Did anyone else notice that the article was practically empty? That it was maybe, at most, five hundred words? Sorry, correct that, I just ran it through a word processor: 240 words in the article, not counting title, byline, or advertising.
The article had NO MEANING. It was one of those things you say to your buddies while hanging around. "You know, if Leopard is as fast as Apple says so, MS could be in deep [insert colorful adjective here]." Then you're promptly shot down by your friends, reminding you that the masses have a "Crapple" frame of mind because their last experience with Mac OS was with the pizza-box LC IIs running System 7 from back when they were in high school, and they don't care any more.
Not only does this bode poorly for Slashdot's credibility as having important and accurate information, but what does this say about journalism in general, when this passes for a good article. Oh, wait, it's not even an article! It's a blog posting! Do we even know who this Max Fomitchev is? I've never heard of him. This place is slowly becoming a rumor mill full of dupes.
Come back when you've got an article from a credible source, no less than 500 words, with some real analysis, facts to back it up, and maybe a cool graphic or charts or something. Until then, stop wasting my time.
Actually, no. I don't use Windows. The rest of my family does, but I don't. I usually just let the system auto-update itself (well, it need to be family-proofed before I go away to school this fall). Pretty much the only reasons I haven't tried to pro-actively herd them towards Linux is because they have some Win32 games that probably wouldn't be supported by Wine, and my father has some work-based VPN stuff that's very fussy (definately a no-go on Wine).
But, I suppose, I could, theoretically, back-up all of everyone's documents, wipe the disk, do a fresh install of Windows, install the latest WGA, download the upgrade packages as executable files (Not as Windows Update), burn them to a CD, copy all required info to paper, wipe, reinstall, then install the upgrades from CD, entering data as required. Restore, voila. A WGA-free (not WGA-disabled) system. It's possible in theory, at least. Probably some pitfalls involved (like I can only get upgrades through Windows Update, and not as downloadable packages), but I'm sure someone will eventually find a reliable way to circumvent it.
You know, I'd love to know, HOW can Microsoft turn off copies without the WGA installed? Do they have some kind of back door that they had installed ages ago? Built into XP from when we installed it from binaries? That seems odd.
Or, at least, what I'VE been waiting for. Games like Halo 2 are fun and all, but some of the methodology is kind of brain dead. CTF is classic, Slayer is fun, but to restrict yourself to such mundane game types is like developing the X360 with sprite animation in mind. It's old.
I've been waiting for a squad-based combat game (not just red team vs. blue team, but groups of players on the same team working together, instead of a mass melee) that actually encouraged cooperation. I've been promised it before (Battlefront II, Republic Commando), but never quite got it. Perhaps now we'll see that. And some more open-ended maps.
Map design, while it's good for some games, is really lacking. A map is more than just a plane with objects on it. You need to be able to interact with those objects. You need to be able to go INTO buildings, throw boxes, push dumpsters, stack rubble. You know, something resembling more of how you could do things in the real world. Let us up on the roof for God's sake! I shouldn't have to discover an exploit to have a good sniping spot.
Windows fading? What the hell are you smoking, and where can I get some? Let's assume that, outside of LinuxTag, DefCon, etc. the largest gathering of computer literate people you're going to find is a high school, or a college. Let's face it, one of the largest groups of computer users today are teens and college students. Assuming you don't go into a CompSci class, and you ask "Who knows anything about Linux," people are going to ask you "What's Linux?"
Aside from Windows, the only OS people know about is Mac OS, and you'll get the knee-jerk reaction of "Mac OS sucks," and their last interaction was a (even at that time) outdated System 7 pizzabox from elementary school eight years ago.
Sure, you'll find one or two people who know, but the majority will have NO CLUE. If Linux's popularity was as high as you made it out, MS wouldn't have the stranglehold we all know it has.
June 29, 2006
Just one week after the 0.44 release our software was distributed to over 54,100 users through the SourceForge download servers. The largest share was from the Windows users, who totalled nearly 38,000 downloads. The next highest number was from the Mac users with 9,115 downloads. The Unix/Linux users scored 7,104 downloads.
