The National Association for the Advancement of Created Potatoes (NAACP) will fight for the rights of these new potatoes. And end the abuse of potatoes in such dishes as poutine and instant mashes.
Oddly enough, there *is* a MasterChef TV show here in the UK- and the original version was around *long* before Halo came out. That's why I can't hear the Halo character's name without thinking of Loyd Grossman cogitating over some random plebs' cookery- probably not what was intended.:-)
Interesting idea, but I think that even recipes tailored to babies' limited cookery skills is unlikely to succeed. Though they rarely burn food, that's usually because they don't know how to turn the cooker on.
Perhaps these recipes are along the lines of "Chew rusk until soggy. Spit out. Serve.", but technically that's not "cooking".
But how did you know to type LOAD ''? For most people, it was by reading the manual,
I daresay that a lot of people copied their friends who already had computers, but let's give that the benefit of the doubt as it's not the point.
which started off by telling you a bit about the machine and then told you what to type to load a game somewhere around chapter 2 or 3.
This assumes that most people read all the manual, of course, rather than simply skipping to the relevant part. But my point is that...
Contrast that with now, when installers autoplay and you can play the resulting game simply by clicking on it.
...here's the problem. You're being selective
in what you consider "simple" and (not) requiring knowledge of the machine.
You still have to know enough to boot Windows, possibly login, find the icon and *then* "simply" click on it and/or know that the disc will autoplay.
This is arguably more complicated than turning on the 8-bit, typing LOAD "" and pressing play. And you'll still have to have acquired that knowledge either via a manual or some form of online documentation.
One can nitpick the point, but the bottom line is that both cases require very rudimentary knowledge of basic aspects of their machine's operation, and no more. To argue that the 8-bit is significantly more demanding in this area (if at all) is IMHO simply wrong for the reasons I gave.
That's true, but somewhat shifting the grounds of your original argument that
You needed [as opposed to were given the opportunity to have] a basic understanding of how it worked to be able to start a game
Ultimately, having to plug in a tape deck and type "LOAD ''" or whatever doesn't really constitute an understanding of how the machine worked or require significantly more technical knowledge than modern machines do. Whether or not...
the games required a lot more imagination
...isn't really the same thing.
I do agree with a lot of what you say, but wanted to point out that- contrary to your original argument- if one simply wanted to play games, it wasn't necessary to do anything more than follow some very simple steps without understanding, and plenty of people likely did.
In the '80s, a typical home computer booted into a programming language. You needed a basic understanding of how it worked to be able to start a game
With respect, the way I remember it was (e.g. for the ZX Spectrum)
- Turn on
- When copyright message appears, type LOAD "" then enter
- Press play on tape as prompted, then press enter again
The C64 was pretty similar to the best of my knowledge. Even accounting for the knowledge required to get around problems with loading etc., I doubt that the 8-bit user had to be more knowledgeable than their modern counterpart if all they wanted to do was play games. The fact that the very simple canned steps required to get started were done via the BASIC command line really made little difference in practice. I suspect that most Spectrum owners- who bought the machines to play games- knew little more than that and could not have been said to know "programming" any more than I know Italian because I can say "pizza".
Having BASIC onboard may have prompted experimentation, but that would have been out of curiosity, not necessity as you were discussing.
Mind you, it eats batteries and so I have just ordered some 1300mAh AAA rechargeables for it.
Yes, that *is* a bloody nuisance in itself. I had a crappy FM radio (ASDA own-brand, coincidentally) that gobbled batteries, due I'm guessing to its crude and inefficient internal design. When it eventually stopped working (due to the aerial breaking off inside), I replaced it with a non-crappy Sony one whose batteries last for *months* on end versus the craptastic one's under-a-week performance.
Frankly, having to worry about and charge batteries once (or more) a week for something I only want to grab and listen to in the shower just isn't worth the hassle.
That assumes you mean the "original" original, as since I pointed out, some people claim that later versions of that *did* use microswitches.
