noting that default security settings in recent versions of Microsoft Outlook e-mail software and the Internet Explorer Web browser prevent automatic launching of such files.
I love how they downplay that, like it's such a stretch to get a user who doesn't know any better to click a link in an email or webpage. Hell, my father just agrees to every ActiveX install that happens to come up on his screen, and clicks on any banner ad saying he's got a potential security risk on his computer. Irony is a harsh mistress indeed.
I'll usually take my mp3s and put them onto my minidisc player (compressed audio being decoded, then reencoded again) at a low bitrate to cram lots on the disc for listening at work. It's amazing how even with a decent pair of headphones how good ATRAC encoding holds up, espeically in a work environment. Not exactly audiophile quality, but if I can keep from hearing "Corporate accounts receivable Nina speaking! Just a moment... Corporate accounts receivable Nina speaking! Just a moment... Corporate accounts receivable Nina speaking! Just a moment... " it's all good.
(that's a reference from Office Space, in case you didn't know:-) )
I ran an anime board here in my area. Even got reviewed in Computer Shopper, back in the days when they had BBS reviews and it was a thicker magazine than the phone book.:) What was cool was I noticed this one guy logging in at weird hours with a crazy phone number and address. The guy was from BRAZIL, and called long distance to my system for the full two hours time limit every day to play Tradewars, VGA Planets, download some anime pics and chat on the message base. Crazy! He had a bunch of his friends doing the same thing, I suggested he just start a Brazilian anime board to save him and his buddies some cash.:) Not that he was unwelcome or anything. Met lots of really interesting people, not the least of which were other sysops through Fido's sysop-only netmail.
WWIV was a neat board. I ran Renegade towards the end of my BBS's lifespan, that worked out very well. The cool thing was I rigged up Waffle BBS as a door so people could jump into it and tap into usenet feeds and email, for free. This was years before the big internet explosion, and I think I was the only place in town that offered that in the way I did it. The users frickin loved it. It wasn't instant email since I still had to dial out every night to hook into the usenet feed, but it worked extremely well.
I wish. I miss the old BBS days. Sure we didn't have the full-on multimedia experience that the net is now. But we weren't constantly under fire from organizations trying to control our computers and the stuff we store on it. We weren't assaulted by spam and advertisements on any page view or mouse click. Most of all, what I miss was the greater sense of community the local BBS fostered. Sure you didn't necessarily KNOW the people there, but you lived in the same city or region they did. You could go to a BBS meet at a local bar or something, organize it a couple weeks in advance. Running a BBS was a blast too. One could actually distinguish themselves easily when there was only a couple dozen major boards in the area, and it was fun fostering the growth of your own little section of the community.
I kind of feel sorry for people who didn't come from the old BBS days. They truly missed out on something special.
"Anyways, I must have lead ears. I used to rip my MP3s at 160kbps, now I do 160kbit AACs, and cannot really tell the difference. AAC seems a tiny bit better maybe but could be a placebo effect"
Heh, I hear ya. (pun alert!) In my experience, two major factors affect your being able to discern quality differences between audio codecs: environment, and equipment. Listen to the stuff on a crummy pair of computer speakers and you'll hardly be able to tell the differences between bitrates, much less formats. Listening in a room with ten computers with their fans whining away doesn't help either. Myself personally, if I'm listening for differences between formats I'll put on a decent pair of headphones, and close my eyes while listening. But that works for me.:) Others are different, and that's the trick with encoding-- music registers quite differently with everyone.
I also like to use music I've listened to for YEARS. If I take a song that I've listened to a zillion times in the past and run it through various codecs it's much easier to tell if the song sounds "right", to me.:) If you recognize every note being played it's easier to tell if an encoder's stripping some bits out that wreck the harmonics more than another one does. But that's just me!
The Canadian government CAN give cash injections for companies that are just starting out. In my local area they're carrying along quite well with a tech business incubator concept, where the region provides an area for tech companies to set up shop and helps them along with ideas for marketing and getting those government subsidies. So far it seems to be successful, there's at least one web designer company that "hatched" from that incubator and now has full fledged offices in a high-rise downtown. The idea of the incubator isn't new, but it seems to be really catching on around here thanks to an overall crummy economy.
