"Keeping up with their promise to make smartphones more root-friendly,"
"They didn't specify which handsets will receive the capability or when we can expect to see it, but the company promises to keep us updated "every few weeks.""
"Motorola said it plans to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across its portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, "where carriers and operators will allow it.""
What's funny is you lot sure like to drag out the 'reality distortion field' a lot.
I never met that guy, but I do have a strong memory of being held captive aboard an alien ship with funky mirrors. When I returned, I told everybody a bout my ordeal. Now I'm living out my days in this damn hospital. Oh well, at least my sister won the swim meet.
It's "come on", not C'mon. You cannot turn "come on" into a contraction. For those of us that care about English this is as jarring a syntax error as anything that would barf a compiler. So do our parsers a favour and LEARN what you can and cannot make contractions out of.
"This doesn't make much sense to me, I mean isn't HD basically just a higher resolution and the elimination of interlaced frames? How does that increase cost to the developer, in terms of either development time, money, or complexity?"
The artists have to do more work, for one thing. They have to make higher resolution textures. Since the fill rate's going way up, the engine has to be tuned to make the right trade-offs in order to maintain frame rate. This'll mean more coding, tweaking, and possibily the artists will have to make alternative modes for their models and textures. (Err, I'm not explaining the artist bit too clearly. If a texture's resolution is too high, but drawn really small on the screen, it can cause flickering. The hardware is supposed to deal with it but sometimes some hand-tweaking has to be done.)
Also, it can potentially mean that the games now have to run in different modes. Time may tell me I'm wrong, but it depends on what the point of the game is. If a game's running at 720 by 480, it has a lot more cycles to spare than a game running at HD res. Perhaps running it at lower res means more lighting effects. If the developer chooses to do that, then there's more testing and tweaking going on right there.
If you're not sold, don't worry, I understand that. I do have a semi-relevent anecdote to share, though. Episode II used HD video cameras for their model shots. Though technically these things capture roughly the same resolution as film, film is a lot grainier. The HD footage was too clear. They had to spend considerably more time touching up the models on set to stand up to the HD scrutiny. More time == more money, etc.
Yeesh. Universal, as in "more than just video". You'd think people around here would be smart enough to get this, but noooOOOOooo, every single PSP article has to have this exact same comment modded up.
"And since it's a web server dynamically serving one channel at a time to you, it would be extremely easy for the IPTV provider to record what one watches. "
I have ten dollars that says this guy has a massive porn stash he didn't think twice about downloading.
"It's hard to write plugins for Photoshop (or any proprietary app) because often all the other plugins are proprietary (so you don't have anything to work from)"
Fair point.
"the interface that is actually exposed to plugin writers is not sufficient."
Unless you've actually explored writing a Photoshop plugin, this is not fair to say. I have written plugins for various apps before and some SDKs are good, some aren't. On the flip side, having source code is nice, but if you have to change it in order to make your feature work, then you risk being boned when a new version comes along.
"And what if you need some feature that Photoshop doesn't have?... But people would rather be slaves to a proprietary software company than co-operate with each other."
Oh right.
a.) Photoshop has a hell of a lot of features. It's difficult to imagine that short of automation (Photoshop is scriptable) that a feature is that necessary.
b.) If they really really needed one, they might as well look into making a PS plugin. Hopping from GIMP to PS for one feature is not desirable.
Those peeps, in that rare circumstance, have options. The GIMP isn't necessarily the ideal means of doing it. You cannot use that to measure people's sheep-ti-tude.
"When are you anti-Roland twerps going to realize that the best way to get him to go away is to not comment on his articles?"
Troll. Right. Slashdot is ad supported. More clicks equals more ads being served. More ads being served means more revenue for Slashdot. Click on an article, an ad is served. Can you seriously tell me that my suggestion is offensive? Or are some of you just a little too sensitive to the word twerp?
"IMHO it's quite annoying, I would rather the boot process take longer and it be ready to go the moment the desktop pops-up."
