Whilst I liked TA there is no way you can describe it as the ultimate RTS: the two sides were absolutely identical and simply giving them slightly different names doesn't make them different. The best bit about TA was the fact that 3rd parties could, and did, create new units and buildings.
And then there's TA:Kingdoms, now that was a steaming pile.
I think you've hit the nail on the head: there's a lost of revisionism going on to redefine RTS to be whatever the earliest game you can remember.
I wrote a game in the early 80's for the Commodore Pet called Oborne Glade (anyone remember it?) where you had a unit you walked around sword fighting opponents: perhaps we could re-define RTS to be like that and it could claim the title of "first rts"?
The bottom line is, the first true RTS, that kicked off the genre was Dune 2.
This sounds like bullshit to me. Care to quote some facts? I suspect the sum of all English + Spanish + French readers pretty much has the market cornered and they all use the latin alphabet.
Wow you're so special. You can think of things that can't be expressed using the language of Shakespeare. Get off your high-horse you pretentious knob.
Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
I know this it's rude of me to ask but: where's your evidence? And no "my mum once met a bloke who knew someone he thought he met down the pub who had a pint with someone who recalled having once seen an article in the Sun that claimed it was fixed" does not count as evidence.
At work I use a Dell laptop: looking at the specs: 2Gig processor, 15" screen, decent hard-drive, DVD drive, reasonable memory you'd think it was comparable to my 15" Al Powerbook.
Not so. And the difference is entirely down to: quality, OSX, size and not looking like a piece of shit.
The Dell's case is cheap plastic and has little lugs and lumps all over the place. The keyboard is cheap and tacky. It has both a trackpad+2 buttons AND a nipple with another 2 buttons (!!!); none of which work properly. The bluetooth radio simply does not work reliably. It runs Windows XP: there's been plenty written about how awful it is but the bit I really hate is how intrusive the fucking OS is. For example, every time I turn on or reset my machine the stupid little bluetooth icon in the status flashes up telling me it's off and that I can right-click the balloon if I want to turn it on. I really don't need an OS that treats me like a moron. The bizarre thing is that in other aspects you have to be a computer expert to setup Windows properly (driver management, security, registry management etc etc).
In comparison my Powerbook has a beautiful Aluminium shell, the keyboard's keys are aluminium as well and automatically backlit in low light conditions. The trackpad and button work without fail, every time, no exceptions: I actually learnt to like using a trackpad on my Powerbooks having abdjured them on my previous Wintel laptops. The bluetooth works, reliably and transparently with both my phone and my Microsoft BT mouse. And OSX, well what can I say: OSX doesn't treat me like a moron, constantly nagging me, and in addition it doesn't expect me to be a computer expert to set it up and use it sensibly.
So actually, yes I would spend a few hunderd pounds (GBP) for exactly those things you've listed plus one you missed: quality. In fact I would pay double to have a good, working system. I simply would not buy the Dell.
Really? Since when did Dell start selling G5 machines running OSX?
It's easy to come out with any old crap when you pick and choose some specs (and completely ignore others). I'd like to see you come up with a comparable box from a top brand (which basically means IBM: I don't think anyone could mistake Dell for a quality brand!)
I use a Microsoft BT mouse (with my Apple Powerbook) and I don't find it lags noticably at all: I use it to play Warcraft3. (for all other purposes I prefer the touchpad as it's right below the keyboard and it works).
Because it's aimed at a different market! The mini is aimed at people who are considering a solid-state player: ie size is even more important to them than masses of storage space. It's also aimed at the more style conscious rather than us geeks: hence the multitude of colours for the mini and the choice of any colour as long as it's white for the ipod.
I agree: for desktop use cordless mice are slower than corded ones. That said for most uses my BT Microsoft mouse is just fine.
With my PowerBook though I think a cordless is just perfect: I hate having to piss about plugging stuff into my laptop. That said: for must purposes I find that I prefer my PB's trackpad- I only use the mouse for gaming.
