In addition to what this reply's older siblings have said, I reckon they want to test the delta-update system. I haven't tried the beta myself, but I think 1.5's auto-update is supposed to be a self-patcher, rather than a self-complete-redownloader.
Welcome to the age where parents can't say no and instant gratification is more important then an education. Yes, there will be plenty of parents lining up with and without their fat kids in tow.
Yes, the shameful "instant gratification" of buying a 600-flippin'-page book that kids are begging for. How dare they? Those parents should be locked up for encouraging their children's desire to read.
I didn't RTFA, so this may be redundant, but Uru Live was supposed to be an MMOG for casual gamers. Focused on an episodic storyline rather than addictive gameplay; the monthly fee would've been to keep participating in the next episode rather than to retain your built-up statistics.
Of course, Uru Live never WENT live, because Ubi wasted the money on lame commercials instead of giving CyanWorlds's 6 years of work a chance.
What the crap is up with Missouri? Except for a little chunk out of SE MO, every low-res picture is crazily vignetted. I mean you can see the border, mile-for-mile. Does the Missouri satellite have too long a lens hood or something?
Amen, brotha!!
on
P2P and TV
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
It's mind boggling to me that things like this don't put big, green, opaque dollar signs in the eyes of studio execs everywhere.
Even without effective DRM, studios could be raking in the cash RIGHT NOW via any number of online distribution methods. Yes, there would still be piracy, but it would convert at least SOME of it into dollars. RIGHT NOW!! If they want to keep pursuing DRM then fine, but they're losing money right now. What more incentive do they need??
Actually, in my hometown (Poplar Bluff, Missouri), we have exactly what the GP said. The city owns the cable and cable internet, and leases bandwidth to the ISPs, which they can sublease to their customers via whatever tier system they like. Or you can get it through the city directly.
I'm at University, so I'm not terribly intimate with how it all works. The tiers are too expensive for the bandwidth you get, but it's not much worse than, say, Cox was not-too-long ago. PPPOE kinda sucks, too, but it's required since you connect directly to City Cable with an @ISP username.
I can't offer much more commentary than that, just that it's being done and the streets are intact. (Or, at least, as intact as you can expect for Southeast Missouri.:) )
An example: The guy says there's no intuitive way to scroll around the image because there are NO SCROLLBARS.
Anyone who's used Photoshop for five minutes knows that to drag around an image, you hold down the spacebar to toggle to the hand tool. This works in just about any other graphics app, including Acrylic.
Another: He regurgitates the gripe that it can only save to XPR format, while the slightest bit of intelligent poking around reveals that -- again, JUST like Photoshop -- it EXPORTS to JPG, PNG, etc etc.
And that's in the HALF of the "review" that talks about the program instead of the logistics of downloading and installing the thing.
One thing a lot of us tech nerds have to learn is that our initial feelings do not opinions make. Something about our proto-Asperger's Syndrome compels us to try to make cogent arguments out of what we KNOW are just bare impressions.
After this guy learns that, he also needs to learn not to compensate by parading his malformed non-arguments in front of all of Slashdot.
Late reply that no one will ever see, but this should've been modded up. I agree completely, and it's a shame this complaint was drowned out by the cel-shading whiners.
Also, you're underestimating A Link to the Past. It had 10 bona fide dungeons (split 3/7) PLUS Hyrule Castle, PLUS Ganon's Tower, PLUS all those awesome caves/Lost Woods/Death Mountain/etc/etc. THAT'S the kind of Zelda I want back.
You are advocating a very scary society where refusing to be a consumer is a crime.
And you are an idiot* if you believe that watching an illegally downloaded movie is "refusing to be a consumer." It's quite the opposite; it's demanding to be a consumer, regardless of your ability/desire to be a legitimate one.
I agree that the entertainment media are retarded for being scared of "hi-tech" distribution. But don't turn that into some pseudophilosophical invalid moral high-road about the evils of capitalism.
Excuse me, but most Christians I know would string me up for even intimating that Evolution isn't evil.
