5.) It's still too slow to download Celeste-Virtual_BJ.avi in a reasonable time 4.) You're not a cafe communist with a computer and a four dollar cup of coffee. 3.) The low-bandwidth version of Slashdot doesn't have those cool 1997.GIF icons. 2.) The babes dig retro shit these days, like 14.4bps dial-up. 1.) Your life revolves around physical things, not six-hundred dollar mp3 players (iPaqs, etc.)
I realize you are trying to be funny, but your attitude about animal cruelty just promotes violence against non-human species like hamsters and all other animals.
I believe that we as humans do not have the right to slaughter and test products on animals. I believe that we as humans should not have the right to own animals. Forgot about tradition and how our ancestors survived. This is 2003 -- it's time to suspend your traditional beliefs, and surrender to your innate moral centre.
Animal cruelty is a serious issue, and should not be something that we as an advanced society joke about.
I'm a big software guy, so I'm excited to get this opportunity.
I guess what I'm primarly wondering is this: what format would you store these programs on? That is, how would you go about combining various programs and pieces of information such that it'd be easy to browse, query, and utilize in a continuous manner?
It's about doing your best, and doing it without harming others. This is the Open Source way. You collaborate with your "brothers" from all over the planet, all sharing a common goal -- The Destruction of Bad Software, specifically the code written in Redmond, Washington by Microsoft Corporation.
More than 1.1 billion hits are generated by Weblogs every day. For no reason.
Weblogs are an attention-grabbing and nonsensical, not to mention unproductive, means of discussion and sharing of ideas. Most people who blog also have access to other, non-blog technologies that pollute the Internet less and are less egocentric in nature.
Weblogs are some of the most wasteful applications, in terms of resources used, that continue to be championed as the next big thing on the Internet. Why do we blog, then, by the billions? Just to enjoy the transient pleasure of sharing every little brain fart with the entire world?
Priorities, News for Nerds?, Rant
on
Collecting Stardust
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Jesus fucking Christ people, get a hold of yourselves.
A few weeks ago, we lost 8 brave souls on the space shuttle Columbia as it exploded over middle earth. Our President is talking about invading Iran, which could pose serious threats to our own safety in the long-term.
And here we are, as belligerent as ever, browsing Slashdot cluelessly and reading about how we just got a few grains of star dust and only have 100 billion more to go. Great.
You clowns need to be lambasted by a clue-by-four. Get your priorities straight.
Let's fix our world first and then move on to space.
After Niven wrote the first book, it received world-wide acclaim. But there was a problem. Although physicists generally liked the book as much as anyone else, Niven was beseige with letters of physics protest. As any advanced physics student could have told him, Ringworld is not stable in the plane of the ring. That is, if the ring is nudged slightly from the exact center, it will fall into the star. Because of this, Niven later wrote one book in the series based upon fixing this very problem. The proof of this instability can be found in Example 5.2 of your text, the 4th edition of Classical Dynamics by Marion and Thorton. The integration is difficult and an approximation is used. (From http://www.uvi.edu/Physics/dave/DavesArchives/0301 99/Phys311SIP.html)
I'm not sure how anyone can read this techno drivel. I glanced through a couple works, like his 9/11 response, but that's about the only good piece of writing he's ever done.
So, what's the big deal here? Why not get Sagan to do another interview instead?
Re:An Appeal to Moderators... not a question
on
Ask Larry Niven
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Please only moderate up actually interesting questions that can't be answered with a quick Google search
And in the process of speaking out against over-rated comments, you yourself become a victim;-)
I think these are the most "importent" moderations you can do on Slashdot
Using the words "important" and "Slashdot" in the same sentence makes baby Jesus cry;-)
Your Response to 9/11
on
Ask Larry Niven
·
· Score: 0, Interesting
You talk about what happened after a terrorist attack in a recent Draco Tavern story. Although the story is fictional, it's been said to be your response to the Arab attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th.
What do you feel are the major risks of transport and criminal punishment for the "vandals"?