Hate to rain on your parade but even that wouldn't work.. well not if they picked a sensible key length (hint: 256bits is to short for any algorithm). 512 bits, even better 1024 bit RSA properly handled would take more than the life time of the universe using currently available computing power.
It would probably be quicker for you to study and become a maths professor and then dedicate your life to finding a weakness in RSA (or whatever algorithm they used)...
Quikcer yet of course would be to wait for the game to be released and (shock! horror!) buy a license.
The problem on Windows is that most people don't even realise they're running as Admin and that they have any particularly "special" rights. I use Windows still (at work and to play games: but even though I should know better my login is still Admin because, as you said, that's just easy. The difference with OSX is that when it needs me to have admin rights I can just type in my password and *temporarily* get them (think "sudo"). I do not, as I have to in Windows log in as another user.
With Windows I have to log in as another user, either temporarily or permanently. Both are more painful than OSX's way.
So no I don't agree: it's not down to "lazy users" or "lazy/ignorant software vendors" it's down to a lazy/ignorant Microsoft.
Yes you are missing something. That most users *will* let the ActiveX control run and that because the user has admin rights by default the control can do anything it wants: including modifying shit.
This is yet another manifestation of the fundamental security flaw with Windows: the user and his processes can do anything they want.
Cool? Yeah I suppose so if cool is the new hip and trendy term that all the kids are using for moronically fucking stupid.
Think about it. You're watching a film and you change the spot you're concentrating on. Now that information has to get back to the sender who has to dynamically change which bit of the movie is being sent with the highest quality and stream the modified version.
By which time you've decided this a complete pile of crap and gone back to watching a DVD.
Slashdot Mirror
And then there's TA:Kingdoms, now that was a steaming pile.
Hehehe, nice one.
I think you've hit the nail on the head: there's a lost of revisionism going on to redefine RTS to be whatever the earliest game you can remember.
I wrote a game in the early 80's for the Commodore Pet called Oborne Glade (anyone remember it?) where you had a unit you walked around sword fighting opponents: perhaps we could re-define RTS to be like that and it could claim the title of "first rts"?
The bottom line is, the first true RTS, that kicked off the genre was Dune 2.
Well done Apache! Surely this must be a big stake in the heart of MS email domination plans ?
Reverse FUD? So would that be:
Doubt Uncertainty and Fear (DUF: hmmm beer)
or would it be:
Trust Certainty and , uhm, Certainty?
Or are you just an incoherent moron that's spewing out random words without really understanding what he's saying?
As someone with an education I don't need to guess.
This sounds like bullshit to me. Care to quote some facts? I suspect the sum of all English + Spanish + French readers pretty much has the market cornered and they all use the latin alphabet.
Wow you're so special. You can think of things that can't be expressed using the language of Shakespeare. Get off your high-horse you pretentious knob.
Bullishit.
Art is by definition "manufactured".
From dictionary.com
I know this it's rude of me to ask but: where's your evidence? And no "my mum once met a bloke who knew someone he thought he met down the pub who had a pint with someone who recalled having once seen an article in the Sun that claimed it was fixed" does not count as evidence.
The Who, The Clash, The Beatles, The Cure and so on: all native born.
Please save your politically correct/factually incorrect spewings for your social workers' get togethers.
At work I use a Dell laptop: looking at the specs: 2Gig processor, 15" screen, decent hard-drive, DVD drive, reasonable memory you'd think it was comparable to my 15" Al Powerbook.
Not so. And the difference is entirely down to: quality, OSX, size and not looking like a piece of shit.
The Dell's case is cheap plastic and has little lugs and lumps all over the place. The keyboard is cheap and tacky. It has both a trackpad+2 buttons AND a nipple with another 2 buttons (!!!); none of which work properly. The bluetooth radio simply does not work reliably. It runs Windows XP: there's been plenty written about how awful it is but the bit I really hate is how intrusive the fucking OS is. For example, every time I turn on or reset my machine the stupid little bluetooth icon in the status flashes up telling me it's off and that I can right-click the balloon if I want to turn it on. I really don't need an OS that treats me like a moron. The bizarre thing is that in other aspects you have to be a computer expert to setup Windows properly (driver management, security, registry management etc etc).
