You're right, I forgot about OpenSpace sims. Sorry for the slam Khyber. Someone mod me back down haha. But yeah, in my experience laggy sims are still generally about poor use of textures and extremely prim-heavy builds (neglecting those cases where for some reason the sim just happens to be chock-full of people at that moment). Script performance is a real variable but it doesn't show up in what most people would regard "lag".
"Nope. more often than not it's multiple sims running on an underpowered server. Most people buy the cheap-o option which is like a quad-core opteron with 24 other sims running on it.
Umm, you have no idea what you're talking about. There is no "cheap-o option" if you want to connect to the SL grid - currently all server space on the main grid is leased directly from Linden Lab and each simulator has a processor core dedicated to it and runs on an individual server instance. Running Debian IIRC.
Parent is absolutely right - a big reason SL has such inconsistent performance from sim to sim is that many of the builds are NOT done by professionals with performance in mind, and use needlessly costly scripts and high numbers of visible prims. Even more so, people will use insanely large numbers of insanely hi-rez textures, which not only adds download time but also works video cards much harder than a proper game does just in terms of shuffling gigabytes of texture data back and forth.
I didn't see a specific claim in TFA regarding what exactly is being allegedly infringed, but SexGen is a lot more than animation files. It's a scripted system which combines selecting/applying animations and moving/rotating the avatars involved, all by way of a menu system built within the (rather primitive) GUI tools provided by Second Life.
Now scripted devices which provide similar functions in SL are not in and of themselves particularly novel any more; in fact there is a rather popular open-source implementation of a similar idea, which is available to people with scripting and animating skills, and for which the license allows resale as part of a bundle of one's own animations. And there are several closed/proprietary systems available for purchase too, with or without the animations included.
All this suggests to me that Stroker's issue must be one of infringement of the SexGen name itself, not the functionality of the device overall, and certainly not the raw animations. As stated, one can't expect to maintain rights to animated representations of sexual positions, and there are many many people doing those types of animations, probably many well before Stroker got into the business. And Stroker's animations aren't that great anyway;)
Some of you probably remember these cube-shaped clock radios from the 80s. In fairly typical fashion, there's a slide switch on the back to turn the radio and alarm on/off, and a sizeable snooze button up top for easy access in the dark. This is all fine. In an inconceivably stupid move, though, there's another push button called "alarm reset". What this does is turn the alarm off, permanently, until you set it again using the slide switch in the back. And yes, you guessed it, it's right there on top an inch or two from the snooze button where it's almost impossible *not* to hit accidentally from time to time. They might as well have called it the "miss work and get fired" button. Brilliant.
Actually you're wrong, or at least not completely correct. Look up "infer" in most dictionaries and you'll find additional meanings, one of which is generally stated as "to hint; imply; suggest". It's generally agreed that 'imply' is most correct when involving a personal subject, e.g., "he implied"; 'infer' is perfectly fine when involving a non-personal subject, as "the book inferred", "the statement inferred", "the naming of a web site inferred".
I try really hard not to be this pedantic in day-to-day life, but when you refer to something as an "idiotic mistake" and you haven't checked your facts, well, you deserve it. You idiot.
It's been said on a gaming forum I frequent that the content in question is in fact the texture for a bare *male* chest (complete with the standard-issue male nipples), which when intentionally misapplied to the female model via this mod results in a somewhat believable representation of a topless female.
Any truth to this? If so, it pretty much confirms the idiocy of the ESRB with regard to this whole situation.
I've been saying somehing similar for years about various desktop operating systems, but IMHO the author completely misinterpreted the significance. It has nothing to do with the particular OS used in the example; it has everything to do with the difference between machines used in a mission-critical environment and machines used by an individual on his or her desktop at home. For production machines, the integrity of the OS and the uptime that comes with that integrity is of paramount importance. Unfortunately for the average home user, the OS is exactly the most expendable and easily-replaced thing on a machine, and efforts to protect it at the expense of user files are laughably misguided. It's shameful that nobody sees this for the most part, and every new OS protects itself more and more fervently and leaves the users more and more on their own regards the data they care about.
