A really sweet thing was the game based on this. The limited edition icluded the book so if you got stuck in the game you could just read the book and see how far you get. It was a really nice game, similar to Myst in style and feeling. I have no idea if it is still available somewhere, but my copy was bought at a discount at a bookstore last year.
I have the story under the name Bicentennial Man
Don't remember the year.
Btw all the stories are typed up and available on freenet. Dunno if they're public domain, I'd post this one if I was sure
of the S/M women I've known, none have used a mac. Actually there is one I'm not sure about, since I never even got her name... My current girlfriend is into "games", and she doesn't use a mac either.
and ex-os/2 users who switched to microsoft are afraid to complain, and microsoft users don't prefer microsoft, but know no other alternative, and smart microsoft users prefer anything over microsoft, but are afraid to switch lest their games should cease to function.
a short story collection called, if I recall correctly, cybercrime, or something among those lines. Look it up, I found it accidentally from the library
Yes, that's exactly what I am referring to. The rat pressed the button at a constant rate of 8000 orgasms/hour until it died of starvation. It had a sexually fertile mate, food, and drink available.
well, at assembly there are showers available, and all but the most addicted gamers (who do not belong at a demoparty anyway) use them nicely often. However, the stench comes when they decided to take of their shoes...
Well, pure caffeine would kill you, but pure caffeine is in solid form. A liquid form would have to be diluted, and something like a 10000mg bottle of caffeine in a half-l bottle of water would be good. As long as you don't take the whole bottle at once, you'd live. However, I doubt that many of us need more that 500mg to stay awake for a few days
I ahve no idea if this has anything to do with it, but at least at demoparties ppl are required to keep sound and monitors off during competitions. Gamers hate it, but why come to a demo event if you don't like demos?
Good point, and we have the same thing here in Finland. Some people realised that they get more money from unemployment than from low-pay unqualified jobs. And guess where the unemployment money comes from? That's right, taxpayers...
I have to disagree. I don't feel it makes any difference whether a girl shaves there or not... As long as she enjoys it there is no difference. IMO that is.
This used to be a demoparty, like Assembly, but it seems to have degenerated into a simple game even...sad. It is not too nice, however, that people seem to often mistake demo events for lanparties ("Yeah, it was a great party, but all those competitions interrupting our games really sucked") Why come to a demoparty if you don't like demos? Anyone else have similar experiences?
This reminds me of this short story by Terry Pratchett...about a life where virtual reality is everywhere, and everyone wears those helmets, filtering out ads, smog, annoying relatives...
was a good one with a cryptic name, can't remember exactly...
I am sure that there will be new and better compression algorithms by then, even for HD Video.
Assuming that it can be packed into 1/10th of the original size, that yields, by your calculations, 650 hours, which is in the hundreds. However, I suppose the hard drives will have either evolved way beyond that size or completely diappeared to be replaced by high-capacity solid-state devices. Eventually we might see the computer-on-a-few-chips, which includes everything, and is upgradable by simple replacement of one of chips which is, of course fully compatible with the others. I also suspect mucrosoft will die by then, and so might linux, kept alive in pretty much the same way as the amiga community today. However, better operating systems will be developed, and I would bet one of them would be a linuxlike project.
Would be a way to replicate matter, and a source of huge amounts of energy to power it. That would give material things the same status as movies and music on P2P networks today. If you could borrow your neighbor's car, computer, etc, and replicate it exactly. Truly this would change the way corporate entities work. I wonder what form copy protection would take? Tactical nuclear explosion on copy attempt?
If hardware takes the same status among college students as software, one can imagine all sorts of interesting stuff. And of course, making a render farm would be much easier. Would there actually be any incentive for software/hardware development? However, this would mean that money would be meaningless, so any work people do would be of pure interest or
wish to develop creatively. Creativity would actually be the only task left to humankind.
At this point, another scenario would be the installation into each human of a happybutton, that gives an instant orgasm. Humanity would then be kept in a state of constant ecstasy, never being creative like before. Maybe this is the end of the world in 2012 that people are talking about in other comments. Would you trade your current lives for eternal bliss?
The demoscene is actually a pretty fascinating thing, and this is not really the way to present it to the slashdot crowd. I'd suggest you people go over to Scene.org and see for yourself what real demos are like. I go to Assembly every year and I have to say some of the stuff is quite impressive. See for yourselves. Text-mode demos are really a small part of the scene.