Personally, I wasn't fanatical about the feel- though, as I pointed out, that was probably more because I was used to the QS2 Turbo (which ironically *did* use microswitches too).
I bought a Competition Pro here in the UK from Amazon about 18 months ago. There seemed to be two licensed versions from two different companies- the Powerplay-made one got very poor reviews, and the Speedlink version (AKA Speed-Link) version seemed to be much better built. However, some people have complained that the microswitches on the Speedlink are harder work than the switch type used on the original Competition Pros (apparently the later Competition Pros *did* use microswitches, so it *is* arguably an authentic reproduction).
I think I had an original Compeition Pro, but I can't remember enough about it to confirm if this was true- (it was never my main joystick, as I usually used the Quickshot II Turbo).
That said, the Speedlink version *is* much better regarded than the Powerplay one, at least as far as Amazon UK's reviews go.
Wow, you obviously don't understand how the internet works. The US has no more ability to unplug India or China than Iran has the ability to unplug the US.
Actually, unplugging India would be fairly simple for the US. It simply involves submarine work. Disconnecting China could likely be effectively accomplished the same way, at higher risk; I don't think there's significant overland cable from China to the rest of the world.
That would in effect be an attack on another country's infrastructure though- the implication of the OC was that specifically because Americans invented the Internet that they somehow have the authority- and the *ability*- to "cut off" others from the Internet due to that alone. They don't, at least not any more.
And while it would work in the short term- which may be all that would be necessary in a war-like situation- ultimately it could- and would- be worked around (*) as countries created new and more resiliently-designed connections and peering structures faster than the Americans could destroy them. Similar problems would apply to American attempts to leverage control over the aspects of the Internet that they still control, such as DNS. Other countries would simply set up their own DNS servers (possibly surreptitiously mirroring the American ones except where it didn't suit them).
Ultimately, America *could* "cut off" another country from their part of the Internet alone... but not from the rest of the world. And it'd be hard for them to stop citizens of that country accessing their Internet via another country, unless they cut off the rest of the world.
Except that I lied when I said America could even cut off another country by such means, because it would be practically impossible to sever all ties with the rest of the world anyway- even if they took draconian measures, they'd be unlikely to get all external connections.
(*) No, I'm *not* referring to that trite and overused anthropomorphism "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." I'm referring to governments of the attacked country and their allies.
Most people I know who go on regular vacations to other countries end up going to the Caribbean twice a year, and sitting on a beach. There are so many more interesting places to see in the world. Go to Europe
Here in Europe there are plenty of culture-free sunny beach tourist destinations too. I assume you aren't suggesting Americans fly many times further to sit in front of rows of hotel blocks on a Costa del Sol beach though?
If all you want to do is sit on a beach and drink, you might as well just sit on your couch at home.
Except that you're on your couch at home, and not on holiday on a nice, sunny beach.
Some people like that sort of thing. Get over it. You don't? Fine- it's not your holiday.
Funny how all the service people are so eager to come to your girlfriend's house and solve her problems. Dude. Get a clue. Half the pornos in the world start out that way.
Half the pornos in the world start with people visiting his girlfriend's house? I didn't realise she was so popular!
Late-era Amigas fitted with PPC accelerator cards (cpu daughterboards, it was common to replace them) supported PCI through third-party extensions such as the G-REX:
Hence the reason I used the phrase "as standard"- I knew that PCI was available as an expansion later on, but not by default.
The spirit of the original comment was obviously referring to the original Amigas (the Voodoo being an old graphics card, and the Amiga computers being old).
While some will point to machines like that new "Amiga" as showing the Amiga is still "alive", in reality it's a niche machine for a small number diehard hobbyists willing to fork out for the privilege, like a number of previous machines that run the only-took-15-years-to-arrive AmigaOS 4 but still aren't (AFAIK) compatible with the classic Amigas and wouldn't stand on their own merits.
