"...though I would think a comment like this would make more sense if it referred to Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress".
Err why? It's not the overall plot that made SW popular, it was the characters and the visuals. That's why 4, 5, and 6 are so much better than 1, 2, and very probably 3.
SW was able to attract an audience that Dune couldn't. That's not a feat you accomplish with a good plot, sadly. It's a feat you accomplish by being just plain entertaining. That's why movies made in the 80's are considerably better than movies made today.
"Yeah, innovation never started either cause it's such a ripoff of Outlook. I hope Microsoft sued their hippy asses for all they're worth (i.e. nothing)."
The nice thing about Open Source is that you've got companies like Microsoft who've already done the R&D and QA for you!
"I think you've summed up why Microsoft can foist crappy software on the world. Crappy software needs support. Millions depend on the bugs and the bad design to make a living. It's sort of why cars are so flakily designed: because the service bays are the profit centers for new car dealers."...
"I know personally how hard it is to get a job right now. Perhaps it is time we start moving on to newer pastures? Most of the tasks necessary to run networks and machines will be automated or eliminated in the next decade, I'd guess. TCO issues will insure that. MS will survive, because of licensing. But our jobs will not."
I betcha I could call you an idiot without getting modded down for it.:P
"2k is just about as stable as Linux is, and my applications rarely if ever crashed under it."
I've performed a number of over-the-weekend renders in Lightwave running on several different Win2k machines. I've never lost a weekend or overnight weekend due to instability in either Lightwave or Windows.
MS's promises of 'long term value' have certainly paid off for me. Plus I can play just about any game out there to boot.
"I didn't say anything about my Win2k server being unstable. "
Don't take it personally. There's a lot of dumbasses out there think Win2k (and naturally Win2k Server) is unstable. Linux Zealots can be misinformed too.
He does have a point about stability in regards to running untrusted software on a server. The thing to remember is: "It's only a problem when it's a problem. "
Just make sure that if a problem does arise, that's the first thing you get rid of and rule out.
"My question is- Why not save yourself 1 1/2 hrs and possibly a buck and drive to the video store? The only thing I can think of is no late fees. A little more convenient in that sense. But what about video quality? Who wants to watch a video on their pc as opposed to the big screen tv upstairs?"
Well, I could drive to the video store. It'd take me roughly half an hour round trip. That's half an hour where I'm doing nothing but driving and browsing movies. Then, there's another half hour round trip (maybe quicker since I probably wouldn't be browsing) to return the movie. That 1.5 hour download time isn't an impedus on anything else I'm doing. I can still browse the web, I can still spend time with the family, heck I can take a little nap.
As for the video quality: If it's not a streaming download, then the quality should be quite acceptable. Even RealPlayer can handle that. I do wish they'd use DivX or something, though.
As for watching it on a screen: Who cares? My laptop has a video out. I'll run it to the livingroom TV if need be. It's not really my biggest concern. You see, this isn't a solution meant for all people, it's a solution meant for a niche of people. I happen to be in that niche that'd rather download for an hour and a half than go drive to the store. If it's not for you, don't worry about it. It's not like it's being forced on you.
"Minutes later, with an insight of knowledge, I quickly devised a plan to rescue these dying souls. And out of the bitter remains I found around my place of refuge, I constructed a home for them -"
Anybody else read that expecting to hear "And then I rolled a three..."?
" It reminds me of old shareware PC games, where you could hit the F9 key to escape to a DOS shell, so you wouln't get caught at work..."
One of the Sierra games (Uhh.. I think it was Leisure Suit Larry 3, but don't quote me on that) had a boss mode that'd throw up a fake spreadsheet and pie-chart. That was cool until you tried to get out of it, only to be met with a message that says "no, you should be working now." Heh you had to quit the game and reload it.
"The further evidence comments are just getting funnier and funnier:)"
Heh like the professional photographer that had no idea that light bounces? I about died laughing when somebody provided a visual rebuttal using legos.
" It wouldn't be fare to buy a box of corn flakes and take it home, and put is in your Plexstor 24x corn copier and make all you want and never by corn flakes again... thats not right, and neither is copying a friends CD to aviod buying it."
There's a very serious problem with your corn-flake analogy. Corn flakes are something you buy over and over again, but they don't change. People don't run out and buy the same CD over and over again. They buy new and interesting CDs. They can't buy one CD and keep duplicating it and thinking "this is great, now I've got 14 copies!"
"However, you show me a way to sell unprotected music and still make sure that you can make money on it, and make sure no one is stealing from you, and I'll change my mind. Until then this is the only option we have."
It is not the only option you have. The first thing you need to think about is your customers. If your customers want to hear your music before they spend all that money on an album, then provide a way for them to preview it. If your customers want to buy the individual songs, provide a way to do that. If your customers want to return the CD for a refund, provide it to them.
