Is it me, or does this thing sound like something the guys on Junkyard Wars or MythBusters would build?
*Junkyard Wars Mode*
Today's challenge is going to be all about Changin' the weather! We've assembled two teams of the finest... well, they do make cars and such... People on the planet to build:
A Hail Prevention/Detection device!
Our two teams have just 10 hours to build a device that can do something that mankind has been trying to do for centuries--do something about the weather, instead of just talking about it!
*MythBusters Mode*
Announcer: Tonight on Mythbusters... See if the old saying "I hope your face sticks like that" is entirely possible--using LN2! And later on, Adam and Jamie build something to deal with that pesky weather.
*** Later On ***
Adam: Jimmy--
Jimmy: Yes Adam?
Adam: Have you ever talked about the weather?
Jimmy: Yea, on a couple of my more 'memorable' dates...
Adam: well, wouldn't it be something if we could do something about the weather, instead of just talk about it?
Jimmy: It might be... who knows--I might have been to get into that guy--I mean, girl's pants if I could have stopped the sun from shining, so he couldn't have seen me...
Adam: I'm not talking about no namby-pamby rain here... I'm talking about HAILSTONES here, baby!
Jimmy: Oh god... not another Sonic-Cannon, Adam. We've built 35 of them already--and we've only been on the air for 20 episodes...
It goes without saying that they (Rockstar Games) make lots of money on the franchise, due to the fact that there making more GTA games.
Having said that, lets look at the logical side of things:
1. Multiplayer is very hard to code correctly on consoles. You have to get it right the first time, or else it'll be a Really Bad Thing(TM), and you can't issue patches later to fix the games like you can on the PC--and your users will rip you a new one because of it.
2. Multiplayer is also very hard to debug, because what works for a low-latency connection does not work for a high-latency connection. This means more betatesters, as well as more time spent betatesting. This compounds with the fact that if you change the single-player game code, the code you did for the Multiplayer might not work now, and vice versa... which means more and more betatesting.
So, logically, if there already making money hand over fist with these games... then why complicate matters any more than they have to be? Its hard enough putting out a game that's changed the way society thinks about stealing cars and the simulations of them, why would they worry about a feature that maybe--just maybe--a few hundred thousand users will use.
I for one say this: Focus on making the game look good, and play good. They've done good so far, I say let them continue on this path. Don't muck about with something that's working, and all that.
I myself use the MX700 on a daily basis, and I'm looking to get the MX900 mouse. Its the exact same 'optical bits' but it uses Bluetooth instead of the 900MHz radio frequency that the MX mouse uses now. The batteries supposedly last 2 weeks now, and with my 2500mAh batteries (instead of the 1700mAh ones that come standard) mine should last about 32% longer than that, which would be about 2 and-a-half weeks. Or thereabouts. I'm not too worried with it, as the recharging time only takes about 45 minutes... and I can use the keyboard shortcuts for that amount of time--easy.
The best part is that the base station (which still includes the recharging bits) is a Bluetooth hub. So you can use to sync your phone or anything else that uses Bluetooth. Headsets, cameras, keyboards, PDA's, etcetera, etcetera.
But back to those mice... There simply too big and flat. Its like trying to mouse with a portable CD player. The ball is also too far back, so that the move that I've seen everyone do at one point or another (flicking the front of the mouse while lifting it off the table) just plain doesn't work at all.
Not to mention that the tiniest piece of dust in the inside of those opto-mechanical bits makes your mouse behave as if it were designed by rhesus monkeys on crack.
And this is not a 5-minute review. I used it for a week, and the hype of "more frags!" was pure bunk. It was a pain in the ass to use in Windows as well. The settings--while you could change them on the fly with a wacky 4-button hotkey--were always too fast for me in windows. I have it fast, but this thing was like my mouse was dipped in Teflon... I sometimes use IceWM, so it was like Teflon on Ice. *rimshot*
So, myself personally (when my rebate check comes from Uncle Sam), I'm going to be buying the following combo for myself. Its time for me to update my desktop keyboard as well, and I hear good things about it so far... not to mention that it looks tons better than the Microsoft USB keyboard I have now... And I like the detached keypad/calculator/media pad. that's a nice touch, I think.
Admittedly, I've seen this on/. on the little quote thingy at the bottom... but I heard this (and was saying it) way before then.
2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely large values of 2)
Which links into my all-time favorite thing to do when I wanted to screw with my programming teacher's head. Which was to change the value of any number to equal to anything else... Just because I know it messed with his head.
And my second ATF thing to do was to encrypt my program, and have it run checks on what processor it was running on... If it was on a Intel system, it would report:
Warning! Calculations based on floating-point and integer math may be incorrect! Please upgrade to a AMD system to resolve this issue.
Which would also screw with him, because he was a die-hard Intel man, and I've never owned anything other than my beloved AMD.
Which brings me back to my third ATF joke, which is:
Q: How many Intel Engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Its never happened before: They just keep changing the socket.
My cousin was blocked from a MMORPG about 3 weeks ago. It was blocked by the ISP for 'spamming' and 'excessive bandwidth use'. It took a full week to tell the ISP that the game wasn't a FTP server, and that they were going to lose customers if they continued to do this. (He is in a clan with some 500 members, and there all out in the sticks on this same Internet provider.) It finally took ME acting like a 'manager' to get them to even _consider_ removing the ban, which they did in a weeks time--after all the other clan members had called them repeatedly for almost 2 days straight.
