I would imagine that it is because they know that they are alienating a large part of their user base (or potential user base). I guess that this is an attempts to win the "hearts and minds" of the people, and it is having about as much success as the US is having with the same plan in Iraq.
The truly sad thing is that they push WPA, WGA, DRM, Trusted Computing, overly-restrictive licensing, etc., and think that a simple junket and a couple of freebies can make up for treating customers like crap.
Hey, Microsoft: If you are reading this, try treating your customers like you value them. I am about as a law-abiding citizen that you can find. I do not appreciate all of the restrictions that you place on your products in an effort to keep me honest. Your slogan used to be "Where do you want to go today?" Now, it is "You can't go there. We will tell you where we will let you go." Wise up before it is too late.
Take a VERY fun game, and slash the polygon count in half. Is the game less fun? The answer is probably something like "a little bit less fun, but still pretty darned good." So, double the graphics horsepower does NOT double the fun. This is what I mean about the graphics power. A good game depends more on story line, controls, and the general game design. The eye candy certainly helps, but it takes a big difference in order to make or break a game.
And if I had to choose between a game with awesome eye candy, and one that is just fun to play and looks a little crude, guess which one I am going for...
Is it that they aren't interested?? Or did they all get turned down for the mortgage they needed to purchase a PS3?
You nailed it.
I freely admit that the PS3 is more powerful with better hardware. But... how does eye candy make a game more fun? If your character in a FPS now had individually-rendered arm hair, does that make the game somehow better? Would Daikatana be any better with greatly improved graphics? I think that we are approaching the point of diminishing returns in graphics.
The key here, though, is price. By definition, half of the US population makes average income or below. Those are the sorts of people who are MUCH more likely to pick up a Wii than a PS3. Sony has effectively alienated a full half of the population from purchasing their product. Nintendo, on the other hand, is the best bet for those whose pockets do not run over, and they are also cheap enough to be picked up as a 2nd system for people who have deep enough pockets to get a 360 or a PS3.
Hmmm. That "very customized" XP CD must have taken some time to create. This is made worse by the fact that, between all of the different apps that you have thrown on there, one of them must have a new version every week. Just keeping Firefox and Thunderbird up-to-date can take some time. Unless you do this sort of recovery every week or more, it is probably not worth a person's time to make such an update CD that will be hopelessly out-of-date within a month.
You also have to factor in the time to backup the old user-data and restore it. The problem is that a LOT of applications just throw their data in their own directories under "program files." I can tell you from experience that even Peachtree, and small-business accounting program does this sin. This means that you can't just back up "My Documents" and be done with it.
My PC is virus-free too, probably because it doesn't have a network card or modem, a surprisingly difficult combination to achieve when buying it. I gave up trying to spec a machine without ethernet and settled for opening up a brand new computer, pulling the unwanted card and binning it.
Well, you could try the obvious thing, like not plugging anythign into those jacks. That would work just as well.
Of course, if you don't trust yourself, you could accomplish a lot with the cut ends of RJ11 and RJ45 cables and some superglue.
Of course I can't know it for sure. But from memory, the reoffence rate for released murders is 5%. That is, most people don't do it again.
A couple of extra comments for everyone to think about:
- Most people who murder someone will probably spend the rest of their life fucked up in the head. They have created their own punishment, living every day with the guilt.
- Think about the _very_worst_thing_ you have ever done. Do you think you should be judged for the rest of your life on that one thing?
So, everybody should be born with one "get out of prison free card." I can see it now: "Don't piss me off. I haven't killed anybody yet. You could be my freebie!"
One of the reasons of pumishment is to make it severe enough where the average rational person would not want to have to be subjected to it.
This is a small hardware box available for under $400 that looks like it may do what you want.
I do admit that there are free software options available, but those require a server somewhere, and probably a bit of trial-and-error and time to get it running. This hardware box, on the other hand, looks like it would be set up in less than an hour.
The question, in my mind, is what do we have to do (in the real world) to convince the networks to sponsor more episodes/seasons AND (maybe more difficult) convince Wheedon to make them?
I love the show, but I am not a "rabid" fan, so I could be wrong on this. But the impression that I have is that Wheedon WANTS to make more. He just needs a network to pay the bills.