I find it funny that we have all these people talking about how this will finally be their opportunity to ditch their lone Windows box because they have a viable alternative to Illustrator. And what platform got the largest number of downloads? Windows. Something about Windows users doing the most downloading of an Open Source project (aside from FireFox) seems odd, or funny to me. I'm not too surprised that Mac users came in second (We like not having to shell out for Illustrator too), but the fact that UNIX/Linux came in last is shocking.
Ahh, yes, the infamous Senate Bribe trick: "If you want to pass this bill [that does everything YOU want it to, like improving education, fixing MediCare, repairing Social Security, and basically insuring the existence of the US], then I might as well sneak in these few 'little' things. If they don't like these little changes, then they'll have to strike down the bill, and swallow everything they wanted." I write a bill you like, you pass these little things I want.
I can imagine the lobbiests running down the halls of Congress, lugging over-stuffed carpet bags jammed with cash. You just know a lot of money is changing hands on this one.
Either way, my point stands: Gates didn't invent it. I think that Microsoft was totally within its bounds to develop a GUI (if it wasn't I'd hate to think what would happen to X11...). It was a brilliant move on Gates part, that would launch a little program that would create one of the most recognized brand names ever (after "Coca Cola" of course).
FYI, I am aware that what Gates (and Jobs) did with PARC and Apple was legal. If it wasn't legal, then Microsoft probably would have been sued out of existance (Xerox is no small company).
You know, I really DON'T KNOW what Gates leaving Microsoft (well, essentially leaving) is going to mean for the future. Gates, while he gave us the Operating System, never was too much of a programming genius. He bought DOS, and essentially stole the GUI from PARC. What Gates was, was a marketing, and packaging (anything that involved selling us stuff) genius. He sold us IE, he sold us WMP, he sold us Windows.
Maybe Balmer (or whoever replaces Gates) will be even more agressive. Or maybe they'll do worse. I'm genuinely curious how this is going to turn out.
If you ask me, I think TechArray missed the point of buying a $500 graphics card. You don't buy a $500 graphics card to play today's games, or yesterday's games. You buy them for tomorrow's games, and the day after that's.
I remember when we got our Gateway (Yes, a Gateway, but it was six years ago, and I was naïve. That and it was the family PC). It was the first new PC we had bought in ages. The P3 500 MHz with 128 MB of RAM, and the nVidia Riva TNT2 w/ 32 MB of RAM seemed excessive for the sprite-pushing games I had on the old Cyrix system (Some unknown clock speed, overclocked to 150, the entire system was made by some unknown manufacturer). Sure, the TNT2 blew away my old copies of Keen (Hell, the Cyrix did that), and Final Fantasy VII (The Cyrix crawled, even at 320x240), but when the then-unknown-for-PC Final Fantasy VIII came out, the card performed admirably. It even did quite well when it came down to emulating a PlayStation at 1024x768 with all effects (except motion blur) turned on.
If I was just going to play the games I already owned, and the games I already knew about, the TNT2 was overkill. A simpler GPU would have been more than enough. But I knew (even back then) that I'd probably have to replace the GPU for newer games and software. In the end, I think getting the TNT2 was one of the better choices on that system.
Video: Media Player Classic with ffdshow
I actually prefer VLC. It runs pretty smoothly, has a number of fun filters and plug-ins (5.1 Virtualization for Headphones is really nice!), and best of all: everything is included in-house, no having to deal with ffdshow, or VFW junk. Everything is supported out of the box. Of course, if you feel like doing a lot of monkeying around with CygWin (which is a worthwhile app to download, just make sure you get the GCC packs), try out MPlayer. It supports nearly everything the Linux and OS X counterparts support, and has the exact same cold, utilitarian command line interface!
IM: Trillian (needs to be replaced with a Jabber client + aim/yahoo transport)
Been done. gAIM for Windows. Why not clutter up our 100% closed source, proprietary monolythic OS with all sorts of inferrior extensible, modulized open source apps?;)
IRC: Chatzilla
Well, here's another cross-platform solution: XChat. It has a nifty tabbed based chat management system. Of course, if you want the true Windows/IRC experience, get mIRC, load it up with tons of scripts (both self-activating, and manually activated), and go running through the networks of the world. Just watch out for the UNICODE nasties (mIRC doesn't support UNICODE)
Firewall: Sygate (needs to be replaced)
I can't speak for Sygate, but ZoneAlarm
is pretty good, in my opinion. (With exception to games) this is the only closed source recomendation I have here, but what Windows experience is complete without some closed-source freeware/shareware?