I also will buy the game. In fact, I already have, and my little ticket sitting up there on my shelf entitles me to the game whenever the heck its released.
I will not download the source code, and I will instead wait until the final release of the game... so that I can not only look at the lines of code, I can actually play a game with the lines of code I paid for.
What really saddens me is that Valve practically started the whole MOD community. At least, the way it is now. I'm 100% sure that they put support for MOD's into the new HL2 engine. So, other than having access to the main code, what good would having the code be? The program already has a function to run other code through the mod system... I just don't get it.
Oh, I mean I get why they did it--because they wanted to--but still... this is kinda dumb.
There's no textures, sounds, or levels to actually play in. This is the equivalent of having a engine of a McLaren F1--with no body, transmission or wheels. Yea its pretty, and its worth a lot of money, but it sure ain't zooming around on the streets getting you chicks.
Also, I offer one suggestion to stop this from happening in the future:
Remove all development machines from the Internet.
Seems simple enough, doesn't it? This would have never happened if there wasn't a link from the server storing the source to the outside world...
And these are merely my opinion as to what any company should have done in the first place, before any of this happened... This has nothing to do with the source being leaked. Also, they may not have actually prevented the leak of the code, but it sure as hell would have been nice to see these things happen.
* Actually release the game on time. Alright... I understand about deadlines and all that... but come on now... if we had the game, we wouldn't care about the source, now would we?
* Try and actually think that the public isn't a bunch of babbling idiots, and that we'll understand if you actually tell us about the delays instead of pretty much dodging the issue until the day AFTER the supposed release and then saying "whoops! my bad.".
*Hums "Genius in france... I'm-a genius in france..."*
Seriously--Quake4 is gonna be like Quake3. I mean, why would they release two single-player games, so close to eachother? Specially when D3 is gonna 0wnz j00--and just about everything else.
Nicola Tesla (yes, the same guy who made those nifty lighting storm things, that are _so_ overused in 'science museums' where you can light up a florescent tube with them) came up with a device that--when properly configured--would be able to kill anyone from anywhere in the world.
How? By using the earth's electromagnetic field to 'bounce' the beam all over the place, before it hit its target.
The US government built the device. They haven't tested it yet. Why? well...
Upon some very preliminary calculations, it seems that Tesla neglected some trivial calculations according to safety (wouldn't be the last/first time either.) and that the gun--while completely correct in its design...
would most likely kill everyone on the planet the first time its fired.
But we built one anyway, and its sitting somewhere (*cough*area51*cough*) and you bet that if they can ever figure out how to get it to not kill everyone on the planet--or just a small area around the actual target--then they'll start using it first chance they get.
Hell, they also built a Cobalt Bomb--which is like a Hydrogen Bomb, only about a bazillion times more powerful (look at the atomic weights of Hydrogen and Cobalt--which one is heavier? Heavier atoms go boom much more gooder...) and while it would make a nice crater on the planet--and also sprinkle Fallout all over the place (as well as ejecting lots of it into space to contaminate other worlds)--but it would also rip the entire atmosphere off of the planet it was detonated on.
I'm almost positive we have one of these... I think Regan ordered for one to be built, when he thought that 'Space Invaders' might attack someday... but I'm not sure about that, and I make NO claims to be right on this. Or any of this, for that matter.
Now... if I could only get access to this site. I want to make a Railgun. Anyone got a mirror, or is it gone for good?
And as a rabid GhostBusters fan, i must give the whole quote.;)
(taken from a website somewhere, a long time ago.)
SPENGLER: Wait! Wait! There's something I forgot to tell you. VENKMAN: What? SPENGLER: Don't cross the beams. VENKMAN: Why not? SPENGLER: Trust me. It will be bad. VENKMAN: What do you mean "bad?" SPENGLER: It's hard to explain, but try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and finding yourself confined forever in another dimension. VENKMAN: That's it! I'm taking charge. You guys are dangerous.
Well, what I propose would be two radar emitters and defectors on the sides of the car. That way, using the Doppler effect, you can tell:
where the car(s) are. (i.e. to the left, right, or straight ahead.)
Their relative speed based on your current speed (i.e. if the signal coming back is 60MPh, and your current speed is 50MPh--don't slam on the brakes.)
when the car moves in front of you from another lane (so that when a car in the right hand lane wanders into yours (and theyâ(TM)re travelling the opposite direction) it will know to stop, and when to let the person merge otherwise)
The only real problem I see with this is that now all the radar detectors in cars will go absolutely nuts--therefore causing lots of accidents when a 'cop' is 'right on top of you' and the resulting slam on the brakes... in cars without this system.;)
p.s. I know that you don't need two for the Doppler effect--its how radar works already--but you need to for detecting their position. so that's why I said it.
Yea, I know itâ(TM)s not always that simple... there may be encryption to deal with... But not everyone on Slashdot is as knowledgeable as you are, and some don't even know what 'jmp eax' means.
And back to encryption for a second... It all has to be decrypted somewhere, right? I mean AFAIK the 'flipper' CPU doesnâ(TM)t have encryption built into the actual silicon of the chip, right?
