Officials at the Idaho lab hinted at a dramatic exhibit of its pilot reactor's safety. "We could even do a demonstration in which we dump the helium coolant," said James Lake, associate laboratory director. "That would be a way to show the public in a visible way how safe the technology is."
... if you haven't read them. My personal preference is the Frank Herbert books, the original series, and not the prequels by his son. Excellent story, characters, setting, everything. Epic, in every sense of the word.
They produced the hardware, with their DRM, running on their service. They can do with it whatever they like, and there's nobody holding a gun to your head to buy into it.
I've owned a Palm myself, and beyond simple address book type stuff and some web page reading with AvantGo I found it utterly useless. It almost pains me to say it, but if I were to pay the kind of money PDAs are going for nowadays I'd probably go for an iPaq or similar. At least then I've got a handheld address book type thing that has at least some decent PC-like capabilities. Personally I'm not too picky on what OS it runs as long as it's easy to use and has applications I can work with. For myself, a PocketPC type device is good.
The reason I ended up dumping a Palm entirely? Simple. It's way more convenient and fast to pick up a pencil and write down an appointment/number in an organizer than to power up a Palm and tap in the info. But that's just me.:)
Personally I would have to disagree with the percentages the article gives, but maybe that's because I don't always enjoy the average summer blockbuster. I'm more a fan of intelligent films or films that do things differently. That being said, the article talks about how its cross section was only based on the highest grossing films in the UK -- it'd be interesting to see what their "formula" comes up with for other areas of the world. ie. North America, Asia, etc.
People who complain about the fact that there are bugs and balancing issues with these types of games are extremely annoying, I'll agree with that. Personally, I play MMORPGs. Well more accurately, I only ever am playing one at a time. That being said I actually think the pay-by-the-month model works. Why? The developers fix the bugs and balancing issues in the game more frequently than single player games. Also, the constant addition of new content into an already expansive world is also a good thing.
For myself, I play games a lot. If a single MMORPG can hold my attention for say a year solid, I've paid far less for games than I would have normally. Saving cash is always a good thing.:)
How, exactly, do you come to the conclusion SWG is vaporware? You can go sign up for the beta yourself, you know (who knows, might even get in). Then you get actual software that you can install and play the beta with. That doesn't sound like vaporware, that sounds more like a MMORPG that's under development (missed release dates and all).
As to whether you're supposed to pay for the software to be frustrated, have you ever considered that MMORPGs are not the game for you? Now bear with me on this, because I know it's a big stretch: you don't have to buy these games. If they frustrate you, so be it; buy some other game from a genre you DO like.
It's already been put out there that Microsoft wants a piece of the search engine pie. Their current MSN search is horrible, and Google is far superior. Is it competition for Google? Maybe. And I welcome it. Google's done some amazing things with their search engine, and I'd love to see what they can do with a hefty bit of competition. Because right now they really have none. If Microsoft can build a better search engine then let them try.
A little offtopic I admit, but what's the quality of the MP3s downloaded from iTunes? 128k, higher? If I was going to pay a buck a song (roughly equivalent to a CD) I'd want as high quality an MP3 as I can get. But that's just me.
I think the iTunes service is a definite step in the right direction, but I'll still buy CDs of my favorites so I can get the best quality copies to my portables. I'd definitely use iTunes to grab MP3s like those from one-hit-wonders though.
The majority of the people in the United States support the current government. Look at the poll numbers [pollingreport.com] (67 percent as of last week). Hell, even 71% of Americans [washingtonpost.com] were supporting the way in Iraq. To believe that the majority of Americans do not support the current administration is foolhardy.
And we all know how 100% truthful poll results are. No chance of those being manipulated, no way. Tell me, were you personally contacted to participate in that poll?
A little off-topic, but planetside really isn't the first FPS MMORPG out there... Neocron is in the first person, and while not quite as twitch-based action style gameplay as Planetside, it's incredibly fun. It draws heavily from Deus Ex, yet putting it in a MMO setting works for it. Planetside seems a bit too much like just Tribes with a monthly charge.
Not a big surprise that police agencies use scanners now for taking fingerprints direct into their computer systems. It'd be interesting to see how this system works out, especially how it compares to conventional cryptographic key generation methods.
Your abrasive attitude notwithstanding, I'm betting the thing probably takes a decent resolution snap of the object. Probably nothing so high rez to distinguish between a person's fingerprints maybe, but probably on the order of a regular home scanner.
Yeah, I too shudder when I think about the durability (or lack) of this type of device. I also have a pretty damn durable watch, and over the years it's taken quite a pounding. It's outlasted several cell phones.
