I prefer Ethernet for moving stuff between computers, but a USB2 card would be faster if you have 100mbit or wireless LAN. If you are moving less than 8GB then this card would be really nice. However, if you are moving a lot of stuff (> 8GB) you are better off getting an external HDD (long distance), or GB Ethernet (LAN). DVDs are a nice cheap alternative though. I use them to backup my data at home, at least until I can afford a RAID5 setup.
I live in Minnesota and would love 6mbit upload (don't really care about the download) but I'm going to wait a bit and see what other people say about it. It would suck to pay $150 only to find out my 6mbps upstream is constantly being "throttled". That's a premium price for a residential user, so I would hope for a premium quality of service (but I doubt it). I don't even see the new package on their site yet, maybe I'm not looking in the right place though
I noticed the article also says the upstream is being increased on the "standard" packages from 384 to 1024kbps and from 768 to 2048kbps, which is good news. I assume this will require a router reboot or something before it takes effect?
There's also a powerful source of potential energy on the moon (and elsewhere in the solar system), Helium-3 (He-3), that could be used for nuclear fusion power generation. He-3 produces far less radioactivity than our current method, which loses most of the energy in the form of neutrons which "destroys" the equipment rapidly, not to mention all the radioactivity left over.
The problem is we are currently nowhere near being able to actually produce electricity from it, even IF we manage to somehow mine it (IIRC it's something like 1 part per BILLION on the moon) and come up with a viable way of transporting all that mass. It could be a huge source of energy in the distant future though (or maybe not, only time will tell). There are many difficult problems to tackle first though, and we are only in the infant stages of both man-made fusion and space exploration.
That's a good point, I used "normal" keyboards from the age of 4-5, and didn't really use a laptop till I was 18 or so. 10-15 years of using anything surely leaves a bias for it.
I've actually seen a similar thing with guitars. When I started playing I played acoustic and when switching to electric found it to be a bit awkward. Now I play mostly electric and switching to acoustic seems awkward.
On you first point, eve is all about working together, the most successful alliance in the game right now is largely consisted of relatively inexperienced/new players. They simply work together (the multi-player part;)) and overcome more experienced players. It's also not as cut and dry as "level 60 beats level 50", it also depends largely on tactics, ship setups, etc.
Yes it can set them back, but there are warnings when you enter unsafe areas, so maybe they shouldn't be flying there all by themselves? Again this is an MMO, one of the "Ms" meaning multi-player. Joining a good alliance/corporation and working together avoids most deaths, not to mention helps you learn the game. The people who complain about griefing tend to be the ones who roam around the universe by themselves, and don't engage in the multi-player aspect of the game.
Actually any pvp is good experience to have, and you get money by looting their ships or ransoming them. As a new player I got killed a fair bit, but I didn't get pissed off or quit playing, I actually enjoyed the dog-eat-dog mentality of the game as it reminded me of real life, again this isn't fun for a lot of people but for me it was/is. Then again I'm the sort of person who usually prefers a simulator over a game.
I guess I haven't played any other MMOs so maybe griefing works much differently in those games, but in Eve there are plenty of warnings about dangerous space, ways to avoid most deaths, etc. So I would argue that in Eve there isn't really "griefing" in the way you seem to be talking about it. If you go to dangerous areas all by yourself don't expect to be safe. There is a learning curve when you start playing, but everyone goes through the same thing, and in fact the developers have made attempts at making things easier for new players by increasing their starting "levels", making "leveling" faster for new players, and improved tutorials, etc.
{END RANT} I'd be playing atm instead of wasting time posting here but I'm waiting for a part from newegg;)
And that's why Eve is the only MMO I've ever played, there is really no such thing as "griefing". If you are that affected emotionally from losing your special sword (or whatever) then I think you have way too much emotional attachment to what is really just entries in a database.;)
Basically I enjoy "griefing" and being "griefed", and it gives me a laugh how seriously some people take it (I've actually received nasty hate mails after blowing up people's ships). Apparently most people don't enjoy that aspect though, even in Eve many people stay in the limited "safe" areas (about 10% of the universe is "safe" and probably 75% of the players play there)
Why wouldn't a touch-screen provide the bump? Vibration (or advanced haptic technology) can provide that.
