Sounds like the old AOL/Prodigy/Compuserve* networks, before users realized that the WWW, in all its confusing glory, was much better than the small subnets of their service provider.
*They still might be like this, I wouldn't know, I used to have Prodigy years ago back when it had that ugly yellow non-Windows-like GUI theme, then later AOL in its 4.0 days, found out that there was nothing I used on AOL that I couldn't get through a broadband internet provider, and never ever looked back =)
I remember reading about how Kevin Smith's first movie "Clerks" was shot on $60,000 from a couple of maxed out credit cards. Since he could mostly only shoot at one location (the store), he was forced instead to write a clever screenplay with lots of good dialogue that made the movie interesting despite revolving mostly around one static shot location.
I feel that these limitations made Clerks a much better movie than Smith's later big-budget "Dogma". Not that Dogma was a bad movie, it just seemed less "tight" and focused than Clerks, and left less time for witty dialogue amongst the scene changes and effects.
Yeah, the NOLF2 cutscenes were cool, but graphics-wise they will have nothing on Half-Life 2 once it comes out. Check out the 500mb footage at fileplanet and search for it.
Yeah I saw Quake Done Quick once, it was awesome. It was like 15 minutes long, yet I saw secrets and areas I never seen before playing through it normally.
Best part was the "storyline": Quake guy has lost a contact lens next to Shub-Niggarath (sp?), proceeds to kill everything in his path to find it.
So, you're against multi-player games, games that link with a Gameboy (no matter how funky the extra functionality), on-line games and expansions..?
What the hell are you talking about? He didn't say this, in fact he said he no problem about *downloading* *new* content - he has no problem with on-line games and expansions. I'm assuming he would say that if there is a Gameboy link, the Gameboy cartridge should add new functionality/gameplay of its own, rather than just unlocking functionlity/gameplay that was already on the Gamecube disc, and could already work without the Gameboy, but needed one because Nintendo wanted to make more money out of it (which is analogous to the article).
As for multiplayer games, I'm assuming you're saying that he won't be able get to all the content of the disc if he does not have an internet connection or friends. I don't know about console multiplayer gaming that much, but I know that on most if not all of my computer games, I can play all of the multiplayer maps by myself--it's just really boring because no one's there. In any case, this is a bit different. If you buy a game with a multiplayer component, you know at the time of purchase that you will need to have an internet connection to get everything out of the game and may have to pay for the chance to use multiplayer as well. When I buy F-Zero, a game based on driving around tracks, I don't expect to have to go to an arcade somewhere and plunk down money to play some of those tracks already existant on my disc!
When I played, I felt an urge to yank my neighbor out of his car and go on a pedestrian squashing rampage.
But when I tried to do that, I found that my neighbor had his seat-belt on and had the gall to *drive away* when I tried to pull him out. That doesn't happen in the game!
What are you doing trying to read the article, anyway.
You're just supposed to reload the front page over and over again trying to get the "frost piss" post, which I have been told means "first post". Or maybe "Eskimo Latrine". Hmmmm...
If by 'response rate' you mean a purchase, I think more than just a redesign of the email system will be necessary if the response rate turns out to be 5%... we're going to need a redesign of people's heads.
Seriously, who buys stuff from these jokers, anyway?
Re:So what kind of stickers...
on
dB Drag Racing
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I still stand by my belief that the makers of that movie missed out on a great naming possibility:
Well, it depends on when they are browsing. Right now, I'm at work and so cannot use anything other than IE. At home, I'd be viewing this with Firebird.
At work, I use Outlook, which works fine for me, as 99% of all my emails are intra-office, and I've never done something stupid like sign my work email address up at disreputable sites. At home, I use a web-based email program provided by my school, and occasionally use (web-based) Hotmail for throw-away addresses.
I'm sure plenty of other people have similar reasons for using Microsoft products.
