^ Nope - 9.2 on my laptop hasn't crashed for months and as I glance over to it has Word and iTunes on the go, with Photoshop and a Megadrive emulator loaded, and my ISP doesn't support OS X on broadband - so no point putting it on my 8.6 iMac.
Y'know, I'm getting kind of pissed off with all this "If you're not using OS X you're in the Dark Ages" bullshit. Fuck OS X! Yeah, I said it! I use it at work for some applications, and it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. When I buy a new Mac next year I'll upgrade (because I'll have to), but having seen machines at work running OS X 10.2 like dogshit because they don't support Quartz Extreme, what possible advantage could there be for me to drop a perfectly stable and usable OS (and £130) for a new one that'll run like crap on my Graphite iBook?
Just 'cause I'm a geek doesn't mean I'm made of money, or blinded by techno-lust!
One thing the article doesn't mention is the military uses for robots. Anyone seriously believe that Asimov's laws are ever going to be used in real life?
Many military weapons systems are already highly automated. The next step? Take the humans out of the tanks and fighters. They'll be smaller, faster and more 'efficient' (at destroying) because access for and support of humans doesn't have to be factored into the design.
Next step after that? Well, if you're mass-producing humanoid robots, eventually the cost will drop to the point where it's more cost-effective to replace human infantry with robots. They can use all the existing weapons designed for humans, and there's no messy political fallout from bodybags being shipped back home.
And which nation has the resources (and desire) to do this? Yup. Don't live in a country that might piss off the US for the rest of the century, otherwise they'll be sending the Terminators for you!
iTMS is the same way. Apple's got legal issues preventing it from offering songs for sale outside of the USA, but that's being resolved already.
A friend of mine is a director of a UK dance music label, and told me that he expects iTMS to be running in Britain inside three months. Not that I like dance music, but it sounds promising anyway.
Of course, since I'm running OS8.6 and 9.2 on my two home Macs, this is of no use to me whatsoever, but still...
Try here for some awesome C64 remixes. (I personally recommend the prog-rock version of Lightforce, the 'Circles' remix of R-Type and the orchestral version of Commando, but there are hundreds of others!)
So basically, their plan is to make people pay for 20-year-old games for an obsolete computer, mostly from companies that no longer exist, that everybody even remotely interested in the C64 already downloaded for their emulator of choice years ago?
Wow, great business plan! Watch out M$, here comes Tulip!
They plan to have a man in space by the end of this year. We already know they have the capability for such missions since they've had some unmanned spacecrafts in orbit that were safely returned to earth. I believe they can do that. However, the step from that, to spaceshuttles, spacestations and lunar bases is a little bigger. They can do that, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes longer than their timetable.
If they have any sense, they'll avoid anything even vaguely resembling the shuttle in its current form. The 'cheap, reusable' road to space has actually turned out to be more expensive than sending every single non-returning payload the shuttle has ever carried up on disposable boosters like the Delta and Titan. Hell, they could probably have used Saturns and it still would have cost less!
They've probably got the right idea using Russian designs as a basis for their launches. They may not be cutting-edge, but they're proven, they're reliable, and they're (comparatively) cheap. As much as I love cool new hardware, sometimes the old ways really *are* the best for a particular job.
As an American I wouldn't lose any sleep at night if all of Western Europe had the power to blow me off the earth.
Little do you suspect that, even while you sleep tonight, the British and French SSBN fleets are creeping through the seas and preparing to MIRV the major metropolitan areas of the United States...
I have a Fisher Space Pen, which I love. The Space Pen was created to solve the proble of how to allow astronuts to write in a zero G enviorment. It uses and pressurized cartrige and an ink with and intergrated adhesive. The Russians faced with the same problem used pencils.
Until they discovered that tiny graphite chips, a zero gravity environment and the human eye are three things that do not mix at all well...
Hmm, even though I'm in the UK, I've got the US R-rated DVD and there's no "Dodge this, motherfucker" in there either. Wasn't when I saw the film in the States while I was attending E3 '99, for that matter. Oh no! The Wachowskis censored their own script! Those motherfuckers!
Knowing asm made it a lot easier to learn C, especially pointers (which I've noticed time and time again newbies always struggle with).