Of course in the *nix world the blame all falls squarely on the users, since they are the poor misguided souls trying to use a server OS on the desktop...;)
Sorry, but I can hardly imagine anything more trivial. Is there any point in bringing it up other than to be the first one to do it?
For all you know this may be the first fully standards-compliant browser ever when it gets released. I doubt it, but there's no way to know otherwise. How their web page got coded is completely irrelevant - even if the "errors" were significant, which they are not. The people bitching about the color scheme have more weight to their arguments.
There's also a case to be made that w3c standards are equally irrelevant, but that's for another story.
But what constitutes a "valid scientific reason" if not the noble quest for arguments that a colleague's discovery is not in fact as important as he thought, despite all appearances, and can safely be dismissed amidst a cloud of pretentious pedantry?
Of course I have no idea what the true motivations are of these people, and I'm probably just being silly, but the whole thing is so stupid on the face of it that it smacks of childish motivations. If you're going to be arbitrary about it anyway, why not arbitrarily make Pluto a planet for the sake of convenience and go from there?
And how on earth does any sensible person think a body whose orbit crosses that of another body is somehow automatically diminished to the same category as an asteroid? Oh my god, look at that orbit! It's... it's... on ELLIPSE! Never mind that every other planet has an elliptical orbit too, at least they have the decency to hide it and not stick out too far in any direction. Back of the bus with you, Pluto, and don't even think of using the same water fountain the REAL planets use.
The "PDF catalog" on their web page (in reality, a user's manual) states that mp3 playback is limited to a maximum bitrate of 192 kbps. This renders this product worthless to me, as I would never consider purchasing a box that purports to be something of a "play anything" appliance yet cannot handle all my high-quality mp3s. And it calls into question how it would handle various mpeg-4 videos which more and more often feature mp3 audio encoding.
It's a shame, I've been looking for the right networked DVD player for a while now and they all fail miserably in some critical area, while sporting features and format capabilities that I couldn't give a rat's ass about. Mp3 all the way up to 320, particularly in vbr encodings (--alt-preset standard anyone?) seems to me like such an absolute minimum requirement that its absence is stunning. It might as well not play DVDs.
What the hell is wrong with you morons?
on
Half Life 2 Goes Gold
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Morons being the story submitter and editors who published it in its current form.
I fail to see any indication anywhere, even in the text of the linked story itself, that this is any different from any of the other hundred rumors. It is entirely conjecture and extrapolation of information coming entirely from third-party sources, nobody official will confirm anything, yet suddenly "it's finally true"? This has only slightly more credibility than the dates on pre-order diplays in Game Stop from 6 months ago. But by all means, phrase the headline and synopsis in the most sensational way possible with no regard for the facts whatsoever.
Win2K Pro may have originally been intended for "professional" users and more technically literate people but these days, now that it has nearly universal driver and application support, it's a major no-brainer. No activation, no requirements for the latest round of horribly broken fixes and "enhancements" (sp2), far less prettiness-for-the-sake-of-prettiness, fewer dynamic "personalized" things jumping around and hiding/unhiding themselves seemingly at random... Once installed by a reasonable competent person, it just works. And best of all, on the surface it looks and acts almost identical to Win98 (for those already accustomed to the general Windows UI) with the major exception that it doesn't crash.
Win2K (installed with a modicum of intelligence) + a router + FireFox is an incredibly stable, easy-to use combination, and the one I have chosen for myself, my wife, our 9-year-old son and my 70-year-old parents. Support is almost never required, and when it is it's a piece of cake.
Oddly enough, typing "visa" went to a standard search results page when I tried it just now. Of course visa.com was the first link displayed (aside from the links promoting google's news service), but still that's interesting. I wonder what the actual mechanism is.
I downloaded this thing about a week ago after a format, and without having performed any rigorous testing my impression is that it takes me directly to a page *only* if the URL comprises my search terms. So it's much more selective than "i'm feeling lucky".
To take a (random) example, typing "harman kardon" takes me to harmankardon.com. However, typing "harman kardon amplifiers" takes me to a standard search results page. Same thing with "mazda" vs "mazda trucks".