That's funny because I can't stand having to wait for every little thing to load before starting.
Maybe I'm just spoiled, but the difference is more startling when one uses a dual proc machine. My XP machine at work gets up to speed quickly. Almost as soon as my desktop is up, I can start loading my apps. On my laptop, I see that lag that you're describing. I'm reasonbly certain that the other processor is doing the work. Great stuff.
In any event, at least seeing that your computer is almost there is a psychological relief. Sort of like 2 minutes of commercials is usually better than seeing 2 minutes of black screen. (Which NBC likes to do here frrm time to time, don't ask me why.)
"I wonder what Slashdot would have said if it had been around for the invention of the license plate. "
One would complain that this is an attempt by Ford to maintain it's evil monopoly by providing the only cars that have a license plate holder.
Another would write a mini sci-fi story about how the big bad gov't would use this to track where individuals go even though it's laughable to think that the gov't is competent enough to manage that much info.
Yet another would get a +5 Insightful for claiming that license plates wouldn't do any good because people would cover them up.
And yet another would shoot right up to +5 for claiming that it would affect gas mileage.
Slashdot Mirror
Read the articles you linked to.
"Keeping up with their promise to make smartphones more root-friendly,"
"They didn't specify which handsets will receive the capability or when we can expect to see it, but the company promises to keep us updated "every few weeks.""
"Motorola said it plans to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across its portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, "where carriers and operators will allow it.""
What's funny is you lot sure like to drag out the 'reality distortion field' a lot.
Why was this modded down instead of up?
Actually he's got a point. Nobody arguse about it is using the right numbers for the right purpose. It has been going on for ages on this site.
I never met that guy, but I do have a strong memory of being held captive aboard an alien ship with funky mirrors. When I returned, I told everybody a bout my ordeal. Now I'm living out my days in this damn hospital. Oh well, at least my sister won the swim meet.
"For once they reported news within 14 days of it breaking." ... and it didn't even start with the words "the lone gunmen are dead'!
It's "come on", not C'mon. You cannot turn "come on" into a contraction. For those of us that care about English this is as jarring a syntax error as anything that would barf a compiler. So do our parsers a favour and LEARN what you can and cannot make contractions out of.
"Maybe they should've just called it PSPdisc... since Sony isn't even going to put a UMD slot on the PS3."
So.. the conclusion you're drawing is that Sony will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever release another system or player that'll play it?
Broad assumption if you ask me.
"This doesn't make much sense to me, I mean isn't HD basically just a higher resolution and the elimination of interlaced frames? How does that increase cost to the developer, in terms of either development time, money, or complexity?"
The artists have to do more work, for one thing. They have to make higher resolution textures. Since the fill rate's going way up, the engine has to be tuned to make the right trade-offs in order to maintain frame rate. This'll mean more coding, tweaking, and possibily the artists will have to make alternative modes for their models and textures. (Err, I'm not explaining the artist bit too clearly. If a texture's resolution is too high, but drawn really small on the screen, it can cause flickering. The hardware is supposed to deal with it but sometimes some hand-tweaking has to be done.)
Also, it can potentially mean that the games now have to run in different modes. Time may tell me I'm wrong, but it depends on what the point of the game is. If a game's running at 720 by 480, it has a lot more cycles to spare than a game running at HD res. Perhaps running it at lower res means more lighting effects. If the developer chooses to do that, then there's more testing and tweaking going on right there.
If you're not sold, don't worry, I understand that. I do have a semi-relevent anecdote to share, though. Episode II used HD video cameras for their model shots. Though technically these things capture roughly the same resolution as film, film is a lot grainier. The HD footage was too clear. They had to spend considerably more time touching up the models on set to stand up to the HD scrutiny. More time == more money, etc.
"Universal Exclusivity."
Yeesh. Universal, as in "more than just video". You'd think people around here would be smart enough to get this, but noooOOOOooo, every single PSP article has to have this exact same comment modded up.
