A lot of people dislike the MacBook keyboards. They look nice, but the keys don't travel far enough for some people, which messes up the tactile feedback. And these new keyboards look very similar to the MacBook keyboards, plus they're extremely thin, which would also suggest a short travel distance for the keys.
But of course, until I check them out next week at the Apple store, it's all speculation.
As soon as I saw the title of this story, I thought "it would be a crime if Guilty Gear wasn't mentioned." Although I can't access the article, it's great to see that this amazing game is getting some mainstream recognition. Guilty Gear XX Slash, the latest installment, is by far my favorite game ever. It's pretty popular in Japan (their arcade scene is orders of magnitude larger than the US's) and has an underground following in the States. In fact, a rather large tournament, Midwest Championships, is being held today.
Here are some links to a couple of videos of obsessed Japanese showing off what the Guilty Gear engine is capable of [Warning: large files! But cool if you like 2d fighters!]: Sunrise And two on this page: Lamentation of a Soul and Jam Combos.
The "1 in 5 children solicited online" statistic comes from a study done in Feb 2001. And actually if you read the study (which the government is probably hoping we won't), it turns out HALF the solicitations were from other children, NOT adults. Kinda changes the whole context, doesn't it?
The report found that almost half of the solicitations reported did not come from an adult, but from other children: 'juveniles made 48 percent of the overall and 48 percent of the aggressive solicitations.' (9) The report also points out that only 'one quarter of young people who reported these incidents were distressed by them' (8). 'Sexual solicitations' between children in an internet chat room are the online equivalent of adolescent fumbling, a world away from the threat of paedophilia.
Many people are wondering if the video is real or not. The obvious problem is that it could be a video from a Windows PC running on a Mac in full-screen, but there are a few problems with that theory. For example, I think at one point the resolution of the screen changes, complete with all the visual craziness that causes. What kind of video capture software would catch a screen resolution change like that?
People also noticed that the Windows boot screen changed. Instead of being a black background with a Windows logo and a little pulsating bar at the bottom (reminds me of the Knight Rider car), it is just the Windows logo on a greyish background. Maybe a result of the EFI hacking?
The other way it could be faked is if the screen isn't actually connected to the iMac at all. There could be a PC somewhere directly connected to the screen somehow. Personally, I think that would take a lot of hacking by itself, probably more effort than the average hoaxster is willing to commit.
I'm guessing it'll be more like All The Web's music search. It returns links to pages with any type of music media (.rm,.mp3, even.mid) containing or linked to the keywords you search for.
Does a really good job, too. Last night I finally started practicing for my conducting final (which is in about 10 minutes) and ATW saved my ass by finding me several recordings of the song I needed to study.
Aaah Guilty Gear XX #Reload: the game that changed my life forever. Although it was already released for Japanese PS2 when the Xbox port came out, I believe.
Now I just have to wait longingly for them to release Slash to console, and in the meantime satiate my hunger for it by watching Japanese match vids.
Now, Wikipedia has its faults.. but to be honest, I find it a hugely relevant, usually accurate and very enjoyable resource, sometimes marred by personal agendas and bias.
Seriously. Wikipedia is a tool, similar to almost all sites presenting information on the internet: good for a quick reference, but not authoritative. And I think most people realize that.
A few weeks ago I was writing a paper on Thelonious Monk. Wikipedia says he started playing piano at age six, but, for example, this site says age nine. So Wikipedia has a 50% chance of being wrong on that point. But really I don't mind, and I'm not going to stop using it, because Wikipedia is more of a springboard and a starting place in exploring a subject, rather than an etched-in-stone authority. And I think most people "get" that. The Register, apparently, does not.
Who said anything about political freedom? The original poster said "communism" and I said "market economy". Neither of us mentioned political freedom at all. Maybe you're confusing communism with authoritarianism.
Actually Singapore is a market economy. It's one of the reasons they've been able to turn their economy around since they had a recession in 2001. The government is very business-friendly.
I am actually considering moving to Singapore, and read about this while I was researching what it is like. Singapore actually is kind of to me, an interesting experiment in censorship. On the one hand, as a liberty-loving American, I'm wary of a place where speaking your mind can get you thrown in jail. On the other hand, singapore has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, is one of the cleanest countries in the world, has a very uncorrupt government, and somehow manages to keep a lot of different ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, Indian, many more) together mostly peacefully--in the most densely populated country on the planet, no less. This makes me wonder how much of it is due to the strict laws regarding racism, censorship, and morality (a lot of movies are censored or banned, pornography and oral sex is illegal, etc).
Basically, I see the censorship/nanny state-sim, and I see the apparent economic and social success of the country, and I have to wonder how much they are related. And I wonder if I would give up some of my rights to live in a country that seems to be doing just fine without them.
In OS X, when you open the GIMP under X11, the spash screen is the most annoying part of the whole program. It's always on top, and it takes at least a minute to load all the fonts, extensions, scripts etc. Please, if you're going to have a splash screen, at least make sure other windows aren't stuck behind it! Maybe it is different in Windows or Linux, but it's a real peeve of mine on OS X.