Dude, if Corporal Tables is in the Arlington National Cemetery's database, he's not going to be doing many pushups!
(Then again, if he's removed via SQL injection, does he come back to life? Does the US Army have any policies on zombies serving within its ranks? I suspect that a "don't ask, don't tell" policy would fail on the basis that decomposing flesh and a propensity for eating your colleagues would be a dead giveaway).
Nah, the Amigas never supported PCI as standard AFAIK- they had their own Zorro slot standard instead.
FWIW, PCI came out in mid-1993, only a year before Commodore went bankrupt anyway, so there wasn't much overlap. (Yeah, I know that a few Amigas were manufactured by subsequent owners).
Apparently the higher-end Amigas had ISA slots though, but these were apparently only active when the hardware-based PC emulator card was in use.
Where do you live? I suspect the story might be different from within the EU than within the US.
US-made goods are actually very rare in the UK- I used to note that my disposable contact lenses and aftershave were some of the few things I owned that were made in the US, but the same type of lenses and aftershave are now made in Ireland and (IIRC) Switzerland respectively. Most things here are either made in the Far East (electronics, mass-produced plasticky stuff and the like) or within the EU. I suspect that within the US it's either the Far East or NAFTA(?) countries instead.
But yeah, we do make jack s**t because obviously call-centre jobs are^w were the future of our economy.
BTW, 40 million is still absolutely f*****g peanuts on the scale of things, regardless.
its the geocities of the 1990s; fancy graphics and a twirling icon for the hipsters
I don't think that Geocities was ever for "hipsters" or cool; the stereotypical user I think of is a 14-year-old girl with an atrociously designed over-decorated page writing paeans to their "best boyf[riend] in the world ever!!!!!!"
You don't see people from the fucked-up nations of subsaharan Africa wanting to terrorize Westerners, because Western nations don't have any involvement there (mainly because there's no oil).
Nigeria is pretty much sub-Saharan- well, at least the Niger Delta clearly is and there's a *ridiculous* amount of oil there.
Meanwhile, Somalia is also sub-Saharan and I seem to remember that there's a lot of Islamist terrorism associated with that country.
The server version of the Mini includes a MacOS X Server license rather than the ordinary client license. OS X Server costs £408 if you buy it by itself. [..] In other words, it's actually a decent value if you want OS X Server.
Okay, to be fair I mentioned the server as the "next model up" (since I'd generally not go for the low-specced base model), but it appears that you can get a slightly higher spec version of the standard machine. Still, it's expensive for what it is.
But back to the server; yeah, it comes with OS X Server which costs £408, but whether it would actually be worth that much on a Mac Mini is IMHO open to question. (Can you transfer the license?)
I would assume- actually, I would damn well hope- that the standard OS X can do all the things that I would expect a Mac Mini to do to the required standard.
And I can't see myself wanting to run a Mac Mini as a "real" (non-consumer-oriented) server- not even on the expensive model, and not even if OS X Server itself is a good server OS. (*) Might do as a household server, perhaps, but I'd expect the standard OS X to handle that.
(*) Whether OS X Server is good is another question altogether. I don't hear about that many businesses (relatively speaking) using it- that doesn't mean it's bad in itself, but I'd want to know why.
Slashdot Mirror
Incorrect. Poutine is the highest possible destiny for a potato.
Sacrilege! Everyone knows a potato's highest calling is to be Smith's crisps. (^_^)
The National Association for the Advancement of Created Potatoes (NAACP) will fight for the rights of these new potatoes. And end the abuse of potatoes in such dishes as poutine and instant mashes.
Does this mean that the 1970s Smash adverts are in fact a sci-fi horror film for potatoes?
These potatos will be served.... by Master Chef.
