You most certainly are given a choice and think about it... why would MS target Walmart instead of Dell? They're the smarter target.
And yes, There are times that I choose Windows. I know it's not often believed around these parts but some of us don't have a problem going with Windows for most things. While I do run Linux in some cases and Solaris in others I still have a desire for Windows for many things. A computer is not strictly about the OS. Sorry if that offends people around here to hear that but it's the bottomline in my computing.
It couldn't have anything to do with the machines being garbage regardless of OS could it?
Just a couple of posts up thread there are two postings where one user who actually owned the machine said it was a nightmare and another points out that building a machine on cheap hardware is a bad idea in the first place. Both, at this time, are unmodded and this gets a +5?
It must be desperate times when people have to turn to conspiracy theories for comfort when my 12 year old nephew can clearly point out that the "PC" they were putting out was about as good as some (not all, mind you) TI graphical calculators.
If this impact contaminates a significant proportion of the water reserves on the moon than they're not worth the trouble anyway. But in all reality that would be like me saying that if we did a test in Pittsburgh would it contaminate the waters in Dallas? It simply of such a small scale effect against such a massive landscape that it's pretty much unthinkable.
The distance from the moon to the earth is so astronomical (no pun intended) that this is a fairly mild concern. The real problem arises when debris is in orbit, otherwise it's just another shooting star. Kicking rock out with such force that it makes it to earth makes it unlikely that it could maintain an orbit. These kinds of collisions have been going on for eons and we're still not surrounded with rocks from the moon. The difference is that this one is man made.
And we know a ton about the moon's geography. The moon has no liquid core or even if it does there is no way that we're going to hit with enough force to cause a problem on the level of changing it's structure.
Heck, if we had that kind of power available to us near-earth asteroids would be an easy problem to solve.
Tell me... Why do you think copyright protection should be about punishing someone? That's what your response reminds me of, teachers that were too small minded to come up with a curriculum that engaged the students so they fed them endless busy work to hope that the students would just leave them alone.
And why should large corporations suffer? What is so inherently wrong with the trade of goods that we need to beat down on the corporations? Sorry guy, if an artist signs themselves to a record deal and they lose in the long run who's to blame? Or do you really think the state should be sued over people who spend their last dime on lottery tickets instead of investing and wind up homeless? I just do not understand this attitude at all.
I think it's a bad measure to look on the patent system as the big guy versus the little guy. I know that the underdog is popular here but that doesn't mean that it's the original spirit of the law.
IMHO the patent system is in place to ensure that those who take the initiative and the gamble with creating something new are given an opportunity to profit from their works. I don't care if it's Joe Sixpack in his garage or if it's IBM... if you're taking the time and money to create something new you have the right to profit from it or to distribute it as you see fit, even if it's only for a short time.
They know that their marketing dept is their most important asset, and they can afford to pour cash at them. Hence their marketing people can afford to try out any wacky ideas and see what sticks.
Jesus Christ. You're acting like MS is the first company to put their logo on a stupid office toy and give it out for free. Get over yourself. I have no less than 6 worthless pieces of plastic with a corporate logo on my desk but I doubt you would have ranted on like a lunitic over them if you were here. Oh, that's right, none of them say Microsoft on them. My bad.
Is it stupid? Yeah. Is it funny? Yeah. Doesn't it hurt anyone? Please.
Aside from the fact that it's MS there is nothing to see here. Take your boorish trolls elsewhere. Most of the comments here just show why nerds can't get girls... they have too hard of a time not taking themselves so seriously.
I'm nearly at the point of asking why this even made the front page.
I was going to post the same thing. What people don't see is their own fault in this case, clearly. We like to think when the leaders that we back do something that we like it's simply a matter of common sense. Most of us refuse to see the money that might change hands when legislation that we support is put into place. We like to think we're above it so we also project those kinds of ideals on the people who do change the laws.
People have been fooling themselves for far too long but seeings as where campaigns are run with the same scripts as most "reality" TV programming it's no surprise that people keep eating it up.