If it doesnâ(TM)t, then its got to be decrypted somewhere before it gets to the CPU, and then its a simple matter of a chip in-between the lines of the CPU and whatever chip decrypts the data, telling it to run whatever code it receives--decrypted or not.
What Iâ(TM)m saying here is that unless there's PGP/RSA encryption built onto the die of the CPU (possible--it is a custom chip after all.) then we've got traces on the board that will contain decrypted data, and that the CPU has a similar ASM instruction set. Once we've got the place where the decrypted data goes into the CPU, we can make it do whatever we want.
Seriously, you can patent the _sequence_ of DNA--which is proprietary code, and subject to all IP laws and such... which is what they've done here. Or at least, I hope they did... if not, there going to be really pissed when someone sequences their Minimelon DNA and copyright's it.
I'm still waiting for the GPL'd Minimelon, which will run better and faster than all Minimelons previous.
Too bad! I'm sure the lack of N64 funkiness is the primary reason the console is now defunct. If the game ain't funky, I don't want no part of none of that!:)
well... There were quite a few funky titles for it... And some of them just downright reeked. *shudders when he thinks about Superman*
I thought it was widely known that the N64 was a cart-system, which is (overall) more expensive to bring games to market on, regardless of the devkit/libraries. Since mastering carts is always going to be more difficult and expensive than mastering CD/DVD-type media, this means the barriers to entry for that console are higher-- so you get fewer developers taking a chance in the first place, and certainly not taking chances with the types of games they might make.
Yes, I knew that it was a cart system (my copy of Zelda:OoT and Zelda:MM proves that.) and I knew about the cost of the cart-based games. I just chose to ignore that fact, because everyone else has said that... played out, as it were.;)
Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Nintendo is one of those companies that uses game quality as a selling point. Of course, the console company being this strict with the licensing is likely to scare off bit players and people looking to make "questionable" titles.
Exactly what titles were you looking for? Pr0n? Need I remind you what happens with scantily clad female BMX bikers?
While Iâ(TM)ll agree with this "G-Rated only games" is a bunch of hooey, I must also admit that Nintendo's first-party games are usually fairly good. In all of its simplicity, Pikmin is a very addictive game. And Windwaker is also very good as well--Iâ(TM)ve played that one quite a bit at my friendâ(TM)s house, and I enjoy it very much. (I don't own any consoles anymore--my computer takes up too much of my limited income. I still have all my carts/CD/GD-ROM's though. From Atari to Vectrex, I have every one I ever bought.)
I just think that maybe the whole 'piracy' thing is kinda stupid. I mean, if they wanted to completely eliminate the piracy altogether, they would do an online purchase and download of the game you wanted. Nothing stored on the actual unit, except what game you were playing right then, and it would get purged when the unit is off. Your bought games would be assigned a registration key that would be encrypted with PGP and your key would be stored on a read-only key-card that youâ(TM)re given with your unit when you purchase it at the store. That way, the downloads are encrypted, they are decrypted locally in the unit, and you play. When you go to a friends house or a public gaming place, you put your card in and all your data (which is on the server, remember--not the card.) comes with you.
You would be able to play anywhere, on anyone's hardware. Piracy would be all but eliminated, because there's no physical media present, and the only thing would be key-card theft/spoofing. But that could be easily solved, by just having a simple username and password for when you login to the network.
And before you go nuts about the size of the games, you don't use all of the data at once--just small parts of it. And if a game were programmed correctly, it would cache stuff you needed, or download entire levels at a time--which wouldnâ(TM)t take up that much room.
Combined with OGG and some basic texture compression (just think of Windwaker's compression rates!;) levels could be fairly small--even for modem users.
Its possible... and that's where I predict games will be in the next 15-20 years.
Yes, but look the number of PSX games out there. That number surely dwarfs the "hundred or so" games for the dreamcast.
I also forgot to mention that ease of programming is also important for a Devout--and if you have proprietary hardware, that has special commands and loading techniques for the media, its not going to be as easy as say, a normal-CD based unit which the speeds of which can be determined before you make a final copy of your game, so you can (at least attempt) to program your game into knowing what to pre-load beforehand, so you have a little load time as possible.
Itâ(TM)s widely known that the N64 devkit was horribly difficult to program for... Which is primarily the reason why itâ(TM)s now defunked. But the PSX is simple to program for, and which is why there was so many games made for it.
This is all speculation--I have very little facts to actually back this up. The only thing Iâ(TM)m going on here is logic.
I'm almost 99% sure that the discs don't spin backwards, but Iâ(TM)d have to have a friend of mine bring his GC over so that I could test it. The reason Iâ(TM)m _guessing_ it doesnâ(TM)t spin backwards, is because of the plain and simple fact that console hardware developers don't like to get into _really_ proprietary stuff because of the high-cost of the Devkit that would be required by the hardware. And the more the developer has to pay for the Devkit, the less likely they are to get it if they are a smaller company who can't afford the multi-million dollar expenses... which translates into less games. And we all know how less games--that very well may be high quality games--turns out... All I gotta say is Playstation, and you know what Iâ(TM)m talking about.
What they _probably_ did was take some 'special' 8cm DVD disks (look here for more info and a picture of one in a case--how hard would it be to get it out of there if your the "Big N"?) and encode it in such a way that only a specially modified firmware would read the discs.