Even better, with a touch screen, EVERYWHERE you put your fingers, initially, is the homerow. I already find most laptop keyboards difficult to type with due to the reduced gaps (and therefore tactile feedback) compared to a standard keyboard. So perhaps a new type of feedback would actually be an improvement. The home row keys thing would be bad for me though, as I've never used them.
Agreed. I bought my current video card about 2.5 years ago, my cpu 2.5 years ago, my ram (which is "valueram" btw) 5+ years ago, my monitor is finally dying after 6 years of heavy use. None of these were top-of-the-line when I bought them either, but I can still play every game I've tried (not at uber resolutions but good enough for me).
On the other hand my PS2 stopped working after less than a year, so I had to constantly adjust+clean the lasers to keep it working (and eventually it just stopped working no matter what). One of my friends got an xbox360 a year ago and it's already dead, another friend got one a couple months ago and it's already refusing to play games randomly. At least with PCs you can easily replace a faulty part.
I don't see how having "trivial" information (whatever that means) could be considered bad. It's not as if you're being forced to read about it, and there will always be people who find it useful/interesting. If you don't want to read about a certain subject then don't search for it or read it, what's so hard about this? It's sort of like buying a book about gardening, then complaining that you don't care about gardening. Maybe you shouldn't have bought the book, eh?
If you include no browser in the OS, how does the average user download a browser? As for having a list of browsers to choose from when installing, how many people actually install windows on their computer (rather than the OEM, who will "choose" IE)? Also, won't if be difficult saying MS is unfairly bundling IE/restricting competition when IE is actually losing market share (a lot of "average Joes/Janes" are using firefox/mozilla these days)?
Slashdot Mirror
Finally somewhere that you can say whatever you want on the internet! *looks at countless troll posts on slashdot*
I prefer Ethernet for moving stuff between computers, but a USB2 card would be faster if you have 100mbit or wireless LAN. If you are moving less than 8GB then this card would be really nice. However, if you are moving a lot of stuff (> 8GB) you are better off getting an external HDD (long distance), or GB Ethernet (LAN). DVDs are a nice cheap alternative though. I use them to backup my data at home, at least until I can afford a RAID5 setup.
I live in Minnesota and would love 6mbit upload (don't really care about the download) but I'm going to wait a bit and see what other people say about it. It would suck to pay $150 only to find out my 6mbps upstream is constantly being "throttled". That's a premium price for a residential user, so I would hope for a premium quality of service (but I doubt it). I don't even see the new package on their site yet, maybe I'm not looking in the right place though I noticed the article also says the upstream is being increased on the "standard" packages from 384 to 1024kbps and from 768 to 2048kbps, which is good news. I assume this will require a router reboot or something before it takes effect?
Providing evidence would only embolden the terrorists!
^ Agree with the above post.
There's also a powerful source of potential energy on the moon (and elsewhere in the solar system), Helium-3 (He-3), that could be used for nuclear fusion power generation. He-3 produces far less radioactivity than our current method, which loses most of the energy in the form of neutrons which "destroys" the equipment rapidly, not to mention all the radioactivity left over.
The problem is we are currently nowhere near being able to actually produce electricity from it, even IF we manage to somehow mine it (IIRC it's something like 1 part per BILLION on the moon) and come up with a viable way of transporting all that mass. It could be a huge source of energy in the distant future though (or maybe not, only time will tell). There are many difficult problems to tackle first though, and we are only in the infant stages of both man-made fusion and space exploration.
