I'll second this. I don't consider myself an "RTS player", I like to diversify, but I've played several throughout the years, from Total Annihilation to C&C: Red Alert to Starcraft (which is as good as TA in lots of ways) to the Warcraft 3 Beta a few years ago, when my friends and I would analyze the updates to unit strengths that came out every week just to see who got an unfair advantage (we would of course play as that side).
After all these, TA was and still is the most fun. People who bash it just can't seem to comprehend the depth of strategy that can go into matches. The grandparent talked about 3-hour-long games; those were the best! There are so many different ways to win and lose, on so many different kinds of maps, it makes for a different experience every time.
It wasn't without its drawbacks though; for one, you talk about the AI being good, and at the time it was; but as you scaled in units, the AI got progressively dumber so that it wouldn't make systems of the time grind to a halt. Some people also complain that the ARM and CORE units aren't different from each other; this is also true, but it's not so bad, since you can learn the other side's units very quickly.
The devil was in the details though, and TA nailed just about every gameplay aspect on the head. If TA2 does materialize, it'll be one of my most eager game purchases ever.
Hi, not trolling or anything, but what does your comment have to do with the parent? Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me... I'm a Vonnegut fan, too, but I haven't heard of this, and I'd be interested to know more about it.
To add to the info you give, I just stumbled upon this program today, it not only captures Real but several other formats, it seems very configurable and works quite well:
The problem, I think, is with current computer mice, not with our hands. I used to own a Logitech Mouseman Wheel (or something similarly named) which was about 6 inches long, so I could rest my entire hand on it. I guess mouse makers decided that looked ugly or something, so we're seeing mice that look a lot cooler, but aren't nearly as comfortable on the hands. (My last 2 mice have both been under 4 inches long.) Perhaps it's time to search ebay...
There is an area at the bottom of that image that looks like it's been blacked out, stretching across the whole thing, anybody know why? Classified? Or is it a technical reason perhaps?
Heh, I think that's the first time I've ever seen "MacGuyver" used as a verb. People would be surprised at how much stuff you can get working again through DIY methods. Yes, I've messed up sometimes (but it was broken anyway, so no real loss), but I've also been successful and saved myself some money (which is in short supply, as I'm a college student). Also, it's a great way to learn a bit about how your stuff, and stuff like it, works.
Personally, the 86 was my favorite of the bunch. Most powerful and straightforward of the calculators, but not crossing the line of being more like a computer. But instead of upgrading the 86, they're making programs that provide some of it's unique functions to the other calculators:
A suite of TI-86 features is being created for the TI-83 Plus and TI-89 in the form of free APPS, including:
* Polynomial Root Finder
* Simultaneous Equations Solver
* Differential Equation Graphing (built into the TI-89)
* Constants and Conversions (built into the TI-89)
You also have to wonder if they're introducing the largest-capacity version first, so everyone who's clamoring for one buys one... and then roll out a 2GB version later in the year? Offering such a model right in time for next Christmas might make sense. I know I'd buy a 2gig version if it were around $175 or less.
The popup ads are kinda the point of the site... if you recall, the character that shows up on that website is the source of all the popup ads.
Another Adult Swim example, an episode of Home Movies had the soccer coach register the domain 'fentonsnakedmom.com' in the end credits; the website used to just be a picture of the characters and said "umm, what are you doing here".
I like Day of Defeat a lot; it's what I spend most of my time playing these days. I disagree with you about the one shot, one kill nature of DoD. It really encourages teamplay, since nobody can be a "superman". Sure, you could charge into the enemy's base and go on a killing spree, but 9 times out of 10 this will only get you killed. Since individuals are so vulnerable, people have to work together to take over in numbers. And nothing is more fun than a 20 or 30 minute round where both sides are fighting over the same flag in the middle of the map the whole time.
Does it even matter in regards to plain regular TV? In my family, we either change the channel or mute the TV when the ads come on. If someone is trying to entice me into buying their product, I'll do some research into whether it's good at what it does, will fill my needs/wants, etc., if I'm interested at all. I'm not going to make the effort of going out to get something on a whim. I imagine most impulse purchases happen in the store, not in front of a television.
I have two machines, a laptop and a desktop, both Windows for the time being. The desktop is my main workhorse; over the summer I upgraded to a dual Athlon configuration with 1 gig of RAM. I run all variety of programs on it, from photo and video editing/processing to the latest games. The money spent on the extra muscle has proven its worth to me a number of times.