Of course, with the "cast changes" that occured as a result of the movie (I am trying not to spoil it for those that have not seen it), that might change the dynamic of the eventual 2nd season a bit, though. I am not sure how the actors feel about making more.
It also wouldn't hurt to set up a Gmail account just for this. CC (or BCC) all e-mail to that address. Then, if the unthinkable happens, you can just point your lawyer to that account and tell him to have a good time.
Seeing that longitudinal zero is completely arbitrary (both for Earth and Sol)
At least for earth, there is a physical stop that you can point your finger at and say "that is longitude zero". For the sun, how the heck do you measure longitude on a sphere with no permanent features?
Would you consider right wing Christians that gun down abortion doctors to be terrorists?
What you say is technically true, but those terrorists are very specific about their targets. They choose a few select individuals.
Muslem terrorists don't really care about who they target. As long as they are warm bodies for the body count. Consider, for a moment, that Muslems were able to somehow exterminate all "infidels." Having accomplished that, they would then happily turn on each other, just like in Iraq right now.
To me, comparing the two is like comparing a hand grenate to a nuclear weapon.
The only catch that I can see if you manage to accomplish this: you would be blind. If all of the photons were routed around your body, none would be left to enter you eyes, so you would not be able to see anything. On the other hand, if you left your eyes uncovered by whatever the magic material is, people woudl be able to see a disembodied pair of eyes from the front, and who-knows-what from the back.
If some magic material were actually invented, it would probably also be detectable by checking for a magnetic or electric field. Of course, sonar would still work great.
Ragging on RedHat because they had the temerity to focus on the part of their business that generated profit for them seems a bit harsh. There's plenty of other distros to choose from, including Ubuntu, if you want to live in the fast lane.
Yeah, that's kind of the point. Ubunto takes over the smaller roles and play well on the desktop. People get familiar and comfortable with it, so it starts taking on larger roles. Eventually, it is eating Red Hat's lunch -- or so the theory goes.
Except I'm not doing any content filtering and have no awareness of what data is going over the network - you can't hold me liable for the actions of someone else. If a murder happens in a park the owner of the park isn't liable for it, it's an open space that anyone can use.
This is perhaps the most naive statement I have read in a while.
What you say is absolutely true in a fair world... but the world is not fair. If the RIAA or MPAA comes after you with lawyers, your defense just might work - if you have $50,000 or more to spend on lawyers. But unless you are filthy rich, the more likely scenario is that you would cave in and pay the $5,000 or whatever the extortion amount is these days. The MPAA and RIAA are not nice people and they don't care about right or wrong. They just want money, including yours, if they can get it.
Well, there was a case that I remember where a chip of paint in orbit gouged out a good-sized dent in the space shuttle window. In this case, the window was manly enough to stop a paint chip.
An inflatable, on the other hand, has to be flexible in order to allow it to inflate. That seems to imply that something like a paint chip might just well zip right through a wall or two.
What I have always thought was a good idea (but I am not a rocket scientist) is to use some type of expanding foam to fill the inflatable. It would be heavier than air, but a lot more durable. You can get cans of this stuff for a few dollars from your local hardware store, and one can will expand it volume probably 50X. Once the stuff dries, it is rigid. Plus, you could use thinner baloons, as the foam would provide the durability. I wonder how well it would work in space...
I do know people that had to get Top Secret clearence for an internship with the government. Its not as uncommon as you think.
Really? I would LOVE to know how. I can tell you from experience that a secret clearance may easily take a year or more to process. It is possible to get an interim clearance easily, but the real deal takes much longer than a summer.
It would be extremely expensive to create an "MRAM hard drive". This is just more pump and dump for Freescale daytraders.
Bzzzzt. Wrong. Thank you for playing.
OK. You are half-right. It would be expensive to crate an "MRAM hard drive." So, getting 20 gigs of MRAM would cost a small fortune. But this is NOT a "pump-n-dump." This is really cool stuff. I can easily imagine some embedded systems that could really use this stuff. This is non-volatile system memory. The problem with FLASH and EEPROM memory is that the cells wear out after a lot of writing (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 1,000,000 write cycles will give you trouble). For some applications, this is not enough, so you have to resort to battery-backed SRAM. Now there is at least another option.
Do you need to store data without having a constant battery backup?
Do you need to store a relatively small amount?
Will the data be changing rapidly enough to kill a FLASH in short order?
Would a hard drive be too big or too power hungry?