If the companies were to release these games in their unfinished state for any developers who might want to have a try at them. Could we possibly resurrect some of those? I don't think the corporates would be too willing, but they lose nothing.
Re:If worse comes to worse...
on
Cringely on P2P
·
· Score: 1
So true, if p2p fails, and usenet fails, and the freedom of information on the net is restricted severely, there will always be alternatives. If something like that happens, networks like freenet will receive tremendous numbers of new users, increasing their capacity and speed exponentially. What then, a restriction of internet use in general? Technology, once developed and understood, cannot be stopped, an idea expressed cannot be erased. Information tends to diffuse and spread, and using networks it can spread without loss. Anyone who thinks the spread of information can be stopped after it is "in the wild" or even in the possession of more that a few very close people, should show me one good example of that EVER happening. And this is no longer about free movies, it's a matter of principle. Should information, including information distributed for monetary compensation only, be forbidden from replication? Can this be done?(Philosophically, not technologically speaking, can it be done?)
Re:Cringely is na�ve about pirates.
on
Cringely on P2P
·
· Score: 1
The industry is not afraid of people watching movies on their computers. I for one do NOT enjoy watching movies on my monitor. Dvd quality is good, but nothing beats the experience of a theater. I have, several times, downloaded a movie, decided it was worth seeing, and went to see it. Then also watched it with friends in a theater. Then rented the dvd and played it at a party when people could not think of better things to do. I think that what the industry truly fears is not that we will see the movies in low quality at home, but that we will see how good (and I don't mean image quality, I mean idea, realisation and direcion/acting quality) the movies actually are without paying to see somehting like evolution or xxx. Sometimes the filthy critic is not enough to convince me a movie is good, but if I get contradictory feedback, I watch a part of the movie before going to see it in a theater, just to see its level. That's what I did with matrix back in the day, downloaded, watched, enjoyed, and then actually payed for it. My family now owns the dvd. But then again stupid ripoffs like xxx are not worth paying even a movie ticket for. (I realise there are some people that like that movie, but the bullshit advertising for it caused me to be really disappointed "would create a new genre of spy movies" - yeah, sure)
So, let's give the industry what they fear most and only pay for good movies. Perhaps the quality will increase
The problem being that I never studied theory, but learned from experience. I had no computer-savvy person around me to ask questions but I started playing with computers since the age of five (12 years ago). I had some technical people to look up to but never had a chance to get help with random problems. So I fixed them myself, palyed around and nobody understood how I gathered this huge collection of totally practical knowledge and then knew how to fix pretty much anything... I have the attitude, I play with it until it works. Other people just seem to read instructions and give up if it isn't exactly as pictured. I did enjoy fixing other people's computers, out of pure charity. It has helped me amass experience. Nowadays I just tell people to play with the machine until it works, there's never too important stuff that is not backed up, I make sure of that. Back in the day I actually managed to get linux 1.something working without any prior unix experience, and much later someone told me that there were these distributions with cool installers and stuff...but at least I learned how to do it manually. Just tell people to play with their computers and try to understand them
Yes of course you should help your friends......but not random people who only call you for that reason, as was mentioned earlier......people who you actually expect to return a favor, yes. That usually includes family members.
this is a good idea. My dad keeps on complaining about his machine crashing as my little brother has bloated it with random disneyware... switching to linux and using wine would solve both problems...ie games would have no access to parts vital for the system...I would myself if I knew how to get both red alert 2(runs over ipx)and kali(ipx tunneling software) to run under wine...in addition to unreal tournament and quake, that's all I ever play. My other problems would include video editing software, pinnacle studio in fact, as I don't know if anything of the same level is available for linux, as well as 3d-modelling and video compositing software... any suggestions?
interesting that sony is a company that also makes cd-burners...so which are they trying to sell more of, cds or burners. When a technology company starts implementing copy protection, thus crippling their products, everyone loses. Sad that my sony DVD player refuses to play ANY cd-r whatsoever.
true, and what is worse is that alongside that grows the pr0n industry, and as one destroys the image of the human body as something beautiful and natural, the other creates one of the body used only to satisfy primal instincts. Sex should be about people trying to make each other happy, not the sick thing that the pr0n industry is turning it into. Children should have access to information, preferrably from their parents, about sex, and so condition themselves against porn.
