I can see the logic behind this gadget, though. MS is already like a metaphorical albatross/millstone around the neck already, so why not go the whole hog and do it for real?
If we can get him to change his mind and release a new Sam And Max game, then the original version of the Star Wars trilogy can be but an irate email poll away! Muwah hah hah!
Meh. With the dollar down the toilet right now, I can pick up a decent-spec PowerBook next time I'm in the States (I'll be going anyway) for less than the price of an iMac in the UK. And it won't crush my spindly, calcium-deprived geek legs to powder either should I set it on my lap, unlike the lead-cased Acer!
And he did not condemn violence in video games, he condemned pointless violence -- i.e., putting the player in the position of comitting violent acts for their own sake rather than some just end.
There *is* an end in GTA/VC - to become the top crimelord of Liberty/Vice City. It might not be a moral or particularly pleasant end, but it's certainly not *pointless*.
I was quite surprised that Jarvis is such a hawk. Do drugs? YOU DESERVE TO DIE! No trial, no due process, just a bullet to the head. I guess bloody violence is fine, so long as you have the law on your side...
As for his games: Defender, Robotron - two of my favourite games ever. Stargate - good, but hard to the point of taxing my patience. Smash TV - overrated. Cruis'n USA - tedious piece of shit. Jarvis lost it years ago, IMO.
The article's a good read, especially if you're familiar with Minter from the old days. (I saw him once at a computer show in about 1985, wandering around in a big woolly coat and looking a bit lost...)
It kind of shows up one of the problems with computers today. Back then, you had a programming language built right into the machine and could play about with it to your heart's content, and if you felt that BASIC was a bit, well, basic, it wasn't going to break the bank to pick up a book on Z80 or 6502/10 machine code and an assembler to experiment with. I certainly did - not to any great level, but enough to create little games and get things moving around on screen.
What do kids have like that now, though? I'd hate to think that computer studies classes for 14-year-olds drop them right in with C!
1) Give away all the content we normally charge for.
2) ???
3) Profit!
The problem is that the online sources now want to switch to this model:
1) Charge for all the content we used to give away for free.
2) ???
3) Profit! Er, wait a minute...
This is how the very nature of the internet becomes a curse. I live in the UK, so non-UK 'actual news' is of very little interest to me. If I've been regularly reading movie reviews via Rotten Tomatoes from the Bay Area News simply because I like the style of their reviewer and suddenly they want a subscription to read it, then I'm never going to bother going to their site again. They might not care much since I'm not in their catchment area, but beyond a minor twang of annoyance, I won't care either, and they've lost a regular hit for good.
I've had Skywalker Ranch wine (on the premises, at that). It's very nice (Lucas must have been getting tips from Coppola), but considering how much money's been sunk into it, it bloody well ought to be.
One amusing thing I was told by the Lucas PR girlbot was that grape-picking was an annual event for the employees. From the way she phrased it, it sounded compulsory!
(Oh, and should you ever be lucky enough to have lunch there, go for the steak. It's delicious. No wonder Lucas has got so fat!)
Dammit! *Somewhere*, in storage, I have both the first and second editions of Paranoia, plus a load of modules and scenarios (HIL Sector Blues, the space station one, etc). But I don't know where!
That information is restricted, citizen. Knowledge of restricted information is prohibited. Please report to the liquidation vats. Have a nice day!
Typical British innovator. They come up with a great product (Series 5, 5mx, Revo, etc) and then completely fuck it up because either they can't get the money to battle it out against the inferior but better financed copies that follow... or simply make stupid decisions. See also: Sinclair, Sir Clive.
I still use my 'ancient' Series 5 for working on the move because A: it fits in a pocket; B: I can touch-type on it; C: it uses two AA batteries that last for ages; D: I can pull out the flash card and drop files straight onto my Mac; E: it has a decent programming language (OPL) built in; F: it's been pretty rugged so far, going around the world with me; G: the built-in office package is solid enough for most tasks. Every time I see a co-worker pecking away at a PDA trying to enter text with a stylus, it makes me wonder what they can accomplish there that a 50p notebook and pen couldn't.
But then, that's the British technology story all over. We come up with great and novel ideas, then botch the actual selling of them and allow everyone else to take over. I shouldn't be surprised by it any more.