While your point is kind of well made the fact is that most of these systems they're talking about having embedded have a much simpler time than any PC does regardless of OS...
For example, you mention a BSOD. I can not recall the last time I've seen a PC get a BSOD aside from hardware failure and I have over 1000 of them in my workplace. The reason for this isn't that W2K and XP are so solid (and not that they aren't. let's try to avoid the MS bashfest here please) but rather because I work in a controlled environment where we don't let any user put any software they want on a machine. So with a mixture of Microsoft software, some third party apps and even some inhouse applications we have managed to build a fairly smooth machine with the majority of users having nothing better than a high school graduates education.
So the same is true for the guy programming the washer's code. He has a very specific system that he's probably fairly knowledgeable about. And like with us he doesn't have to concern himself with a user trying to install WeatherBug on his Maytag. It's not that the PC is so bad but Bill, Linux and Steve should not be looked down on when a third party application or some random hardware gives the machine fits. In most embedded systems you simply do not have those concerns. Controlled environments are a Godsend to most coders.
If you didn't have an analog stick until the 90s than you're clearly outside of the timeframe we're talking about here. Either you're unaware of the history or your talking out your ass.
Whatever. Keep skirting the truth of the issue. I had internet access in the late 80s too, not as a student or researcher. That doesn't mean everyone else did.
it is absolutely no wonder that the joystick has all but disappeared
No, it's because the transition into gravis/game pads was largely digital too. The analog stick never found a foothold until a decade after the joystick was a memory. What did you expect people to do in the meantime?
Wrong concept. The vast majority of joysticks are digital, not analog. The same is true with the keyboard. It's not the distance that you move the joystick that makes a difference in how it performs, it's the amount of time you have that switched turned on. The same is true with keyboard controls.
Seriously, it's a big freaking lever instead of the grouping of buttons that take less force and less maneuvering to manipulate. Why in the world would I want my whole hand to move a joystick and inch to the right when I can just slide my thumb over a quarter inch to get the same effect?
And no, it's not a matter of laziness but rather an ergonomic advantage in playing a game. It's the same reason I like keyboard/mouse; I can go from a full run to back peddling on a FPS by simply pressing a key instead of having to reposition my thumb over another button, or worse in the joysticks case of having to reposition my entire hand by two inches.
From the blurb: The winner, LA web developer Matthew Howell, had to untangle a dozen ethernet cables in record time leaving them in working order to win.
Working order? Man, there's a catch to everything. I guess I can put my weed whacker with it's steel blades back...
My guess would be Mario. Horrible graphics, bad storyline, greatest game ever.
Few games had great story lines in the timeframe you're talking about tho. Once you get a gamers interest you can afford to put out a couple of mediocre games and still keep their interest. Take Elite for example... A great first game (also with bad graphics even in it's day) and people kept buying the pathetic sequels hoping for another giant like the first game. I think even if a new Elite came out today you'd have strong sales on the older crowd just for nostalgia alone.
While I'm not going to flatly dismiss your claim (I actually agree about if it doesn't taste good why drink it?) I still think that if it weren't for the residual effects of the beer that many wouldn't drink it and certainly not in the quantities that most Americans do in the pub culture.
Thanks for ignoring part of my post. No wonder I'm spending less time around here with people who won't read entire posts... I guess that's just too painful.
You're skirting the issue of your original comment. You said "twice" the cost. Even at 700 it's nowhere near twice the cost.
Yet again we have a post that is modded way up when there is plenty of posts (not to mention 30 second google searches) that can prove the poster dead wrong. I guess that's what passes as informative around here.
And even if it was crap it probably still outperforms the apple version of flash. They're very different demands.
Being part of a bar community of predominantly over thirty members I can tell you that drinking to get drunk does not end at the college level. Maybe you're just out of step with it.
Slashdot Mirror
You most certainly are given a choice and think about it... why would MS target Walmart instead of Dell? They're the smarter target.