Slashdot Mirror
A really sweet thing was the game based on this. The limited edition icluded the book so if you got stuck in the game you could just read the book and see how far you get. It was a really nice game, similar to Myst in style and feeling. I have no idea if it is still available somewhere, but my copy was bought at a discount at a bookstore last year.
I have the story under the name Bicentennial Man Don't remember the year. Btw all the stories are typed up and available on freenet. Dunno if they're public domain, I'd post this one if I was sure
of the S/M women I've known, none have used a mac. Actually there is one I'm not sure about, since I never even got her name... My current girlfriend is into "games", and she doesn't use a mac either.
and ex-os/2 users who switched to microsoft are afraid to complain, and microsoft users don't prefer microsoft, but know no other alternative, and smart microsoft users prefer anything over microsoft, but are afraid to switch lest their games should cease to function.
a short story collection called, if I recall correctly, cybercrime, or something among those lines. Look it up, I found it accidentally from the library
Yes, that's exactly what I am referring to. The rat pressed the button at a constant rate of 8000 orgasms/hour until it died of starvation. It had a sexually fertile mate, food, and drink available.
well, at assembly there are showers available, and all but the most addicted gamers (who do not belong at a demoparty anyway) use them nicely often. However, the stench comes when they decided to take of their shoes...
Well, pure caffeine would kill you, but pure caffeine is in solid form. A liquid form would have to be diluted, and something like a 10000mg bottle of caffeine in a half-l bottle of water would be good. As long as you don't take the whole bottle at once, you'd live. However, I doubt that many of us need more that 500mg to stay awake for a few days
I ahve no idea if this has anything to do with it, but at least at demoparties ppl are required to keep sound and monitors off during competitions. Gamers hate it, but why come to a demo event if you don't like demos?
Good point, and we have the same thing here in Finland. Some people realised that they get more money from unemployment than from low-pay unqualified jobs. And guess where the unemployment money comes from? That's right, taxpayers...
I have to disagree. I don't feel it makes any difference whether a girl shaves there or not... As long as she enjoys it there is no difference. IMO that is.
This used to be a demoparty, like Assembly, but it seems to have degenerated into a simple game even...sad. It is not too nice, however, that people seem to often mistake demo events for lanparties ("Yeah, it was a great party, but all those competitions interrupting our games really sucked") Why come to a demoparty if you don't like demos? Anyone else have similar experiences?
This reminds me of this short story by Terry Pratchett...about a life where virtual reality is everywhere, and everyone wears those helmets, filtering out ads, smog, annoying relatives... was a good one with a cryptic name, can't remember exactly...
One word: compression
I am sure that there will be new and better compression algorithms by then, even for HD Video. Assuming that it can be packed into 1/10th of the original size, that yields, by your calculations, 650 hours, which is in the hundreds. However, I suppose the hard drives will have either evolved way beyond that size or completely diappeared to be replaced by high-capacity solid-state devices. Eventually we might see the computer-on-a-few-chips, which includes everything, and is upgradable by simple replacement of one of chips which is, of course fully compatible with the others. I also suspect mucrosoft will die by then, and so might linux, kept alive in pretty much the same way as the amiga community today. However, better operating systems will be developed, and I would bet one of them would be a linuxlike project.
If hardware takes the same status among college students as software, one can imagine all sorts of interesting stuff. And of course, making a render farm would be much easier.
Would there actually be any incentive for software/hardware development? However, this would mean that money would be meaningless, so any work people do would be of pure interest or wish to develop creatively. Creativity would actually be the only task left to humankind.
At this point, another scenario would be the installation into each human of a happybutton, that gives an instant orgasm. Humanity would then be kept in a state of constant ecstasy, never being creative like before. Maybe this is the end of the world in 2012 that people are talking about in other comments. Would you trade your current lives for eternal bliss?
The demoscene is actually a pretty fascinating thing, and this is not really the way to present it to the slashdot crowd. I'd suggest you people go over to Scene.org and see for yourself what real demos are like. I go to Assembly every year and I have to say some of the stuff is quite impressive. See for yourselves. Text-mode demos are really a small part of the scene.
