"I merely pointed out the hypocricy of calling MPlayer an open source revolution that stomps closed source into oblivion when its core performance is enabled by closed source (unlicensed) binaries?"
What bullshit. MPlayer's "core performance" remains the same whether or not it was compiled with support for Win32 codecs. I do use the right tool for the right job, and that tool is MPlayer. The ability to play Win32 codecs is merely a bonus to me, and help in a pinch whenever I have the misfortune of needing to watch a Real video clip. 99% of my videos are encoded in open codecs like XviD anyway. The point is that MPlayer rocks regardless of what codec its playing, and to say that its only value is the ability to play win32 codecs is to be completely ignorant to what an amazing piece of technology it is in it's own right.
MPlayer ability to play hacked codecs is indeed a nice feature, but there's so much more the love about it, especially in the realms of performance (extremely low CPU usage), interface (sweet, sweet, command line, anti-aliased subs and osd), and flexablity (lots of other programs use mplayer, like MythTV and the mozilla-mplayer plugin that allows Linux users to watch movies in their browser). MPlayer manages to do a crap load of things without being bloated or slow.
.90 has been a long time in coming, but the wait was well worth it. I continue to be astounded by what mplayer and mencoder are capable of, and I shudder to think of what my Linux movie watching experience would be like without them. I hate to sound like a cheer leader, but I just don't think enough can be said about the fine work that A'rpi and Co. have produced over the years. In addition to our beloved kernel, it's always nice to have examples of open source software that so readily stomps into irrelevance its closed source competition. Good luck to A'rpi in whatever the future holds, and a thousand thanks for your contributions to the community.
"Note - apparently the DivX version was encoded using a weird codec that doesn't work on all players..."
Accordingly mplayer the trailer was encoded with DivX 5.03, so if it doesn't work for anyone, they probably just need to upgrade DivX to the latest version.
"I suppose at the time it was purchased, my beleaguered PowerMac was cutting edge, but in today's terms it was more powerful as a paperweight than a computer."
Some backing link, information, you know, proof? Or didja just think "Phoenix" and "Phoenix" and somehow it just "clicked"?
Some reading the links, and little information gathering, you know, research? Or didja just think "Slashdot" and "ignorant assumptions" and somehow it just "clicked"?
You can do the same thing to Linux with a boot floppy. Also, Ars is carrying this story, but with the follow observations from readers:
"Update: Some posters in the discussion thread point out this report may not be valid. One said that booting from a 2K CD did ask them for an administrator password and didnt let them in without it. Unfortunately, I dont have XP installed here to test it out before I posted."
Either way I don't find this to be terribly upsetting because a) root access can be gained in a similar manner with Linux and b) if one is worried about security, they shouldn't being using Windows to begin with.
'Ultima Online' hacker arrested over 'house' sale
...
Sakano reportedly asked the game's system administrator to provide the female player's entry password on the pretext that she had lost her password to the game.
Oh yeah, that's some 31337 h@X0r1ng right there. Well, if nothing else, it once again proves that social engineering is most effective cracking tool.
I'll guess I'll admit it..
on
Slashdot over IPv6
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm not entirely clear on why IPv6 such a cool/neccesary thing. As far as I, in my limited knowledge, know, IPv6 will allow for more IP address, but is that it? I'm not questioning its usefullness, but am simply curious if there are any other benefits that come along with IPv6.
Another idea is that they stopped making Japanese games as they realized that people in the USA liked their games, and wanted to broaden western appeal. Bye-bye romantic Japan and Shinto, hello dark Blade-Runner Western appeal.
Eh, that's questionable. Japanese art has plenty over Blade Runner-esque overtones, especially in anime. Personally I blame the demand for 3D graphics and CGI cutscenes. Both of which don't inherently take away from story and gameplay, but because they cost so much and require so much effort, the essential things suffer. We start to see this decay with FFVII, and it progresses further in the FF series, and games at large, in the following years. Gradually "gamers" only want 3D games and FMV cutscenes and in order to turn a profit (or rather, make more profit) publishers churn such games out in spades, and the downward spiral continues.