Anyway, the short of it is that there IS money out there from the Canadian government. You just have to know how to get it, and the money isn't JUST for tech companies-- it's for any small business starting up.
"Likewise, since these are usually run out of some guy's bedroom or dorm room on their home machine using an existing connection, you're probably not going to get the stability or scalability of a true MMORPG"
Heheheh, haven't played too many "true" MMORPGs, have you?:-)
Oh I fully agree with you that Blizzard is one of those rare companies that doesn't release games until they're well tested. The problem is with MMORPGs, unless you do a wide open public beta you're never going to see many of the major issues in a game. You HAVE to get the server population up, trying out different areas, crafting items, pushing the envelope a bit. Only then do you get your effective stress test. In house testing and limited beta do NOT cut it in this regard.
WOW being better quality than others? It won't, I'll tell you that right now.
The thing with MMORPGs are that they are in a perpetual state of being broken, right from the get-go. Launches are inherently troublesome times with client bugs and play balance issues. Only over time do these things become lessened. They're still doing fixes to Dark Age of Camelot after what, two years of being in operation? They're primarily fixes to balance issues, the odd glitch, no real show-stoppers.
Once you come to terms with that you'll have a pretty fun time with MMORPGs as a whole. I guarantee you though that WoW will suffer the same problems at launch that they all do. Busted registration/logon servers, lag, goofy gameplay balance, etc, etc, etc. It's the nature of the beast, and don't let the Blizzard name fool you. It's their FIRST MMORPG, and it will be at least one thing to them -- a learning experience unlike any they've had before.
Basically affirming for me that there's something on the internet for anyone, no matter how fucked up the person or the thing is. I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like that ended up on the net. There's also not much you can do about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I noticed that too. This same girl was huge into puzzle/adventure games like 7th Guest, 11th Hour, Myst, Riven and the like. Any girl I know that comes over and sees me playing Metal Gear or Ghost Recon will usually just zone out, but pull out Animal Crossing or Mario and suddenly your wrestling for the controller. Which can be a good thing too. :D
Hahhahaha, I loved that episode. Check this out, through a quick bit of Googling I managed to find The Darmok Dictionary.
Anyway, I just think a lot of girls out there who won't touch a lot of games because of external appearances and how they perceive the game to be are really missing out on games that have great gameplay, which is really what it's all about.
Somehow I don't think this is going to completely replace lasers in the operating rooms. :) However it might help to alleviate some of the costs of operating a laser system all the time.
I see a lot of people complaining (in essence, or literally) about this being YET ANOTHER video codec. Am I missing something? Is this, competition that is, a GOOD thing? Who gives a rat's ass if there's five, fifty or a hundred codecs out there in common use. Ok, so they can't all be standards and most will be flash-in-the-pan technologies, but at least there's competition.
What's the matter, you can't import/convert it?
I don't know why I thought of this, but you could also cut a slit on the side of that fan mouse and attach the business-end of a whoopie-cushion in it. That way whenever you really want to annoy your office cohorts, just hold your palm firmly down over the air vents. :D
Maybe back in the 70's, but she's not so hot nowadays. Price should be lower accordingly :)
For $40000 you could buy the quantity of materials to make them yourself :)
I suppose the good thing is it's actually written somewhere that they're going to do it. Personally I'd rather see it called the Disclosure Policy rather than Privacy Policy. I don't care if it's some site's policy to fully disclose my information (I won't USE said site, though...) as long as their "privacy" policy reflects that.
First, games are to blame for violence in our schools (see this notable PA), and now they're to blame for crummy movie sales? What's next?
Ok well, go back and read your own pasted definition. Lets focus on the last two words, "solidly uniform". If anything the article points out times in the past when things did not go so well. That implies that they're not "solidly uniform" and thus, not a "monolith".
How will they handle someone linking to a page well inside the site? I could see the cookie warning being a no-brainer to set up when people type in an url like www.swedishurl.com (or whatever) and get a page like on a porn site, warning you of the content (or in this case, the cookie usage) and giving you the option to bail out. But how can this be handled from users coming via links?