This fun game: Typing of the Dead
This one is definately worth a try. Quite fun! It's a little old, but worth it. Speaking of old and worth it, see if you can locate a copy of Commander Keen. It's not really Windows (DOS, actually), but I doubt you'd see it on a Mac.
But I must say some of it's defining characteristics weren't good. For example, all of the Sonic games sucked. The early runs of the first Sonic game were marred with manufacturing problems, and I got one of those. But lets see,
1. Soul Caliber. Obviously, THE defining game for the DC. One of the greatest of all time, especially when considered in context of its era.
Definately. I bought a new Dreamcast after mine broke, just so I could play this game! Of course, mine broke only about a few months ago...
2. The aforementioned PSO, though I never played it.
A really awesome game. I has a lot of possibilities in the future. I could easily see a version of this game working on another console, like the PSP. It's worth finding. The biggest problem with the game was that individual characters were tied to the Dreamcast hardware. So, once my DC broke, my awesome level 36 FOnewm went with it.:( I only managed to play the game online twice, because we had broadband at that time, and AT&T (who were the ISP at the time) charged people to use a dial-up line with their account.
3. Sonic, though probably more known for its suckitude and bugs and failure to deliver on it's cool possibilities.
They couldn't even be bothered to fix the camera problems for the GameCube version! DX my ***!
4. Shenmue has to be one of the most defining DC games. Personally, I thought it was one of the greatest games of all time. Certainly, most immersive ever at the time. Just incredible.
I totally agree. It was so freaking immersive, my sister would watch me play the game. It really had that cinematic feel about it. Pity we never really saw the sequels over here in the US (or, I should say, we never really saw marketing for the XBox version).
5. RE: Code Veronica was an amazing game that won over a lot of people's hearts and is identified with the DC.
6. Chu Chu Rockets! Definitely one of the defining games of the DC. One of the first online games, if I recall. THE first online game. I loved it. Never played it online, though (see the reason for PSO)
7. 2K Sports. Completely changed the competitive landscape of sports games, across the board. The basketball, baseball, and hockey in particular were often considered best-of-class. Eventually, they offered on-line play, a major historical accomplishment.
Too bad the save file for those games ate up an entire memory card! The create-a-player feature was kinda cool. Made my own team of hideous freaks once. They actually played pretty well.
8. Crazy Taxy! Did anybody with a DC not have this game?
That's like a requirement for the Dreamcast! Pity the PS2 version has such weird controls. It just seems that it can't be ported properly. I still remember pulling wicked Crazy Drifts through traffic.
9. Jet Set Radio almost invented Cell Shading techniques that have since been done to death. Great game, too.
It didn't "almost" invent Cell Shading, it did invent cell shading. Tons of fun, but I remember the huge public outcry against it. Heh, I'd love to see the reaction to GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas back then!
10. Legacy of Kain, I think that's what it was called. Highly regarded, though I didn't like it too much.
Same here. It just felt like a clunky platformer to me.
11. 2D Fighting games out the wazoo. Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighters in every incarnation, Capcom vs SNK, and just on and on and on. The DC was just heaven for fighting game fans!
And some of those fighting games were the best ever. I still prefer MvC over MvC2. And you forgot King Of Fighters '99, which was the first console game to link with a portable game system! It utilized a serial link to the SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color. Seems... interesting that they died within such proximity of eachother, and in proximity of their compeditors' next product.
Yeah, I remember that. But let's remember how much of the market OS X controls, then remember how much market Microsoft controls. Market control = $$$, and, unfortunately, in many cases, $$$ = control and power that can be wielded.