This might be a nice niche for a watch manufacturer to get into with a cell phone company instead of just the phone guys making a go of it themselves.
At first glance it is, but it has some advantages from the normal handset with bluetooth headset support. For one, say I have my phone in my bag and my headset in my shirt pocket. If I receive a call I'd like to see who's calling before answering... rather than fishing for my phone while driving it would be way more handy to just glance at my watch(phone) at the caller ID.
It's gimmicky in some ways, but I can see the advantages for certain situations. Myself, I wear a watch all the time. I wouldn't mind if my phone was inside of it, since I wouldn't need to carry it around on my belt or in my bag then fish for it when I get a call.
This video at Apple.com previews the service a bit and has some blurbs from a few artists, giving their take on what Apple's come up with. The main guy's annoying as hell but the service looks pretty simple to use. What also floored me were some oddly intelligent statements made from *drum roll* Alanis Morisette (sp?). I'm not the biggest fan of hers, but I think her comments nail it in this case. Check it out.
Oh and please excuse Apple's shameless in-your-face plugging of the new iPod in the video. It's new, they're proud of it and all that. (I'll stick with my MD recorder myself...)
Strategy? I've been playing beta, and this is how combat goes. We'll use the example of getting ambushed at an asteroid field.
1) warp to asteroid field
2) threat indicators light up saying some pirates are in the area
3) You either run or stay and fight. We'll stay and fight.
4) Lock target on a pirate ship. Targetting takes a few seconds.
5) Turn on weapons. They autofire, see. . . .
6) Shield wearing down a bit? Smack the shield boost icon. Full again! . . .
7) Boom! Got him!
No exaggeration, that's exactly how combat is. Not very strategic, is it. I'm not trying to be a jerk, this is just how the game plays and I'd rather you found out now before plunking down your hard earned cash and wasting your time on this.
The best thing to do is to say nothing except that you're not interested, and hang up. Add some expletives for effect if you desire. I've had to deal with some real pushy ones too, and it's amazing how hard they'll try to keep you from hanging up until you say yes to whatever crap they're selling.
The worst was a local newspaper calling around for new subscriptions. He starts out saying what paper he's calling about and asks whether I receive their paper. I say no. Then he starts off on a sales pitch, which I interrupt to say that the reason I don't receive the paper already is that I don't WANT it, since I get my news from the net. The guy actually tries to continue on reading the script or whatever he's got in front of him... took a couple tries to be polite about not wanting what he's selling before I just flat out said "Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. Not interested." and hung up on the guy. In retrospect that should have been my first response.
I'm amazed people still sit on the phone with these bottom-feeders and answer their questions, unwillingly signing themselves up for a ton of crap. It's not hard to tell them to piss off instead of falling for their tactics.
Because hobbyists (read: nerds) flock to this stuff like crazy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against people having a hobby, and quite frankly the paint jobs some people do on their figurines are amazing. I'd just hate to see what happens when 10 years go by and thousands of dollars of dead weight is sitting in a box in the basement not being used. And maybe not even out of lack of interest, but because the company that creates it retires rulesets forcing the hardcore fanboys to spend even MORE money.
I'd welcome that. Wars, famine, the general fucking of the world -- all virtual. Once it gets totally unbearable, we just reboot. Also we could run on walls and look at girls in skin tight leather all day. Good stuff!
Slashdot Mirror
Remind me to skip the tour...
... if you haven't read them. My personal preference is the Frank Herbert books, the original series, and not the prequels by his son. Excellent story, characters, setting, everything. Epic, in every sense of the word.
"A special thank you to Anonymous Coward from Slashdot, for his help and support"
Riiiiiight... :)
You realize you can turn off certain types of news stories from ever showing up for you on the Slashdot homepage, right?
They produced the hardware, with their DRM, running on their service. They can do with it whatever they like, and there's nobody holding a gun to your head to buy into it.
I've owned a Palm myself, and beyond simple address book type stuff and some web page reading with AvantGo I found it utterly useless. It almost pains me to say it, but if I were to pay the kind of money PDAs are going for nowadays I'd probably go for an iPaq or similar. At least then I've got a handheld address book type thing that has at least some decent PC-like capabilities. Personally I'm not too picky on what OS it runs as long as it's easy to use and has applications I can work with. For myself, a PocketPC type device is good.
The reason I ended up dumping a Palm entirely? Simple. It's way more convenient and fast to pick up a pencil and write down an appointment/number in an organizer than to power up a Palm and tap in the info. But that's just me. :)
... the opening scenes of a Jerry Bruckheimer film.