I'm here saying that I believe in an old universe, believe science and my faith can coexist, and that in fact I actively think it's possible, and you're throwing me in the box with everyone else?
People like you, sir, are half the problem. Any Christian who speaks on the subject is an idiot in your world. The other half of the problem is the Christians who spout "evil" and "Bible-contradicting" whenever the word "evolution" comes up in any context.
I actually get madder at the Christians. The Bible says God created Adam from the dust; heck, that SOUNDS like Evolution, and I don't even really think Evolution happened. (I also don't think Genesis 1 and 2 are a scientific paper.)
But yeah, yeah I'm just another wacko Christian who learned about evil Evolution from other wackos on Sunday morning. Mmhmm.
More disclosure because I like to walk on eggshells.
I don't find Evolution to be threatening to my beliefs. So far as I'm concerned, the Bible says "God created stuff," while science says "Here's what it might've looked like when it happened." So I believe it's possible that macroevolution created the human body (although I think it probably required direct-from-God zapping to make us what we are, rather than just another animal).
But, it's sorta like Einstein and quantum physics. He came up with this cool Theory, and the Theory predicted entanglement. Einstein said "That can't happen, my theory sucks," but lo and behold entanglement DOES happen. We've seen it.
Whereas Evolution (capital E) says "Ah-ha, we rock, and here's how the fossil record is gonna prove it," but the fossil record really isn't doing such a bang-up job so far.
THAT's what I look for in a "Theory." What does it PREDICT and how good are the predictions? Relativity stands up. Evolution, IMO, not so much.
It's all just funny. Idiot arrogant Christians had the monopoly on genesis theory, then scientists got mad enough to say "Yer mom!" and now everyone's shouting their best come-back jokes at each other.
I can't wait for the day when either Christians OR scientists care about truth or facts when it comes to this stuff.
When every student in a school district is required to have a Bible as a textbook, I will wholeheartedly agree.
Until then, how dare you conflate required school textbooks with privately printed, published, and sold overtly religious texts? No one's asking to paste these stickers on all the evolution books at Barnes & Noble.
(Full disclosure: I'm a Christian who believes in a four zillion-year-old universe, but who's aware that most of the evidence that Evolution (capital E) predicts should be found just isn't being.)
When comparing the appearance of an object I think enlarging it makes it easier to see.
I agree, and were we dealing with "objects" per se that would work. But we're not dealing with objects, we're dealing with low-res raster images. Low-res images are meant to be viewed at low-res. The fact that enlarging them makes one type appear more disorderly is meaningless; it's all about how they look on a TV in gameplay. Those SMRPG sprites all look fantastic on a TV in gameplay.
"The hell" with my last paragraph is that your whole article is based around your retro-1337 opinion that hand-drawn 2D sprites are innately superior to pre-rendered ones. There's nothing wrong with that opinion, but the article defends it by blowing them up to 1600% of their original size. That's a lousy defense, as it has nothing whatsoever to do with how they look in-game. Therefore, barring some hitherto unreleased real back-up, I say it's mostly-baseless retro-1337 opinion.
I question your concept of aliasing, since manual aliasing and anti-aliasing are the integral part of making attractive hand-drawn sprites. But let me observe that when comparing the NES SMB3 Mario to the SNES SMB3 Mario, the SNES one appears "more complicated" because of the gradients, yet you say those are the definitive sprites while the "complicated" 3D ones suck.
Oh, and do you notice how the darker colors are around the edges of those, too? Yeah, that's because it looks good, so they drew them that way on purpose.
It's universally agreed that the most recent Mario is pretty f**king ugly, and anyone who disagrees seems only to be playing devil's advocate.
I wholeheartedly and genuinely disagree. The Mario they settled on for the 3D models is fantastic. They did away with the over-chubbiness, ditzy-eyedness, albinoness, and general panziness that had at various times been part of the years' worth of Mario illustrations. This Mario does mean/determined, nice, cool, and any other disposition you can think of, perfectly. He's not too chubby, but his body proportions are still coolly unrealistic. He has a tan.