So IMHO it ends up being a rather benign little time-saver.
Sorry I don't believe your source for a second. Reports from others who have completed tonight's preloading and examined it state that the only thing in that cache file is a bunch of textures. Also, the whole thing amounts to only a gig, which fits with the conjecture that only certain static parts of the game are being preloaded combined with Valve's earlier statement that the game will come on either 3 or 4 CDs.
Aluminium doesn't smell bad when it burns. I suspect whatever soda pop chemicals remaining in the can do.
The original claim was never that aluminum smells bad, it was that aluminum cans smell bad. Aluminum cans typically have paint on the outside, and used ones may have residue. You're knocking down a straw man here in order to sound smart.
As would burning tar, or any other heavy petroleum derivate.
Asphalt, which contains the types of substances you mentioned, is in some circle referred to as a type of concrete. The more common usage refers to the substance made of calcium compounds and sand (NOT petroleum products), and used for sidewalks. Note that the article specifically mentions a sidewalk, and refers to asphalt seperately in the introduction. Sidewalks do not have tar in them. Again, this strikes me as a disingenuous argument.
I agree that the article was shallow and unscientific (although I personally believe it was intended that way, in a humorous vein), but your criticisms lose much of the weight they might have carried had you not chosen to misquote it and obtusely argue points not made in the article itself.
Interesting rant, and you actually manage to raise some valid points, but most of what you seem to have such a big problem with is not what I was discussing at all. That's called the "straw man" tactic, where you argue with things I did not say, things chosen by you for being easy to argue against. You also exaggerate the time spent in setup and maintenance enormously but hey, it makes for some juicy rhetoric and got you modded up more than me so who cares, right?
What I was discussing was the claim that IE users are eternally condemned to pick up spyware, and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it except disable useful features or switch to another browser. This is false, and the people who make such statements are either misinformed or wish to misinform others.
I'm glad you have found a browser that you prefer. Guess what - so have I.
I'm with segment above, I've never used any browser beside IE since it surpassed Netscape Navigator in features years ago, and I also have never ever picked up spyware from surfing. (I have installed freeware utilities that came with spyware, which is promptly caught and cleaned by Ad-Aware or Spybot or Hijack This!.) And I have not entirely disabled VBScript or Javascript.
While IE does install with some less-than-prudent default settings, it's a simple matter to change them. Stating that the solution is to not use IE is just more typical slashdot reactionary (possibly ignorant) FUD. Surreptitiously changing browsers on clients' machines and then covering your tracks with a skin is an asinine and presumptuous non-solution.
Not only am I not clueless, I am fully clued enough to actually know how to use the software instead of replacing it with something I can handle.
In certain circles, a well-timed question about whether it was their intention to support purveyors of pornography and fake penis-enlargment medications might work wonders.
How does one ask a public question like this in a way anybody would see it?
No. The evil of the congress and the senate is only surpassed by the ignorance and stupidity of the average citizen.
I agree the current system is horribly broken, but we shouldn't just move everything to popular vote for the same reason presidiential elections are currently not based on a strict popular vote: all it takes is one smooth-talking demagogue to sway the opinions of millions of uninformed people. Legislation would become a battle of TV ads.
Perhaps he, like thousands of other people in his situation, used Apache's mod_rewrite to point the image requests to a non-existent file when the desired referer info was not presented.
Result? Fucking right, a 404.
Shove that up your pedantic-wannabe ass. Then if you have the time, please shove it up the ass of that other guy a few posts up who likewise had no valuable input and instead saw fit to waste everybody's time with this crap.
God save me from people with just enough of a clue to think they can run around being obnoxious know-it-alls, serving no useful purpose as regards the discussion at hand.
Also in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5 subtitled "The Eye Of The Sibyl". The entire 5-volume set is a collection of Dick's shorter works spanning many years, highly recommended as examples of Dick's earlier work in the pulps.
Slashdot Mirror
OP is missing the point entirely IMHO.
How many people are living a life of laptops and tablets and (functionally) unlimited bandwidth, and consume all their entertainment on these devices?
Now, how many people own a television and a disc player?