The idea is that Microsoft is practically bribing Negroponte, and this is just an excuse to jump ship while not looking like a hypocrate or a traitor. My question is, though, where is Microsoft going to come up with this self-configuring cloud stuff? Unless they're going to pretty much rip off mDNS stuff, that could be interesting. That, and given the pace Vista has set, Win-Sub-$100 would probably be ready by the time that the $100 laptop can be built for $75 (thus allowing for hardware upgrades).
But back to the matter at hand: Shut up you, before the thought police find out about your heracy!
I agree. For me, however, it's a little more for text messaging. I work at a gas station, and I'm supposed to keep my phone on silent. However, my phone's vibrator isn't that wonderful. A useful thing for me is to place it relatively near the radio, I can hear the GSM blipping, which I will recognize as data going to my phone, but doesn't bother the customers. When I'm done, flip open the phone, and voilá!
Well, if vibrablade material was THAT heavy, then they probably wouldn't make vibrablades out of it (I doubt an ultra heavy blade would be a worthwhile compeditor for a LIGHTSABER!)
Achieving escape velocity isn't something to worry about. Just build the ship in orbit. Not a problem. Seriously, when it comes to vehicles as large as Star Destroyers, I doubt it would be efficient to land the ship EVERY time! Seems like it would make more sense to do what they do in Star Trek: build a ship for travel in space, so build it in space.
Also, I am assuming that at least some of the metal would be vaporized and the expanding gas would fling bits of molten metal at the saber wielder. Wouldn't your average Jedi be horribly scarred from all this.
Vaguely reminds me of a discussion a friend and I once had about how lightsabers don't seem to have knuckle guards. Theoretically, the best way to win in a lightsaber battle would be, once your saber clashes with another, just follow the saber back towards the user, where you can either slice off your opponant's fingers, or dice up the lightsaber. Obviously lightsabers are not saber-proof (we've seen 'em get chopped up).
Of course, the obvious answer to this is the Vibrablade, as noted in Knights of the Old Republic. Made of a special metal that is able to withstand contact with a lightsaber. So, make a vibrablade-inspired knuckleguard. But, if that's the case, then why aren't ships made of the same material as vibrablades? Surely if it can stop a lightsaber, it can stop (or at least reduce the damage from) blasters and other weapons. Or why not make vibrablade based armor? Doors? Vehicles? Or even lightsabers? Oh, sorry. I better stop. I think I'm making Lucas cry.
I'm vaguely reminded of how SquareEnix dealt with this problem with Final Fantasy XI. SquareEnix basically says: "You are assigned to this server. You don't like it, boo hoo." However, if you really want to play on the same world (SE's term for server) as your buddy, you're probably patient enough to wait for him to run into town, and buy you a world pass, so you can join that world.
SquareEnix doesn't tell you what the population is, and they aim to try and keep the population even across worlds. In this way, everyone gets to complain about the n00bs, the gil farmers, and the infamous economy !@#$& up of '04.
All of a sudden, I'm wondering, what about a third option? Don't limit players to living on one server. Theoretically, all the servers should be the same, in terms of what happens, layout, etc. Why not just store character data on one central server cluster, and players can choose one server to play on per day. Population levels will fluxuate, but you can change easily, but the change isn't so rapid that the flux would be chaotic.
Well, I'm aware that the G3's and G4's run pretty cool. Wasn't that the reason Apple went with the PowerPC chips instead of x86 in the first place? That, and I'm also aware that idling, making my XBox average 124F requires the fan to be constantly spinning at about 0.5x, but making my iBook (1GHz) run below 120F on battery requires next to nothing. Running on the power cord, it only hits 120F+ if I start having it pull heavier work loads, and it's never gone over 150F before.
However, even OS X's tight power management system (I've pulled 7 hours once) I'm sure can be tweaked a little. And with all the open source apps for Linux out there, I thought perhaps someone figured out how to make it work on OS X.
Hold on a second. Are you saying that by making a system easily and freely (perhaps illegally so, depending) available to others, bypassing any restraints on supplies, cannot keep the system living, or promote growth?
Yeah, I suppose you're right. I mean, SNES emulators haven't kept the system's popularity up, nor have people tried programming their own games for it. All those Publid Domain ROMs, they're just myths.