However, I use the laptop for entirely different purposes. It's an old Dell I bought off eBay. Crappy vidchip, midrange Pentium 3, and 256MB RAM are more than enough for word processing, email, and internet when on the road.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you need to use the extra power, then get it; if you don't need it, there's little reason to do so.
Sorry, you may be correct in general, but not specifically about UF. I live in the residence halls. Last year I lived in on of the better halls as far as internet connections go. I was able to get sustained 7MB/sec transfers (yes megabyte) if the person on the other end had great enough bandwidth (and no, it wasn't through P2P). UF sits atop a tremendous connection, so in effect it's a resource like water.
On a side note, ICARUS sucks. What last year was a 5Mbit effective connection to the 'net (on a 10Mbit network) currently tests at half a megabit (just tested for this post at bandwidthplace.com). It has tested as low as 57Kbit earlier this year. Outages are frequent.
Reading through the replies, I see that this is almost universally seen as a bad idea, motivated by little more than greed. So I say, do something about it. This is still being drafted, it hasn't even come up for vote yet. So much the better time to contact your representative and kill this thing preemptively. Read over the replies above and below, since many of them make good points about this idea. Include these ideas when you contact your rep.
I do. I live in a college dorm room the size of a walk-in closet. My 20" computer monitor already dominates my desk; I don't have room anywhere else to put a television. The monitor is large enough to be watched from my bed across the room when tuning cable. Accessories like wireless keyboards and remote controls makes this feasible.
Someone above stated that they don't like how they can be navigating, go back, take another path, then not be able to go forward on the first path they took. Why not have a roll-down/menu that shows a family-tree-style layout of the sites recently visited, listed by page title? Perhaps with time of visit, or color-coded to indicate time of visit? That would really help those of us who don't browse in a very linear fashion.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll second this. I don't consider myself an "RTS player", I like to diversify, but I've played several throughout the years, from Total Annihilation to C&C: Red Alert to Starcraft (which is as good as TA in lots of ways) to the Warcraft 3 Beta a few years ago, when my friends and I would analyze the updates to unit strengths that came out every week just to see who got an unfair advantage (we would of course play as that side).
After all these, TA was and still is the most fun. People who bash it just can't seem to comprehend the depth of strategy that can go into matches. The grandparent talked about 3-hour-long games; those were the best! There are so many different ways to win and lose, on so many different kinds of maps, it makes for a different experience every time.
It wasn't without its drawbacks though; for one, you talk about the AI being good, and at the time it was; but as you scaled in units, the AI got progressively dumber so that it wouldn't make systems of the time grind to a halt. Some people also complain that the ARM and CORE units aren't different from each other; this is also true, but it's not so bad, since you can learn the other side's units very quickly.
The devil was in the details though, and TA nailed just about every gameplay aspect on the head. If TA2 does materialize, it'll be one of my most eager game purchases ever.
Hi, not trolling or anything, but what does your comment have to do with the parent? Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me... I'm a Vonnegut fan, too, but I haven't heard of this, and I'd be interested to know more about it.
Looks like somebody already beat you to macrohard.com...
To add to the info you give, I just stumbled upon this program today, it not only captures Real but several other formats, it seems very configurable and works quite well:
NetTransport
The problem, I think, is with current computer mice, not with our hands. I used to own a Logitech Mouseman Wheel (or something similarly named) which was about 6 inches long, so I could rest my entire hand on it. I guess mouse makers decided that looked ugly or something, so we're seeing mice that look a lot cooler, but aren't nearly as comfortable on the hands. (My last 2 mice have both been under 4 inches long.) Perhaps it's time to search ebay...
There is an area at the bottom of that image that looks like it's been blacked out, stretching across the whole thing, anybody know why? Classified? Or is it a technical reason perhaps?
Heh, I think that's the first time I've ever seen "MacGuyver" used as a verb. People would be surprised at how much stuff you can get working again through DIY methods. Yes, I've messed up sometimes (but it was broken anyway, so no real loss), but I've also been successful and saved myself some money (which is in short supply, as I'm a college student). Also, it's a great way to learn a bit about how your stuff, and stuff like it, works.