Also, popping in a disc is inconvenient? [Kids today, get off my lawn, etc.]
You're right, I forgot about OpenSpace sims. Sorry for the slam Khyber. Someone mod me back down haha. But yeah, in my experience laggy sims are still generally about poor use of textures and extremely prim-heavy builds (neglecting those cases where for some reason the sim just happens to be chock-full of people at that moment). Script performance is a real variable but it doesn't show up in what most people would regard "lag".
"Nope. more often than not it's multiple sims running on an underpowered server. Most people buy the cheap-o option which is like a quad-core opteron with 24 other sims running on it.
Umm, you have no idea what you're talking about. There is no "cheap-o option" if you want to connect to the SL grid - currently all server space on the main grid is leased directly from Linden Lab and each simulator has a processor core dedicated to it and runs on an individual server instance. Running Debian IIRC.
Parent is absolutely right - a big reason SL has such inconsistent performance from sim to sim is that many of the builds are NOT done by professionals with performance in mind, and use needlessly costly scripts and high numbers of visible prims. Even more so, people will use insanely large numbers of insanely hi-rez textures, which not only adds download time but also works video cards much harder than a proper game does just in terms of shuffling gigabytes of texture data back and forth.
I didn't see a specific claim in TFA regarding what exactly is being allegedly infringed, but SexGen is a lot more than animation files. It's a scripted system which combines selecting/applying animations and moving/rotating the avatars involved, all by way of a menu system built within the (rather primitive) GUI tools provided by Second Life.
;)
Now scripted devices which provide similar functions in SL are not in and of themselves particularly novel any more; in fact there is a rather popular open-source implementation of a similar idea, which is available to people with scripting and animating skills, and for which the license allows resale as part of a bundle of one's own animations. And there are several closed/proprietary systems available for purchase too, with or without the animations included.
All this suggests to me that Stroker's issue must be one of infringement of the SexGen name itself, not the functionality of the device overall, and certainly not the raw animations. As stated, one can't expect to maintain rights to animated representations of sexual positions, and there are many many people doing those types of animations, probably many well before Stroker got into the business. And Stroker's animations aren't that great anyway
Some of you probably remember these cube-shaped clock radios from the 80s. In fairly typical fashion, there's a slide switch on the back to turn the radio and alarm on/off, and a sizeable snooze button up top for easy access in the dark. This is all fine. In an inconceivably stupid move, though, there's another push button called "alarm reset". What this does is turn the alarm off, permanently, until you set it again using the slide switch in the back. And yes, you guessed it, it's right there on top an inch or two from the snooze button where it's almost impossible *not* to hit accidentally from time to time. They might as well have called it the "miss work and get fired" button. Brilliant.
Actually you're wrong, or at least not completely correct. Look up "infer" in most dictionaries and you'll find additional meanings, one of which is generally stated as "to hint; imply; suggest". It's generally agreed that 'imply' is most correct when involving a personal subject, e.g., "he implied"; 'infer' is perfectly fine when involving a non-personal subject, as "the book inferred", "the statement inferred", "the naming of a web site inferred".
I try really hard not to be this pedantic in day-to-day life, but when you refer to something as an "idiotic mistake" and you haven't checked your facts, well, you deserve it. You idiot.
It's been said on a gaming forum I frequent that the content in question is in fact the texture for a bare *male* chest (complete with the standard-issue male nipples), which when intentionally misapplied to the female model via this mod results in a somewhat believable representation of a topless female.
Any truth to this? If so, it pretty much confirms the idiocy of the ESRB with regard to this whole situation.
I've been saying somehing similar for years about various desktop operating systems, but IMHO the author completely misinterpreted the significance. It has nothing to do with the particular OS used in the example; it has everything to do with the difference between machines used in a mission-critical environment and machines used by an individual on his or her desktop at home. For production machines, the integrity of the OS and the uptime that comes with that integrity is of paramount importance. Unfortunately for the average home user, the OS is exactly the most expendable and easily-replaced thing on a machine, and efforts to protect it at the expense of user files are laughably misguided. It's shameful that nobody sees this for the most part, and every new OS protects itself more and more fervently and leaves the users more and more on their own regards the data they care about.