Just like the dreamcast (which did use some special hardware... and the price of the Devkit was high... No games (in USA)... pattern?) did. Its all a matter of TRICKING the GC into thinking whatever disc you put in there was supposed to be there, and then either making it read the discs as normal, or formatting your discs to use the same layout as the real discs.
And anyone with a oscilloscope (and a fair bit of skill with it) can see what lines are being pulled high/low to see what the disc is reading at a given time. How do you think these 'mod chips' actually work? All they do is feed the processor/DSP a code of 'This disc is ok--just play the game' and then the processor does what itâ(TM)s been designed to do.
Its like cracking a videogame on the computer--all we do is make the 'Disc bad/not present--no play' instruction jump to the 'Disc present--play' instead. Its so elegantly simple, and its mind-boggling how stupid game developers think that anything they make will never be cracked, just because they have some 'proprietary' disc/code/hardware.
Let me make this as clear as possible to game hardware developers out there:
So long as your processor supports the jump assembly command, or your hardware uses standard CMOS/TTL voltages/IC's, your program/game can be hacked. I said 'can', because its all a matter of who wants to put the effort into it and not just the plain and simple fact that they can do it. Ok... maybe thereâ(TM)s a little of that in there too.;)
Throatily speaking, any fabric made with small enough fibers can be considered "soft as silk" to be cliche. Even fiberglass, which is quite-possibly the most irritating fiber known to man (at least to me anyway) would be very soft if woven into a fabric.
This is precisely why you want a very high thread-count on your sheets and dress shirts--it feels better, and the better you feel in either place, the better you'll perform.
As for the Condom thought, its not how strong the material is--its how big the holes are in-between the material's molecular structure. Latex has smaller holes when compared with sheepskin.
And as a side note, the number one reason that people don't want to use Condoms is "Lack of sensation/feeling". I don't know about you, but the nano-scale thickness of the condom--not to mention the incredibly efficient heat-transfer properties of carbon (contrary to popular belief, copper is a poor conductor of heat when compared with Diamond, which we all know is carbon.) which is the 2nd complaint (I think) about condom usage--would practically eliminate that complaint... wouldnâ(TM)t you think?
Sheesh... Don't you people realize that most programs have websites that are the name of the product by now? I'm pretty sure Iâ(TM)ve heard it called the "Nomenclature of Programs on the Internet" once or twice before.
I remember when SegaSages got 'acquired' by IGN, and it turned into some lame, half-assed attempt at going 'legit' at making it a business... You know--keeping some of it free, some of it pay, tons of annoying ads (I say that, but I don't see them thanks to Mozilla--I assume they are there.), and the usual things going FUBAR during the 'change of ownership' for the first few months afterwards.
And now this is going to happen to GameFAQ's too? *Sarcastically* Great--another site that I'll have to ignore from now on, and rely on other fan-sites for the info I need.
First off, you have to realize that ATi has been doing this FOR YEARS for its graphic cards... Futuremark and ATi has been in each other's bed for years, and its apparent when you run the games that the 'tests' are based on, and you can see (very easily) that the image quality on the newer ATi (9500 and up) cards is utter crap when compared with the nVidia cards in similar price ranges.
Not only that, but you have ATi's past history of absolute garbage drivers--and the many problems associated with their OpenGL support. Its just plain bogus if you ask me.
Also, nVidia is NOT in Futuremark's developer program, where you get the 'beta' code for the next version of Futuremark so you can 'preview' the technology based 'demos' in the 'benchmark' so that you can see if your drivers will 'work' with the next benchmark... and ATi is.
Huh... How is nVidia supposed to optimize for something that they don't have access to until it is RTM, while ATi has it since day one... and who's making all these accusations again? Hmm... I wonder...
The only thing that nVidia has ever done is optimize for general applications, based on the data being pumped through the card. I believe these were called extensions, and developers could use them if they wanted to... I mean, who would want to speed up their game and make it look better--at the cost of practically nothing? Let me think on this one here...
So in closing, I'd like to say that I love my Geforce4 TI4800 (overclocked to real TI4600 speeds) and that when I was given the chance to have a ATi 9800 in my system--for free--I turned it down because ATi is crap, and I'm all about image quality... And driver stability... And developer support... And OpenGL support... And cost...
p.s. If you think that I'm a Troll, think about this: Anyone who would take the time to look at the actual cards on identical systems, running a time-demo in UT2003--or any other game for that matter--on the same monitors with everything turned up to the max in the driver settings would agree with me. People--it's not about speed, it's about image quality! Everything above 60-80Hz your eyeballs can't see anyway.
If you just want to learn how to make models and stuff, and get the mechanics of it down (such as the fun of lining up textures, reducing poly counts, optimizing curves and arches, and manually moving individual vertices for 3 hours and then a power outage happens...) and just practice, but not have to pay all that money for 3D Studio Max... Use Gmax!
If you happen to 'own' one of the many games that it is compatible with, you can even see your creations in a real game engine! Wowie-zowie!;)
It is very close to 3DStudio max, and it's free to everyone who wants to use it. So it's a good starting point for someone who wants to experiment on the cheap.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it me, or does this thing sound like something the guys on Junkyard Wars or MythBusters would build?