This argument is horrible. Go back and play some of those "great" games that you remember from back then and you'll see how shallow the plots actually are. I recently went back and played FF3(6) again, and I couldn't even finish it - It just couldn't grab my attention anymore. Now compare it to something like Suikoden 3 which has an incredibly engrossing storyline told in a great manner.
Funny you should use that example. A friend and I have recently been playing through old RPGs online via ZSNES. We just finished up FFVI, and Secret of Mana before that. You know what? I still prefer those games to most anything coming out these days, and remain every bit as engrossed as the first time I played it.
Companies are putting a LOT more emphasis on plot nowadays (heh, in fact, Squaresoft is basically putting ALL the emphasis on plot! (see FFX)).
What A terrible example. Not to argue that FFX was lacking in the story department, but all of the post-SNES Final Fantasies seem to flaunt style over substance (with the possible exception being VII). Proof of this lies no further than the upcoming FFX-2, a sequel to FFX staring a John Woo-style gun toting Yuna wearing hot pants with two scantilly clad female companions. What's this about Square still pushing story in the FF series?
'Game companies are realising that story telling has a lot of potential that has not been tapped yet.'
Say it ain't so! What happened? Did someone actually play a game that existed before the 3D X-TREME era and realize that games with story and gameplay emphasised over flashy graphics, T&A, and worn out franshises can be actually be good?
Quick, someone call Sony and tell them they're fucked!.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't really see what the purpose of this is. Doesn't Lucas already own all three of these companies and don't they all work together on his creative abomin^H^H^H^H^H^Hprojects? Someone please clue me in as to why Lucas would want to bother doing something like this.
Just to clarify, the XBox only costs 200 dollars and comes with a Pentium III 733 MHz, not a Celeron. Any way you cut it, its a good price for the amount of hardware you're getting. Although it was more trouble for me than what this new BIOS will allow, I now use my XBox (with a 100GB harddrive) as a omni-emulator that allows me to play NES, SNES, Gensis, MAME, etc on my TV, as well as a media player so I can easily watch my DivX movies on my TV. In the future I plan on messing around with Linux and experimenting with PVR options (oh yeah, I own a couple XBox exclusive games, but that's really just a bonus to the real reasons I bought it). All in all, its been one of the best 200 bucks I've ever spent for the amount of stuff I can do with it.
I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.
What? I thought running stuff on GNU/Linux was the epitome of cool and sexy! I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she would back me up on this...
Those accursed SBC Yahoo!DSL ads have been saturating the airwaves recently, and its driving me apeshit crazy to see SBC touting the wonderful new service as "personalized Internet" (the exact slogan is "Internet that logs onto you"--insert Soviet Russia joke here). All it is a Yahoo! page created dynamically (they make a big deal out of this fact) based on users interests that they set when installing the "upgrade". There may be some lame toolbar or other IE customizations or something useless and obtrusive like that.
They're just bundling in consumer profiling into the ISP, so people basically pay to be advertised to under the guise of having a homepage that displays things they're interested in (and apparently everyone is interested in consumer goods, top 40 music, and celebrity gossip). Obviously this is a staggering innovation, perhaps patent worthy (if Amazon hasn't beaten them to the punch, natch).
The whole scheme is just retarded and I had a nice chuckle when SBC (my ISP...) emailed me offering a free (!) upgrade to Yahoo!DSL. Fortunately this "service" isn't supported under Linux, so I could use it even if I wanted to.
This was the book I read before even touching a Linux terminal. It was an invaluable lesson in the ways of Linux and provides a nice gentle intro for new users (and by new, I mean new to Linux, not computing. A good deal of technical understanding is required to appreciate this book. Not for Grandma is what I'm trying to say...). The 4th Edition just came out so it's all up to date again, and I would reccomened it to anyone interested in, well, Running Linux. This book is much more useful to a new user than Linux in a Nutshell since it is a narrative guide to learning Linux, and not a reference book like Nutshell.