In comparison my Powerbook has a beautiful Aluminium shell, the keyboard's keys are aluminium as well and automatically backlit in low light conditions. The trackpad and button work without fail, every time, no exceptions: I actually learnt to like using a trackpad on my Powerbooks having abdjured them on my previous Wintel laptops. The bluetooth works, reliably and transparently with both my phone and my Microsoft BT mouse. And OSX, well what can I say: OSX doesn't treat me like a moron, constantly nagging me, and in addition it doesn't expect me to be a computer expert to set it up and use it sensibly.
So actually, yes I would spend a few hunderd pounds (GBP) for exactly those things you've listed plus one you missed: quality. In fact I would pay double to have a good, working system. I simply would not buy the Dell.
Let me highlight a relevant bit you seem to have missed...
Really? Since when did Dell start selling G5 machines running OSX?
It's easy to come out with any old crap when you pick and choose some specs (and completely ignore others). I'd like to see you come up with a comparable box from a top brand (which basically means IBM: I don't think anyone could mistake Dell for a quality brand!)
Try again if you like:
Up for the challenge?
So for roughly the same money I can buy a Dell: with all the manufacturing and support "quality" that implies; or I can buy an Apple.
Hmm, tough choice.
I use a Microsoft BT mouse (with my Apple Powerbook) and I don't find it lags noticably at all: I use it to play Warcraft3. (for all other purposes I prefer the touchpad as it's right below the keyboard and it works).
Panther isn't a 64-bit OS.
This greek letters (ae is another one) have been slowly disappearing: how often do you see Encycolpaedia spelt that way anymore?
Because it looks an awful lot like the pictures the rumour sites (including Slashdot) posted: and were "admitted to be fakes"!!).
Because it's aimed at a different market! The mini is aimed at people who are considering a solid-state player: ie size is even more important to them than masses of storage space. It's also aimed at the more style conscious rather than us geeks: hence the multitude of colours for the mini and the choice of any colour as long as it's white for the ipod.
I agree: for desktop use cordless mice are slower than corded ones. That said for most uses my BT Microsoft mouse is just fine.
With my PowerBook though I think a cordless is just perfect: I hate having to piss about plugging stuff into my laptop. That said: for must purposes I find that I prefer my PB's trackpad- I only use the mouse for gaming.
Christ who modded you Insightful ?!?
Microsoft produce some of the BEST hardware: their mice, keyboards and joysticks are some of the best you can buy.
Blind prejudice is not in anyway "Insightful".
Hate to rain on your parade but even that wouldn't work.. well not if they picked a sensible key length (hint: 256bits is to short for any algorithm). 512 bits, even better 1024 bit RSA properly handled would take more than the life time of the universe using currently available computing power. It would probably be quicker for you to study and become a maths professor and then dedicate your life to finding a weakness in RSA (or whatever algorithm they used)... Quikcer yet of course would be to wait for the game to be released and (shock! horror!) buy a license.
Funny. Works just fine for me on OSX....
The problem on Windows is that most people don't even realise they're running as Admin and that they have any particularly "special" rights. I use Windows still (at work and to play games: but even though I should know better my login is still Admin because, as you said, that's just easy. The difference with OSX is that when it needs me to have admin rights I can just type in my password and *temporarily* get them (think "sudo"). I do not, as I have to in Windows log in as another user.
With Windows I have to log in as another user, either temporarily or permanently. Both are more painful than OSX's way.
So no I don't agree: it's not down to "lazy users" or "lazy/ignorant software vendors" it's down to a lazy/ignorant Microsoft.
This is yet another manifestation of the fundamental security flaw with Windows: the user and his processes can do anything they want.
Cool? Yeah I suppose so if cool is the new hip and trendy term that all the kids are using for moronically fucking stupid.
Think about it. You're watching a film and you change the spot you're concentrating on. Now that information has to get back to the sender who has to dynamically change which bit of the movie is being sent with the highest quality and stream the modified version.
By which time you've decided this a complete pile of crap and gone back to watching a DVD.