*Junkyard Wars Mode*
Today's challenge is going to be all about Changin' the weather! We've assembled two teams of the finest... well, they do make cars and such... People on the planet to build:
A Hail Prevention/Detection device!
Our two teams have just 10 hours to build a device that can do something that mankind has been trying to do for centuries--do something about the weather, instead of just talking about it!
*MythBusters Mode*
Announcer: Tonight on Mythbusters... See if the old saying "I hope your face sticks like that" is entirely possible--using LN2! And later on, Adam and Jamie build something to deal with that pesky weather.
*** Later On ***
Adam: Jimmy--
Jimmy: Yes Adam?
Adam: Have you ever talked about the weather?
Jimmy: Yea, on a couple of my more 'memorable' dates...
Adam: well, wouldn't it be something if we could do something about the weather, instead of just talk about it?
Jimmy: It might be... who knows--I might have been to get into that guy--I mean, girl's pants if I could have stopped the sun from shining, so he couldn't have seen me...
Adam: I'm not talking about no namby-pamby rain here... I'm talking about HAILSTONES here, baby!
Jimmy: Oh god... not another Sonic-Cannon, Adam. We've built 35 of them already--and we've only been on the air for 20 episodes...
It goes without saying that they (Rockstar Games) make lots of money on the franchise, due to the fact that there making more GTA games.
Having said that, lets look at the logical side of things:
1. Multiplayer is very hard to code correctly on consoles. You have to get it right the first time, or else it'll be a Really Bad Thing(TM), and you can't issue patches later to fix the games like you can on the PC--and your users will rip you a new one because of it.
2. Multiplayer is also very hard to debug, because what works for a low-latency connection does not work for a high-latency connection. This means more betatesters, as well as more time spent betatesting. This compounds with the fact that if you change the single-player game code, the code you did for the Multiplayer might not work now, and vice versa... which means more and more betatesting.
So, logically, if there already making money hand over fist with these games... then why complicate matters any more than they have to be? Its hard enough putting out a game that's changed the way society thinks about stealing cars and the simulations of them, why would they worry about a feature that maybe--just maybe--a few hundred thousand users will use.
I for one say this: Focus on making the game look good, and play good. They've done good so far, I say let them continue on this path. Don't muck about with something that's working, and all that.
I myself use the MX700 on a daily basis, and I'm looking to get the MX900 mouse. Its the exact same 'optical bits' but it uses Bluetooth instead of the 900MHz radio frequency that the MX mouse uses now. The batteries supposedly last 2 weeks now, and with my 2500mAh batteries (instead of the 1700mAh ones that come standard) mine should last about 32% longer than that, which would be about 2 and-a-half weeks. Or thereabouts. I'm not too worried with it, as the recharging time only takes about 45 minutes... and I can use the keyboard shortcuts for that amount of time--easy.
The best part is that the base station (which still includes the recharging bits) is a Bluetooth hub. So you can use to sync your phone or anything else that uses Bluetooth. Headsets, cameras, keyboards, PDA's, etcetera, etcetera.
But back to those mice... There simply too big and flat. Its like trying to mouse with a portable CD player. The ball is also too far back, so that the move that I've seen everyone do at one point or another (flicking the front of the mouse while lifting it off the table) just plain doesn't work at all.
Not to mention that the tiniest piece of dust in the inside of those opto-mechanical bits makes your mouse behave as if it were designed by rhesus monkeys on crack.
And this is not a 5-minute review. I used it for a week, and the hype of "more frags!" was pure bunk. It was a pain in the ass to use in Windows as well. The settings--while you could change them on the fly with a wacky 4-button hotkey--were always too fast for me in windows. I have it fast, but this thing was like my mouse was dipped in Teflon... I sometimes use IceWM, so it was like Teflon on Ice. *rimshot*
So, myself personally (when my rebate check comes from Uncle Sam), I'm going to be buying the following combo for myself. Its time for me to update my desktop keyboard as well, and I hear good things about it so far... not to mention that it looks tons better than the Microsoft USB keyboard I have now... And I like the detached keypad/calculator/media pad. that's a nice touch, I think.
Dinovo media desktop
Admittedly, I've seen this on /. on the little quote thingy at the bottom... but I heard this (and was saying it) way before then.
2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely large values of 2)
Which links into my all-time favorite thing to do when I wanted to screw with my programming teacher's head. Which was to change the value of any number to equal to anything else... Just because I know it messed with his head.
And my second ATF thing to do was to encrypt my program, and have it run checks on what processor it was running on... If it was on a Intel system, it would report:
Warning! Calculations based on floating-point and integer math may be incorrect! Please upgrade to a AMD system to resolve this issue.
Which would also screw with him, because he was a die-hard Intel man, and I've never owned anything other than my beloved AMD.
Which brings me back to my third ATF joke, which is:
Q: How many Intel Engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Its never happened before: They just keep changing the socket.
My cousin was blocked from a MMORPG about 3 weeks ago. It was blocked by the ISP for 'spamming' and 'excessive bandwidth use'. It took a full week to tell the ISP that the game wasn't a FTP server, and that they were going to lose customers if they continued to do this. (He is in a clan with some 500 members, and there all out in the sticks on this same Internet provider.) It finally took ME acting like a 'manager' to get them to even _consider_ removing the ban, which they did in a weeks time--after all the other clan members had called them repeatedly for almost 2 days straight.