Right now, music purchasing is painfully devoid of variety . If I like one song I hear on the radio, my option is to spend $18 to get the album with that song on it. The bonus is that it *might* have other music I like on the same CD, but that's not guarnateed. Once I open that disc, I own it. End of story.
The problem here is not copy protection or P2P or MP3, the problem is service. Provide a service people want and you'll do fine. The sales process doesn't end when the burn is done.
"Don't they realize that they more they antagonize the music-sharing community the harder they will work to circumvent the copy protection?...It's all about principal now."
I made a comment like that once and somebody accused me of trying to rationalize theft. I got news to all of you who are thinking that: I have purchased a number of games at $50ish a piece. I've never downloaded a game from P2P. I'm not adverse to buying. The reason that the games industry isn't taking so much flack over protection is that they give you ways to preview your purchase. On PC's, you can buy demo CDs or download game demos off the web. On consoles, you can rent games at places like Blockbuster. They know how to treat their customers.
The matter is not that people don't want to pay for their products, it's a matter of making a satisfactory purchase. I cannot take a CD back if I don't like it, I can't rent a CD, and they're trying to prevent me from previewing music on places like Kazaa. Well gee. Why would I spend $18 on something I might like? Letting people read magazines didn't put publishers out of business.
... I have just recently implemented wallet-protection technology. It completely prevents the Record Labels from recieving any money from within my wallet. This radical step is necessary because their business practices force me to tightly control where my money goes. Only legitimate businesses should recieve money from people's wallets.
"I don't know a graphic artist that has like the precision of any previous TabletPC models (yes this isn't the first TabletPC, sorry microsoft), unless they dramatically improved the imput resolution (and pen weight detection) I doubt these will be hits umoung the graphic artists either."
I figure this is a good time to mention this. Alias|Wavefront (of Maya fame) is working on a 'sketchbook' program for Tablet PC's. It works on regular PC's too. You can check it out here. You can even download a free limited feature version of it as well.
I'm itching to use Photoshop on a TabletPC. Right now, it kinda stinks having to scan every drawing I do. I'd rather draw straight to screen, and in color to boot!
"My point is that tablets will be nice, but as COMPLEMENTARY devices and not primary devices."
You all are completely missing the point of what makes a Tablet PC interesting, particularly in an office setting.
The form factor alone is very interesting. No more dragging a laptop to the meeting, unfolding it, and hooking your mouse up. Just bring it in, turn it on, and use the stylus. Not to mention that laptops are really not very comfortable to use on your lap. Yet, these same machines can be propped up and have a keyboard attached. You're not losing anything here.
The capability of creating sketches will defintely be useful. Me, personally, I'm an artist and would love to draw directly on the screen. I think my non-artist coworkers would find that useful as well. Right now we use up dry erase markers like crazy. It would be extremely useful if all that stuff was captured digitally.
Right now, corrections to documents are done by printing them out and drawing little circles and things all over them. That's lots of paper. That's lots of losable paper. I hope that the version of Office designed for this PC allows one to make corrections like that. If not, it can't be that far off. My company could drastically cut down its paper usage.
It's easy to break it down like 'laptop with a touchscreen, BFD!', but that's the wrong way of looking at it. It's a laptop with new and interesting capabilities. It's in its infancy right now so it's bound to be a bit underpowered. Give it some time. I bet within a year or two nearly all laptops will have at least a touch screen. Yeah that'd be a really bad thing./sarcasm
Re:Most immediate space challenge? Riiight....
on
Beaming into Space
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
"... at least low enough that ther are probably better things to spend one's time addressing... say, hunger, AIDS, yadda yadda yadda."
You're talking about different areas of science here. Scientists aren't exactly being pulled off AIDS research to work on this problem. However, a tragic asteroid impact would mean that AIDS and world hunger wouldn't be on everybody's top lists.
Slashdot Mirror
"...though I would think a comment like this would make more sense if it referred to Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress".
Err why? It's not the overall plot that made SW popular, it was the characters and the visuals. That's why 4, 5, and 6 are so much better than 1, 2, and very probably 3.
SW was able to attract an audience that Dune couldn't. That's not a feat you accomplish with a good plot, sadly. It's a feat you accomplish by being just plain entertaining. That's why movies made in the 80's are considerably better than movies made today.
"Then why does GL need to give them credit?"
They don't need to. This wouldn't have come up if a.) SW II wasn't a huge movie and b.) GL didn't have 3 cubic acres of money.
I'm pretty sure the credits in Independence Day didn't include the architect of the White House.
Whoah.. check out this page of the magazine:
/ vol1no3/5.jpg ...and then this one, a couple of pages later...