True, this isn't exactly going to cause an explosion of Newton, but it's definately going to keep it going for a long time. As long as there's something of worth to be gotten out of emulating the system, it'll live on. Look at the NES, Master System, SNES, Genesis, PSX, NGPC, C64, Sinclare, MSX, Amiga, etc. etc. etc.
WiFi? Hah! We had no such luxuries when I did it. all I had was a borrowed PCMCIA ethernet card and a disk drive! Hell, the damn thing didn't have CardBus or USB. Didn't even have a PS/2 port for a mouse. As far as disk space, I never really had to worry. I just used it for text editing, and about 20 MB free was more than enough for that. I used Debian net-stall, and it ran quite well.
This reminds me of a few projects I've completed in the past. I remember trying to take on the challenge of installing Linux on an ancient 486 laptop with about 8 MB of RAM, and a 120 MB hard disk. A net-stall where I ended up being able to run GQView.
In my house, I run my own web server, which doubles as my router. Originally, it was a Packard Bell running a Pentium 266 MHz processor with a paltry 64 MB of RAM, but a healthy 9 GB hard disk. After a while, the RAM constraints were too much and I upgraded to a Pentium II system simply because I needed more RAM, and I was worrying that some of the cooling fans were starting to go.
Still, I love these kinds of challenges, to try to push something older, to repurpose it for a modern usage, and to see just how far you can go.
...'Please use with DVD video player' notice on each cover. More elaborate piece of paper enclosed -inside- stated that I have to download and install something called 'InterActual Player' if I want to watch this disk on the PC or Mac. The disks have the 'DVD video' symbol on them...
Well, I'm assuming there's a "video_ts" directory on the disc, so it should be standard DVD spec. Just try MPlayer. It's played every DVD I've thrown at it, ever. You'll have to compile it from source, but it's worth it.
...What should I do if they refuse to accept opened cases back? (for semi-legal advice, please take into account that I'm in Tokyo)."
Well, I'm going to assume that Japan has similar laws to the US, as far as consumer protection. They cannot sell you something that isn't what it claims to be. I.E. if they sell you a Standard Definition TV, and the box says it's High Definition, you are allowed to return it. I'm also going to assume that this place allows you to return defective discs.
As far as I'm aware, the only discs that can legally bear the DVD Video logo are those that are true DVD spec. If these discs aren't DVD spec, then pretty much say that these discs aren't what they claim to be, or are defective.
Linux is not even mentioned on their site
Yeah, they don't have any Linux support.
It looks like this piece of software is not even free
It is free.
Some people believe it is spyware and, finally...
It's not spyware, but it is hard to get rid of on Windows systems (pretty easy on Macs though)
There are numerous problems making it work.
It is kinda buggy.
The InterActual player is just an over glorified DVD playing program, there's really very little about it that's special, and I can't think of a single reason you'd need it.
Slashdot Mirror
The article had NO MEANING. It was one of those things you say to your buddies while hanging around. "You know, if Leopard is as fast as Apple says so, MS could be in deep [insert colorful adjective here]." Then you're promptly shot down by your friends, reminding you that the masses have a "Crapple" frame of mind because their last experience with Mac OS was with the pizza-box LC IIs running System 7 from back when they were in high school, and they don't care any more.
Not only does this bode poorly for Slashdot's credibility as having important and accurate information, but what does this say about journalism in general, when this passes for a good article. Oh, wait, it's not even an article! It's a blog posting! Do we even know who this Max Fomitchev is? I've never heard of him. This place is slowly becoming a rumor mill full of dupes.
Come back when you've got an article from a credible source, no less than 500 words, with some real analysis, facts to back it up, and maybe a cool graphic or charts or something. Until then, stop wasting my time.
But, I suppose, I could, theoretically, back-up all of everyone's documents, wipe the disk, do a fresh install of Windows, install the latest WGA, download the upgrade packages as executable files (Not as Windows Update), burn them to a CD, copy all required info to paper, wipe, reinstall, then install the upgrades from CD, entering data as required. Restore, voila. A WGA-free (not WGA-disabled) system. It's possible in theory, at least. Probably some pitfalls involved (like I can only get upgrades through Windows Update, and not as downloadable packages), but I'm sure someone will eventually find a reliable way to circumvent it.