I still think that the age of metallic/glass discs spinning at high-speed with a metallic coating to save data, is rapidly coming to an end.
Just wait... in 15 years, it'll all be RAM or 'thin clients' that we download over our exabit WiFi Internet connections by then.
I also will buy the game. In fact, I already have, and my little ticket sitting up there on my shelf entitles me to the game whenever the heck its released.
I will not download the source code, and I will instead wait until the final release of the game... so that I can not only look at the lines of code, I can actually play a game with the lines of code I paid for.
What really saddens me is that Valve practically started the whole MOD community. At least, the way it is now. I'm 100% sure that they put support for MOD's into the new HL2 engine. So, other than having access to the main code, what good would having the code be? The program already has a function to run other code through the mod system... I just don't get it.
Oh, I mean I get why they did it--because they wanted to--but still... this is kinda dumb.
There's no textures, sounds, or levels to actually play in. This is the equivalent of having a engine of a McLaren F1--with no body, transmission or wheels. Yea its pretty, and its worth a lot of money, but it sure ain't zooming around on the streets getting you chicks.
Also, I offer one suggestion to stop this from happening in the future:
Remove all development machines from the Internet.
Seems simple enough, doesn't it? This would have never happened if there wasn't a link from the server storing the source to the outside world...
And these are merely my opinion as to what any company should have done in the first place, before any of this happened... This has nothing to do with the source being leaked. Also, they may not have actually prevented the leak of the code, but it sure as hell would have been nice to see these things happen.
* Actually release the game on time. Alright... I understand about deadlines and all that... but come on now... if we had the game, we wouldn't care about the source, now would we?
* Try and actually think that the public isn't a bunch of babbling idiots, and that we'll understand if you actually tell us about the delays instead of pretty much dodging the issue until the day AFTER the supposed release and then saying "whoops! my bad.".
* One word: Demo.
Who here dosen't love Weird Al?
*Hums "Genius in france... I'm-a genius in france..."*
Seriously--Quake4 is gonna be like Quake3. I mean, why would they release two single-player games, so close to eachother? Specially when D3 is gonna 0wnz j00--and just about everything else.
'cept HL2.
Nicola Tesla (yes, the same guy who made those nifty lighting storm things, that are _so_ overused in 'science museums' where you can light up a florescent tube with them) came up with a device that--when properly configured--would be able to kill anyone from anywhere in the world.
How? By using the earth's electromagnetic field to 'bounce' the beam all over the place, before it hit its target.
The US government built the device. They haven't tested it yet. Why? well...
Upon some very preliminary calculations, it seems that Tesla neglected some trivial calculations according to safety (wouldn't be the last/first time either.) and that the gun--while completely correct in its design...
would most likely kill everyone on the planet the first time its fired.
But we built one anyway, and its sitting somewhere (*cough*area51*cough*) and you bet that if they can ever figure out how to get it to not kill everyone on the planet--or just a small area around the actual target--then they'll start using it first chance they get.
Hell, they also built a Cobalt Bomb--which is like a Hydrogen Bomb, only about a bazillion times more powerful (look at the atomic weights of Hydrogen and Cobalt--which one is heavier? Heavier atoms go boom much more gooder...) and while it would make a nice crater on the planet--and also sprinkle Fallout all over the place (as well as ejecting lots of it into space to contaminate other worlds)--but it would also rip the entire atmosphere off of the planet it was detonated on.
I'm almost positive we have one of these... I think Regan ordered for one to be built, when he thought that 'Space Invaders' might attack someday... but I'm not sure about that, and I make NO claims to be right on this. Or any of this, for that matter.
Now... if I could only get access to this site. I want to make a Railgun. Anyone got a mirror, or is it gone for good?
Yea... and watch that little box turn into a little molten-puddle of plastic and metal. ;)
p.s. i'm 100% AMD-man, all the way. The A64 is going to kick everyone's buttocks, because much like there is no spoon, there is no FSB on the A64.
And as a rabid GhostBusters fan, i must give the whole quote.
(taken from a website somewhere, a long time ago.)
The only real problem I see with this is that now all the radar detectors in cars will go absolutely nuts--therefore causing lots of accidents when a 'cop' is 'right on top of you' and the resulting slam on the brakes... in cars without this system.
p.s. I know that you don't need two for the Doppler effect--its how radar works already--but you need to for detecting their position. so that's why I said it.
Yea, I know itâ(TM)s not always that simple... there may be encryption to deal with... But not everyone on Slashdot is as knowledgeable as you are, and some don't even know what 'jmp eax' means.
And back to encryption for a second... It all has to be decrypted somewhere, right? I mean AFAIK the 'flipper' CPU doesnâ(TM)t have encryption built into the actual silicon of the chip, right?
If it doesnâ(TM)t, then its got to be decrypted somewhere before it gets to the CPU, and then its a simple matter of a chip in-between the lines of the CPU and whatever chip decrypts the data, telling it to run whatever code it receives--decrypted or not.
What Iâ(TM)m saying here is that unless there's PGP/RSA encryption built onto the die of the CPU (possible--it is a custom chip after all.) then we've got traces on the board that will contain decrypted data, and that the CPU has a similar ASM instruction set. Once we've got the place where the decrypted data goes into the CPU, we can make it do whatever we want.