And yes, There are times that I choose Windows. I know it's not often believed around these parts but some of us don't have a problem going with Windows for most things. While I do run Linux in some cases and Solaris in others I still have a desire for Windows for many things. A computer is not strictly about the OS. Sorry if that offends people around here to hear that but it's the bottomline in my computing.
Yeah, a conspiracy. Yeah.
It couldn't have anything to do with the machines being garbage regardless of OS could it?
Just a couple of posts up thread there are two postings where one user who actually owned the machine said it was a nightmare and another points out that building a machine on cheap hardware is a bad idea in the first place. Both, at this time, are unmodded and this gets a +5?
It must be desperate times when people have to turn to conspiracy theories for comfort when my 12 year old nephew can clearly point out that the "PC" they were putting out was about as good as some (not all, mind you) TI graphical calculators.
Perculate: verb; to brew coffee.
har har... I'll be here all week!
If this impact contaminates a significant proportion of the water reserves on the moon than they're not worth the trouble anyway. But in all reality that would be like me saying that if we did a test in Pittsburgh would it contaminate the waters in Dallas? It simply of such a small scale effect against such a massive landscape that it's pretty much unthinkable.
The distance from the moon to the earth is so astronomical (no pun intended) that this is a fairly mild concern. The real problem arises when debris is in orbit, otherwise it's just another shooting star. Kicking rock out with such force that it makes it to earth makes it unlikely that it could maintain an orbit. These kinds of collisions have been going on for eons and we're still not surrounded with rocks from the moon. The difference is that this one is man made.
And we know a ton about the moon's geography. The moon has no liquid core or even if it does there is no way that we're going to hit with enough force to cause a problem on the level of changing it's structure.
Heck, if we had that kind of power available to us near-earth asteroids would be an easy problem to solve.
Tell me... Why do you think copyright protection should be about punishing someone? That's what your response reminds me of, teachers that were too small minded to come up with a curriculum that engaged the students so they fed them endless busy work to hope that the students would just leave them alone.
And why should large corporations suffer? What is so inherently wrong with the trade of goods that we need to beat down on the corporations? Sorry guy, if an artist signs themselves to a record deal and they lose in the long run who's to blame? Or do you really think the state should be sued over people who spend their last dime on lottery tickets instead of investing and wind up homeless? I just do not understand this attitude at all.
I think it's a bad measure to look on the patent system as the big guy versus the little guy. I know that the underdog is popular here but that doesn't mean that it's the original spirit of the law.
IMHO the patent system is in place to ensure that those who take the initiative and the gamble with creating something new are given an opportunity to profit from their works. I don't care if it's Joe Sixpack in his garage or if it's IBM... if you're taking the time and money to create something new you have the right to profit from it or to distribute it as you see fit, even if it's only for a short time.
I wonder how Google plans to deal with the rising cost of helium?
Hydrogen?
They know that their marketing dept is their most important asset, and they can afford to pour cash at them. Hence their marketing people can afford to try out any wacky ideas and see what sticks.
Jesus Christ. You're acting like MS is the first company to put their logo on a stupid office toy and give it out for free. Get over yourself. I have no less than 6 worthless pieces of plastic with a corporate logo on my desk but I doubt you would have ranted on like a lunitic over them if you were here. Oh, that's right, none of them say Microsoft on them. My bad.
Is it stupid? Yeah. Is it funny? Yeah. Doesn't it hurt anyone? Please.
Aside from the fact that it's MS there is nothing to see here. Take your boorish trolls elsewhere. Most of the comments here just show why nerds can't get girls... they have too hard of a time not taking themselves so seriously.
I'm nearly at the point of asking why this even made the front page.
I was going to post the same thing. What people don't see is their own fault in this case, clearly. We like to think when the leaders that we back do something that we like it's simply a matter of common sense. Most of us refuse to see the money that might change hands when legislation that we support is put into place. We like to think we're above it so we also project those kinds of ideals on the people who do change the laws.
People have been fooling themselves for far too long but seeings as where campaigns are run with the same scripts as most "reality" TV programming it's no surprise that people keep eating it up.