/ vol1no3/7.jpg
http://www.tripoint.org/games/literature/atariage
http://www.tripoint.org/games/literature/atariage
I wanna make a joke, but I don't wanna sound homophobic! Were the 80's really like that?!
"With pine I can use all the keyboard shortcuts I'm used to. To each his^H^H^Hher own, I guess."
Is that why you're using ctrl+6+h instead of a backspace key?
"
The nice thing about Open Source is that you've got companies like Microsoft who've already done the R&D and QA for you!"
-1, Troll
Oh come on guys, it's a joke. Laugh.
"Yeah, innovation never started either cause it's such a ripoff of Outlook. I hope Microsoft sued their hippy asses for all they're worth (i.e. nothing)."
The nice thing about Open Source is that you've got companies like Microsoft who've already done the R&D and QA for you!
"I know I am a feat of nature...But I normally do try and keep it quiet. Please no more slashdot headlines about me, ok?"
Parent poster wasn't being a troll, he was trying to be funny. It wasn't funny unless you're into comedians like Bob Saget, but it wasn't trolling.
"I think you've summed up why Microsoft can foist crappy software on the world. Crappy software needs support. Millions depend on the bugs and the bad design to make a living. It's sort of why cars are so flakily designed: because the service bays are the profit centers for new car dealers." ...
:P
"I know personally how hard it is to get a job right now. Perhaps it is time we start moving on to newer pastures? Most of the tasks necessary to run networks and machines will be automated or eliminated in the next decade, I'd guess. TCO issues will insure that. MS will survive, because of licensing. But our jobs will not."
I betcha I could call you an idiot without getting modded down for it.
"2k is just about as stable as Linux is, and my applications rarely if ever crashed under it."
I've performed a number of over-the-weekend renders in Lightwave running on several different Win2k machines. I've never lost a weekend or overnight weekend due to instability in either Lightwave or Windows.
MS's promises of 'long term value' have certainly paid off for me. Plus I can play just about any game out there to boot.
"I didn't say anything about my Win2k server being unstable. "
Don't take it personally. There's a lot of dumbasses out there think Win2k (and naturally Win2k Server) is unstable. Linux Zealots can be misinformed too.
He does have a point about stability in regards to running untrusted software on a server. The thing to remember is: "It's only a problem when it's a problem. "
Just make sure that if a problem does arise, that's the first thing you get rid of and rule out.
"My question is- Why not save yourself 1 1/2 hrs and possibly a buck and drive to the video store? The only thing I can think of is no late fees. A little more convenient in that sense. But what about video quality? Who wants to watch a video on their pc as opposed to the big screen tv upstairs?"
Well, I could drive to the video store. It'd take me roughly half an hour round trip. That's half an hour where I'm doing nothing but driving and browsing movies. Then, there's another half hour round trip (maybe quicker since I probably wouldn't be browsing) to return the movie. That 1.5 hour download time isn't an impedus on anything else I'm doing. I can still browse the web, I can still spend time with the family, heck I can take a little nap.
As for the video quality: If it's not a streaming download, then the quality should be quite acceptable. Even RealPlayer can handle that. I do wish they'd use DivX or something, though.
As for watching it on a screen: Who cares? My laptop has a video out. I'll run it to the livingroom TV if need be. It's not really my biggest concern. You see, this isn't a solution meant for all people, it's a solution meant for a niche of people. I happen to be in that niche that'd rather download for an hour and a half than go drive to the store. If it's not for you, don't worry about it. It's not like it's being forced on you.
"Minutes later, with an insight of knowledge, I quickly devised a plan to rescue these dying souls. And out of the bitter remains I found around my place of refuge, I constructed a home for them -"
Anybody else read that expecting to hear "And then I rolled a three..."?
" It reminds me of old shareware PC games, where you could hit the F9 key to escape to a DOS shell, so you wouln't get caught at work..."
One of the Sierra games (Uhh.. I think it was Leisure Suit Larry 3, but don't quote me on that) had a boss mode that'd throw up a fake spreadsheet and pie-chart. That was cool until you tried to get out of it, only to be met with a message that says "no, you should be working now." Heh you had to quit the game and reload it.
"This is why I said notebook, pad of paper and scanner. I do not drag my notebook to various meetings. I drag notebooks of paper."
So, in other words, you can do the same thing if you put a lot more effort into it.
Got it!
"The further evidence comments are just getting funnier and funnier :)"
Heh like the professional photographer that had no idea that light bounces? I about died laughing when somebody provided a visual rebuttal using legos.
" It wouldn't be fare to buy a box of corn flakes and take it home, and put is in your Plexstor 24x corn copier and make all you want and never by corn flakes again... thats not right, and neither is copying a friends CD to aviod buying it."