Haven't used lynx in a while, it was a text-only web browser available on my school's CS department's Solaris network. Yeah, Netscape was available, but all the text from lynx made it look as if I was really doing work during class. =)
Quick question: can the FA-18 pilots override the automatic-takeoff-feature if, say, there's an incoming attack on the carrier and the system somehow screws up/crashes? If not, then you have a valid point.
However, I imagine that the pilot can override it, which is a good thing. I have no trouble relying on technology to do something that they can do better than I can, when it is functioning properly. However, I feel uncomfortable being unable to take the situation into my own hands if the software malfunctions (it's very difficult to make a complicated piece of software that is perfect and accounts for all possibilities). That is all.
Exactly. Prior to 9/11 all high-profile hijackings (the ones that would be in people's minds if they got hijacked) was mostly as hostage situations, or to escape a country. People expected that if their plane was hijacked, they mostly likely would not be hurt, at least not everyone aboard, and that it would just be to extract demands from some government.
I agree, I think terrorists will be coming up with new ideas instead of hashing over old ones.
Although I don't believe that the 9/11 attacks would be impossible to pull off again, there are still holes in security, its just that it would be difficult enough to do it that most intelligent terrorists (which are the scary ones, after all) will look else where.
Part of the "success" of the 9/11 attacks where that they were mostly unexpected and (by many) unimaginable. Remember the order that Bush made to shoot down the Pennsylvania field plane if it came within ?? miles of Washington, DC? I think there will be a much quicker response if something like this seems to be happening again.
They propose modifying the avionics in aircraft so that the plane would fight any efforts by the pilot to fly into restricted airspace
Somehow this makes me feel a little less safe. I know that so much of flying is electronically controlled now anyway, with autopilot and more, but the there still is the ability for the pilot to actively fly the plane if it becomes necessary, without the plane "fighting" him or here.
What if the terrorist attack came in a different way, and the pilot had to make "evasive maneuvors" (sp!) or something?
Penny Arcade seems to be on and off slashdotted (w/ beautiful PHP error messages), so here's what Tycho had to say about micropayments:
Both Scotts are talking about Micropayments, so I figured, why not.
When reading about Scott McCloud's The Right Number, the new digital work he is offering for a 25 cent micropay, I was trying to resolve a Chicken and Egg problem. Micropayments are only going to work if you, by which I mean you the consumer, like them. But you'll only like them if there's something super compelling for you to go through the trouble of signing up. But if there aren't a lot of consumers out there ready to flip them nickels or quarters, there's not a whole lot of impetus to go through the trouble of setting up with the system as an artist. And even once you do, then what do you get - two bucks? I believed that Micropayments were an invigorating concept because when I was first introduced to them, it resonated with my subconscious belief that the Internet was Man's Eden. You can fuck with me about the exact phrasing of that, but more geeks than would care to admit it totemize the Internet in one way or another - they believe it is inherently a force for good and has a fundamentally idyllic nature. In any case, I was like, "Yes - this makes sense because it will further equality and the producers of artistic works will be compensated by this benevolent system." I am telling you, once you subtract the faith element from the equation, there isn't a whole lot left.
Here is where I stand now. I don't doubt that Micropayments could do magical things for people, but there are many barriers to this actually happening - barriers of a social, technical, and monetary nature. That isn't anything more than I've said before. The new part follows: if you could make Micropayments work, rubbing nickels and dimes together until the friction creates a tiny bit of warmth you can treasure, then you could make any system work. You have enough people giving you a dime to live on? Giving you a buck, even? Then why are you messing around with Micros? If you have enough readers who care about your work to go through all that rigamaroll, you could succeed with any business model. You and the Captain could make it Happen.
I see it as a model for compensation, lined up with the other models for compensation, like at the police station. All of them cast in an unflattering light, none of them posessed of magical powers.
Replying to my own post here, but here's some more:
"Irony is a very specific and not all that interesting thing, and to use the word/concept to blanket half of all contemporary cultural production... is akin to the too-common citing of "the Midwest" as the regional impediment to all national social progress (when we all know the "Midwest" is ten miles outside of any city). In other words, irony should be considered a very particular and recognizable thing, [def given earlier on: the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning), and thus, to refer to everything odd, coincidental, eerie, absurd, or strangely funny as ironic is, frankly, an abomination upon the Lord. (Re that last clause: not irony, but a simple, wholesome, American-born exaggeration)."
