This stuff isn't half as revolutionary as the invention of the telegraph over a hundred and fifty years ago. In only a decade or so the fastest commonly available form of communication changed from about 30 miles per hour to the speed of light.
It just takes practice. I had no trouble finishing it... The controls are pretty much just like for most space sims except for a couple of additions. You just have to learn how to deal with a real universe, where turning is hard, rather than a cartoon universe.
Of course, tactics that work for most sims won't work here, because of the newtonian physics. Those who are attached to those tactics may be put off.
Anyway, I thought it was a great game, though a game that demanded so thought, rather than a "just wade in and shoot 'em" attitude.
This isn't the first game to try newtonian physic in a space sim. Independence War does exactly this, and also allows you to fly anywhere in the solar system. (Multiple systems, actually.)
It makes a huge difference in gameplay. You can't just turn on a dime, at least not when going at a reasonable speed. But as others have noted, you can spin around and fire at someone chasing you without losing speed.
I love that film, and wish I could find it on video. It has both Tim Roth and Gary Oldman before they were famous. I'm also going to see it live for the first time this summer.
Fortunately, they've lost this obsession, mostly. This was an eighties obsession that Brazil ran smack into the middle of. I've not heard of this done lately, likely because of the success of downer movies like Seven (or even Titanic) and also because movies with tacked-on happy endings nearly always fail at the box office.
Re:Are They Tallking About The Same Movie I Saw ?
on
Terry Gilliam's Brazil
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· Score: 2
It would been more accurate to have said that one minor subplot was about the hacker ethic. I agree with the assessment of the Tuttle character. He is a sort of "hacker" type. Sort of. It is just that this character only has about ten minutes of screen time and is certainly not a main character!
Anyway, the movie was certainly not about technology. The technology in the movie was a metaphor for bureacratic government. Lots of useless ducts/wires. Doesn't work real well. Explodes at random.
After rewatching it a couple of times, I am conviced that the "terrorists" don't exist, and the explosions are merely due to the technology falling apart due to incompetence. And the "hacker" types like Tuttle, blamed for the "terrorism" are actually the only thing keeping the system afloat. Nice irony.
So, when combined with the previous/. story, this means that in the future, we will all have instant access to the latest Adam Sandler piece of dreck, but if I want to read an obscure 19th century book, I'll have to hop a plane to Washington.
Previously, only kings and an elite few had access to libraries. The printing press made the public library possible. Billington stated that in contrast, public libraries are a "political institution" today.
Why yes, The analogy makes no sense. Why, I have just as much access to books in the Library of Congress, which stands 2500 miles from where I sit, as I would were its contents electronic.
I find it incredible that someone who runs a library, any library, would be against some form of information transmission. Sure, he can hold the opinion (stupid though it is) that reading online is "isolating" (as if any reading weren't an inherently solitary activity), but to say that because he doesn't like a sort of access, it shouldn't be there? Well, we obviously need someone new running our library of congress. Someone who understands that libraries are about easy access to information, not musty books.
The economy didn't really do anything bad when the stock market crashed in the eighties. It was mostly business as usual.
Re:Bill Gates' loss = everyone's gain
on
Tech Stocks Tumble
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· Score: 1
I just wanted to mention that, if you believe "Forbes", and other groups that investigate the wealth of the ultrarich, Gate's doesn't really have a "portfolio". The vast bulk is his wealth (over 95% of it) is in MSFT. He doesn't have enough other investments to drive anything else down.
Well, first of all, it was a greater hit in numbers, not in percentages. And in market crashes, it is percentages that matter.
Besides, the '87 market crash didn't really matter much in the end, anyway. If I recall, it recovered everything in under a year.
These things only hurt those day-traders out to make the quick buck, or those investing on margin. Anyone investing for the long term and with your own money, like all the experts tell you to do, will not be much hurt but this. And as we saw in the eighties, the market bubbles have little effect on the economy as a whole.
I've long thought that what we need in software is a return to the old "like a book" licensing schemes that companies like Borland and others used to use. Allow any sort of copying as long as the user guarantees that two people never use the work at the same time.
Obviously this would be just as ideal here.
I also think that a huge part of the problem is that these companies are hellbent to drive out every little abuse, by both technical and legal means. This is counterproductive. Most people are basically honest. If you just tell them, ("treat this like a book") most of them will. They'll follow a reasonable license agreement.
Some won't, of course, but I suspect that the money spent to catch them, or to implement technical solutions to prevent it far outweighs the extra money made in sales were you able to perfectly prevent it. Yes, millions of teenagers copy crap around, but the truth is, those teenagers likely wouldn't have bought anything (or much at least) had they been prevented.
You answered your own question ("current state of display technology makes long-term reading of anything at the monitor a very trying ordeal"). It is only a hardware problem. This will change.
(Actually, it isn't that bad. I read "Anna Karenina" (thanks Project Gutenburg!) and you get used to the screen.)
All that is needed is an e-Book with a screen of the quality of a high-end laptop. All that requires is the time for the price to drop.