Oddly enough, there *is* a MasterChef TV show here in the UK- and the original version was around *long* before Halo came out. That's why I can't hear the Halo character's name without thinking of Loyd Grossman cogitating over some random plebs' cookery- probably not what was intended. :-)
"baby-cooking recipes"
Interesting idea, but I think that even recipes tailored to babies' limited cookery skills is unlikely to succeed. Though they rarely burn food, that's usually because they don't know how to turn the cooker on.
Perhaps these recipes are along the lines of "Chew rusk until soggy. Spit out. Serve.", but technically that's not "cooking".
But how did you know to type LOAD ''? For most people, it was by reading the manual,
I daresay that a lot of people copied their friends who already had computers, but let's give that the benefit of the doubt as it's not the point.
which started off by telling you a bit about the machine and then told you what to type to load a game somewhere around chapter 2 or 3.
This assumes that most people read all the manual, of course, rather than simply skipping to the relevant part. But my point is that...
Contrast that with now, when installers autoplay and you can play the resulting game simply by clicking on it.
...here's the problem. You're being selective in what you consider "simple" and (not) requiring knowledge of the machine.
You still have to know enough to boot Windows, possibly login, find the icon and *then* "simply" click on it and/or know that the disc will autoplay.
This is arguably more complicated than turning on the 8-bit, typing LOAD "" and pressing play. And you'll still have to have acquired that knowledge either via a manual or some form of online documentation.
One can nitpick the point, but the bottom line is that both cases require very rudimentary knowledge of basic aspects of their machine's operation, and no more. To argue that the 8-bit is significantly more demanding in this area (if at all) is IMHO simply wrong for the reasons I gave.
You needed [as opposed to were given the opportunity to have] a basic understanding of how it worked to be able to start a game
Ultimately, having to plug in a tape deck and type "LOAD ''" or whatever doesn't really constitute an understanding of how the machine worked or require significantly more technical knowledge than modern machines do. Whether or not...
the games required a lot more imagination
...isn't really the same thing.
I do agree with a lot of what you say, but wanted to point out that- contrary to your original argument- if one simply wanted to play games, it wasn't necessary to do anything more than follow some very simple steps without understanding, and plenty of people likely did.
In the '80s, a typical home computer booted into a programming language. You needed a basic understanding of how it worked to be able to start a game
With respect, the way I remember it was (e.g. for the ZX Spectrum)
- Turn on
- When copyright message appears, type LOAD "" then enter
- Press play on tape as prompted, then press enter again
The C64 was pretty similar to the best of my knowledge. Even accounting for the knowledge required to get around problems with loading etc., I doubt that the 8-bit user had to be more knowledgeable than their modern counterpart if all they wanted to do was play games. The fact that the very simple canned steps required to get started were done via the BASIC command line really made little difference in practice. I suspect that most Spectrum owners- who bought the machines to play games- knew little more than that and could not have been said to know "programming" any more than I know Italian because I can say "pizza".
Having BASIC onboard may have prompted experimentation, but that would have been out of curiosity, not necessity as you were discussing.
The Asus ARES commands a hefty $1200 MSRP.
What the fuck
And the name is still (barely) an anagram of "arse". :-)
Mind you, it eats batteries and so I have just ordered some 1300mAh AAA rechargeables for it.
Yes, that *is* a bloody nuisance in itself. I had a crappy FM radio (ASDA own-brand, coincidentally) that gobbled batteries, due I'm guessing to its crude and inefficient internal design. When it eventually stopped working (due to the aerial breaking off inside), I replaced it with a non-crappy Sony one whose batteries last for *months* on end versus the craptastic one's under-a-week performance.
Frankly, having to worry about and charge batteries once (or more) a week for something I only want to grab and listen to in the shower just isn't worth the hassle.
You can take the original
That assumes you mean the "original" original, as since I pointed out, some people claim that later versions of that *did* use microswitches.
Personally, I wasn't fanatical about the feel- though, as I pointed out, that was probably more because I was used to the QS2 Turbo (which ironically *did* use microswitches too).