I don't think anyone will argue that Slashdot moderation is good. Better than nothing? Yeah, sure. I use the higher numbers to filter out the the best comments. That works somewhat, but not well.
I guess the purpose of moderation is in question. My childish gut reaction is a reward system. Good post, here's a karma point, or "kudos". Bad post, shame on you, here's a slap. I think that would explain the general tendencies. However, when I actually *read* article comments, I use the moderation totals to weed out the best comments, unless I want to read what everyone has to say. IIRC, that was Taco's original intention.
The most disturbing thing for me is the ratio of comments in each number. +2 are for people with a quickie mod. Mods happen a lot, and many comments will be modded. Does half sound good? +3 is already pushing it, this is a double mod. In other words, a serious comment. Whatever the ratio of +2 to +1, +3 should be even less in relation to +2. +4 should be the same, and +5, the ultimate mod, should have next to nothing in it.
For a quick example, I'll check the hof for the most popular story, comment-wise. Currently. that is What's Keeping You On Windows? with a total of 3212 comments.
# - Moderation number. AMT - Amount of comments. Twd - Total amount of comments weeded out. (Amt - 3161) Lwd - Amount of comments weeded out this level. (Last level's AMT - AMT) Per - Percentage of total comments. (AMT / 3161) Lwdp - Percentage this level weeded of total. (Lwd / 3102)
+2 cuts out most of the comments. +3 is good too, it further cuts the comments in half. +4 already, however, is dissapointing. It only weeds around two percent of the total comments or only half of the last level's. And +5 is a joke, weeding less than half a percent,a dn staying nearly the same as the last level.
I think a study should be done on many stories. To see the general tendencies, and when moderation works. In popular stories, past +3 it really doesn't, though there must be a way.
OK, Google is good b/c they have such a useful search site and it's really fast and reliable.
But, patents are bad b/c they generally are overextended into the realm of "natural augmentation" that existing systems would eventually become in the future. So, I guess Google is bad.
Wait, though, how would I survive without Google's Image Search or Cacheing system. Clearly they're good.
Well, sure, they're both helpful, but deep down there's an epistemological debate in my heart that simply cannot be hushed. Google is wrong for exploiting free software for their own good and then patenting their creations into privacy and not sharing their own work. Google is bad!
OK, that's fine and good, but the bottom line is that many every day things aren't totally right or just. Cars aren't open source, but how could I get to work without one. So, I guess Google really isn't all that bad.
Back when Page and his Stanford pal created Google, they had planned to just simply create a really snazzy and useful research project. From day one and for a couple years, they assured everyone that they would never sell-out and their algorithms and code would remain in the public view.
However, things changed, and they quickly hopped onto the dot-com bandwagon. With this privatization, they closed all their notebooks and journals and stopped teaching others how to implement a great webcrawler and search ranking system.
They made out well, but I feel that the CS community lost a great number of resources. I'm proud of Google and I use it a lot, but I just wish they'd have remained a bit more loyal to the open source community that they started off with.
If it weren't for open BSD code and free database software, Google wouldn't exist today. Don't forget that.
It's not really their Search algorithm, it's their method of comprehensive PageRanking.
They basically measure Web pages as either 1) portals, or 2) authorities.
Sites like Kuro5hin and *nix have a lot of "Google juice" (i.e. weight in their ranking system) because they have so many links to other sites, while also garnering a slew of links to their main page.
"Grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of resources distributed across "multiple" administrative domains based on their (resources) availability, capability, performance, cost, and users' quality-of-service requirements."
So, this project would essentially create one of the above distributed systems using simple, low-cost console gaming systems.
I remember reading awhile ago that Iraq wanted Playstations in order to grid them together and create supercomputers from 99 dollar American gaming devices.
Other so-so units came before it, though this was the gaming system that started it all. In the '70s, this was such an original concept, it became a whole fad. Parents and kids would actually play video games together, if you can believe that. Even more startling, was how much was given "free" with the original system; no less than four controllers! The system my family bought came with two joysticks with the classic single red fire button, and a pair of PC mouse-sized "wheels" for racing games. Let the gaming revolution begin!
