Gotta have an SLR with the ability to put on different lenses, like a macro/micro lens so I can take creepy close-up pictures of bugs and other visions of the microcosmos. I also want to attach one to a telescope.
And that X-Ray Spec lens that removes the clothing from every person of whom you take a picture. It's polarized so it will only remove women's clothing, but if you are so inclined, rotate it 90 degrees and it will remove men's clothing, but the women will all look like busty Dark Elves, so not a complete loss.
That's why Jet Blue rocks. Every seat has a video screen with DirecTV channels. I put on my Bose noise cancelling headphones, and the miles zip by in bliss and no one bothers you.
A favorite SF novel of mine is Harry Harrison's "One Step From Earth." Each chapter is a short story more or less centered around a method of instantaneous teleportion between any two points in the Universe. The first chapter tells of the initial discovery. Each subsequent chapter takes place further and further in the future. No real dates are given, but some of the jumps appear to be thousands, if not tens of thousand of years. Collectively they sketch out a basic history of humanity, and how teleportion shaped that history.
I love that game. I'm playing it along side GTA:San Andreas which leads to me trying to do weird things, like wanting to jack the cars in Katamari or trying to roll everything up into a big ball in GTA.
Well, gamespy was the only site I could find that gave Jak 2 a negative review. I wish to God I had listened to the lone dissenting voice in that case. I got about 55% through the game, and just walked away from it. I realized that some programmer or another over at Naughty Dog HATES the customers, and put in some of the most vindictive restart points in the history of platformers. Sending me back 20 minutes in the game isn't a fun challenge, folks. It's annoying. And don't get me started on having to slog through the aircar traffic jam where just farting the the general direction one of the bad guys got you surrounded by and endless supply of guards with guns blazing.
Poor analogy. You're comparing a quantum leap in technology to incremental feature creep and nonsensical concepts about the intrinsic coolness of a product.
The former is a historical event. The latter is corporate hoohah.
No. To be honest it really hasn't been since the Osborne 1.
What are you talking about? Has everyone been ditching their cell phones and PDAs when I wasn't looking? Do kids refuse to pick up their gameboys because the screens are too small?
I didn't say no one wants them. I said they aren't cool anymore. Cotton balls, milk and socks aren't cool either, but people buy them. Also, I was addressing these particular items, not gadgets in general.
It seems you like to belittle stuff other people find useful.
I didn't say they weren't useful. I said they weren't cool.
Fine, this stuff isn't for you, but taht doesn't make it "stupid".
They're not stupid. They're boring.
Your criticism of a product is the name of the company? Your name is a rip off of a cartoon network show...
That's what we in the higher primate evolutionary lines call "a joke".
should we judge your opinions based of of that?
I don't give a flying fook at a rolling donut what you do.
I don't mind that you don't find these things useful...it's just your piss poor attitude about it.
I didn't say they weren't useful. I said- oh, what's the point... The whole original article was about coolness and envy, not practicality. I was arguing against that, and tossing in some silliness to flag my whole post as jokey to anyone with even minimal perceptual skills.
You don't want something so you have to insult it...it's just childish. I don't understand a lot of the people on Slashdot these days...(well, mayby I do if you are still in high school). Putting down something or someone does not make you cool or superior...it just makes you look bitter and insecure.
Wow! The power of a Plastation *1* with a tiny screen! Be still my heart! Sorry, but small and portable does not automatically equate to "cool" anymore. I feel the same lack of caring I felt when cell phones started having games I played on my Atari 800. TrueEnvy Factor: 0
2. Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000:
Another dumbass tiny computer running a dumber ass OS. Who cares? Why is this cool? TruEnvy Factor: One complimentary BSOD.
3. DoCoMo "Mobile FeliCa" Payment System:
Wow. More ways to spend money. I'm sure retailers like this. Is it that difficult to slide the credit card through the little slot, and then just pay the bills at the end of the month? Have some perspective, folks. People use to have to carry cows, sheep and dughters around with them in order to effect trade. And DoCoMo sounds like a Pokemon creature. TruEnvy Factor: -2
4. The NEC V601N:
TeeVee on my cell phone. Who cares? What sort of deprived life do you have to lead to give a fook about this stuff? TrueEnvy Factor: Undetectable by modern scientific instrumentality.
5. SONY Clie VZ-90:
I bought a PDA once. Within a month I was back to a small Meade paper and pen based scheduling system and never looked back. TruEnvy Factor: Planck's constant.
6. Takara's Dream Factory
New Age hits Japan. I fear for the anime industry. TrueEnvy Factor: Three tenths of a quartz crystal.
7. Sony HMP-A1 Portable Media Player: Wish your iPod could play back movies?
No. Not really.
Sony hopes you do.
Sony would like the PIN numbers to my accounts as well.