"and with one small stone, the giant fell..." ... to his knees laughing.
Funny. Now go back to stuffing nuts in your mouth.
Hey boss, mind if I stay at work?
"Michael Winslow everybody. Give the man a hand!"
That has got to be the first time anybody ever made a Policy Academy on Slashdot and got modded as funny for it. Quick! Bookmark it!
"Calling out the mods is flamebait. "
No it's not. Face your accuser, etc.
I caught it in meta-mod and marked it unfair.
Wish I could do more.
Excellent? Half-assed, maybe. Excellent? No.
"I thought Mr. Spock couldn't use contractions!"
Good lord. There's a question that should be on the Slashdot registration form, right under the "are you over 13" bit.
Ooo! I hope Dubya chimes in!
"If I want bloat I'll go back to Windows!"
Bah, that's not real bloat. Try Redhat.
"And since it's a web server dynamically serving one channel at a time to you, it would be extremely easy for the IPTV provider to record what one watches. "
I have ten dollars that says this guy has a massive porn stash he didn't think twice about downloading.
"It's hard to write plugins for Photoshop (or any proprietary app) because often all the other plugins are proprietary (so you don't have anything to work from)"
Fair point.
"the interface that is actually exposed to plugin writers is not sufficient."
Unless you've actually explored writing a Photoshop plugin, this is not fair to say. I have written plugins for various apps before and some SDKs are good, some aren't. On the flip side, having source code is nice, but if you have to change it in order to make your feature work, then you risk being boned when a new version comes along.
"And what if you need some feature that Photoshop doesn't have? ... But people would rather be slaves to a proprietary software company than co-operate with each other."
Oh right.
a.) Photoshop has a hell of a lot of features. It's difficult to imagine that short of automation (Photoshop is scriptable) that a feature is that necessary.
b.) If they really really needed one, they might as well look into making a PS plugin. Hopping from GIMP to PS for one feature is not desirable.
Those peeps, in that rare circumstance, have options. The GIMP isn't necessarily the ideal means of doing it. You cannot use that to measure people's sheep-ti-tude.
"When are you anti-Roland twerps going to realize that the best way to get him to go away is to not comment on his articles?"
Troll. Right. Slashdot is ad supported. More clicks equals more ads being served. More ads being served means more revenue for Slashdot. Click on an article, an ad is served. Can you seriously tell me that my suggestion is offensive? Or are some of you just a little too sensitive to the word twerp?
Suffocate > Inflammation.
"IMHO it's quite annoying, I would rather the boot process take longer and it be ready to go the moment the desktop pops-up."
That's funny because I can't stand having to wait for every little thing to load before starting.
Maybe I'm just spoiled, but the difference is more startling when one uses a dual proc machine. My XP machine at work gets up to speed quickly. Almost as soon as my desktop is up, I can start loading my apps. On my laptop, I see that lag that you're describing. I'm reasonbly certain that the other processor is doing the work. Great stuff.
In any event, at least seeing that your computer is almost there is a psychological relief. Sort of like 2 minutes of commercials is usually better than seeing 2 minutes of black screen. (Which NBC likes to do here frrm time to time, don't ask me why.)
"And GEE! Look what "editor" posted the story!"
And GEE! Another ad served while people bitch about Roland profiting off of copying stories!
When are you anti-Roland twerps going to realize that the best way to get him to go away is to not comment on his articles?
"I wonder what Slashdot would have said if it had been around for the invention of the license plate. "
One would complain that this is an attempt by Ford to maintain it's evil monopoly by providing the only cars that have a license plate holder.
Another would write a mini sci-fi story about how the big bad gov't would use this to track where individuals go even though it's laughable to think that the gov't is competent enough to manage that much info.
Yet another would get a +5 Insightful for claiming that license plates wouldn't do any good because people would cover them up.
And yet another would shoot right up to +5 for claiming that it would affect gas mileage.
And yet another would