Blow the dust off the old Atari system and show it to the kids, and be ready to accept understandable laughs. As the vanguard of game systems, graphics were pretty awful. The first shooting game of all time, Outlaws (shown here), had two cowboys who simply shot at each other from opposite sides of the screen! In the original graphic adventure (video game) of all time, simply called Adventure, your character was a SQUARE dot (!), whose sword was a mere arrow. However, as the first games, they were a cute start.
In time, third-party game companies popped up, pushing 2600's envelope. The best of them was Activision; what they were able to do with so little to work with is what made them a major gaming force to this very day. Pitfall (shown here) is irrefutably one of the top ten classic video games of all time. Other Activision games may not have been as classic, though were certainly unique. MegaMania was a hilarious target game; one of my favorites. An intriguing anecdote; I won 2nd place at a local rental store's Megamania contest, and used the money to buy a Colecovision and a few games. I don't know if buying a rival system was the premise of the contest, though;-)...
There was another top-notch, third-party worth mentioning, called Imagic, whose games were quite inspired (so inspired, that the now-defunct company has warranted a separate web page, to talk about it). Dragonfire had you first dodge fireballs to reach the dragon's castle, then plunder treasure while dodging the dragon itself! Cosmic Ark put you in charge of a space age Noah's Ark; you'd take a mini UFO and capture aliens via a tractor beam, all while protecting the mother ship from asteroids. Demon Attack was their best work, though, and much like Pitfall, is among the best classic video games of all time.
This isn't to say that these two companies were the only third-parties making video games for the Atari 2600. There were probably dozens of them, at the system's peak. Some such games were more than worth a look, and were often even astounding sneak peeks of gaming genres to come. Tunnel Runner (shown here) put you in a colorful 3D maze which was mapped-out at random when the game was turned on. The objective? Dodge monsters that resembled Pac-Man with rabies! Other third-party games included underdog classics like Montezuma's Revenge, movie tie-ins like Empire Strikes Back, and numerous first attempts at arcade game translations.
Third parties also provided amusing add-ons. One of them was The Supercharger by Arcadia, whose audio cord connected to any tape recorder, with games sold on audio tapes. This allowed each level of the game loaded one at a time; any game level could be as large as one whole reusable game cartridge, with other levels loaded later. Some unique games were released for the unit, including the RPG Dragonstomper, the underdog classic, Communist Mutants From Space, and the impressive maze game, Escape from the Mindmaster.
Atari's own games were not always shabby, either. Ask any Atari fan to list their favorite 2600 games and Yar's Revenge is sure to be near the top. While not graphics-intense, their "Haunted House" was still rather inspired; in it, you were only a pair of eyeballs, in the dark, dodging various bats and ghouls in a darkened maze of rooms.
There were intriguing sales gimmicks as well. An alliance with DC comics spawned a mini-comic book series, "Atari Force," with each issue included in separate Atari game releases (issues 2-4 were included in Berserk, Star Raiders, and Phoenix, respectively). Similar comic book introductions to games were included in Yar's Revenge and EarthQuest.
All was not a cyber bed of roses; among so many titles were a few really, truly bad games. E.T. was one of the first movie-turned-game licenses, and is rarely left out of any list of worst classic video games. Then there was Swordquest, a game/contest consisting of perplexing, obscure video game puzzles that were supposed to be solved for actual golden chalices and crowns. As pretty as the prizes were, they were out of place in a video game player's world. They also cost Atari a lot of money, with very little to show for it. The intended four-part Swordquest game contest wasn't even finished, showing how much of a bust the plan truly was. If they had only spent as much effort creating decent games...
Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest tv set for a few more years. Meanwhile, Atari constantly attempted to re-sell the system until as late as 1989, with a "The Fun Is Back" sales pitch and a $50 price tag. However, the people who felt nostalgic about the system felt so because of the systems they already owned. The "brand new" system choice, as of 1989, was arguably the NES.