I bought a Competition Pro here in the UK from Amazon about 18 months ago. There seemed to be two licensed versions from two different companies- the Powerplay-made one got very poor reviews, and the Speedlink version (AKA Speed-Link) version seemed to be much better built. However, some people have complained that the microswitches on the Speedlink are harder work than the switch type used on the original Competition Pros (apparently the later Competition Pros *did* use microswitches, so it *is* arguably an authentic reproduction).
I think I had an original Compeition Pro, but I can't remember enough about it to confirm if this was true- (it was never my main joystick, as I usually used the Quickshot II Turbo).
That said, the Speedlink version *is* much better regarded than the Powerplay one, at least as far as Amazon UK's reviews go.
It's time to remind the world that the Internet is the result of US DoD research. It is a privilege to connect to it, not a right.
That may have been true in the early-90s. Things have moved on *significantly* since then.
However we got here, the situation now is that the Internet is worldwide and belongs to no single specific country.
India, China, and other countries with false sense of entitlements -- take note -- the plug can be pulled.
See here for why it can't, or at least not due to any advantage due to having invented the Internet. Sorry, but the genie is out of the bottle.
Wow, you obviously don't understand how the internet works. The US has no more ability to unplug India or China than Iran has the ability to unplug the US.
Actually, unplugging India would be fairly simple for the US. It simply involves submarine work. Disconnecting China could likely be effectively accomplished the same way, at higher risk; I don't think there's significant overland cable from China to the rest of the world.
That would in effect be an attack on another country's infrastructure though- the implication of the OC was that specifically because Americans invented the Internet that they somehow have the authority- and the *ability*- to "cut off" others from the Internet due to that alone. They don't, at least not any more.
And while it would work in the short term- which may be all that would be necessary in a war-like situation- ultimately it could- and would- be worked around (*) as countries created new and more resiliently-designed connections and peering structures faster than the Americans could destroy them. Similar problems would apply to American attempts to leverage control over the aspects of the Internet that they still control, such as DNS. Other countries would simply set up their own DNS servers (possibly surreptitiously mirroring the American ones except where it didn't suit them).
Ultimately, America *could* "cut off" another country from their part of the Internet alone... but not from the rest of the world. And it'd be hard for them to stop citizens of that country accessing their Internet via another country, unless they cut off the rest of the world.
Except that I lied when I said America could even cut off another country by such means, because it would be practically impossible to sever all ties with the rest of the world anyway- even if they took draconian measures, they'd be unlikely to get all external connections.
(*) No, I'm *not* referring to that trite and overused anthropomorphism "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." I'm referring to governments of the attacked country and their allies.
Tomato/tomahto.
Surely you mean Tomayto/tomato. :-P
Most people I know who go on regular vacations to other countries end up going to the Caribbean twice a year, and sitting on a beach. There are so many more interesting places to see in the world. Go to Europe
Here in Europe there are plenty of culture-free sunny beach tourist destinations too. I assume you aren't suggesting Americans fly many times further to sit in front of rows of hotel blocks on a Costa del Sol beach though?
If all you want to do is sit on a beach and drink, you might as well just sit on your couch at home.
Except that you're on your couch at home, and not on holiday on a nice, sunny beach.
Some people like that sort of thing. Get over it. You don't? Fine- it's not your holiday.
You remind me of the type of people described in Stuff [upper middle class American] white people like. God forbid that someone should simply want to go on holiday to relax.
When does then become now?
Soon.
Yes, but How Soon is Now?
Funny how all the service people are so eager to come to your girlfriend's house and solve her problems. Dude. Get a clue. Half the pornos in the world start out that way.
Half the pornos in the world start with people visiting his girlfriend's house? I didn't realise she was so popular!
Late-era Amigas fitted with PPC accelerator cards (cpu daughterboards, it was common to replace them) supported PCI through third-party extensions such as the G-REX:
Hence the reason I used the phrase "as standard"- I knew that PCI was available as an expansion later on, but not by default.