This is all strongly reminiscent of the heyday of Communism and Socialism, when the bourgeoisie were hated from both ends: by the proles, because they had all the money, and by the intelligentsia, because of their tendency to spend it on lawn ornaments.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep, that sure sounds like the kind of guy I want making decisions about IP and technology.
...keke.la is already registered :(.
Imagine playing your friends in Mortal Kombat now... you can actually feel the pain.
This is nothing new. Playing any recent Mortal Kombat title always pains me greatly.
"I merely pointed out the hypocricy of calling MPlayer an open source revolution that stomps closed source into oblivion when its core performance is enabled by closed source (unlicensed) binaries?" What bullshit. MPlayer's "core performance" remains the same whether or not it was compiled with support for Win32 codecs. I do use the right tool for the right job, and that tool is MPlayer. The ability to play Win32 codecs is merely a bonus to me, and help in a pinch whenever I have the misfortune of needing to watch a Real video clip. 99% of my videos are encoded in open codecs like XviD anyway. The point is that MPlayer rocks regardless of what codec its playing, and to say that its only value is the ability to play win32 codecs is to be completely ignorant to what an amazing piece of technology it is in it's own right.
MPlayer ability to play hacked codecs is indeed a nice feature, but there's so much more the love about it, especially in the realms of performance (extremely low CPU usage), interface (sweet, sweet, command line, anti-aliased subs and osd), and flexablity (lots of other programs use mplayer, like MythTV and the mozilla-mplayer plugin that allows Linux users to watch movies in their browser). MPlayer manages to do a crap load of things without being bloated or slow.
.90 has been a long time in coming, but the wait was well worth it. I continue to be astounded by what mplayer and mencoder are capable of, and I shudder to think of what my Linux movie watching experience would be like without them. I hate to sound like a cheer leader, but I just don't think enough can be said about the fine work that A'rpi and Co. have produced over the years. In addition to our beloved kernel, it's always nice to have examples of open source software that so readily stomps into irrelevance its closed source competition. Good luck to A'rpi in whatever the future holds, and a thousand thanks for your contributions to the community.
Accordingly mplayer the trailer was encoded with DivX 5.03, so if it doesn't work for anyone, they probably just need to upgrade DivX to the latest version.
Yet Another Slashdot Dupe
"I suppose at the time it was purchased, my beleaguered PowerMac was cutting edge, but in today's terms it was more powerful as a paperweight than a computer."
That's twice in one article. This guy is good.
Some reading the links, and little information gathering, you know, research? Or didja just think "Slashdot" and "ignorant assumptions" and somehow it just "clicked"?
"Update: Some posters in the discussion thread point out this report may not be valid. One said that booting from a 2K CD did ask them for an administrator password and didnt let them in without it. Unfortunately, I dont have XP installed here to test it out before I posted."
Either way I don't find this to be terribly upsetting because a) root access can be gained in a similar manner with Linux and b) if one is worried about security, they shouldn't being using Windows to begin with.
...
Sakano reportedly asked the game's system administrator to provide the female player's entry password on the pretext that she had lost her password to the game.
Oh yeah, that's some 31337 h@X0r1ng right there. Well, if nothing else, it once again proves that social engineering is most effective cracking tool.
I'm not entirely clear on why IPv6 such a cool/neccesary thing. As far as I, in my limited knowledge, know, IPv6 will allow for more IP address, but is that it? I'm not questioning its usefullness, but am simply curious if there are any other benefits that come along with IPv6.