He then includes some humorous examples of things that far too many people would call ironic, yet are clearly not.
And yes, I am bulk quoting someone else in order to appear more intelligent, and to avoid actually having to come up with something insightful on my own. =)
In the "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making" section of the paperback version of Dave Egger's book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers wrote a long, insightful section about the word 'irony' and its blatant misuse in today's society. Apparently quite a few people and critics had described his book as 'ironic', when he felt that it, for the most part, was anything but ironic.
"1. When someone kids around, it does not necessarily mean he or she is being ironic. That is, when one tells a joke, in any context, it can mean, simply, that a joke is being told."
It goes on, and it's really quite good. Does anybody else remember this. (oh, and the book is amazing. YMMV, but I highly recommend at least trying it)
I haven't seen that show, but somehow that seems even more intrusive. When a commercial comes on, I know that its going to try to sell me a product. But when I watch a TV show, I'm watching it for the story, or the jokes, or men hurting themselves for my amusement, not to be sold a product.
Now I have no problem with a character picking up a Coke or specifically driving a BMW, but "the NetZero Countdown Timer"? That's just annoying, and I'm really unlikely to remember it as well. It's not even showing me a product. A least when the guy gets in the BMW I can say "Hey, that's a nice car, I should go buy one"... or more likely say "I wish I could afford one..." =)
Dude, just try to read some of the books that academia publishes every year. There are some passages in there that make this sentence look like Dr. Seuss.
Slashdot Mirror
Now THAT would be an awesome name. (@w350|\/|3?)
Or at least not modded up.
This is a really clever animation; it's not a virus, I ran it and my computer's still fine
At least your grandma has heard of viruses and has a vague idea of what they are.
(Actually my grandmas are somewhat more computer-savvy than that, but I'm sure many other people's aren't)
Sounds like the old AOL/Prodigy/Compuserve* networks, before users realized that the WWW, in all its confusing glory, was much better than the small subnets of their service provider.
*They still might be like this, I wouldn't know, I used to have Prodigy years ago back when it had that ugly yellow non-Windows-like GUI theme, then later AOL in its 4.0 days, found out that there was nothing I used on AOL that I couldn't get through a broadband internet provider, and never ever looked back =)
I remember reading about how Kevin Smith's first movie "Clerks" was shot on $60,000 from a couple of maxed out credit cards. Since he could mostly only shoot at one location (the store), he was forced instead to write a clever screenplay with lots of good dialogue that made the movie interesting despite revolving mostly around one static shot location.
I feel that these limitations made Clerks a much better movie than Smith's later big-budget "Dogma". Not that Dogma was a bad movie, it just seemed less "tight" and focused than Clerks, and left less time for witty dialogue amongst the scene changes and effects.
Yeah, the NOLF2 cutscenes were cool, but graphics-wise they will have nothing on Half-Life 2 once it comes out. Check out the 500mb footage at fileplanet and search for it.
Yeah I saw Quake Done Quick once, it was awesome. It was like 15 minutes long, yet I saw secrets and areas I never seen before playing through it normally.
Best part was the "storyline": Quake guy has lost a contact lens next to Shub-Niggarath (sp?), proceeds to kill everything in his path to find it.
So, you're against multi-player games, games that link with a Gameboy (no matter how funky the extra functionality), on-line games and expansions..?
What the hell are you talking about? He didn't say this, in fact he said he no problem about *downloading* *new* content - he has no problem with on-line games and expansions. I'm assuming he would say that if there is a Gameboy link, the Gameboy cartridge should add new functionality/gameplay of its own, rather than just unlocking functionlity/gameplay that was already on the Gamecube disc, and could already work without the Gameboy, but needed one because Nintendo wanted to make more money out of it (which is analogous to the article).