Atari released a few other systems during later 2600 days, including the 5200 ("twice the power of the 2600!") and 7800 ("three times...!"). However, the popularity of these systems was minor, possibly due to their release so close to the '84 crash. Through it all, though, the 2600 will always leave a fond memory in the minds of any 30-something game fan; the multi-game system whose infamous reputation started it all...
"...Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest TV set for a few more years." -- courtesy of techtite.com/Features/Atari2600.html
5 -- For some reason, you think rock music isn't dead yet
4 -- It's something to do in between your Frost Pists!!1
3 -- Utilize the all new one-click recording feature of the GNU Radio software
2 -- Jam along wirelessly in front of the TV during the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker commercial
1 -- Gives you the chance to play along with the hottest radio songs of the day, such as the punk-rock classic "All I Have" by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, the arena rock classic "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, and country song "Mesmerize" by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti.
Slashdot Mirror
5.) It's still too slow to download Celeste-Virtual_BJ.avi in a reasonable time .GIF icons.
4.) You're not a cafe communist with a computer and a four dollar cup of coffee.
3.) The low-bandwidth version of Slashdot doesn't have those cool 1997
2.) The babes dig retro shit these days, like 14.4bps dial-up.
1.) Your life revolves around physical things, not six-hundred dollar mp3 players (iPaqs, etc.)
You could save weight and energy by removing the GPS requirement.
Once you develop the driving plan, some simple navigation tools could be used instead of complex and expensive satellite communication.
GPS is overrated anyway.
I realize you are trying to be funny, but your attitude about animal cruelty just promotes violence against non-human species like hamsters and all other animals.
I believe that we as humans do not have the right to slaughter and test products on animals. I believe that we as humans should not have the right to own animals. Forgot about tradition and how our ancestors survived. This is 2003 -- it's time to suspend your traditional beliefs, and surrender to your innate moral centre.
Animal cruelty is a serious issue, and should not be something that we as an advanced society joke about.
Yet another reason for birth control advocacy.
If your parents didn't use drugs and have you (a GreenCrackBaby), there's be one less person thinking of UAV drug runs (-;
Save weight and save fuel by removing the GPS requirement.
Once you develop the flight plan, some simple on-board sensors should take care of carrying that out.
GPS is overrated anyway.
5. It gives you something to do on your Windows box while you're waiting for Gentoo to finish compiling.
4. You're like the other 98% of Slashdotters -- you don't do work at work.
3. Printed comics cover department calendars and to-do lists quite nicely.
2. You don't have a girlfriend.
1. Cracking the micropayment system will give you good practice for this Sunday's "hack fest."
I'm a big software guy, so I'm excited to get this opportunity.
I guess what I'm primarly wondering is this: what format would you store these programs on? That is, how would you go about combining various programs and pieces of information such that it'd be easy to browse, query, and utilize in a continuous manner?
Thanks in advance!
What is the meaning of life anyway?
It's about doing your best, and doing it without harming others. This is the Open Source way. You collaborate with your "brothers" from all over the planet, all sharing a common goal -- The Destruction of Bad Software, specifically the code written in Redmond, Washington by Microsoft Corporation.
More than 1.1 billion hits are generated by Weblogs every day. For no reason.
Weblogs are an attention-grabbing and nonsensical, not to mention unproductive, means of discussion and sharing of ideas. Most people who blog also have access to other, non-blog technologies that pollute the Internet less and are less egocentric in nature.
Weblogs are some of the most wasteful applications, in terms of resources used, that continue to be championed as the next big thing on the Internet. Why do we blog, then, by the billions? Just to enjoy the transient pleasure of sharing every little brain fart with the entire world?
Jesus fucking Christ people, get a hold of yourselves.
A few weeks ago, we lost 8 brave souls on the space shuttle Columbia as it exploded over middle earth. Our President is talking about invading Iran, which could pose serious threats to our own safety in the long-term.
And here we are, as belligerent as ever, browsing Slashdot cluelessly and reading about how we just got a few grains of star dust and only have 100 billion more to go. Great.