Personally, the 86 was my favorite of the bunch. Most powerful and straightforward of the calculators, but not crossing the line of being more like a computer. But instead of upgrading the 86, they're making programs that provide some of it's unique functions to the other calculators:
A suite of TI-86 features is being created for the TI-83 Plus and TI-89 in the form of free APPS, including:
* Polynomial Root Finder
* Simultaneous Equations Solver
* Differential Equation Graphing (built into the TI-89)
* Constants and Conversions (built into the TI-89)
You also have to wonder if they're introducing the largest-capacity version first, so everyone who's clamoring for one buys one... and then roll out a 2GB version later in the year? Offering such a model right in time for next Christmas might make sense. I know I'd buy a 2gig version if it were around $175 or less.
The popup ads are kinda the point of the site... if you recall, the character that shows up on that website is the source of all the popup ads.
Another Adult Swim example, an episode of Home Movies had the soccer coach register the domain 'fentonsnakedmom.com' in the end credits; the website used to just be a picture of the characters and said "umm, what are you doing here".
When they figure out how to overclock the human brain, let me know.
WOPR is the supercomputer from the movie War Games, and it stands for War Operations Plan Respopnse.
I like Day of Defeat a lot; it's what I spend most of my time playing these days. I disagree with you about the one shot, one kill nature of DoD. It really encourages teamplay, since nobody can be a "superman". Sure, you could charge into the enemy's base and go on a killing spree, but 9 times out of 10 this will only get you killed. Since individuals are so vulnerable, people have to work together to take over in numbers. And nothing is more fun than a 20 or 30 minute round where both sides are fighting over the same flag in the middle of the map the whole time.
Does it even matter in regards to plain regular TV? In my family, we either change the channel or mute the TV when the ads come on. If someone is trying to entice me into buying their product, I'll do some research into whether it's good at what it does, will fill my needs/wants, etc., if I'm interested at all. I'm not going to make the effort of going out to get something on a whim. I imagine most impulse purchases happen in the store, not in front of a television.
Does anybody care about Mercedes's share of the entire automotive industry?
I think Mercedes does...
Right on.
I have two machines, a laptop and a desktop, both Windows for the time being. The desktop is my main workhorse; over the summer I upgraded to a dual Athlon configuration with 1 gig of RAM. I run all variety of programs on it, from photo and video editing/processing to the latest games. The money spent on the extra muscle has proven its worth to me a number of times.
However, I use the laptop for entirely different purposes. It's an old Dell I bought off eBay. Crappy vidchip, midrange Pentium 3, and 256MB RAM are more than enough for word processing, email, and internet when on the road.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you need to use the extra power, then get it; if you don't need it, there's little reason to do so.
Sorry, you may be correct in general, but not specifically about UF. I live in the residence halls. Last year I lived in on of the better halls as far as internet connections go. I was able to get sustained 7MB/sec transfers (yes megabyte) if the person on the other end had great enough bandwidth (and no, it wasn't through P2P). UF sits atop a tremendous connection, so in effect it's a resource like water.
On a side note, ICARUS sucks. What last year was a 5Mbit effective connection to the 'net (on a 10Mbit network) currently tests at half a megabit (just tested for this post at bandwidthplace.com). It has tested as low as 57Kbit earlier this year. Outages are frequent.
I'm not happy.
Reading through the replies, I see that this is almost universally seen as a bad idea, motivated by little more than greed. So I say, do something about it. This is still being drafted, it hasn't even come up for vote yet. So much the better time to contact your representative and kill this thing preemptively. Read over the replies above and below, since many of them make good points about this idea. Include these ideas when you contact your rep.
If we make enough noise, they will listen.
I do. I live in a college dorm room the size of a walk-in closet. My 20" computer monitor already dominates my desk; I don't have room anywhere else to put a television. The monitor is large enough to be watched from my bed across the room when tuning cable. Accessories like wireless keyboards and remote controls makes this feasible.
...[to] the USPTO, "novel" means "anything a 18-month old baby couldn't have authored."
This standard is too narrow to actually be what the USPTO has used.
DUCT TAPE!! This is the most important ingredient in any MacGyver creation!
Not only that, but it's a .edu, likely sitting on an extremely fat pipe. I'm downloading the movie and getting 80+ K/sec as I post.
Someone above stated that they don't like how they can be navigating, go back, take another path, then not be able to go forward on the first path they took. Why not have a roll-down/menu that shows a family-tree-style layout of the sites recently visited, listed by page title? Perhaps with time of visit, or color-coded to indicate time of visit? That would really help those of us who don't browse in a very linear fashion.
If you want to watch for yourself (I did after reading the above), there is a copy of the film available, along with other related items, here:
http://www.noage.com/jfknetwork/zap.htm