As for multiplayer games, I'm assuming you're saying that he won't be able get to all the content of the disc if he does not have an internet connection or friends. I don't know about console multiplayer gaming that much, but I know that on most if not all of my computer games, I can play all of the multiplayer maps by myself--it's just really boring because no one's there. In any case, this is a bit different. If you buy a game with a multiplayer component, you know at the time of purchase that you will need to have an internet connection to get everything out of the game and may have to pay for the chance to use multiplayer as well. When I buy F-Zero, a game based on driving around tracks, I don't expect to have to go to an arcade somewhere and plunk down money to play some of those tracks already existant on my disc!
Anway, end of rant.
When I played, I felt an urge to yank my neighbor out of his car and go on a pedestrian squashing rampage.
But when I tried to do that, I found that my neighbor had his seat-belt on and had the gall to *drive away* when I tried to pull him out. That doesn't happen in the game!
What are you doing trying to read the article, anyway.
You're just supposed to reload the front page over and over again trying to get the "frost piss" post, which I have been told means "first post". Or maybe "Eskimo Latrine". Hmmmm...
If by 'response rate' you mean a purchase, I think more than just a redesign of the email system will be necessary if the response rate turns out to be 5%... we're going to need a redesign of people's heads.
Seriously, who buys stuff from these jokers, anyway?
I still stand by my belief that the makers of that movie missed out on a great naming possibility:
The Faster and the Furiouser
Well, it depends on when they are browsing. Right now, I'm at work and so cannot use anything other than IE. At home, I'd be viewing this with Firebird.
At work, I use Outlook, which works fine for me, as 99% of all my emails are intra-office, and I've never done something stupid like sign my work email address up at disreputable sites. At home, I use a web-based email program provided by my school, and occasionally use (web-based) Hotmail for throw-away addresses.
I'm sure plenty of other people have similar reasons for using Microsoft products.
Haven't used lynx in a while, it was a text-only web browser available on my school's CS department's Solaris network. Yeah, Netscape was available, but all the text from lynx made it look as if I was really doing work during class. =)
Well, lynx... but yeah.
/.?
Does lynx work on
Quick question: can the FA-18 pilots override the automatic-takeoff-feature if, say, there's an incoming attack on the carrier and the system somehow screws up/crashes? If not, then you have a valid point.
However, I imagine that the pilot can override it, which is a good thing. I have no trouble relying on technology to do something that they can do better than I can, when it is functioning properly. However, I feel uncomfortable being unable to take the situation into my own hands if the software malfunctions (it's very difficult to make a complicated piece of software that is perfect and accounts for all possibilities). That is all.
Exactly. Prior to 9/11 all high-profile hijackings (the ones that would be in people's minds if they got hijacked) was mostly as hostage situations, or to escape a country. People expected that if their plane was hijacked, they mostly likely would not be hurt, at least not everyone aboard, and that it would just be to extract demands from some government.
I agree, I think terrorists will be coming up with new ideas instead of hashing over old ones.
Although I don't believe that the 9/11 attacks would be impossible to pull off again, there are still holes in security, its just that it would be difficult enough to do it that most intelligent terrorists (which are the scary ones, after all) will look else where.
Part of the "success" of the 9/11 attacks where that they were mostly unexpected and (by many) unimaginable. Remember the order that Bush made to shoot down the Pennsylvania field plane if it came within ?? miles of Washington, DC? I think there will be a much quicker response if something like this seems to be happening again.
They propose modifying the avionics in aircraft so that the plane would fight any efforts by the pilot to fly into restricted airspace
Somehow this makes me feel a little less safe. I know that so much of flying is electronically controlled now anyway, with autopilot and more, but the there still is the ability for the pilot to actively fly the plane if it becomes necessary, without the plane "fighting" him or here.
What if the terrorist attack came in a different way, and the pilot had to make "evasive maneuvors" (sp!) or something?
Penny Arcade seems to be on and off slashdotted (w/ beautiful PHP error messages), so here's what Tycho had to say about micropayments:
Both Scotts are talking about Micropayments, so I figured, why not.