While your point is kind of well made the fact is that most of these systems they're talking about having embedded have a much simpler time than any PC does regardless of OS...
For example, you mention a BSOD. I can not recall the last time I've seen a PC get a BSOD aside from hardware failure and I have over 1000 of them in my workplace. The reason for this isn't that W2K and XP are so solid (and not that they aren't. let's try to avoid the MS bashfest here please) but rather because I work in a controlled environment where we don't let any user put any software they want on a machine. So with a mixture of Microsoft software, some third party apps and even some inhouse applications we have managed to build a fairly smooth machine with the majority of users having nothing better than a high school graduates education.
So the same is true for the guy programming the washer's code. He has a very specific system that he's probably fairly knowledgeable about. And like with us he doesn't have to concern himself with a user trying to install WeatherBug on his Maytag. It's not that the PC is so bad but Bill, Linux and Steve should not be looked down on when a third party application or some random hardware gives the machine fits. In most embedded systems you simply do not have those concerns. Controlled environments are a Godsend to most coders.
Get a clue and don't be an asshole because you didn't bother to rtfa.
If you didn't have an analog stick until the 90s than you're clearly outside of the timeframe we're talking about here. Either you're unaware of the history or your talking out your ass.
Whatever. Keep skirting the truth of the issue. I had internet access in the late 80s too, not as a student or researcher. That doesn't mean everyone else did.
it is absolutely no wonder that the joystick has all but disappeared
No, it's because the transition into gravis/game pads was largely digital too. The analog stick never found a foothold until a decade after the joystick was a memory. What did you expect people to do in the meantime?
Wrong concept. The vast majority of joysticks are digital, not analog. The same is true with the keyboard. It's not the distance that you move the joystick that makes a difference in how it performs, it's the amount of time you have that switched turned on. The same is true with keyboard controls.
Seriously, it's a big freaking lever instead of the grouping of buttons that take less force and less maneuvering to manipulate. Why in the world would I want my whole hand to move a joystick and inch to the right when I can just slide my thumb over a quarter inch to get the same effect?
And no, it's not a matter of laziness but rather an ergonomic advantage in playing a game. It's the same reason I like keyboard/mouse; I can go from a full run to back peddling on a FPS by simply pressing a key instead of having to reposition my thumb over another button, or worse in the joysticks case of having to reposition my entire hand by two inches.
From the blurb: The winner, LA web developer Matthew Howell, had to untangle a dozen ethernet cables in record time leaving them in working order to win.
Working order? Man, there's a catch to everything. I guess I can put my weed whacker with it's steel blades back...
My guess would be Mario. Horrible graphics, bad storyline, greatest game ever.
Few games had great story lines in the timeframe you're talking about tho. Once you get a gamers interest you can afford to put out a couple of mediocre games and still keep their interest. Take Elite for example... A great first game (also with bad graphics even in it's day) and people kept buying the pathetic sequels hoping for another giant like the first game. I think even if a new Elite came out today you'd have strong sales on the older crowd just for nostalgia alone.
not exactly the archetype of a foreign agent or drug smuggler.
Tell that to Christopher Boyce and Daulton Lee.
While I'm not going to flatly dismiss your claim (I actually agree about if it doesn't taste good why drink it?) I still think that if it weren't for the residual effects of the beer that many wouldn't drink it and certainly not in the quantities that most Americans do in the pub culture.
Thanks for ignoring part of my post. No wonder I'm spending less time around here with people who won't read entire posts... I guess that's just too painful.
You're skirting the issue of your original comment. You said "twice" the cost. Even at 700 it's nowhere near twice the cost.
Yet again we have a post that is modded way up when there is plenty of posts (not to mention 30 second google searches) that can prove the poster dead wrong. I guess that's what passes as informative around here.
And even if it was crap it probably still outperforms the apple version of flash. They're very different demands.
Being part of a bar community of predominantly over thirty members I can tell you that drinking to get drunk does not end at the college level. Maybe you're just out of step with it.