You know, I'd love to know, HOW can Microsoft turn off copies without the WGA installed? Do they have some kind of back door that they had installed ages ago? Built into XP from when we installed it from binaries? That seems odd.
I've been waiting for a squad-based combat game (not just red team vs. blue team, but groups of players on the same team working together, instead of a mass melee) that actually encouraged cooperation. I've been promised it before (Battlefront II, Republic Commando), but never quite got it. Perhaps now we'll see that. And some more open-ended maps.
Map design, while it's good for some games, is really lacking. A map is more than just a plane with objects on it. You need to be able to interact with those objects. You need to be able to go INTO buildings, throw boxes, push dumpsters, stack rubble. You know, something resembling more of how you could do things in the real world. Let us up on the roof for God's sake! I shouldn't have to discover an exploit to have a good sniping spot.
Aside from Windows, the only OS people know about is Mac OS, and you'll get the knee-jerk reaction of "Mac OS sucks," and their last interaction was a (even at that time) outdated System 7 pizzabox from elementary school eight years ago.
Sure, you'll find one or two people who know, but the majority will have NO CLUE. If Linux's popularity was as high as you made it out, MS wouldn't have the stranglehold we all know it has.
I can imagine the lobbiests running down the halls of Congress, lugging over-stuffed carpet bags jammed with cash. You just know a lot of money is changing hands on this one.
FYI, I am aware that what Gates (and Jobs) did with PARC and Apple was legal. If it wasn't legal, then Microsoft probably would have been sued out of existance (Xerox is no small company).
Maybe Balmer (or whoever replaces Gates) will be even more agressive. Or maybe they'll do worse. I'm genuinely curious how this is going to turn out.
I remember when we got our Gateway (Yes, a Gateway, but it was six years ago, and I was naïve. That and it was the family PC). It was the first new PC we had bought in ages. The P3 500 MHz with 128 MB of RAM, and the nVidia Riva TNT2 w/ 32 MB of RAM seemed excessive for the sprite-pushing games I had on the old Cyrix system (Some unknown clock speed, overclocked to 150, the entire system was made by some unknown manufacturer). Sure, the TNT2 blew away my old copies of Keen (Hell, the Cyrix did that), and Final Fantasy VII (The Cyrix crawled, even at 320x240), but when the then-unknown-for-PC Final Fantasy VIII came out, the card performed admirably. It even did quite well when it came down to emulating a PlayStation at 1024x768 with all effects (except motion blur) turned on.
If I was just going to play the games I already owned, and the games I already knew about, the TNT2 was overkill. A simpler GPU would have been more than enough. But I knew (even back then) that I'd probably have to replace the GPU for newer games and software. In the end, I think getting the TNT2 was one of the better choices on that system.
I actually prefer VLC. It runs pretty smoothly, has a number of fun filters and plug-ins (5.1 Virtualization for Headphones is really nice!), and best of all: everything is included in-house, no having to deal with ffdshow, or VFW junk. Everything is supported out of the box. Of course, if you feel like doing a lot of monkeying around with CygWin (which is a worthwhile app to download, just make sure you get the GCC packs), try out MPlayer. It supports nearly everything the Linux and OS X counterparts support, and has the exact same cold, utilitarian command line interface!
IM: Trillian (needs to be replaced with a Jabber client + aim/yahoo transport) ;)
Been done. gAIM for Windows. Why not clutter up our 100% closed source, proprietary monolythic OS with all sorts of inferrior extensible, modulized open source apps?
IRC: Chatzilla
Well, here's another cross-platform solution: XChat. It has a nifty tabbed based chat management system. Of course, if you want the true Windows/IRC experience, get mIRC, load it up with tons of scripts (both self-activating, and manually activated), and go running through the networks of the world. Just watch out for the UNICODE nasties (mIRC doesn't support UNICODE)
Firewall: Sygate (needs to be replaced)
I can't speak for Sygate, but ZoneAlarm is pretty good, in my opinion. (With exception to games) this is the only closed source recomendation I have here, but what Windows experience is complete without some closed-source freeware/shareware?