I'd happily accept the 1-in-57 (or so) terminal risk of flying a shuttle mission to go up and save Hubble. Give me a few months' training in which bits to unscrew and how to replace them, and I'd even pay for my own flight to the States and accomodation while I was there.
And I bet a lot of fellow/.ers would too. Viva Hubble!
As far as I can tell from the various articles I've read, 'Constellation' is nothing more than a more interesting name for the CEV - Crew Exploration Vehicle - that's been talked about for a while.
The CEV itself was more or less a renaming of the OSP - Orbital Space Plane - programme (albeit with $7 billion less allocated to it - hmm, it's already turning into Shuttle 2.0), which partly underwent the change of title to disguise the budget cut, and probably partly because one of the concepts isn't a plane at all, but an Apollo/Soyuz-style capsule. This suggests that the capsule concept is already looking like a front runner on paper, and NASA didn't want to have to deal with hundreds of calls from idiots demanding to know why, if's a 'plane', it doesn't have any wings...
Wasn't element 115 also the power source for the aliens in the X-Com games?
I remember reading about Lazar (for a while there was a joke that when 115 was discovered, it should be called 'lazarium') a few years back, when X Files mania was at its peak. The thing that convinced me he was full of shit was... well, the fact that he hadn't suffered a lethal 'accident' for exposing the guv'mint's biggest secret!
He hasn't made anything since Titanic because... well, he hasn't had to.
I interviewed Cameron last year, and flat-out asked him why he hasn't made a film (as opposed to a documentary) since 1997. His answer was, "I'm having too much fun." Well, lucky bastard on the one hand, but on the other, all credit to him!
Still, looks like he's going ahead with Battle Angel now. And in 3D, to boot!
Super Bowl! Super Sunday! NFL! AFC! NFC! Buccaneers! Bucs!
Well, I said all these things without permission from the National Football League (oops, there's another one). Come on then, lawyers! Come after me for using these trademarked words without permission!
This is legal bullshit taken to the extreme. So if there's a Black Sunday scenario tomorrow, the news networks aren't allowed to say "There was a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl" but have to say "There was a terrorist attack at the Big Game in Houston"? Madness.
Boromir does not quake under the gaze of Galadriel (FOTR p.463-464). Jackson has Boromir looking distressed and turning away from the gaze of Galadriel.
What, so on film Boromir should have started visibly vibrating, maybe with his knees knocking together with a comical clattering sound, a la Scooby-Doo?
Or maybe Boromir was supposed to be rocket-jumping in the book. "54ur0n, u wa11h4ck f4g!!!"
I *am* a geek with geek friends... and my MP3 collection is still less than 3Gb (my iPod is an original 5Gb job). Either I've become more selective in what I want to hear from my iTunes playlist, or I should think about handing back my Register t-shirt...
(Seriously, though... 93 gigs? When the fuck is anyone going to have time to listen to all that? It's like all these Harry Knowles types bragging about owning 8000 DVDs, even though it would take them a year and a half watching 24/7 to get through them all! Hell, even watching non-stop for 8 hours a day *every* day, they would have had to have started in 1999 to see everything they own... and that's assuming they didn't watch any extras!)
People dying every day because of poverty, starvation, drought, natural disaster... that's part (ironically) of life. None of these things will *ever* go away. It happens every day, and as much as my liberal guilt would like, there's no way to stop it. It may not be PC to say to, but it's how the world is.
(You may argue against that, but have *you* worked out a way to end hunger, to end want, to wave back the forces of nature? No, you haven't. And nor has anyone else. But people *have* worked out how to send people into space - to other worlds, even - and bring them back safely. But yet...)
People dying in the most complex piece of technology ever created, exploring the most dangerous environment known, when they have the backing of the greatest concentration of human brainpower on the planet, and it *could* have been prevented if the bureaucrats hadn't ignored the engineers and scientists... that depresses me. That tells me everything I don't want to hear about humanity. That tells me the Dream - of accomplishing the impossible, of pushing the boundaries, of going beyond mundane everyday existance and achieving what conventional wisdom believes cannot be done - is dead. After reading the Atlantic article, to find that fucking PowerPoint slides helped contribute to the destruction of the Columbia and the death of the astonauts when there was a chance they could have been saved... Jesus Christ!