You clowns need to be lambasted by a clue-by-four. Get your priorities straight.
Let's fix our world first and then move on to space.
After Niven wrote the first book, it received world-wide acclaim. But there was a problem. Although physicists generally liked the book as much as anyone else, Niven was beseige with letters of physics protest. As any advanced physics student could have told him, Ringworld is not stable in the plane of the ring. That is, if the ring is nudged slightly from the exact center, it will fall into the star. Because of this, Niven later wrote one book in the series based upon fixing this very problem. The proof of this instability can be found in Example 5.2 of your text, the 4th edition of Classical Dynamics by Marion and Thorton. The integration is difficult and an approximation is used.1 99/Phys311SIP.html)
(From http://www.uvi.edu/Physics/dave/DavesArchives/030
I'm not sure how anyone can read this techno drivel. I glanced through a couple works, like his 9/11 response, but that's about the only good piece of writing he's ever done.
So, what's the big deal here? Why not get Sagan to do another interview instead?
Please only moderate up actually interesting questions that can't be answered with a quick Google search
;-)
;-)
And in the process of speaking out against over-rated comments, you yourself become a victim
I think these are the most "importent" moderations you can do on Slashdot
Using the words "important" and "Slashdot" in the same sentence makes baby Jesus cry
You talk about what happened after a terrorist attack in a recent Draco Tavern story. Although the story is fictional, it's been said to be your response to the Arab attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th.
What do you feel are the major risks of transport and criminal punishment for the "vandals"?
I don't think anyone will argue that Slashdot moderation is good. Better than nothing? Yeah, sure. I use the higher numbers to filter out the the best comments. That works somewhat, but not well.
I guess the purpose of moderation is in question. My childish gut reaction is a reward system. Good post, here's a karma point, or "kudos". Bad post, shame on you, here's a slap. I think that would explain the general tendencies. However, when I actually *read* article comments, I use the moderation totals to weed out the best comments, unless I want to read what everyone has to say. IIRC, that was Taco's original intention.
The most disturbing thing for me is the ratio of comments in each number. +2 are for people with a quickie mod. Mods happen a lot, and many comments will be modded. Does half sound good? +3 is already pushing it, this is a double mod. In other words, a serious comment. Whatever the ratio of +2 to +1, +3 should be even less in relation to +2. +4 should be the same, and +5, the ultimate mod, should have next to nothing in it.
For a quick example, I'll check the hof for the most popular story, comment-wise. Currently. that is What's Keeping You On Windows? with a total of 3212 comments.
Here's the breakdown excluding -1.
# AMT Twd Lwd Per Lwdp
0: 3161 0000 0000 00.0 00.0
1: 2268 0893 0893 71.7 28.7
2: 0919 2242 1349 29.0 43.4
3: 0144 3017 0775 04.5 24.9
4: 0074 3087 0070 02.3 02.2
5: 0059 3102 0015 01.8 00.4
# - Moderation number.
AMT - Amount of comments.
Twd - Total amount of comments weeded out. (Amt - 3161)
Lwd - Amount of comments weeded out this level. (Last level's AMT - AMT)
Per - Percentage of total comments. (AMT / 3161)
Lwdp - Percentage this level weeded of total. (Lwd / 3102)
+2 cuts out most of the comments. +3 is good too, it further cuts the comments in half. +4 already, however, is dissapointing. It only weeds around two percent of the total comments or only half of the last level's. And +5 is a joke, weeding less than half a percent,a dn staying nearly the same as the last level.
I think a study should be done on many stories. To see the general tendencies, and when moderation works. In popular stories, past +3 it really doesn't, though there must be a way.
[By: Chacham (User #981)]
I'm not how to react, so let me think this out.
OK, Google is good b/c they have such a useful search site and it's really fast and reliable.
But, patents are bad b/c they generally are overextended into the realm of "natural augmentation" that existing systems would eventually become in the future. So, I guess Google is bad.
Wait, though, how would I survive without Google's Image Search or Cacheing system. Clearly they're good.