Why in the world do you find the 3D Mario they settled on ugly, and what are your sources for believing others do?
"We are retro, therefore we are 1337"
on
The Evolution of Mario
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Paraphrasing the article:
Pre-rendered 3D marios look aliased and terrible!
When you show them as 80x160 images on VGA resolution monitors, of bloody course they do.
Quoting the article:
The 1996 release of Super Mario RPG... saw the first appearance of a pre-rendered, aliased Mario. Notice the dark colours around the edges.
Dark colours around the edges. As opposed to his lovely hand-drawn sprites, which have BLACK FRICKIN' OUTLINES. More consistent, perhaps, but not inherently better.
Bleh. Dumb. This isn't the evolution of Mario, this is some kind of retro artist elitism. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but when you call your article "The Evolution of Mario," it'd be cooler to talk about the changes in his visual style than to flaunt your wicked cool retro-gamerhood. Please. That's, like, all of us.
Art == entertainment. Entertainment == Art. Art is something that's created for others to find pleasing, thought-provoking, etc. (And something can make you feel unpleasant but still be pleasing in other ways.)
"The people who are seeing this understand it. And, y'know, there's nothing more important. Um, there's only one reason to make art, and that's it."
--Joss Whedon
Anything that's for other people to understand is art. Art that isn't for other people to understand isn't art, it's masturbation.
Slashdot Mirror
Answer being:
'If I ask someone from the other tribe which path leads to the Village of Life, what will he tell me?'
In addition to what this reply's older siblings have said, I reckon they want to test the delta-update system. I haven't tried the beta myself, but I think 1.5's auto-update is supposed to be a self-patcher, rather than a self-complete-redownloader.
s/article/story
Quoth the article:
Wow, something in a deleted scene NOT EVEN BEING in the theatrical release? Shock! Amaze! Mystify!
"Prior to July 20, we explicitly said you had to tell us about all hidden stuff.
On July 20, we explicitly said you had to tell us about all hidden stuff."
ESRB's been learning from Slashdot. Unfortunately, it's been from the editors, not the posters.
"there is always going to be a market place for the Dave Winer's of this world"
As far as I'm concerned, that's not contrary to good blogging being in decline, that's EVIDENCE of it.
Then you can; no one forces you to obey robots.txt in your own project, or any other for that matter.
Oh please. Like you really want Google's pages to be indexed in other search engines. Search engine result pages make crappy search engine results.
It sounds more like some idiot typing copy for the website didn't realize that OS X is/will always be tied to Apple hardware.
If that IS a little revelation, it's awfully quiet and fanfare-free.
Welcome to the age where parents can't say no and instant gratification is more important then an education. Yes, there will be plenty of parents lining up with and without their fat kids in tow.
Yes, the shameful "instant gratification" of buying a 600-flippin'-page book that kids are begging for. How dare they? Those parents should be locked up for encouraging their children's desire to read.
</sarcasm>
Idiot.
</bitterness>
I didn't RTFA, so this may be redundant, but Uru Live was supposed to be an MMOG for casual gamers. Focused on an episodic storyline rather than addictive gameplay; the monthly fee would've been to keep participating in the next episode rather than to retain your built-up statistics.
Of course, Uru Live never WENT live, because Ubi wasted the money on lame commercials instead of giving CyanWorlds's 6 years of work a chance.
But I'm not bitter or anything.
What the crap is up with Missouri? Except for a little chunk out of SE MO, every low-res picture is crazily vignetted. I mean you can see the border, mile-for-mile. Does the Missouri satellite have too long a lens hood or something?
It's mind boggling to me that things like this don't put big, green, opaque dollar signs in the eyes of studio execs everywhere.
Even without effective DRM, studios could be raking in the cash RIGHT NOW via any number of online distribution methods. Yes, there would still be piracy, but it would convert at least SOME of it into dollars. RIGHT NOW!! If they want to keep pursuing DRM then fine, but they're losing money right now. What more incentive do they need??