It's not like I don't feel sorry if I hear that people have died somewhere. It's just that I feel more sorry if they die in space. I can't explain it, but the idea of space travel has always stirred powerful feelings in me... and to have them shattered by what after investigation turn out to be the most stupid of reasons (metric/imperial confusion, slightly too low temperatures at launch, a piece of foam I could hold in my hands) really hits me hard.
Hell, I was depressed all Christmas Day after learning that Beagle 2 had basically cratered. Maybe you might think my priorities are wrong if I care about the fate of a machine, but it's not just the hardware - it's the hopes of all the people who worked to create it, and hoped to discover something new about the universe, being shattered.
(Plus I want to get on good terms early on with our new robot overlords...)
Slashdot Mirror
I can see the logic behind this gadget, though. MS is already like a metaphorical albatross/millstone around the neck already, so why not go the whole hog and do it for real?
"Get away from her, you BITCH!"
This is nothing new. Run enough current through a person and you'll see 'electrowetting' in action! 'Electrosoiling', too.
If we can get him to change his mind and release a new Sam And Max game, then the original version of the Star Wars trilogy can be but an irate email poll away! Muwah hah hah!
Meh. With the dollar down the toilet right now, I can pick up a decent-spec PowerBook next time I'm in the States (I'll be going anyway) for less than the price of an iMac in the UK. And it won't crush my spindly, calcium-deprived geek legs to powder either should I set it on my lap, unlike the lead-cased Acer!
There *is* an end in GTA/VC - to become the top crimelord of Liberty/Vice City. It might not be a moral or particularly pleasant end, but it's certainly not *pointless*.
I was quite surprised that Jarvis is such a hawk. Do drugs? YOU DESERVE TO DIE! No trial, no due process, just a bullet to the head. I guess bloody violence is fine, so long as you have the law on your side...
As for his games: Defender, Robotron - two of my favourite games ever. Stargate - good, but hard to the point of taxing my patience. Smash TV - overrated. Cruis'n USA - tedious piece of shit. Jarvis lost it years ago, IMO.
...overhyped, tedious and a huge disappointment, but not nearly as bad as what comes after it?
It kind of shows up one of the problems with computers today. Back then, you had a programming language built right into the machine and could play about with it to your heart's content, and if you felt that BASIC was a bit, well, basic, it wasn't going to break the bank to pick up a book on Z80 or 6502/10 machine code and an assembler to experiment with. I certainly did - not to any great level, but enough to create little games and get things moving around on screen.
What do kids have like that now, though? I'd hate to think that computer studies classes for 14-year-olds drop them right in with C!
2) ???
3) Profit!
The problem is that the online sources now want to switch to this model:
1) Charge for all the content we used to give away for free.
2) ???
3) Profit! Er, wait a minute...
This is how the very nature of the internet becomes a curse. I live in the UK, so non-UK 'actual news' is of very little interest to me. If I've been regularly reading movie reviews via Rotten Tomatoes from the Bay Area News simply because I like the style of their reviewer and suddenly they want a subscription to read it, then I'm never going to bother going to their site again. They might not care much since I'm not in their catchment area, but beyond a minor twang of annoyance, I won't care either, and they've lost a regular hit for good.
One amusing thing I was told by the Lucas PR girlbot was that grape-picking was an annual event for the employees. From the way she phrased it, it sounded compulsory!
(Oh, and should you ever be lucky enough to have lunch there, go for the steak. It's delicious. No wonder Lucas has got so fat!)
Isn't this device, in effect, something that presumes guilt until proven innocent? And isn't that unconstitutional?
That information is restricted, citizen. Knowledge of restricted information is prohibited. Please report to the liquidation vats. Have a nice day!
One word: zombies!
I still use my 'ancient' Series 5 for working on the move because A: it fits in a pocket; B: I can touch-type on it; C: it uses two AA batteries that last for ages; D: I can pull out the flash card and drop files straight onto my Mac; E: it has a decent programming language (OPL) built in; F: it's been pretty rugged so far, going around the world with me; G: the built-in office package is solid enough for most tasks. Every time I see a co-worker pecking away at a PDA trying to enter text with a stylus, it makes me wonder what they can accomplish there that a 50p notebook and pen couldn't.