Christ, yeah. My brief flirtation with C++ programming (which got as far as writing a fully-working text adventure, converted from one I wrote on my Psion S5, to run in a console window) came to an abrupt halt with pointers. No matter how many times I read the various beginners' guides, I just couldn't get my head around them. "Wha... huh... the *hell*?"
Anybody care to describe the purpose of the damn things to me in a way that actually makes sense?
Exactly how is a Flash plug-in 'inovation' [sic]? And I'm hardly a 'ludite' [sic]! I love technology, and spend a fairly large part of my disposable income on it - I just don't want *pointless* technology, and I *especially* don't want to be forced to use it whether I want to or not.
It's exactly the same reason why I use Mozilla rather than IE - because Mozilla lets me switch off all the crap I don't want!
I suggest you try not to fall for the 'it's new and shiny so it must be better!' line that corporations are trying to foist on you. Your life will be better.;)
I never understood this techno-fetishism of mobile phones. It's a telephone, for god's sake! You talk to people on it. That's what it's for. No matter how many gimmicks are squeezed onto it, it can't past one basic fact...
TELEPHONES ARE NOT COOL! THEY ARE VERY VERY OLD AND BORING!
I mean, maybe they were da shit when Alexander Graham Bell thought them up, but how come no other century-old technology gets kids wetting their ridiculously-shaped trousers? "Dude! You've got to check out the latest Dyson vacuum cleaner! It's got *triple* cyclones, man!"
Bottom line, Microsoft wants to get consumers more interested in OS versions again. If consumers see a web site that says, "Sorry, you need Windows 2005 to view this site," then they have a much higher chance of opening their pocketbooks than if the web site says, "Sorry, you need IE8 to view this site."
Or, if they were me, they'd treat the site exactly the same way as one that says "Sorry, you need the latest version of Flash/Real/Whatever to view this site" and leave it, never to return. I hate pointless timewasting gimmicks and plug-ins on websites, and if that's a problem for some companies, then fuck 'em. I can live without their product, and they won't get my money.
Apple is like getting fucked up the ass by your cell mate. One mistake, one improper grab for the "good life", and your owned by a 300 pound psychopath chasing you around the cell with a stiffy. The Mac GUI is a thing of beauty. It's like it was handed down by the hand of God. But then the bill comes, and comes and comes. Yearly OS updates ($130), iLife ($50),.Mac ($100) and expensive third party applications. And don't forget about the premium you'll pay for replacement parts (like coughing up $200 for a $50 power supply). Macs are incredible computers but they may cost you more than you're willing to pay.
Writing this on my 1999 iMac running OS 8.6. Still works just fine. Don't recall forking out $520 for any kind of OS updates whatsoever.
And in the many, many years I've owned computers, I've never once had a power supply fail on me. What, are you working in the bath or something?
If the playback quality's as shitty as everything else I've seen from Real, it makes me doubly glad that I live outside the US *and* don't run Windows, so can't get the service!
Last year, I went to a Paramount press event for the DVD launch of Grease and some other Travolta/musical movies. The sheer amount of money that was spent absolutely stunned me. As well as flying in several hundred people (journalists, distributors, suits from Paramount's various international subsidiaries) from all around the world, *first class all the way*, hotels, limos, everything, they laid on a red carpet event at the studio, various stars turned up, there was a Grease cast reunion *and* they got Travolta and Olivia Newton John to sing together. Dunno about her, but I bet Travolta didn't do it just for some free wine and burgers.
We're talking an event that easily ran into millions of dollars to stage, all told. (Not that I'm complaining - I've never flown first class before, and doubt I ever will again either, but it was very enjoyable!) And this is *without* adding in the cost of the actual DVD advertising on TV and the press.
Yet studios are always somehow claiming to be strapped for cash. Hmmm. Hollywood is an insane place...
Rescue On Fractalus, C64. The first time an alien jumped up and started pounding on the cockpit window, it scared the shit out of me!
Similar effect, much later - Aliens Vs Predator, Atari Jaguar. Playing as the Marine, running around, got the aliens pretty much under control but still wary about going around corners too quickly just in case something jumps out... and this little unseen voice suddenly whispers "Anytime..." Aaaagh!