;)
Of course in the *nix world the blame all falls squarely on the users, since they are the poor misguided souls trying to use a server OS on the desktop...
Sorry, but I can hardly imagine anything more trivial. Is there any point in bringing it up other than to be the first one to do it?
For all you know this may be the first fully standards-compliant browser ever when it gets released. I doubt it, but there's no way to know otherwise. How their web page got coded is completely irrelevant - even if the "errors" were significant, which they are not. The people bitching about the color scheme have more weight to their arguments.
There's also a case to be made that w3c standards are equally irrelevant, but that's for another story.
But what constitutes a "valid scientific reason" if not the noble quest for arguments that a colleague's discovery is not in fact as important as he thought, despite all appearances, and can safely be dismissed amidst a cloud of pretentious pedantry?
Of course I have no idea what the true motivations are of these people, and I'm probably just being silly, but the whole thing is so stupid on the face of it that it smacks of childish motivations. If you're going to be arbitrary about it anyway, why not arbitrarily make Pluto a planet for the sake of convenience and go from there?
And how on earth does any sensible person think a body whose orbit crosses that of another body is somehow automatically diminished to the same category as an asteroid? Oh my god, look at that orbit! It's... it's... on ELLIPSE! Never mind that every other planet has an elliptical orbit too, at least they have the decency to hide it and not stick out too far in any direction. Back of the bus with you, Pluto, and don't even think of using the same water fountain the REAL planets use.
I guess he hasn't heard about the army of laser equipped, brain melting robots yet.
Yeah the rest of it was funny too, but please. Hurting that bad for a clever editorial comment? Sheesh.
The "PDF catalog" on their web page (in reality, a user's manual) states that mp3 playback is limited to a maximum bitrate of 192 kbps. This renders this product worthless to me, as I would never consider purchasing a box that purports to be something of a "play anything" appliance yet cannot handle all my high-quality mp3s. And it calls into question how it would handle various mpeg-4 videos which more and more often feature mp3 audio encoding.
It's a shame, I've been looking for the right networked DVD player for a while now and they all fail miserably in some critical area, while sporting features and format capabilities that I couldn't give a rat's ass about. Mp3 all the way up to 320, particularly in vbr encodings (--alt-preset standard anyone?) seems to me like such an absolute minimum requirement that its absence is stunning. It might as well not play DVDs.
Morons being the story submitter and editors who published it in its current form.
I fail to see any indication anywhere, even in the text of the linked story itself, that this is any different from any of the other hundred rumors. It is entirely conjecture and extrapolation of information coming entirely from third-party sources, nobody official will confirm anything, yet suddenly "it's finally true"? This has only slightly more credibility than the dates on pre-order diplays in Game Stop from 6 months ago. But by all means, phrase the headline and synopsis in the most sensational way possible with no regard for the facts whatsoever.
Bye bye karma.
Win2K Pro may have originally been intended for "professional" users and more technically literate people but these days, now that it has nearly universal driver and application support, it's a major no-brainer. No activation, no requirements for the latest round of horribly broken fixes and "enhancements" (sp2), far less prettiness-for-the-sake-of-prettiness, fewer dynamic "personalized" things jumping around and hiding/unhiding themselves seemingly at random... Once installed by a reasonable competent person, it just works. And best of all, on the surface it looks and acts almost identical to Win98 (for those already accustomed to the general Windows UI) with the major exception that it doesn't crash.
Win2K (installed with a modicum of intelligence) + a router + FireFox is an incredibly stable, easy-to use combination, and the one I have chosen for myself, my wife, our 9-year-old son and my 70-year-old parents. Support is almost never required, and when it is it's a piece of cake.
Oddly enough, typing "visa" went to a standard search results page when I tried it just now. Of course visa.com was the first link displayed (aside from the links promoting google's news service), but still that's interesting. I wonder what the actual mechanism is.
I downloaded this thing about a week ago after a format, and without having performed any rigorous testing my impression is that it takes me directly to a page *only* if the URL comprises my search terms. So it's much more selective than "i'm feeling lucky".