Personally I would have to disagree with the percentages the article gives, but maybe that's because I don't always enjoy the average summer blockbuster. I'm more a fan of intelligent films or films that do things differently. That being said, the article talks about how its cross section was only based on the highest grossing films in the UK -- it'd be interesting to see what their "formula" comes up with for other areas of the world. ie. North America, Asia, etc.
For myself, I play games a lot. If a single MMORPG can hold my attention for say a year solid, I've paid far less for games than I would have normally. Saving cash is always a good thing. :)
As to whether you're supposed to pay for the software to be frustrated, have you ever considered that MMORPGs are not the game for you? Now bear with me on this, because I know it's a big stretch: you don't have to buy these games. If they frustrate you, so be it; buy some other game from a genre you DO like.
It's already been put out there that Microsoft wants a piece of the search engine pie. Their current MSN search is horrible, and Google is far superior. Is it competition for Google? Maybe. And I welcome it. Google's done some amazing things with their search engine, and I'd love to see what they can do with a hefty bit of competition. Because right now they really have none. If Microsoft can build a better search engine then let them try.
I think the iTunes service is a definite step in the right direction, but I'll still buy CDs of my favorites so I can get the best quality copies to my portables. I'd definitely use iTunes to grab MP3s like those from one-hit-wonders though.
And we all know how 100% truthful poll results are. No chance of those being manipulated, no way. Tell me, were you personally contacted to participate in that poll?
A little off-topic, but planetside really isn't the first FPS MMORPG out there... Neocron is in the first person, and while not quite as twitch-based action style gameplay as Planetside, it's incredibly fun. It draws heavily from Deus Ex, yet putting it in a MMO setting works for it. Planetside seems a bit too much like just Tribes with a monthly charge.
Not a big surprise that police agencies use scanners now for taking fingerprints direct into their computer systems. It'd be interesting to see how this system works out, especially how it compares to conventional cryptographic key generation methods.
Your abrasive attitude notwithstanding, I'm betting the thing probably takes a decent resolution snap of the object. Probably nothing so high rez to distinguish between a person's fingerprints maybe, but probably on the order of a regular home scanner.
I can see a lot of people using their asses as the "memento"...
The fembots from Austin Powers. Robokillers have never been so easy on the eyes. :)
This might be a nice niche for a watch manufacturer to get into with a cell phone company instead of just the phone guys making a go of it themselves.
It's gimmicky in some ways, but I can see the advantages for certain situations. Myself, I wear a watch all the time. I wouldn't mind if my phone was inside of it, since I wouldn't need to carry it around on my belt or in my bag then fish for it when I get a call.
Oh and please excuse Apple's shameless in-your-face plugging of the new iPod in the video. It's new, they're proud of it and all that. (I'll stick with my MD recorder myself...)
1) warp to asteroid field
.
.
.
.
.
.
2) threat indicators light up saying some pirates are in the area
3) You either run or stay and fight. We'll stay and fight.
4) Lock target on a pirate ship. Targetting takes a few seconds.
5) Turn on weapons. They autofire, see.
6) Shield wearing down a bit? Smack the shield boost icon. Full again!
7) Boom! Got him!
No exaggeration, that's exactly how combat is. Not very strategic, is it. I'm not trying to be a jerk, this is just how the game plays and I'd rather you found out now before plunking down your hard earned cash and wasting your time on this.
The worst was a local newspaper calling around for new subscriptions. He starts out saying what paper he's calling about and asks whether I receive their paper. I say no. Then he starts off on a sales pitch, which I interrupt to say that the reason I don't receive the paper already is that I don't WANT it, since I get my news from the net. The guy actually tries to continue on reading the script or whatever he's got in front of him... took a couple tries to be polite about not wanting what he's selling before I just flat out said "Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. Not interested." and hung up on the guy. In retrospect that should have been my first response.
I'm amazed people still sit on the phone with these bottom-feeders and answer their questions, unwillingly signing themselves up for a ton of crap. It's not hard to tell them to piss off instead of falling for their tactics.
Because hobbyists (read: nerds) flock to this stuff like crazy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against people having a hobby, and quite frankly the paint jobs some people do on their figurines are amazing. I'd just hate to see what happens when 10 years go by and thousands of dollars of dead weight is sitting in a box in the basement not being used. And maybe not even out of lack of interest, but because the company that creates it retires rulesets forcing the hardcore fanboys to spend even MORE money.
I'd welcome that. Wars, famine, the general fucking of the world -- all virtual. Once it gets totally unbearable, we just reboot. Also we could run on walls and look at girls in skin tight leather all day. Good stuff!