You know, that's EXACTLY why the other non-Microsoft operating systems are better. Oh wait...
I love how they downplay that, like it's such a stretch to get a user who doesn't know any better to click a link in an email or webpage. Hell, my father just agrees to every ActiveX install that happens to come up on his screen, and clicks on any banner ad saying he's got a potential security risk on his computer. Irony is a harsh mistress indeed.
You underestimate the inherent laziness of man. In all likelihood that job would also be automated and handled by other robots.
(that's a reference from Office Space, in case you didn't know :-) )
I ran an anime board here in my area. Even got reviewed in Computer Shopper, back in the days when they had BBS reviews and it was a thicker magazine than the phone book. :) What was cool was I noticed this one guy logging in at weird hours with a crazy phone number and address. The guy was from BRAZIL, and called long distance to my system for the full two hours time limit every day to play Tradewars, VGA Planets, download some anime pics and chat on the message base. Crazy! He had a bunch of his friends doing the same thing, I suggested he just start a Brazilian anime board to save him and his buddies some cash. :) Not that he was unwelcome or anything. Met lots of really interesting people, not the least of which were other sysops through Fido's sysop-only netmail.
WWIV was a neat board. I ran Renegade towards the end of my BBS's lifespan, that worked out very well. The cool thing was I rigged up Waffle BBS as a door so people could jump into it and tap into usenet feeds and email, for free. This was years before the big internet explosion, and I think I was the only place in town that offered that in the way I did it. The users frickin loved it. It wasn't instant email since I still had to dial out every night to hook into the usenet feed, but it worked extremely well.
I kind of feel sorry for people who didn't come from the old BBS days. They truly missed out on something special.
Heh, I hear ya. (pun alert!) In my experience, two major factors affect your being able to discern quality differences between audio codecs: environment, and equipment. Listen to the stuff on a crummy pair of computer speakers and you'll hardly be able to tell the differences between bitrates, much less formats. Listening in a room with ten computers with their fans whining away doesn't help either. Myself personally, if I'm listening for differences between formats I'll put on a decent pair of headphones, and close my eyes while listening. But that works for me. :) Others are different, and that's the trick with encoding-- music registers quite differently with everyone.
I also like to use music I've listened to for YEARS. If I take a song that I've listened to a zillion times in the past and run it through various codecs it's much easier to tell if the song sounds "right", to me. :) If you recognize every note being played it's easier to tell if an encoder's stripping some bits out that wreck the harmonics more than another one does. But that's just me!
Anyway, the short of it is that there IS money out there from the Canadian government. You just have to know how to get it, and the money isn't JUST for tech companies-- it's for any small business starting up.
Heheheh, haven't played too many "true" MMORPGs, have you? :-)
Oh I fully agree with you that Blizzard is one of those rare companies that doesn't release games until they're well tested. The problem is with MMORPGs, unless you do a wide open public beta you're never going to see many of the major issues in a game. You HAVE to get the server population up, trying out different areas, crafting items, pushing the envelope a bit. Only then do you get your effective stress test. In house testing and limited beta do NOT cut it in this regard.
The thing with MMORPGs are that they are in a perpetual state of being broken, right from the get-go. Launches are inherently troublesome times with client bugs and play balance issues. Only over time do these things become lessened. They're still doing fixes to Dark Age of Camelot after what, two years of being in operation? They're primarily fixes to balance issues, the odd glitch, no real show-stoppers.
Once you come to terms with that you'll have a pretty fun time with MMORPGs as a whole. I guarantee you though that WoW will suffer the same problems at launch that they all do. Busted registration/logon servers, lag, goofy gameplay balance, etc, etc, etc. It's the nature of the beast, and don't let the Blizzard name fool you. It's their FIRST MMORPG, and it will be at least one thing to them -- a learning experience unlike any they've had before.
Basically affirming for me that there's something on the internet for anyone, no matter how fucked up the person or the thing is. I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like that ended up on the net. There's also not much you can do about it.