Eh, that's questionable. Japanese art has plenty over Blade Runner-esque overtones, especially in anime. Personally I blame the demand for 3D graphics and CGI cutscenes. Both of which don't inherently take away from story and gameplay, but because they cost so much and require so much effort, the essential things suffer. We start to see this decay with FFVII, and it progresses further in the FF series, and games at large, in the following years. Gradually "gamers" only want 3D games and FMV cutscenes and in order to turn a profit (or rather, make more profit) publishers churn such games out in spades, and the downward spiral continues.
Funny you should use that example. A friend and I have recently been playing through old RPGs online via ZSNES. We just finished up FFVI, and Secret of Mana before that. You know what? I still prefer those games to most anything coming out these days, and remain every bit as engrossed as the first time I played it.
Companies are putting a LOT more emphasis on plot nowadays (heh, in fact, Squaresoft is basically putting ALL the emphasis on plot! (see FFX)).
What A terrible example. Not to argue that FFX was lacking in the story department, but all of the post-SNES Final Fantasies seem to flaunt style over substance (with the possible exception being VII). Proof of this lies no further than the upcoming FFX-2, a sequel to FFX staring a John Woo-style gun toting Yuna wearing hot pants with two scantilly clad female companions. What's this about Square still pushing story in the FF series?
Say it ain't so! What happened? Did someone actually play a game that existed before the 3D X-TREME era and realize that games with story and gameplay emphasised over flashy graphics, T&A, and worn out franshises can be actually be good?
Quick, someone call Sony and tell them they're fucked!.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't really see what the purpose of this is. Doesn't Lucas already own all three of these companies and don't they all work together on his creative abomin^H^H^H^H^H^Hprojects? Someone please clue me in as to why Lucas would want to bother doing something like this.
Just to clarify, the XBox only costs 200 dollars and comes with a Pentium III 733 MHz, not a Celeron. Any way you cut it, its a good price for the amount of hardware you're getting. Although it was more trouble for me than what this new BIOS will allow, I now use my XBox (with a 100GB harddrive) as a omni-emulator that allows me to play NES, SNES, Gensis, MAME, etc on my TV, as well as a media player so I can easily watch my DivX movies on my TV. In the future I plan on messing around with Linux and experimenting with PVR options (oh yeah, I own a couple XBox exclusive games, but that's really just a bonus to the real reasons I bought it). All in all, its been one of the best 200 bucks I've ever spent for the amount of stuff I can do with it.
I'm not a big video editing guy, but I'd like to be able to copy my DVDs. Is there any Linux program that will what DVD X-Copy does?
What? I thought running stuff on GNU/Linux was the epitome of cool and sexy! I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she would back me up on this...
They're just bundling in consumer profiling into the ISP, so people basically pay to be advertised to under the guise of having a homepage that displays things they're interested in (and apparently everyone is interested in consumer goods, top 40 music, and celebrity gossip). Obviously this is a staggering innovation, perhaps patent worthy (if Amazon hasn't beaten them to the punch, natch).
The whole scheme is just retarded and I had a nice chuckle when SBC (my ISP...) emailed me offering a free (!) upgrade to Yahoo!DSL. Fortunately this "service" isn't supported under Linux, so I could use it even if I wanted to.
This was the book I read before even touching a Linux terminal. It was an invaluable lesson in the ways of Linux and provides a nice gentle intro for new users (and by new, I mean new to Linux, not computing. A good deal of technical understanding is required to appreciate this book. Not for Grandma is what I'm trying to say...). The 4th Edition just came out so it's all up to date again, and I would reccomened it to anyone interested in, well, Running Linux. This book is much more useful to a new user than Linux in a Nutshell since it is a narrative guide to learning Linux, and not a reference book like Nutshell.
Why pick on Apple when you can make an example out of the hackers? The DMCA is supposed to intimidate us, not the corporations.
This is all strongly reminiscent of the heyday of Communism and Socialism, when the bourgeoisie were hated from both ends: by the proles, because they had all the money, and by the intelligentsia, because of their tendency to spend it on lawn ornaments.
According to their website: "Dubbed XPC, short for 'Next Generation 'PC'"