Actually, another Jag game - Tempest 2000 - has managed to get me into a near trancelike state on more than one occasion. Cheaper than drugs, and totally legal! "Superzapper recharge! Wow! Excellent! Yes, yes, YES!" Why doesn't anyone make decent twitch games any more?
Still waiting for a videogame to affect me *emotionally*, though. Even a crappy movie can sometimes get me, but I can't think of a game that's even come close...
Can you nominate a group of robots, namely 2000AD's 'ABC Warriors'? Although that might cause problems for the other, less psychotic robots in the HoF. Mek-Quake would probably do big jobs on them less than five minutes in...
Failing them, Bender, easily. "Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?"
...and not one - literally, not a single *one* - that I would want to rip tracks from even if I could. Staggering.
Actually, I tell a lie - but the AOTC soundtrack ripped perfectly on my Bondi Blue G3 at work, even though my iMac and iBook at home didn't much care for it. But seeing as I was given the CD for free anyway as a promotional item, the net loss to the music biz is £0.00...
I'd just like to remind everyone that you can read the complete original article in Hotdog magazine, from the UK but available all around the world.
Again, that magazine name is HOTDOG. Hotdog, the movie magazine.
And why am I plugging Hotdog? Because I edit it, and I wrote the article, and I got to interview James fuckin' Cameron! Woohoo! (Got a load of cool stuff about the making of Aliens that didn't go into the article, as well - but that's for a future issue of Hotdog, the movie magazine.)
Ghosts Of The Abyss is pretty damn awesome, as well. If it's on at your local-ish Imax, see it.
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Y'know, I'm getting kind of pissed off with all this "If you're not using OS X you're in the Dark Ages" bullshit. Fuck OS X! Yeah, I said it! I use it at work for some applications, and it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. When I buy a new Mac next year I'll upgrade (because I'll have to), but having seen machines at work running OS X 10.2 like dogshit because they don't support Quartz Extreme, what possible advantage could there be for me to drop a perfectly stable and usable OS (and £130) for a new one that'll run like crap on my Graphite iBook?
Just 'cause I'm a geek doesn't mean I'm made of money, or blinded by techno-lust!
Many military weapons systems are already highly automated. The next step? Take the humans out of the tanks and fighters. They'll be smaller, faster and more 'efficient' (at destroying) because access for and support of humans doesn't have to be factored into the design.
Next step after that? Well, if you're mass-producing humanoid robots, eventually the cost will drop to the point where it's more cost-effective to replace human infantry with robots. They can use all the existing weapons designed for humans, and there's no messy political fallout from bodybags being shipped back home.
And which nation has the resources (and desire) to do this? Yup. Don't live in a country that might piss off the US for the rest of the century, otherwise they'll be sending the Terminators for you!
...and then by 2070, the robots lose *their* jobs when they're outsourced to Indian robots!
A friend of mine is a director of a UK dance music label, and told me that he expects iTMS to be running in Britain inside three months. Not that I like dance music, but it sounds promising anyway.
Of course, since I'm running OS8.6 and 9.2 on my two home Macs, this is of no use to me whatsoever, but still...
This sounds like a headline from The Day Today or Brass Eye... only it's real. Wow, the 21st century beats the 20th any day!
Try here for some awesome C64 remixes. (I personally recommend the prog-rock version of Lightforce, the 'Circles' remix of R-Type and the orchestral version of Commando, but there are hundreds of others!)
Wow, great business plan! Watch out M$, here comes Tulip!
If they have any sense, they'll avoid anything even vaguely resembling the shuttle in its current form. The 'cheap, reusable' road to space has actually turned out to be more expensive than sending every single non-returning payload the shuttle has ever carried up on disposable boosters like the Delta and Titan. Hell, they could probably have used Saturns and it still would have cost less!
They've probably got the right idea using Russian designs as a basis for their launches. They may not be cutting-edge, but they're proven, they're reliable, and they're (comparatively) cheap. As much as I love cool new hardware, sometimes the old ways really *are* the best for a particular job.
As an American I wouldn't lose any sleep at night if all of Western Europe had the power to blow me off the earth. Little do you suspect that, even while you sleep tonight, the British and French SSBN fleets are creeping through the seas and preparing to MIRV the major metropolitan areas of the United States...