Its new HMP-A1 PMP offers 20 gigabytes of MP3 and MPEG-4 playback goodness
*snore*
it even has a video-out jack so you can watch your flicks on a big-screen TV instead of its embedded sharp but tiny 3.5-inch screen.
Thus illustrating its pointlessness. TrueEnvy Factor: One negasphere of nonexistence.
Well, who uses a laptop without some sort of tray? Mine's just a piece of 12x1 oak cut to size. I slapped on some dark oak stain and polyurethaned it. Wood is a poor conductor of heat, so it works great. Doubles as a lap tray for eating dinner.
But - to my amazement - I did end up losing, not because consumers perferred one format over the other, but becuase most consumers had no interest in the new formats.
Why is this amazing? Standard CDs and DVDs pushed the technical quality to the point that satisfies the typical consumer. I'm a complete gadget freak, and even I question the necessity to squeeze another fractional improvement out of picture or sound quality.
I'd rather the world put more effort into creating compelling content or improving the user interface or something with more direct consequence. Good example: ReplayTV/Tivo. Revolutionized the way I watch television, and already down to $99 for a dual tuner box. Inexpensive and practical and has a huge effect. That's what I'd like to see more of.
So, yeah, I agree that this stuff may reamin the realm of the audio and videophiles.
Maybe it's the dismal state of the content (I recall Jay Leno many years ago questioning the point of Twisted Sister on CD)... I dunno. As much as I like consumer tech crap, I just don't care about HDTV and high def audio and some eternal quest for technical perfection that I have to fork over a four to five figure amount to achieve, and I'm perfectly able to do it. It just doesn't rank that high on my List Of Important Things. I went and ordered a 2005 Mustang GT instead.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Off the top of my head: Michel Ancel (Beyond Good And Evil) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Zelda/Mario).
Wait, do you mean light years?
"Mommy, why am I cut out of the soccer team picture?"
"Because you're ugly and I hate you, son. Why can't you be pretty like that Robertson kid?"
"Waaaaah!"
"Shut up and get back to pushing the wheel of pain."
Yeah, yeah, I know what you really meant.
And that X-Ray Spec lens that removes the clothing from every person of whom you take a picture. It's polarized so it will only remove women's clothing, but if you are so inclined, rotate it 90 degrees and it will remove men's clothing, but the women will all look like busty Dark Elves, so not a complete loss.
I might have dreamt that second lens.
Damn! What kind of paper stock are you printing on?
That's why Jet Blue rocks. Every seat has a video screen with DirecTV channels. I put on my Bose noise cancelling headphones, and the miles zip by in bliss and no one bothers you.
A favorite SF novel of mine is Harry Harrison's "One Step From Earth." Each chapter is a short story more or less centered around a method of instantaneous teleportion between any two points in the Universe. The first chapter tells of the initial discovery. Each subsequent chapter takes place further and further in the future. No real dates are given, but some of the jumps appear to be thousands, if not tens of thousand of years. Collectively they sketch out a basic history of humanity, and how teleportion shaped that history.
I love that game. I'm playing it along side GTA:San Andreas which leads to me trying to do weird things, like wanting to jack the cars in Katamari or trying to roll everything up into a big ball in GTA.
Well, gamespy was the only site I could find that gave Jak 2 a negative review. I wish to God I had listened to the lone dissenting voice in that case. I got about 55% through the game, and just walked away from it. I realized that some programmer or another over at Naughty Dog HATES the customers, and put in some of the most vindictive restart points in the history of platformers. Sending me back 20 minutes in the game isn't a fun challenge, folks. It's annoying. And don't get me started on having to slog through the aircar traffic jam where just farting the the general direction one of the bad guys got you surrounded by and endless supply of guards with guns blazing.
Just get that zero point energy thing going.
Well... it depends on the kind of wind you're talking about.
Ah, stereotypes. They just grind any conversation to a pathetic halt, don't they?
And we call them "equlaizers" here. And, yes, they have immense practicality when used legally.
(blinks)
Um... AOL... music service...
Zzzzzzzzz.......
The former is a historical event. The latter is corporate hoohah.
(Harvey pats IdleTime on his wittle head)
Now run along an play, son.
What? We like things to have some level of actual use and practicality?
Damn, I only *wish* people in this country thought like that. We'd never have a budget deficit ever again.
the primary reason WHY the Japanese have access to the latest and greatest while the US must wait.
And yet, somehow, life goes on.
No. To be honest it really hasn't been since the Osborne 1.
What are you talking about? Has everyone been ditching their cell phones and PDAs when I wasn't looking? Do kids refuse to pick up their gameboys because the screens are too small?
I didn't say no one wants them. I said they aren't cool anymore. Cotton balls, milk and socks aren't cool either, but people buy them. Also, I was addressing these particular items, not gadgets in general.