If you answered "yes" to all those questions, MRAM might be for you:
Although, really, this seems to solve the exact same problem as Phase-Change RAM.
One a side note, why the heck do VCRs need to be manually switched between cable and antenna? Are the channel frequencies different or something?
Highly off-topic, but the answer is "yes."
Broadcast has channels 2-13 on VHF and channles 14 and up on UHF. This is because TV does not own the entire spectrum. In between channels 13 and 14 you will find a couple of HAM bands, military aircraft radio, public service bands, business bands, FRS and FMRS radio, government bands, etc.
Cable does not have this restriction, so 14 begins just after 13.
Have pity on him. In the last month, he has only had one post modded up that wasn't "funny". In fact, if you take out the funny mods, he gets modded down a LOT more than he is modded up.
To the grandparent poster: Funny mods don't help your karma.
But there's also the lower costs of production and distribution
When and if any of these savings get passed on to the consumer, then I might say that you have a point.
Look at it this way. Years ago when you could find both CD and cassette, the CD was cheaper to produce, but it cost approximately 50% more than a cassette. Same story for VHS vs. DVD. If you believe for one moment that electronic books are really going to be cheaper than paper, you obviously have not paid much attention to the way the market has played out so far. But I admit that this is simply wild speculation, and I hope that I am wrong. But, somehow, I have the greatest faith in human greed.
Slashdot Mirror
I would imagine that it is because they know that they are alienating a large part of their user base (or potential user base). I guess that this is an attempts to win the "hearts and minds" of the people, and it is having about as much success as the US is having with the same plan in Iraq.
The truly sad thing is that they push WPA, WGA, DRM, Trusted Computing, overly-restrictive licensing, etc., and think that a simple junket and a couple of freebies can make up for treating customers like crap.
Hey, Microsoft:
If you are reading this, try treating your customers like you value them. I am about as a law-abiding citizen that you can find. I do not appreciate all of the restrictions that you place on your products in an effort to keep me honest. Your slogan used to be "Where do you want to go today?" Now, it is "You can't go there. We will tell you where we will let you go." Wise up before it is too late.
Hmmm. Only double the price of regular internet service. Maybe that is why most people don't do that.
Well, my point is just this...
Take a VERY fun game, and slash the polygon count in half. Is the game less fun? The answer is probably something like "a little bit less fun, but still pretty darned good." So, double the graphics horsepower does NOT double the fun. This is what I mean about the graphics power. A good game depends more on story line, controls, and the general game design. The eye candy certainly helps, but it takes a big difference in order to make or break a game.
And if I had to choose between a game with awesome eye candy, and one that is just fun to play and looks a little crude, guess which one I am going for...
I freely admit that the PS3 is more powerful with better hardware. But... how does eye candy make a game more fun? If your character in a FPS now had individually-rendered arm hair, does that make the game somehow better? Would Daikatana be any better with greatly improved graphics? I think that we are approaching the point of diminishing returns in graphics.
The key here, though, is price. By definition, half of the US population makes average income or below. Those are the sorts of people who are MUCH more likely to pick up a Wii than a PS3. Sony has effectively alienated a full half of the population from purchasing their product. Nintendo, on the other hand, is the best bet for those whose pockets do not run over, and they are also cheap enough to be picked up as a 2nd system for people who have deep enough pockets to get a 360 or a PS3.
Overall winner: Nintendo.
Hmmm. That "very customized" XP CD must have taken some time to create. This is made worse by the fact that, between all of the different apps that you have thrown on there, one of them must have a new version every week. Just keeping Firefox and Thunderbird up-to-date can take some time. Unless you do this sort of recovery every week or more, it is probably not worth a person's time to make such an update CD that will be hopelessly out-of-date within a month.
You also have to factor in the time to backup the old user-data and restore it. The problem is that a LOT of applications just throw their data in their own directories under "program files." I can tell you from experience that even Peachtree, and small-business accounting program does this sin. This means that you can't just back up "My Documents" and be done with it.
Of course, if you don't trust yourself, you could accomplish a lot with the cut ends of RJ11 and RJ45 cables and some superglue.
One of the reasons of pumishment is to make it severe enough where the average rational person would not want to have to be subjected to it.
OK. This isn't free. But, for a business, it is pretty close.
s sl312_ssl_vpn_gateway_review/
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/09/26/netgear_
This is a small hardware box available for under $400 that looks like it may do what you want.