If the companies were to release these games in their unfinished state for any developers who might want to have a try at them. Could we possibly resurrect some of those? I don't think the corporates would be too willing, but they lose nothing.
So true, if p2p fails, and usenet fails, and the freedom of information on the net is restricted severely, there will always be alternatives. If something like that happens, networks like freenet will receive tremendous numbers of new users, increasing their capacity and speed exponentially. What then, a restriction of internet use in general? Technology, once developed and understood, cannot be stopped, an idea expressed cannot be erased. Information tends to diffuse and spread, and using networks it can spread without loss. Anyone who thinks the spread of information can be stopped after it is "in the wild" or even in the possession of more that a few very close people, should show me one good example of that EVER happening. And this is no longer about free movies, it's a matter of principle. Should information, including information distributed for monetary compensation only, be forbidden from replication? Can this be done?(Philosophically, not technologically speaking, can it be done?)
The industry is not afraid of people watching movies on their computers. I for one do NOT enjoy watching movies on my monitor. Dvd quality is good, but nothing beats the experience of a theater. I have, several times, downloaded a movie, decided it was worth seeing, and went to see it. Then also watched it with friends in a theater. Then rented the dvd and played it at a party when people could not think of better things to do. I think that what the industry truly fears is not that we will see the movies in low quality at home, but that we will see how good (and I don't mean image quality, I mean idea, realisation and direcion/acting quality) the movies actually are without paying to see somehting like evolution or xxx. Sometimes the filthy critic is not enough to convince me a movie is good, but if I get contradictory feedback, I watch a part of the movie before going to see it in a theater, just to see its level. That's what I did with matrix back in the day, downloaded, watched, enjoyed, and then actually payed for it. My family now owns the dvd. But then again stupid ripoffs like xxx are not worth paying even a movie ticket for. (I realise there are some people that like that movie, but the bullshit advertising for it caused me to be really disappointed "would create a new genre of spy movies" - yeah, sure) So, let's give the industry what they fear most and only pay for good movies. Perhaps the quality will increase
The problem being that I never studied theory, but learned from experience. I had no computer-savvy person around me to ask questions but I started playing with computers since the age of five (12 years ago). I had some technical people to look up to but never had a chance to get help with random problems. So I fixed them myself, palyed around and nobody understood how I gathered this huge collection of totally practical knowledge and then knew how to fix pretty much anything... I have the attitude, I play with it until it works. Other people just seem to read instructions and give up if it isn't exactly as pictured. I did enjoy fixing other people's computers, out of pure charity. It has helped me amass experience. Nowadays I just tell people to play with the machine until it works, there's never too important stuff that is not backed up, I make sure of that. Back in the day I actually managed to get linux 1.something working without any prior unix experience, and much later someone told me that there were these distributions with cool installers and stuff...but at least I learned how to do it manually. Just tell people to play with their computers and try to understand them
Yes of course you should help your friends... ...but not random people who only call you for that reason, as was mentioned earlier... ...people who you actually expect to return a favor, yes. That usually includes family members.
this is a good idea. My dad keeps on complaining about his machine crashing as my little brother has bloated it with random disneyware... switching to linux and using wine would solve both problems...ie games would have no access to parts vital for the system...I would myself if I knew how to get both red alert 2(runs over ipx)and kali(ipx tunneling software) to run under wine...in addition to unreal tournament and quake, that's all I ever play. My other problems would include video editing software, pinnacle studio in fact, as I don't know if anything of the same level is available for linux, as well as 3d-modelling and video compositing software... any suggestions?
Of course you could just celebrate Yule, a wiccan sabbat, which happens to fall just before christmas this year...
interesting that sony is a company that also makes cd-burners...so which are they trying to sell more of, cds or burners. When a technology company starts implementing copy protection, thus crippling their products, everyone loses. Sad that my sony DVD player refuses to play ANY cd-r whatsoever.
true, and what is worse is that alongside that grows the pr0n industry, and as one destroys the image of the human body as something beautiful and natural, the other creates one of the body used only to satisfy primal instincts. Sex should be about people trying to make each other happy, not the sick thing that the pr0n industry is turning it into. Children should have access to information, preferrably from their parents, about sex, and so condition themselves against porn.