Actually, in my hometown (Poplar Bluff, Missouri), we have exactly what the GP said. The city owns the cable and cable internet, and leases bandwidth to the ISPs, which they can sublease to their customers via whatever tier system they like. Or you can get it through the city directly.
:) )
I'm at University, so I'm not terribly intimate with how it all works. The tiers are too expensive for the bandwidth you get, but it's not much worse than, say, Cox was not-too-long ago. PPPOE kinda sucks, too, but it's required since you connect directly to City Cable with an @ISP username.
I can't offer much more commentary than that, just that it's being done and the streets are intact. (Or, at least, as intact as you can expect for Southeast Missouri.
100% agreed.
An example: The guy says there's no intuitive way to scroll around the image because there are NO SCROLLBARS.
Anyone who's used Photoshop for five minutes knows that to drag around an image, you hold down the spacebar to toggle to the hand tool. This works in just about any other graphics app, including Acrylic.
Another: He regurgitates the gripe that it can only save to XPR format, while the slightest bit of intelligent poking around reveals that -- again, JUST like Photoshop -- it EXPORTS to JPG, PNG, etc etc.
And that's in the HALF of the "review" that talks about the program instead of the logistics of downloading and installing the thing.
One thing a lot of us tech nerds have to learn is that our initial feelings do not opinions make. Something about our proto-Asperger's Syndrome compels us to try to make cogent arguments out of what we KNOW are just bare impressions.
After this guy learns that, he also needs to learn not to compensate by parading his malformed non-arguments in front of all of Slashdot.
Late reply that no one will ever see, but this should've been modded up. I agree completely, and it's a shame this complaint was drowned out by the cel-shading whiners.
Also, you're underestimating A Link to the Past. It had 10 bona fide dungeons (split 3/7) PLUS Hyrule Castle, PLUS Ganon's Tower, PLUS all those awesome caves/Lost Woods/Death Mountain/etc/etc. THAT'S the kind of Zelda I want back.
It's June 1999. After avoiding reviews for weeks, I'm sitting in the theater, anxiously awaiting the opening crawl of Star Wars Episode I.
After the previews, the house lights dimmed completely.
Everyone became silent.
The Fox Fanfare started to play; the Fox and Lucasfilm logos each faded in and out.
I got big-time goosebumps.
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." faded in.
I held my breath.
It faded out.
DEEDLE-ING DING DEEDLE-ING DING DEEDLE-ING DING DING! *BUH-BUM!*
A cell phone went off 1 second before the Main Theme began.
Somewhere, deep in my soul, I knew immediately that the whole movie would be just as disappointing.
And you are an idiot* if you believe that watching an illegally downloaded movie is "refusing to be a consumer." It's quite the opposite; it's demanding to be a consumer, regardless of your ability/desire to be a legitimate one.
I agree that the entertainment media are retarded for being scared of "hi-tech" distribution. But don't turn that into some pseudophilosophical invalid moral high-road about the evils of capitalism.
* "Never attribute to malice..."
Excuse me, but most Christians I know would string me up for even intimating that Evolution isn't evil.
I'm here saying that I believe in an old universe, believe science and my faith can coexist, and that in fact I actively think it's possible, and you're throwing me in the box with everyone else?
People like you, sir, are half the problem. Any Christian who speaks on the subject is an idiot in your world. The other half of the problem is the Christians who spout "evil" and "Bible-contradicting" whenever the word "evolution" comes up in any context.
I actually get madder at the Christians. The Bible says God created Adam from the dust; heck, that SOUNDS like Evolution, and I don't even really think Evolution happened. (I also don't think Genesis 1 and 2 are a scientific paper.)
But yeah, yeah I'm just another wacko Christian who learned about evil Evolution from other wackos on Sunday morning. Mmhmm.