To take a (random) example, typing "harman kardon" takes me to harmankardon.com. However, typing "harman kardon amplifiers" takes me to a standard search results page. Same thing with "mazda" vs "mazda trucks".
So IMHO it ends up being a rather benign little time-saver.
Sorry I don't believe your source for a second. Reports from others who have completed tonight's preloading and examined it state that the only thing in that cache file is a bunch of textures. Also, the whole thing amounts to only a gig, which fits with the conjecture that only certain static parts of the game are being preloaded combined with Valve's earlier statement that the game will come on either 3 or 4 CDs.
Interesting? More like borderline troll IMHO.
Aluminium doesn't smell bad when it burns. I suspect whatever soda pop chemicals remaining in the can do.
The original claim was never that aluminum smells bad, it was that aluminum cans smell bad. Aluminum cans typically have paint on the outside, and used ones may have residue. You're knocking down a straw man here in order to sound smart.
As would burning tar, or any other heavy petroleum derivate.
Asphalt, which contains the types of substances you mentioned, is in some circle referred to as a type of concrete. The more common usage refers to the substance made of calcium compounds and sand (NOT petroleum products), and used for sidewalks. Note that the article specifically mentions a sidewalk, and refers to asphalt seperately in the introduction. Sidewalks do not have tar in them. Again, this strikes me as a disingenuous argument.
I agree that the article was shallow and unscientific (although I personally believe it was intended that way, in a humorous vein), but your criticisms lose much of the weight they might have carried had you not chosen to misquote it and obtusely argue points not made in the article itself.
Interesting rant, and you actually manage to raise some valid points, but most of what you seem to have such a big problem with is not what I was discussing at all. That's called the "straw man" tactic, where you argue with things I did not say, things chosen by you for being easy to argue against. You also exaggerate the time spent in setup and maintenance enormously but hey, it makes for some juicy rhetoric and got you modded up more than me so who cares, right?
What I was discussing was the claim that IE users are eternally condemned to pick up spyware, and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it except disable useful features or switch to another browser. This is false, and the people who make such statements are either misinformed or wish to misinform others.
I'm glad you have found a browser that you prefer. Guess what - so have I.
I'm with segment above, I've never used any browser beside IE since it surpassed Netscape Navigator in features years ago, and I also have never ever picked up spyware from surfing. (I have installed freeware utilities that came with spyware, which is promptly caught and cleaned by Ad-Aware or Spybot or Hijack This!.) And I have not entirely disabled VBScript or Javascript.
While IE does install with some less-than-prudent default settings, it's a simple matter to change them. Stating that the solution is to not use IE is just more typical slashdot reactionary (possibly ignorant) FUD. Surreptitiously changing browsers on clients' machines and then covering your tracks with a skin is an asinine and presumptuous non-solution.
Not only am I not clueless, I am fully clued enough to actually know how to use the software instead of replacing it with something I can handle.
In certain circles, a well-timed question about whether it was their intention to support purveyors of pornography and fake penis-enlargment medications might work wonders.
How does one ask a public question like this in a way anybody would see it?
No. The evil of the congress and the senate is only surpassed by the ignorance and stupidity of the average citizen.
I agree the current system is horribly broken, but we shouldn't just move everything to popular vote for the same reason presidiential elections are currently not based on a strict popular vote: all it takes is one smooth-talking demagogue to sway the opinions of millions of uninformed people. Legislation would become a battle of TV ads.
Perhaps he, like thousands of other people in his situation, used Apache's mod_rewrite to point the image requests to a non-existent file when the desired referer info was not presented.
Result? Fucking right, a 404.
Shove that up your pedantic-wannabe ass. Then if you have the time, please shove it up the ass of that other guy a few posts up who likewise had no valuable input and instead saw fit to waste everybody's time with this crap.
God save me from people with just enough of a clue to think they can run around being obnoxious know-it-alls, serving no useful purpose as regards the discussion at hand.
Also in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5 subtitled "The Eye Of The Sibyl". The entire 5-volume set is a collection of Dick's shorter works spanning many years, highly recommended as examples of Dick's earlier work in the pulps.