Well, sure, they're both helpful, but deep down there's an epistemological debate in my heart that simply cannot be hushed. Google is wrong for exploiting free software for their own good and then patenting their creations into privacy and not sharing their own work. Google is bad!
OK, that's fine and good, but the bottom line is that many every day things aren't totally right or just. Cars aren't open source, but how could I get to work without one. So, I guess Google really isn't all that bad.
Today's conclusion: Google is good!
Back when Page and his Stanford pal created Google, they had planned to just simply create a really snazzy and useful research project. From day one and for a couple years, they assured everyone that they would never sell-out and their algorithms and code would remain in the public view.
However, things changed, and they quickly hopped onto the dot-com bandwagon. With this privatization, they closed all their notebooks and journals and stopped teaching others how to implement a great webcrawler and search ranking system.
They made out well, but I feel that the CS community lost a great number of resources. I'm proud of Google and I use it a lot, but I just wish they'd have remained a bit more loyal to the open source community that they started off with.
If it weren't for open BSD code and free database software, Google wouldn't exist today. Don't forget that.
It's not really their Search algorithm, it's their method of comprehensive PageRanking.
They basically measure Web pages as either 1) portals, or 2) authorities.
Sites like Kuro5hin and *nix have a lot of "Google juice" (i.e. weight in their ranking system) because they have so many links to other sites, while also garnering a slew of links to their main page.
... so I looked up some simple details.
"Grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of resources distributed across "multiple" administrative domains based on their (resources) availability, capability, performance, cost, and users' quality-of-service requirements."
So, this project would essentially create one of the above distributed systems using simple, low-cost console gaming systems.
I remember reading awhile ago that Iraq wanted Playstations in order to grid them together and create supercomputers from 99 dollar American gaming devices.
Atari 2600
;-)...
Other so-so units came before it, though this was the gaming system that started it all. In the '70s, this was such an original concept, it became a whole fad. Parents and kids would actually play video games together, if you can believe that. Even more startling, was how much was given "free" with the original system; no less than four controllers! The system my family bought came with two joysticks with the classic single red fire button, and a pair of PC mouse-sized "wheels" for racing games. Let the gaming revolution begin!
Blow the dust off the old Atari system and show it to the kids, and be ready to accept understandable laughs. As the vanguard of game systems, graphics were pretty awful. The first shooting game of all time, Outlaws (shown here), had two cowboys who simply shot at each other from opposite sides of the screen! In the original graphic adventure (video game) of all time, simply called Adventure, your character was a SQUARE dot (!), whose sword was a mere arrow. However, as the first games, they were a cute start.
In time, third-party game companies popped up, pushing 2600's envelope. The best of them was Activision; what they were able to do with so little to work with is what made them a major gaming force to this very day. Pitfall (shown here) is irrefutably one of the top ten classic video games of all time. Other Activision games may not have been as classic, though were certainly unique. MegaMania was a hilarious target game; one of my favorites. An intriguing anecdote; I won 2nd place at a local rental store's Megamania contest, and used the money to buy a Colecovision and a few games. I don't know if buying a rival system was the premise of the contest, though
There was another top-notch, third-party worth mentioning, called Imagic, whose games were quite inspired (so inspired, that the now-defunct company has warranted a separate web page, to talk about it). Dragonfire had you first dodge fireballs to reach the dragon's castle, then plunder treasure while dodging the dragon itself! Cosmic Ark put you in charge of a space age Noah's Ark; you'd take a mini UFO and capture aliens via a tractor beam, all while protecting the mother ship from asteroids. Demon Attack was their best work, though, and much like Pitfall, is among the best classic video games of all time.
This isn't to say that these two companies were the only third-parties making video games for the Atari 2600. There were probably dozens of them, at the system's peak. Some such games were more than worth a look, and were often even astounding sneak peeks of gaming genres to come. Tunnel Runner (shown here) put you in a colorful 3D maze which was mapped-out at random when the game was turned on. The objective? Dodge monsters that resembled Pac-Man with rabies! Other third-party games included underdog classics like Montezuma's Revenge, movie tie-ins like Empire Strikes Back, and numerous first attempts at arcade game translations.