It seems you like to belittle stuff other people find useful.
I didn't say they weren't useful. I said they weren't cool.
Fine, this stuff isn't for you, but taht doesn't make it "stupid".
They're not stupid. They're boring.
Your criticism of a product is the name of the company? Your name is a rip off of a cartoon network show...
That's what we in the higher primate evolutionary lines call "a joke".
should we judge your opinions based of of that?
I don't give a flying fook at a rolling donut what you do.
I don't mind that you don't find these things useful...it's just your piss poor attitude about it.
I didn't say they weren't useful. I said- oh, what's the point... The whole original article was about coolness and envy, not practicality. I was arguing against that, and tossing in some silliness to flag my whole post as jokey to anyone with even minimal perceptual skills.
You don't want something so you have to insult it...it's just childish. I don't understand a lot of the people on Slashdot these days...(well, mayby I do if you are still in high school). Putting down something or someone does not make you cool or superior...it just makes you look bitter and insecure.
Oh, cheer up. It's almost Christmas.
Wow! The power of a Plastation *1* with a tiny screen! Be still my heart! Sorry, but small and portable does not automatically equate to "cool" anymore. I feel the same lack of caring I felt when cell phones started having games I played on my Atari 800. TrueEnvy Factor: 0
2. Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000:
Another dumbass tiny computer running a dumber ass OS. Who cares? Why is this cool? TruEnvy Factor: One complimentary BSOD.
3. DoCoMo "Mobile FeliCa" Payment System:
Wow. More ways to spend money. I'm sure retailers like this. Is it that difficult to slide the credit card through the little slot, and then just pay the bills at the end of the month? Have some perspective, folks. People use to have to carry cows, sheep and dughters around with them in order to effect trade. And DoCoMo sounds like a Pokemon creature. TruEnvy Factor: -2
4. The NEC V601N:
TeeVee on my cell phone. Who cares? What sort of deprived life do you have to lead to give a fook about this stuff? TrueEnvy Factor: Undetectable by modern scientific instrumentality.
5. SONY Clie VZ-90:
I bought a PDA once. Within a month I was back to a small Meade paper and pen based scheduling system and never looked back. TruEnvy Factor: Planck's constant.
6. Takara's Dream Factory
New Age hits Japan. I fear for the anime industry. TrueEnvy Factor: Three tenths of a quartz crystal.
7. Sony HMP-A1 Portable Media Player: Wish your iPod could play back movies?
No. Not really.
Sony hopes you do.
Sony would like the PIN numbers to my accounts as well.
Its new HMP-A1 PMP offers 20 gigabytes of MP3 and MPEG-4 playback goodness
*snore*
it even has a video-out jack so you can watch your flicks on a big-screen TV instead of its embedded sharp but tiny 3.5-inch screen.
Thus illustrating its pointlessness. TrueEnvy Factor: One negasphere of nonexistence.
I get DVDs from Netflix and copy them with wild abandon. Wild, I tell you!
God has a sense of humor?
The forces of evolution have no sense of aesthetics?
The alien entities that designed us wanted us to one day invent the concept of teabagging as part of their vast and nefarious plan?
You know, I was thinking the other day that if my balls glowed in the dark, I could catch fish.
Yes, but the scummy lawyers are the enablers.
And there are the class action types who find some yokel and bamboozle them into being the plaintiff in some silly case.
Wow. Did I just use yokel and bamboozle in the same sentence?
Oh, man... it's such an obvious setup my brain glitched from humor overload, and now I can't think of anything!
Well, who uses a laptop without some sort of tray? Mine's just a piece of 12x1 oak cut to size. I slapped on some dark oak stain and polyurethaned it. Wood is a poor conductor of heat, so it works great. Doubles as a lap tray for eating dinner.
Why is this amazing? Standard CDs and DVDs pushed the technical quality to the point that satisfies the typical consumer. I'm a complete gadget freak, and even I question the necessity to squeeze another fractional improvement out of picture or sound quality.
I'd rather the world put more effort into creating compelling content or improving the user interface or something with more direct consequence. Good example: ReplayTV/Tivo. Revolutionized the way I watch television, and already down to $99 for a dual tuner box. Inexpensive and practical and has a huge effect. That's what I'd like to see more of.
So, yeah, I agree that this stuff may reamin the realm of the audio and videophiles.
Maybe it's the dismal state of the content (I recall Jay Leno many years ago questioning the point of Twisted Sister on CD)... I dunno. As much as I like consumer tech crap, I just don't care about HDTV and high def audio and some eternal quest for technical perfection that I have to fork over a four to five figure amount to achieve, and I'm perfectly able to do it. It just doesn't rank that high on my List Of Important Things. I went and ordered a 2005 Mustang GT instead. :-)
Ah, I'm just ramblin' today.
What if they held a format war, and no one bought anything?