More disclosure because I like to walk on eggshells. I don't find Evolution to be threatening to my beliefs. So far as I'm concerned, the Bible says "God created stuff," while science says "Here's what it might've looked like when it happened." So I believe it's possible that macroevolution created the human body (although I think it probably required direct-from-God zapping to make us what we are, rather than just another animal). But, it's sorta like Einstein and quantum physics. He came up with this cool Theory, and the Theory predicted entanglement. Einstein said "That can't happen, my theory sucks," but lo and behold entanglement DOES happen. We've seen it. Whereas Evolution (capital E) says "Ah-ha, we rock, and here's how the fossil record is gonna prove it," but the fossil record really isn't doing such a bang-up job so far. THAT's what I look for in a "Theory." What does it PREDICT and how good are the predictions? Relativity stands up. Evolution, IMO, not so much. It's all just funny. Idiot arrogant Christians had the monopoly on genesis theory, then scientists got mad enough to say "Yer mom!" and now everyone's shouting their best come-back jokes at each other. I can't wait for the day when either Christians OR scientists care about truth or facts when it comes to this stuff.
When every student in a school district is required to have a Bible as a textbook, I will wholeheartedly agree.
Until then, how dare you conflate required school textbooks with privately printed, published, and sold overtly religious texts? No one's asking to paste these stickers on all the evolution books at Barnes & Noble.
(Full disclosure: I'm a Christian who believes in a four zillion-year-old universe, but who's aware that most of the evidence that Evolution (capital E) predicts should be found just isn't being.)
I agree, and were we dealing with "objects" per se that would work. But we're not dealing with objects, we're dealing with low-res raster images. Low-res images are meant to be viewed at low-res. The fact that enlarging them makes one type appear more disorderly is meaningless; it's all about how they look on a TV in gameplay. Those SMRPG sprites all look fantastic on a TV in gameplay.
"The hell" with my last paragraph is that your whole article is based around your retro-1337 opinion that hand-drawn 2D sprites are innately superior to pre-rendered ones. There's nothing wrong with that opinion, but the article defends it by blowing them up to 1600% of their original size. That's a lousy defense, as it has nothing whatsoever to do with how they look in-game. Therefore, barring some hitherto unreleased real back-up, I say it's mostly-baseless retro-1337 opinion.
I question your concept of aliasing, since manual aliasing and anti-aliasing are the integral part of making attractive hand-drawn sprites. But let me observe that when comparing the NES SMB3 Mario to the SNES SMB3 Mario, the SNES one appears "more complicated" because of the gradients, yet you say those are the definitive sprites while the "complicated" 3D ones suck.
Oh, and do you notice how the darker colors are around the edges of those, too? Yeah, that's because it looks good, so they drew them that way on purpose.
I wholeheartedly and genuinely disagree. The Mario they settled on for the 3D models is fantastic. They did away with the over-chubbiness, ditzy-eyedness, albinoness, and general panziness that had at various times been part of the years' worth of Mario illustrations. This Mario does mean/determined, nice, cool, and any other disposition you can think of, perfectly. He's not too chubby, but his body proportions are still coolly unrealistic. He has a tan.
Why in the world do you find the 3D Mario they settled on ugly, and what are your sources for believing others do?
Paraphrasing the article:
When you show them as 80x160 images on VGA resolution monitors, of bloody course they do.
Quoting the article:
Dark colours around the edges. As opposed to his lovely hand-drawn sprites, which have BLACK FRICKIN' OUTLINES. More consistent, perhaps, but not inherently better.
Bleh. Dumb. This isn't the evolution of Mario, this is some kind of retro artist elitism. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but when you call your article "The Evolution of Mario," it'd be cooler to talk about the changes in his visual style than to flaunt your wicked cool retro-gamerhood. Please. That's, like, all of us.Art == entertainment. Entertainment == Art. Art is something that's created for others to find pleasing, thought-provoking, etc. (And something can make you feel unpleasant but still be pleasing in other ways.)
Anything that's for other people to understand is art. Art that isn't for other people to understand isn't art, it's masturbation.