But then, that's the British technology story all over. We come up with great and novel ideas, then botch the actual selling of them and allow everyone else to take over. I shouldn't be surprised by it any more.
And I bet a lot of fellow /.ers would too. Viva Hubble!
The CEV itself was more or less a renaming of the OSP - Orbital Space Plane - programme (albeit with $7 billion less allocated to it - hmm, it's already turning into Shuttle 2.0), which partly underwent the change of title to disguise the budget cut, and probably partly because one of the concepts isn't a plane at all, but an Apollo/Soyuz-style capsule. This suggests that the capsule concept is already looking like a front runner on paper, and NASA didn't want to have to deal with hundreds of calls from idiots demanding to know why, if's a 'plane', it doesn't have any wings...
I remember reading about Lazar (for a while there was a joke that when 115 was discovered, it should be called 'lazarium') a few years back, when X Files mania was at its peak. The thing that convinced me he was full of shit was... well, the fact that he hadn't suffered a lethal 'accident' for exposing the guv'mint's biggest secret!
What, like Clippy?
I interviewed Cameron last year, and flat-out asked him why he hasn't made a film (as opposed to a documentary) since 1997. His answer was, "I'm having too much fun." Well, lucky bastard on the one hand, but on the other, all credit to him!
Still, looks like he's going ahead with Battle Angel now. And in 3D, to boot!
Well, I said all these things without permission from the National Football League (oops, there's another one). Come on then, lawyers! Come after me for using these trademarked words without permission!
This is legal bullshit taken to the extreme. So if there's a Black Sunday scenario tomorrow, the news networks aren't allowed to say "There was a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl" but have to say "There was a terrorist attack at the Big Game in Houston"? Madness.
Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Super Bowl!
"I want you to take that unit to Anchorhead in the morning and have its memory erased!"
Boromir does not quake under the gaze of Galadriel (FOTR p.463-464). Jackson has Boromir looking distressed and turning away from the gaze of Galadriel.
What, so on film Boromir should have started visibly vibrating, maybe with his knees knocking together with a comical clattering sound, a la Scooby-Doo?
Or maybe Boromir was supposed to be rocket-jumping in the book. "54ur0n, u wa11h4ck f4g!!!"
Leela to Amy: "Did you swallow your phone again?"
(Seriously, though... 93 gigs? When the fuck is anyone going to have time to listen to all that? It's like all these Harry Knowles types bragging about owning 8000 DVDs, even though it would take them a year and a half watching 24/7 to get through them all! Hell, even watching non-stop for 8 hours a day *every* day, they would have had to have started in 1999 to see everything they own... and that's assuming they didn't watch any extras!)
(You may argue against that, but have *you* worked out a way to end hunger, to end want, to wave back the forces of nature? No, you haven't. And nor has anyone else. But people *have* worked out how to send people into space - to other worlds, even - and bring them back safely. But yet...)
People dying in the most complex piece of technology ever created, exploring the most dangerous environment known, when they have the backing of the greatest concentration of human brainpower on the planet, and it *could* have been prevented if the bureaucrats hadn't ignored the engineers and scientists... that depresses me. That tells me everything I don't want to hear about humanity. That tells me the Dream - of accomplishing the impossible, of pushing the boundaries, of going beyond mundane everyday existance and achieving what conventional wisdom believes cannot be done - is dead. After reading the Atlantic article, to find that fucking PowerPoint slides helped contribute to the destruction of the Columbia and the death of the astonauts when there was a chance they could have been saved... Jesus Christ!
It's not like I don't feel sorry if I hear that people have died somewhere. It's just that I feel more sorry if they die in space. I can't explain it, but the idea of space travel has always stirred powerful feelings in me... and to have them shattered by what after investigation turn out to be the most stupid of reasons (metric/imperial confusion, slightly too low temperatures at launch, a piece of foam I could hold in my hands) really hits me hard.
Hell, I was depressed all Christmas Day after learning that Beagle 2 had basically cratered. Maybe you might think my priorities are wrong if I care about the fate of a machine, but it's not just the hardware - it's the hopes of all the people who worked to create it, and hoped to discover something new about the universe, being shattered.
(Plus I want to get on good terms early on with our new robot overlords...)