There are things automated cars can do that humans can't. For example, if they are networked together, they can "convoy", each car driving down the freeway at seventy miles per hour, only a foot from the car in front of it. Because they are in constant communication, they can all stop and start safely despite being at a distance that would be wildly unsafe for humans.
Cars closer together means that you can fit many more on the freeway, which means that you have less traffic.
The real problem with getting automated drivers on the road is legal, not technical. The way the legal system works (at least in the US), any company that sells these is at a huge risk of being sued out of existence. Even if automated cars are one hundred times safer than the average human driver, the lawyers will still pounce on the company that makes these for a huge amount on the first accident involving one. And given the way juries often work, they'd likely win.
That is the trouble with new technologies. The legal system often demands they not just be better, but that they be perfect.
I still remember, back around 1980 or so, there was an article in a magazine called "The Space Gamer" in which a young Richard Garriot described how he did the 3-D mazes for his new game "Akalbeth". Cool stuff. I wish to hell I'd kept it.
Hey, since I found someone who knows something, I have a question: I tried it briefly on my machine and it segfaults. I was just curious if that was due to my having the "Forge of Virtue" add-on installed?
If not, don't worry about it as it was an older version, and I didn't really do any work trying to figure out what was up.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing going.
Have you guys had any contact with Origin over this? I hope they don't give you any trouble. I can't imagine why, since you've got to own the game to use Exult, but you never know with big corps.
Slashdot Mirror
This stuff isn't half as revolutionary as the invention of the telegraph over a hundred and fifty years ago. In only a decade or so the fastest commonly available form of communication changed from about 30 miles per hour to the speed of light.
Of course, tactics that work for most sims won't work here, because of the newtonian physics. Those who are attached to those tactics may be put off.
Anyway, I thought it was a great game, though a game that demanded so thought, rather than a "just wade in and shoot 'em" attitude.
It makes a huge difference in gameplay. You can't just turn on a dime, at least not when going at a reasonable speed. But as others have noted, you can spin around and fire at someone chasing you without losing speed.
I beg to differ. The biggest money making movie of all time killed off one of the two main characters at the end.
Anyway, the movie was certainly not about technology. The technology in the movie was a metaphor for bureacratic government. Lots of useless ducts/wires. Doesn't work real well. Explodes at random.
After rewatching it a couple of times, I am conviced that the "terrorists" don't exist, and the explosions are merely due to the technology falling apart due to incompetence. And the "hacker" types like Tuttle, blamed for the "terrorism" are actually the only thing keeping the system afloat. Nice irony.
Anyway, anyone who hasn't seen Brazil needs to go do so now. It is (IMHO) one of the best movies ever. Certainly the best dystopia ever put on film.
By the way, the script was cowritten by Tom Stoppard, who won an oscar a year or so back for Shakespeare in Love.
Why yes, The analogy makes no sense. Why, I have just as much access to books in the Library of Congress, which stands 2500 miles from where I sit, as I would were its contents electronic.
I find it incredible that someone who runs a library, any library, would be against some form of information transmission. Sure, he can hold the opinion (stupid though it is) that reading online is "isolating" (as if any reading weren't an inherently solitary activity), but to say that because he doesn't like a sort of access, it shouldn't be there? Well, we obviously need someone new running our library of congress. Someone who understands that libraries are about easy access to information, not musty books.
The economy didn't really do anything bad when the stock market crashed in the eighties. It was mostly business as usual.
Much better for Linux stocks to tumble in a group with everything else than for them to tumble when everything else is going gangbusters.
Besides, the '87 market crash didn't really matter much in the end, anyway. If I recall, it recovered everything in under a year.
These things only hurt those day-traders out to make the quick buck, or those investing on margin. Anyone investing for the long term and with your own money, like all the experts tell you to do, will not be much hurt but this. And as we saw in the eighties, the market bubbles have little effect on the economy as a whole.
Obviously this would be just as ideal here.
I also think that a huge part of the problem is that these companies are hellbent to drive out every little abuse, by both technical and legal means. This is counterproductive. Most people are basically honest. If you just tell them, ("treat this like a book") most of them will. They'll follow a reasonable license agreement.
Some won't, of course, but I suspect that the money spent to catch them, or to implement technical solutions to prevent it far outweighs the extra money made in sales were you able to perfectly prevent it. Yes, millions of teenagers copy crap around, but the truth is, those teenagers likely wouldn't have bought anything (or much at least) had they been prevented.
(Actually, it isn't that bad. I read "Anna Karenina" (thanks Project Gutenburg!) and you get used to the screen.)
All that is needed is an e-Book with a screen of the quality of a high-end laptop. All that requires is the time for the price to drop.
Cars closer together means that you can fit many more on the freeway, which means that you have less traffic.
That is the trouble with new technologies. The legal system often demands they not just be better, but that they be perfect.
If not, don't worry about it as it was an older version, and I didn't really do any work trying to figure out what was up.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing going.
Have you guys had any contact with Origin over this? I hope they don't give you any trouble. I can't imagine why, since you've got to own the game to use Exult, but you never know with big corps.