This fun game: Typing of the Dead
This one is definately worth a try. Quite fun! It's a little old, but worth it. Speaking of old and worth it, see if you can locate a copy of Commander Keen. It's not really Windows (DOS, actually), but I doubt you'd see it on a Mac.
1. Soul Caliber. Obviously, THE defining game for the DC. One of the greatest of all time, especially when considered in context of its era.
Definately. I bought a new Dreamcast after mine broke, just so I could play this game! Of course, mine broke only about a few months ago...
2. The aforementioned PSO, though I never played it. :( I only managed to play the game online twice, because we had broadband at that time, and AT&T (who were the ISP at the time) charged people to use a dial-up line with their account.
A really awesome game. I has a lot of possibilities in the future. I could easily see a version of this game working on another console, like the PSP. It's worth finding. The biggest problem with the game was that individual characters were tied to the Dreamcast hardware. So, once my DC broke, my awesome level 36 FOnewm went with it.
3. Sonic, though probably more known for its suckitude and bugs and failure to deliver on it's cool possibilities.
They couldn't even be bothered to fix the camera problems for the GameCube version! DX my ***!
4. Shenmue has to be one of the most defining DC games. Personally, I thought it was one of the greatest games of all time. Certainly, most immersive ever at the time. Just incredible.
I totally agree. It was so freaking immersive, my sister would watch me play the game. It really had that cinematic feel about it. Pity we never really saw the sequels over here in the US (or, I should say, we never really saw marketing for the XBox version).
5. RE: Code Veronica was an amazing game that won over a lot of people's hearts and is identified with the DC.
6. Chu Chu Rockets! Definitely one of the defining games of the DC. One of the first online games, if I recall.
THE first online game. I loved it. Never played it online, though (see the reason for PSO)
7. 2K Sports. Completely changed the competitive landscape of sports games, across the board. The basketball, baseball, and hockey in particular were often considered best-of-class. Eventually, they offered on-line play, a major historical accomplishment.
Too bad the save file for those games ate up an entire memory card! The create-a-player feature was kinda cool. Made my own team of hideous freaks once. They actually played pretty well.
8. Crazy Taxy! Did anybody with a DC not have this game?
That's like a requirement for the Dreamcast! Pity the PS2 version has such weird controls. It just seems that it can't be ported properly. I still remember pulling wicked Crazy Drifts through traffic.
9. Jet Set Radio almost invented Cell Shading techniques that have since been done to death. Great game, too.
It didn't "almost" invent Cell Shading, it did invent cell shading. Tons of fun, but I remember the huge public outcry against it. Heh, I'd love to see the reaction to GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas back then!
10. Legacy of Kain, I think that's what it was called. Highly regarded, though I didn't like it too much.
Same here. It just felt like a clunky platformer to me.
11. 2D Fighting games out the wazoo. Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighters in every incarnation, Capcom vs SNK, and just on and on and on. The DC was just heaven for fighting game fans!
And some of those fighting games were the best ever. I still prefer MvC over MvC2. And you forgot King Of Fighters '99, which was the first console game to link with a portable game system! It utilized a serial link to the SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color. Seems... interesting that they died within such proximity of eachother, and in proximity of their compeditors' next product.
12. S
The idea is that Microsoft is practically bribing Negroponte, and this is just an excuse to jump ship while not looking like a hypocrate or a traitor. My question is, though, where is Microsoft going to come up with this self-configuring cloud stuff? Unless they're going to pretty much rip off mDNS stuff, that could be interesting. That, and given the pace Vista has set, Win-Sub-$100 would probably be ready by the time that the $100 laptop can be built for $75 (thus allowing for hardware upgrades).
But back to the matter at hand: Shut up you, before the thought police find out about your heracy!
I agree. For me, however, it's a little more for text messaging. I work at a gas station, and I'm supposed to keep my phone on silent. However, my phone's vibrator isn't that wonderful. A useful thing for me is to place it relatively near the radio, I can hear the GSM blipping, which I will recognize as data going to my phone, but doesn't bother the customers. When I'm done, flip open the phone, and voilá!