You can't patent DNA--its GPL'd. ;)
Seriously, you can patent the _sequence_ of DNA--which is proprietary code, and subject to all IP laws and such... which is what they've done here. Or at least, I hope they did... if not, there going to be really pissed when someone sequences their Minimelon DNA and copyright's it.
I'm still waiting for the GPL'd Minimelon, which will run better and faster than all Minimelons previous.
Too bad! I'm sure the lack of N64 funkiness is the primary reason the console is now defunct. If the game ain't funky, I don't want no part of none of that! :)
;)
;) levels could be fairly small--even for modem users.
well... There were quite a few funky titles for it... And some of them just downright reeked. *shudders when he thinks about Superman*
I thought it was widely known that the N64 was a cart-system, which is (overall) more expensive to bring games to market on, regardless of the devkit/libraries. Since mastering carts is always going to be more difficult and expensive than mastering CD/DVD-type media, this means the barriers to entry for that console are higher-- so you get fewer developers taking a chance in the first place, and certainly not taking chances with the types of games they might make.
Yes, I knew that it was a cart system (my copy of Zelda:OoT and Zelda:MM proves that.) and I knew about the cost of the cart-based games. I just chose to ignore that fact, because everyone else has said that... played out, as it were.
Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Nintendo is one of those companies that uses game quality as a selling point. Of course, the console company being this strict with the licensing is likely to scare off bit players and people looking to make "questionable" titles.
Exactly what titles were you looking for? Pr0n? Need I remind you what happens with scantily clad female BMX bikers?
While Iâ(TM)ll agree with this "G-Rated only games" is a bunch of hooey, I must also admit that Nintendo's first-party games are usually fairly good. In all of its simplicity, Pikmin is a very addictive game. And Windwaker is also very good as well--Iâ(TM)ve played that one quite a bit at my friendâ(TM)s house, and I enjoy it very much. (I don't own any consoles anymore--my computer takes up too much of my limited income. I still have all my carts/CD/GD-ROM's though. From Atari to Vectrex, I have every one I ever bought.)
I just think that maybe the whole 'piracy' thing is kinda stupid. I mean, if they wanted to completely eliminate the piracy altogether, they would do an online purchase and download of the game you wanted. Nothing stored on the actual unit, except what game you were playing right then, and it would get purged when the unit is off. Your bought games would be assigned a registration key that would be encrypted with PGP and your key would be stored on a read-only key-card that youâ(TM)re given with your unit when you purchase it at the store. That way, the downloads are encrypted, they are decrypted locally in the unit, and you play. When you go to a friends house or a public gaming place, you put your card in and all your data (which is on the server, remember--not the card.) comes with you.
You would be able to play anywhere, on anyone's hardware. Piracy would be all but eliminated, because there's no physical media present, and the only thing would be key-card theft/spoofing. But that could be easily solved, by just having a simple username and password for when you login to the network.
And before you go nuts about the size of the games, you don't use all of the data at once--just small parts of it. And if a game were programmed correctly, it would cache stuff you needed, or download entire levels at a time--which wouldnâ(TM)t take up that much room.
Combined with OGG and some basic texture compression (just think of Windwaker's compression rates!
Its possible... and that's where I predict games will be in the next 15-20 years.
Yes, but look the number of PSX games out there. That number surely dwarfs the "hundred or so" games for the dreamcast.
I also forgot to mention that ease of programming is also important for a Devout--and if you have proprietary hardware, that has special commands and loading techniques for the media, its not going to be as easy as say, a normal-CD based unit which the speeds of which can be determined before you make a final copy of your game, so you can (at least attempt) to program your game into knowing what to pre-load beforehand, so you have a little load time as possible.
Itâ(TM)s widely known that the N64 devkit was horribly difficult to program for... Which is primarily the reason why itâ(TM)s now defunked. But the PSX is simple to program for, and which is why there was so many games made for it.
This is all speculation--I have very little facts to actually back this up. The only thing Iâ(TM)m going on here is logic.
I'm almost 99% sure that the discs don't spin backwards, but Iâ(TM)d have to have a friend of mine bring his GC over so that I could test it. The reason Iâ(TM)m _guessing_ it doesnâ(TM)t spin backwards, is because of the plain and simple fact that console hardware developers don't like to get into _really_ proprietary stuff because of the high-cost of the Devkit that would be required by the hardware. And the more the developer has to pay for the Devkit, the less likely they are to get it if they are a smaller company who can't afford the multi-million dollar expenses... which translates into less games. And we all know how less games--that very well may be high quality games--turns out... All I gotta say is Playstation, and you know what Iâ(TM)m talking about.
;)
What they _probably_ did was take some 'special' 8cm DVD disks (look here for more info and a picture of one in a case--how hard would it be to get it out of there if your the "Big N"?) and encode it in such a way that only a specially modified firmware would read the discs.
Just like the dreamcast (which did use some special hardware... and the price of the Devkit was high... No games (in USA)... pattern?) did. Its all a matter of TRICKING the GC into thinking whatever disc you put in there was supposed to be there, and then either making it read the discs as normal, or formatting your discs to use the same layout as the real discs.