I do admit that there are free software options available, but those require a server somewhere, and probably a bit of trial-and-error and time to get it running. This hardware box, on the other hand, looks like it would be set up in less than an hour.
Just an option...
I love the show, but I am not a "rabid" fan, so I could be wrong on this. But the impression that I have is that Wheedon WANTS to make more. He just needs a network to pay the bills.
Of course, with the "cast changes" that occured as a result of the movie (I am trying not to spoil it for those that have not seen it), that might change the dynamic of the eventual 2nd season a bit, though. I am not sure how the actors feel about making more.
It also wouldn't hurt to set up a Gmail account just for this. CC (or BCC) all e-mail to that address. Then, if the unthinkable happens, you can just point your lawyer to that account and tell him to have a good time.
Muslem terrorists don't really care about who they target. As long as they are warm bodies for the body count. Consider, for a moment, that Muslems were able to somehow exterminate all "infidels." Having accomplished that, they would then happily turn on each other, just like in Iraq right now.
To me, comparing the two is like comparing a hand grenate to a nuclear weapon.
But... if you read the specs, you have to run Windows in order to use it. It uses Linux, but no Linux drivers...
The only catch that I can see if you manage to accomplish this: you would be blind. If all of the photons were routed around your body, none would be left to enter you eyes, so you would not be able to see anything. On the other hand, if you left your eyes uncovered by whatever the magic material is, people woudl be able to see a disembodied pair of eyes from the front, and who-knows-what from the back.
If some magic material were actually invented, it would probably also be detectable by checking for a magnetic or electric field. Of course, sonar would still work great.
Can this be integrated into Doom 3 for more realistic body parts flying everywhere?
What you say is absolutely true in a fair world
Well, there was a case that I remember where a chip of paint in orbit gouged out a good-sized dent in the space shuttle window. In this case, the window was manly enough to stop a paint chip.
An inflatable, on the other hand, has to be flexible in order to allow it to inflate. That seems to imply that something like a paint chip might just well zip right through a wall or two.
What I have always thought was a good idea (but I am not a rocket scientist) is to use some type of expanding foam to fill the inflatable. It would be heavier than air, but a lot more durable. You can get cans of this stuff for a few dollars from your local hardware store, and one can will expand it volume probably 50X. Once the stuff dries, it is rigid. Plus, you could use thinner baloons, as the foam would provide the durability. I wonder how well it would work in space...
Bzzzzt. Wrong. Thank you for playing.
OK. You are half-right. It would be expensive to crate an "MRAM hard drive." So, getting 20 gigs of MRAM would cost a small fortune. But this is NOT a "pump-n-dump." This is really cool stuff. I can easily imagine some embedded systems that could really use this stuff. This is non-volatile system memory. The problem with FLASH and EEPROM memory is that the cells wear out after a lot of writing (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 1,000,000 write cycles will give you trouble). For some applications, this is not enough, so you have to resort to battery-backed SRAM. Now there is at least another option.
- Do you need to store data without having a constant battery backup?
- Do you need to store a relatively small amount?
- Will the data be changing rapidly enough to kill a FLASH in short order?
- Would a hard drive be too big or too power hungry?
If you answered "yes" to all those questions, MRAM might be for you:Although, really, this seems to solve the exact same problem as Phase-Change RAM.
Broadcast has channels 2-13 on VHF and channles 14 and up on UHF. This is because TV does not own the entire spectrum. In between channels 13 and 14 you will find a couple of HAM bands, military aircraft radio, public service bands, business bands, FRS and FMRS radio, government bands, etc.
Cable does not have this restriction, so 14 begins just after 13.
Have pity on him. In the last month, he has only had one post modded up that wasn't "funny". In fact, if you take out the funny mods, he gets modded down a LOT more than he is modded up.
To the grandparent poster: Funny mods don't help your karma.
Look at it this way. Years ago when you could find both CD and cassette, the CD was cheaper to produce, but it cost approximately 50% more than a cassette. Same story for VHS vs. DVD. If you believe for one moment that electronic books are really going to be cheaper than paper, you obviously have not paid much attention to the way the market has played out so far. But I admit that this is simply wild speculation, and I hope that I am wrong. But, somehow, I have the greatest faith in human greed.