Achieving escape velocity isn't something to worry about. Just build the ship in orbit. Not a problem. Seriously, when it comes to vehicles as large as Star Destroyers, I doubt it would be efficient to land the ship EVERY time! Seems like it would make more sense to do what they do in Star Trek: build a ship for travel in space, so build it in space.
Of course, the obvious answer to this is the Vibrablade, as noted in Knights of the Old Republic. Made of a special metal that is able to withstand contact with a lightsaber. So, make a vibrablade-inspired knuckleguard. But, if that's the case, then why aren't ships made of the same material as vibrablades? Surely if it can stop a lightsaber, it can stop (or at least reduce the damage from) blasters and other weapons. Or why not make vibrablade based armor? Doors? Vehicles? Or even lightsabers? Oh, sorry. I better stop. I think I'm making Lucas cry.
I... I... I think I love you. Finally, someone else who thinks that all politician have a not-so-honest streak in them.
SquareEnix doesn't tell you what the population is, and they aim to try and keep the population even across worlds. In this way, everyone gets to complain about the n00bs, the gil farmers, and the infamous economy !@#$& up of '04.
All of a sudden, I'm wondering, what about a third option? Don't limit players to living on one server. Theoretically, all the servers should be the same, in terms of what happens, layout, etc. Why not just store character data on one central server cluster, and players can choose one server to play on per day. Population levels will fluxuate, but you can change easily, but the change isn't so rapid that the flux would be chaotic.
However, even OS X's tight power management system (I've pulled 7 hours once) I'm sure can be tweaked a little. And with all the open source apps for Linux out there, I thought perhaps someone figured out how to make it work on OS X.
I've heard a lot about Linux tools, Windows Tools, but what about Mac OS X tools? I'm assuming that this isn't something possible only with x86 chips.
Yeah, I suppose you're right. I mean, SNES emulators haven't kept the system's popularity up, nor have people tried programming their own games for it. All those Publid Domain ROMs, they're just myths.
True, this isn't exactly going to cause an explosion of Newton, but it's definately going to keep it going for a long time. As long as there's something of worth to be gotten out of emulating the system, it'll live on. Look at the NES, Master System, SNES, Genesis, PSX, NGPC, C64, Sinclare, MSX, Amiga, etc. etc. etc.
WiFi? Hah! We had no such luxuries when I did it. all I had was a borrowed PCMCIA ethernet card and a disk drive! Hell, the damn thing didn't have CardBus or USB. Didn't even have a PS/2 port for a mouse. As far as disk space, I never really had to worry. I just used it for text editing, and about 20 MB free was more than enough for that. I used Debian net-stall, and it ran quite well.
In my house, I run my own web server, which doubles as my router. Originally, it was a Packard Bell running a Pentium 266 MHz processor with a paltry 64 MB of RAM, but a healthy 9 GB hard disk. After a while, the RAM constraints were too much and I upgraded to a Pentium II system simply because I needed more RAM, and I was worrying that some of the cooling fans were starting to go.
Still, I love these kinds of challenges, to try to push something older, to repurpose it for a modern usage, and to see just how far you can go.
Well, I'm assuming there's a "video_ts" directory on the disc, so it should be standard DVD spec. Just try MPlayer. It's played every DVD I've thrown at it, ever. You'll have to compile it from source, but it's worth it.
Well, I'm going to assume that Japan has similar laws to the US, as far as consumer protection. They cannot sell you something that isn't what it claims to be. I.E. if they sell you a Standard Definition TV, and the box says it's High Definition, you are allowed to return it. I'm also going to assume that this place allows you to return defective discs.
As far as I'm aware, the only discs that can legally bear the DVD Video logo are those that are true DVD spec. If these discs aren't DVD spec, then pretty much say that these discs aren't what they claim to be, or are defective.
- Linux is not even mentioned on their site
Yeah, they don't have any Linux support.- It looks like this piece of software is not even free
It is free.- Some people believe it is spyware and, finally...
It's not spyware, but it is hard to get rid of on Windows systems (pretty easy on Macs though)- There are numerous problems making it work.
It is kinda buggy.The InterActual player is just an over glorified DVD playing program, there's really very little about it that's special, and I can't think of a single reason you'd need it.