When reading about Scott McCloud's The Right Number, the new digital work he is offering for a 25 cent micropay, I was trying to resolve a Chicken and Egg problem. Micropayments are only going to work if you, by which I mean you the consumer, like them. But you'll only like them if there's something super compelling for you to go through the trouble of signing up. But if there aren't a lot of consumers out there ready to flip them nickels or quarters, there's not a whole lot of impetus to go through the trouble of setting up with the system as an artist. And even once you do, then what do you get - two bucks? I believed that Micropayments were an invigorating concept because when I was first introduced to them, it resonated with my subconscious belief that the Internet was Man's Eden. You can fuck with me about the exact phrasing of that, but more geeks than would care to admit it totemize the Internet in one way or another - they believe it is inherently a force for good and has a fundamentally idyllic nature. In any case, I was like, "Yes - this makes sense because it will further equality and the producers of artistic works will be compensated by this benevolent system." I am telling you, once you subtract the faith element from the equation, there isn't a whole lot left.
Here is where I stand now. I don't doubt that Micropayments could do magical things for people, but there are many barriers to this actually happening - barriers of a social, technical, and monetary nature. That isn't anything more than I've said before. The new part follows: if you could make Micropayments work, rubbing nickels and dimes together until the friction creates a tiny bit of warmth you can treasure, then you could make any system work. You have enough people giving you a dime to live on? Giving you a buck, even? Then why are you messing around with Micros? If you have enough readers who care about your work to go through all that rigamaroll, you could succeed with any business model. You and the Captain could make it Happen.
I see it as a model for compensation, lined up with the other models for compensation, like at the police station. All of them cast in an unflattering light, none of them posessed of magical powers.
(CW)TB out.
I mean, I'm made of nanoparticles! Does that make me (or my parents) a nanotechnologist? No. However, this post does make me a nanoloser.
I'm not sure if that means I'm only very slightly a loser, or just a very tiny one. Ah well, a question for the the Renaissance potters, for sure.
Replying to my own post here, but here's some more:
... is akin to the too-common citing of "the Midwest" as the regional impediment to all national social progress (when we all know the "Midwest" is ten miles outside of any city). In other words, irony should be considered a very particular and recognizable thing, [def given earlier on: the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning), and thus, to refer to everything odd, coincidental, eerie, absurd, or strangely funny as ironic is, frankly, an abomination upon the Lord. (Re that last clause: not irony, but a simple, wholesome, American-born exaggeration)."
"Irony is a very specific and not all that interesting thing, and to use the word/concept to blanket half of all contemporary cultural production
He then includes some humorous examples of things that far too many people would call ironic, yet are clearly not.
And yes, I am bulk quoting someone else in order to appear more intelligent, and to avoid actually having to come up with something insightful on my own. =)
In the "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making" section of the paperback version of Dave Egger's book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers wrote a long, insightful section about the word 'irony' and its blatant misuse in today's society. Apparently quite a few people and critics had described his book as 'ironic', when he felt that it, for the most part, was anything but ironic.
"1. When someone kids around, it does not necessarily mean he or she is being ironic. That is, when one tells a joke, in any context, it can mean, simply, that a joke is being told."
It goes on, and it's really quite good. Does anybody else remember this. (oh, and the book is amazing. YMMV, but I highly recommend at least trying it)
I haven't seen that show, but somehow that seems even more intrusive. When a commercial comes on, I know that its going to try to sell me a product. But when I watch a TV show, I'm watching it for the story, or the jokes, or men hurting themselves for my amusement, not to be sold a product.
... or more likely say "I wish I could afford one..." =)
Now I have no problem with a character picking up a Coke or specifically driving a BMW, but "the NetZero Countdown Timer"? That's just annoying, and I'm really unlikely to remember it as well. It's not even showing me a product. A least when the guy gets in the BMW I can say "Hey, that's a nice car, I should go buy one"
Dude, just try to read some of the books that academia publishes every year. There are some passages in there that make this sentence look like Dr. Seuss.