And anyone with a oscilloscope (and a fair bit of skill with it) can see what lines are being pulled high/low to see what the disc is reading at a given time. How do you think these 'mod chips' actually work? All they do is feed the processor/DSP a code of 'This disc is ok--just play the game' and then the processor does what itâ(TM)s been designed to do.
Its like cracking a videogame on the computer--all we do is make the 'Disc bad/not present--no play' instruction jump to the 'Disc present--play' instead. Its so elegantly simple, and its mind-boggling how stupid game developers think that anything they make will never be cracked, just because they have some 'proprietary' disc/code/hardware.
Let me make this as clear as possible to game hardware developers out there:
So long as your processor supports the jump assembly command, or your hardware uses standard CMOS/TTL voltages/IC's, your program/game can be hacked. I said 'can', because its all a matter of who wants to put the effort into it and not just the plain and simple fact that they can do it. Ok... maybe thereâ(TM)s a little of that in there too.
It uses Slashdot as a root, of course. ;)
Seriously, I don't know. Here's a page on how Google works though.
http://www.google.com/technology/index.html
Throatily speaking, any fabric made with small enough fibers can be considered "soft as silk" to be cliche. Even fiberglass, which is quite-possibly the most irritating fiber known to man (at least to me anyway) would be very soft if woven into a fabric.
This is precisely why you want a very high thread-count on your sheets and dress shirts--it feels better, and the better you feel in either place, the better you'll perform.
As for the Condom thought, its not how strong the material is--its how big the holes are in-between the material's molecular structure. Latex has smaller holes when compared with sheepskin.
And as a side note, the number one reason that people don't want to use Condoms is "Lack of sensation/feeling". I don't know about you, but the nano-scale thickness of the condom--not to mention the incredibly efficient heat-transfer properties of carbon (contrary to popular belief, copper is a poor conductor of heat when compared with Diamond, which we all know is carbon.) which is the 2nd complaint (I think) about condom usage--would practically eliminate that complaint... wouldnâ(TM)t you think?
And its been there for god knows how long--you had plenty of time to know we were going to knock down your house...
*entire planet shakes as the Vogon construction fleet looms over head*
They do. Its called PowerArchiver, from the website of the same name...
Ok... Powerarchiver.com
Sheesh... Don't you people realize that most programs have websites that are the name of the product by now? I'm pretty sure Iâ(TM)ve heard it called the "Nomenclature of Programs on the Internet" once or twice before.
Music is the Weapon!
I remember when SegaSages got 'acquired' by IGN, and it turned into some lame, half-assed attempt at going 'legit' at making it a business... You know--keeping some of it free, some of it pay, tons of annoying ads (I say that, but I don't see them thanks to Mozilla--I assume they are there.), and the usual things going FUBAR during the 'change of ownership' for the first few months afterwards.
And now this is going to happen to GameFAQ's too? *Sarcastically* Great--another site that I'll have to ignore from now on, and rely on other fan-sites for the info I need.
First off, you have to realize that ATi has been doing this FOR YEARS for its graphic cards... Futuremark and ATi has been in each other's bed for years, and its apparent when you run the games that the 'tests' are based on, and you can see (very easily) that the image quality on the newer ATi (9500 and up) cards is utter crap when compared with the nVidia cards in similar price ranges.
Not only that, but you have ATi's past history of absolute garbage drivers--and the many problems associated with their OpenGL support. Its just plain bogus if you ask me.
Also, nVidia is NOT in Futuremark's developer program, where you get the 'beta' code for the next version of Futuremark so you can 'preview' the technology based 'demos' in the 'benchmark' so that you can see if your drivers will 'work' with the next benchmark... and ATi is.
Huh... How is nVidia supposed to optimize for something that they don't have access to until it is RTM, while ATi has it since day one... and who's making all these accusations again? Hmm... I wonder...
The only thing that nVidia has ever done is optimize for general applications, based on the data being pumped through the card. I believe these were called extensions, and developers could use them if they wanted to... I mean, who would want to speed up their game and make it look better--at the cost of practically nothing? Let me think on this one here...
So in closing, I'd like to say that I love my Geforce4 TI4800 (overclocked to real TI4600 speeds) and that when I was given the chance to have a ATi 9800 in my system--for free--I turned it down because ATi is crap, and I'm all about image quality... And driver stability... And developer support... And OpenGL support... And cost...
p.s. If you think that I'm a Troll, think about this: Anyone who would take the time to look at the actual cards on identical systems, running a time-demo in UT2003--or any other game for that matter--on the same monitors with everything turned up to the max in the driver settings would agree with me. People--it's not about speed, it's about image quality! Everything above 60-80Hz your eyeballs can't see anyway.
If you just want to learn how to make models and stuff, and get the mechanics of it down (such as the fun of lining up textures, reducing poly counts, optimizing curves and arches, and manually moving individual vertices for 3 hours and then a power outage happens...) and just practice, but not have to pay all that money for 3D Studio Max... Use Gmax!
;)
Gmax linkie-poo
If you happen to 'own' one of the many games that it is compatible with, you can even see your creations in a real game engine! Wowie-zowie!
It is very close to 3DStudio max, and it's free to everyone who wants to use it. So it's a good starting point for someone who wants to experiment on the cheap.