Until they discovered that tiny graphite chips, a zero gravity environment and the human eye are three things that do not mix at all well...
Hmm, even though I'm in the UK, I've got the US R-rated DVD and there's no "Dodge this, motherfucker" in there either. Wasn't when I saw the film in the States while I was attending E3 '99, for that matter. Oh no! The Wachowskis censored their own script! Those motherfuckers!
Christ, yeah. My brief flirtation with C++ programming (which got as far as writing a fully-working text adventure, converted from one I wrote on my Psion S5, to run in a console window) came to an abrupt halt with pointers. No matter how many times I read the various beginners' guides, I just couldn't get my head around them. "Wha... huh... the *hell*?"
Anybody care to describe the purpose of the damn things to me in a way that actually makes sense?
It's exactly the same reason why I use Mozilla rather than IE - because Mozilla lets me switch off all the crap I don't want!
I suggest you try not to fall for the 'it's new and shiny so it must be better!' line that corporations are trying to foist on you. Your life will be better. ;)
Knowing SETI's luck, they'll be just about to start their telescope time when the whole place gets blown up by a British secret agent...
TELEPHONES ARE NOT COOL! THEY ARE VERY VERY OLD AND BORING!
I mean, maybe they were da shit when Alexander Graham Bell thought them up, but how come no other century-old technology gets kids wetting their ridiculously-shaped trousers? "Dude! You've got to check out the latest Dyson vacuum cleaner! It's got *triple* cyclones, man!"
Or, if they were me, they'd treat the site exactly the same way as one that says "Sorry, you need the latest version of Flash/Real/Whatever to view this site" and leave it, never to return. I hate pointless timewasting gimmicks and plug-ins on websites, and if that's a problem for some companies, then fuck 'em. I can live without their product, and they won't get my money.
But can the bows split open and swallow up ballistic missile subs?
I won't be happy until I can get hold of ICE!
Writing this on my 1999 iMac running OS 8.6. Still works just fine. Don't recall forking out $520 for any kind of OS updates whatsoever.
And in the many, many years I've owned computers, I've never once had a power supply fail on me. What, are you working in the bath or something?
If the playback quality's as shitty as everything else I've seen from Real, it makes me doubly glad that I live outside the US *and* don't run Windows, so can't get the service!
We're talking an event that easily ran into millions of dollars to stage, all told. (Not that I'm complaining - I've never flown first class before, and doubt I ever will again either, but it was very enjoyable!) And this is *without* adding in the cost of the actual DVD advertising on TV and the press.
Yet studios are always somehow claiming to be strapped for cash. Hmmm. Hollywood is an insane place...
Similar effect, much later - Aliens Vs Predator, Atari Jaguar. Playing as the Marine, running around, got the aliens pretty much under control but still wary about going around corners too quickly just in case something jumps out... and this little unseen voice suddenly whispers "Anytime..." Aaaagh!
Actually, another Jag game - Tempest 2000 - has managed to get me into a near trancelike state on more than one occasion. Cheaper than drugs, and totally legal! "Superzapper recharge! Wow! Excellent! Yes, yes, YES!" Why doesn't anyone make decent twitch games any more?
Still waiting for a videogame to affect me *emotionally*, though. Even a crappy movie can sometimes get me, but I can't think of a game that's even come close...
Failing them, Bender, easily. "Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?"
Actually, I tell a lie - but the AOTC soundtrack ripped perfectly on my Bondi Blue G3 at work, even though my iMac and iBook at home didn't much care for it. But seeing as I was given the CD for free anyway as a promotional item, the net loss to the music biz is £0.00...
Again, that magazine name is HOTDOG. Hotdog, the movie magazine.
And why am I plugging Hotdog? Because I edit it, and I wrote the article, and I got to interview James fuckin' Cameron! Woohoo! (Got a load of cool stuff about the making of Aliens that didn't go into the article, as well - but that's for a future issue of Hotdog, the movie magazine.)
Ghosts Of The Abyss is pretty damn awesome, as well. If it's on at your local-ish Imax, see it.
Oh, and buy Hotdog, the movie magazine. HOTDOG! :p