Third parties also provided amusing add-ons. One of them was The Supercharger by Arcadia, whose audio cord connected to any tape recorder, with games sold on audio tapes. This allowed each level of the game loaded one at a time; any game level could be as large as one whole reusable game cartridge, with other levels loaded later. Some unique games were released for the unit, including the RPG Dragonstomper, the underdog classic, Communist Mutants From Space, and the impressive maze game, Escape from the Mindmaster.
Atari's own games were not always shabby, either. Ask any Atari fan to list their favorite 2600 games and Yar's Revenge is sure to be near the top. While not graphics-intense, their "Haunted House" was still rather inspired; in it, you were only a pair of eyeballs, in the dark, dodging various bats and ghouls in a darkened maze of rooms.
There were intriguing sales gimmicks as well. An alliance with DC comics spawned a mini-comic book series, "Atari Force," with each issue included in separate Atari game releases (issues 2-4 were included in Berserk, Star Raiders, and Phoenix, respectively). Similar comic book introductions to games were included in Yar's Revenge and EarthQuest.
All was not a cyber bed of roses; among so many titles were a few really, truly bad games. E.T. was one of the first movie-turned-game licenses, and is rarely left out of any list of worst classic video games. Then there was Swordquest, a game/contest consisting of perplexing, obscure video game puzzles that were supposed to be solved for actual golden chalices and crowns. As pretty as the prizes were, they were out of place in a video game player's world. They also cost Atari a lot of money, with very little to show for it. The intended four-part Swordquest game contest wasn't even finished, showing how much of a bust the plan truly was. If they had only spent as much effort creating decent games...
Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest tv set for a few more years. Meanwhile, Atari constantly attempted to re-sell the system until as late as 1989, with a "The Fun Is Back" sales pitch and a $50 price tag. However, the people who felt nostalgic about the system felt so because of the systems they already owned. The "brand new" system choice, as of 1989, was arguably the NES.
Atari released a few other systems during later 2600 days, including the 5200 ("twice the power of the 2600!") and 7800 ("three times...!"). However, the popularity of these systems was minor, possibly due to their release so close to the '84 crash. Through it all, though, the 2600 will always leave a fond memory in the minds of any 30-something game fan; the multi-game system whose infamous reputation started it all...
"...Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest TV set for a few more years." -- courtesy of techtite.com/Features/Atari2600.html
How has the Atari gaming platform affected Linux?
5 -- For some reason, you think rock music isn't dead yet
4 -- It's something to do in between your Frost Pists!!1
3 -- Utilize the all new one-click recording feature of the GNU Radio software
2 -- Jam along wirelessly in front of the TV during the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker commercial
1 -- Gives you the chance to play along with the hottest radio songs of the day, such as the punk-rock classic "All I Have" by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J, the arena rock classic "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, and country song "Mesmerize" by Ja Rule featuring Ashanti.
Anyone interested in starting a project to get Linux running this guitar?
It would be great PR for us Open Source folks. I can work on the audio portions of it if a few of you could tweak some of the embedded code.
Please email me if you're interested.
5 -- Your outdated computers will go really well with your outdated hairstyle
4 -- Reducing costs by purchasing old stuff is an essential part of the 1, 2, 3, Profit! scheme
3 -- Go back in time and invent the Internet before Al Gore gets around to it
2 -- 1337 + 666 = 2003, which is a sure sign that now is the time to become a retro geek
1 -- Being an R.C.G. is a lot like playing an R.P.G., only without the whole play-3-days-straight-get-up-puke-in-bathroom-die-s oon-thereafter routine
Remember that you can always get free blogging for life at *nix.org
I knew I should've listened to my mom. If I had, I'd be able to read the text on the damn site.
Take this as a warning kids -- STOP OR YOU'LL GO BLIND!
I just checked the Who's Dead and Who's Alive archive and it says "Alive".
Please mod the parent down troll and me as informative.