The spirit of the original comment was obviously referring to the original Amigas (the Voodoo being an old graphics card, and the Amiga computers being old).
While some will point to machines like that new "Amiga" as showing the Amiga is still "alive", in reality it's a niche machine for a small number diehard hobbyists willing to fork out for the privilege, like a number of previous machines that run the only-took-15-years-to-arrive AmigaOS 4 but still aren't (AFAIK) compatible with the classic Amigas and wouldn't stand on their own merits.
Okay time for your morning pushups
Dude, if Corporal Tables is in the Arlington National Cemetery's database, he's not going to be doing many pushups!
(Then again, if he's removed via SQL injection, does he come back to life? Does the US Army have any policies on zombies serving within its ranks? I suspect that a "don't ask, don't tell" policy would fail on the basis that decomposing flesh and a propensity for eating your colleagues would be a dead giveaway).
Sell it to Amiga user.
Nah, the Amigas never supported PCI as standard AFAIK- they had their own Zorro slot standard instead.
FWIW, PCI came out in mid-1993, only a year before Commodore went bankrupt anyway, so there wasn't much overlap. (Yeah, I know that a few Amigas were manufactured by subsequent owners).
Apparently the higher-end Amigas had ISA slots though, but these were apparently only active when the hardware-based PC emulator card was in use.
US made might be rare but not as rare as UK made.
Where do you live? I suspect the story might be different from within the EU than within the US.
US-made goods are actually very rare in the UK- I used to note that my disposable contact lenses and aftershave were some of the few things I owned that were made in the US, but the same type of lenses and aftershave are now made in Ireland and (IIRC) Switzerland respectively. Most things here are either made in the Far East (electronics, mass-produced plasticky stuff and the like) or within the EU. I suspect that within the US it's either the Far East or NAFTA(?) countries instead.
But yeah, we do make jack s**t because obviously call-centre jobs are^w were the future of our economy.
BTW, 40 million is still absolutely f*****g peanuts on the scale of things, regardless.
its the geocities of the 1990s; fancy graphics and a twirling icon for the hipsters
I don't think that Geocities was ever for "hipsters" or cool; the stereotypical user I think of is a 14-year-old girl with an atrociously designed over-decorated page writing paeans to their "best boyf[riend] in the world ever!!!!!!"
I believe it was acceptable in the 80's. But then again, so were a lot of things.
It was acceptable at the time?
You don't see people from the fucked-up nations of subsaharan Africa wanting to terrorize Westerners, because Western nations don't have any involvement there (mainly because there's no oil).
Nigeria is pretty much sub-Saharan- well, at least the Niger Delta clearly is and there's a *ridiculous* amount of oil there.
Meanwhile, Somalia is also sub-Saharan and I seem to remember that there's a lot of Islamist terrorism associated with that country.
The server version of the Mini includes a MacOS X Server license rather than the ordinary client license. OS X Server costs £408 if you buy it by itself. [..] In other words, it's actually a decent value if you want OS X Server.
Okay, to be fair I mentioned the server as the "next model up" (since I'd generally not go for the low-specced base model), but it appears that you can get a slightly higher spec version of the standard machine. Still, it's expensive for what it is.
But back to the server; yeah, it comes with OS X Server which costs £408, but whether it would actually be worth that much on a Mac Mini is IMHO open to question. (Can you transfer the license?)
I would assume- actually, I would damn well hope- that the standard OS X can do all the things that I would expect a Mac Mini to do to the required standard.
And I can't see myself wanting to run a Mac Mini as a "real" (non-consumer-oriented) server- not even on the expensive model, and not even if OS X Server itself is a good server OS. (*) Might do as a household server, perhaps, but I'd expect the standard OS X to handle that.
(*) Whether OS X Server is good is another question altogether. I don't hear about that many businesses (relatively speaking) using it- that doesn't mean it's bad in itself, but I'd want to know why.