There's a very serious problem with your corn-flake analogy. Corn flakes are something you buy over and over again, but they don't change. People don't run out and buy the same CD over and over again. They buy new and interesting CDs. They can't buy one CD and keep duplicating it and thinking "this is great, now I've got 14 copies!"
"However, you show me a way to sell unprotected music and still make sure that you can make money on it, and make sure no one is stealing from you, and I'll change my mind. Until then this is the only option we have."
It is not the only option you have. The first thing you need to think about is your customers. If your customers want to hear your music before they spend all that money on an album, then provide a way for them to preview it. If your customers want to buy the individual songs, provide a way to do that. If your customers want to return the CD for a refund, provide it to them.
Right now, music purchasing is painfully devoid of variety . If I like one song I hear on the radio, my option is to spend $18 to get the album with that song on it. The bonus is that it *might* have other music I like on the same CD, but that's not guarnateed. Once I open that disc, I own it. End of story.
The problem here is not copy protection or P2P or MP3, the problem is service. Provide a service people want and you'll do fine. The sales process doesn't end when the burn is done.
"Don't they realize that they more they antagonize the music-sharing community the harder they will work to circumvent the copy protection?...It's all about principal now."
I made a comment like that once and somebody accused me of trying to rationalize theft. I got news to all of you who are thinking that: I have purchased a number of games at $50ish a piece. I've never downloaded a game from P2P. I'm not adverse to buying. The reason that the games industry isn't taking so much flack over protection is that they give you ways to preview your purchase. On PC's, you can buy demo CDs or download game demos off the web. On consoles, you can rent games at places like Blockbuster. They know how to treat their customers.
The matter is not that people don't want to pay for their products, it's a matter of making a satisfactory purchase. I cannot take a CD back if I don't like it, I can't rent a CD, and they're trying to prevent me from previewing music on places like Kazaa. Well gee. Why would I spend $18 on something I might like? Letting people read magazines didn't put publishers out of business.
... I have just recently implemented wallet-protection technology. It completely prevents the Record Labels from recieving any money from within my wallet. This radical step is necessary because their business practices force me to tightly control where my money goes. Only legitimate businesses should recieve money from people's wallets.
" It's a self-contained Atari game unit. The joystick *is* the console, battery operated with 10 preprogrammed titles and RCA out to your television"
I found another pic of the unit here. Enjoy.
"|-|uc||_3b3rry F1|\||\|.
I must get out more - I was actually able to figure that out!"
Ouch. You just violated the DMCA!
"I don't know a graphic artist that has like the precision of any previous TabletPC models (yes this isn't the first TabletPC, sorry microsoft), unless they dramatically improved the imput resolution (and pen weight detection) I doubt these will be hits umoung the graphic artists either."
I figure this is a good time to mention this. Alias|Wavefront (of Maya fame) is working on a 'sketchbook' program for Tablet PC's. It works on regular PC's too. You can check it out here. You can even download a free limited feature version of it as well.
I'm itching to use Photoshop on a TabletPC. Right now, it kinda stinks having to scan every drawing I do. I'd rather draw straight to screen, and in color to boot!
"My point is that tablets will be nice, but as COMPLEMENTARY devices and not primary devices."
/sarcasm
You all are completely missing the point of what makes a Tablet PC interesting, particularly in an office setting.
The form factor alone is very interesting. No more dragging a laptop to the meeting, unfolding it, and hooking your mouse up. Just bring it in, turn it on, and use the stylus. Not to mention that laptops are really not very comfortable to use on your lap. Yet, these same machines can be propped up and have a keyboard attached. You're not losing anything here.
The capability of creating sketches will defintely be useful. Me, personally, I'm an artist and would love to draw directly on the screen. I think my non-artist coworkers would find that useful as well. Right now we use up dry erase markers like crazy. It would be extremely useful if all that stuff was captured digitally.
Right now, corrections to documents are done by printing them out and drawing little circles and things all over them. That's lots of paper. That's lots of losable paper. I hope that the version of Office designed for this PC allows one to make corrections like that. If not, it can't be that far off. My company could drastically cut down its paper usage.
It's easy to break it down like 'laptop with a touchscreen, BFD!', but that's the wrong way of looking at it. It's a laptop with new and interesting capabilities. It's in its infancy right now so it's bound to be a bit underpowered. Give it some time. I bet within a year or two nearly all laptops will have at least a touch screen. Yeah that'd be a really bad thing.
"...anyone got something similar for Linux?"
Using a CLI on a dual monitor setup is pretty hard core dude. Heh.
Nope. It's not.
"... at least low enough that ther are probably better things to spend one's time addressing... say, hunger, AIDS, yadda yadda yadda."
You're talking about different areas of science here. Scientists aren't exactly being pulled off AIDS research to work on this problem. However, a tragic asteroid impact would mean that AIDS and world hunger wouldn't be on everybody's top lists.