That's a good point, I used "normal" keyboards from the age of 4-5, and didn't really use a laptop till I was 18 or so. 10-15 years of using anything surely leaves a bias for it.
I've actually seen a similar thing with guitars. When I started playing I played acoustic and when switching to electric found it to be a bit awkward. Now I play mostly electric and switching to acoustic seems awkward.
On you first point, eve is all about working together, the most successful alliance in the game right now is largely consisted of relatively inexperienced/new players. They simply work together (the multi-player part ;)) and overcome more experienced players. It's also not as cut and dry as "level 60 beats level 50", it also depends largely on tactics, ship setups, etc.
;)
Yes it can set them back, but there are warnings when you enter unsafe areas, so maybe they shouldn't be flying there all by themselves? Again this is an MMO, one of the "Ms" meaning multi-player. Joining a good alliance/corporation and working together avoids most deaths, not to mention helps you learn the game. The people who complain about griefing tend to be the ones who roam around the universe by themselves, and don't engage in the multi-player aspect of the game.
Actually any pvp is good experience to have, and you get money by looting their ships or ransoming them. As a new player I got killed a fair bit, but I didn't get pissed off or quit playing, I actually enjoyed the dog-eat-dog mentality of the game as it reminded me of real life, again this isn't fun for a lot of people but for me it was/is. Then again I'm the sort of person who usually prefers a simulator over a game.
I guess I haven't played any other MMOs so maybe griefing works much differently in those games, but in Eve there are plenty of warnings about dangerous space, ways to avoid most deaths, etc. So I would argue that in Eve there isn't really "griefing" in the way you seem to be talking about it. If you go to dangerous areas all by yourself don't expect to be safe. There is a learning curve when you start playing, but everyone goes through the same thing, and in fact the developers have made attempts at making things easier for new players by increasing their starting "levels", making "leveling" faster for new players, and improved tutorials, etc.
{END RANT} I'd be playing atm instead of wasting time posting here but I'm waiting for a part from newegg
And that's why Eve is the only MMO I've ever played, there is really no such thing as "griefing". If you are that affected emotionally from losing your special sword (or whatever) then I think you have way too much emotional attachment to what is really just entries in a database. ;)
Basically I enjoy "griefing" and being "griefed", and it gives me a laugh how seriously some people take it (I've actually received nasty hate mails after blowing up people's ships). Apparently most people don't enjoy that aspect though, even in Eve many people stay in the limited "safe" areas (about 10% of the universe is "safe" and probably 75% of the players play there)
Apparently it was already cool to put "X" in the names of things back in the 60s, you learn something new every day :)
*sings in high voice* In the year 2000...In the year 2000!
Agreed. I bought my current video card about 2.5 years ago, my cpu 2.5 years ago, my ram (which is "valueram" btw) 5+ years ago, my monitor is finally dying after 6 years of heavy use. None of these were top-of-the-line when I bought them either, but I can still play every game I've tried (not at uber resolutions but good enough for me). On the other hand my PS2 stopped working after less than a year, so I had to constantly adjust+clean the lasers to keep it working (and eventually it just stopped working no matter what). One of my friends got an xbox360 a year ago and it's already dead, another friend got one a couple months ago and it's already refusing to play games randomly. At least with PCs you can easily replace a faulty part.
I don't see how having "trivial" information (whatever that means) could be considered bad. It's not as if you're being forced to read about it, and there will always be people who find it useful/interesting. If you don't want to read about a certain subject then don't search for it or read it, what's so hard about this? It's sort of like buying a book about gardening, then complaining that you don't care about gardening. Maybe you shouldn't have bought the book, eh?
If you include no browser in the OS, how does the average user download a browser? As for having a list of browsers to choose from when installing, how many people actually install windows on their computer (rather than the OEM, who will "choose" IE)? Also, won't if be difficult saying MS is unfairly bundling IE/restricting competition when IE is actually losing market share (a lot of "average Joes/Janes" are using firefox/mozilla these days)?