Actually, Malkin is ethnic Filipino. And yes, cute as she may be, she is a racist. If not racist herself, then an apologist for the racist actions of others. She wrote an entire book defending the internment of Japanese citizens in the US during WWII. She defended a practice that was basically imprisonment of a group of people who had not committed any crimes, but who simply were born Japanese.
Well I know you were probably joking, but really after reading the article, they're talking about different mechanisms in the brain.
The article talks about how stimuli related to an addictive game/substance can trigger strong desires and reactions in addicted people. However, if you show my mother (a devout Catholic and Sunday school teacher) a cross, she doesn't get the urge to suddenly go to chuch and pray.
On the other hand, if I watch a Japanese Guilty Gearmatch, I really do feel restless and end up firing up my Xbox for some sweet, sweet release.
Now if you'll excuse me I gotta go play some Guilty Gear:/
For many years, I've been a fan of roleplaying Multi-User Dungeons, AKA "MUDs". There are a lot of bad ones, but the best ones combine deep gameplay mechanics, vast, ever-changing worlds, great fantasy settings and an opportunity to roleplay interesting characters of your own design.
According to the comments on the linked page, you have to type in your name/password after agreeing to the EULA. This is really non-standard and hopefully will set off alarms in people's heads when they wonder why they have to do that (OS X doesn't ask for your password often). But something tells me most users will just go ahead and give the app free reign anyway. Not that I blame them, you'd expect to be able to trust Sony, a freaking huge "legitimate" corporation for Pete's sake.
I'm sorry, did you even read your own post? Let's look at what you said:
I was shocked once to find that some arcane method I came up with of changing the note value/time signature relationship was the offical method listed in the manual.
What?? Arcane means "understood by few; mysterious or secret". You just said that the official way to change (whatever) is "understood by few; mysterious or secret." Uh, that's the fucking DEFINITION of bad UI.
You can do all sorts of weird modern notation, and it's all pretty quick and easy. By easy I mean - once you start to think like the program, you'll be fine.
Again, the point isn't that Finale *can't* do something, it is that it often can't do things in a CLEAR, LOGICAL, CONSISTENT manner. You say "start to think like the program." C'mon, seriously, do you really think that is indicative of good design when you have to try to think like the program? It's not. Programs are tools, they should be subservient to my way of thinking, not overriding to it.
Slashdot Mirror
They also updated the Mac Mini.
"Didn't mention Mac mini today, how is it doing?"
Tim: "We're refreshing the Mac mini today."
not yet convinced by that keyboard.
You know, I was thinking the same thing.
A lot of people dislike the MacBook keyboards. They look nice, but the keys don't travel far enough for some people, which messes up the tactile feedback. And these new keyboards look very similar to the MacBook keyboards, plus they're extremely thin, which would also suggest a short travel distance for the keys.
But of course, until I check them out next week at the Apple store, it's all speculation.
"Shell Revealed"? I think "Shell Shocked" would have been a much more apt name :-/
As soon as I saw the title of this story, I thought "it would be a crime if Guilty Gear wasn't mentioned." Although I can't access the article, it's great to see that this amazing game is getting some mainstream recognition. Guilty Gear XX Slash, the latest installment, is by far my favorite game ever. It's pretty popular in Japan (their arcade scene is orders of magnitude larger than the US's) and has an underground following in the States. In fact, a rather large tournament, Midwest Championships, is being held today.
Here are some links to a couple of videos of obsessed Japanese showing off what the Guilty Gear engine is capable of [Warning: large files! But cool if you like 2d fighters!]:
Sunrise
And two on this page: Lamentation of a Soul and Jam Combos.
Tell me about it...
This was just posted: High DPI Part 2
The "1 in 5 children solicited online" statistic comes from a study done in Feb 2001. And actually if you read the study (which the government is probably hoping we won't), it turns out HALF the solicitations were from other children, NOT adults. Kinda changes the whole context, doesn't it?
The report found that almost half of the solicitations reported did not come from an adult, but from other children: 'juveniles made 48 percent of the overall and 48 percent of the aggressive solicitations.' (9) The report also points out that only 'one quarter of young people who reported these incidents were distressed by them' (8). 'Sexual solicitations' between children in an internet chat room are the online equivalent of adolescent fumbling, a world away from the threat of paedophilia.
Article here, and more commentary here.
Many people are wondering if the video is real or not. The obvious problem is that it could be a video from a Windows PC running on a Mac in full-screen, but there are a few problems with that theory. For example, I think at one point the resolution of the screen changes, complete with all the visual craziness that causes. What kind of video capture software would catch a screen resolution change like that?
People also noticed that the Windows boot screen changed. Instead of being a black background with a Windows logo and a little pulsating bar at the bottom (reminds me of the Knight Rider car), it is just the Windows logo on a greyish background. Maybe a result of the EFI hacking?
The other way it could be faked is if the screen isn't actually connected to the iMac at all. There could be a PC somewhere directly connected to the screen somehow. Personally, I think that would take a lot of hacking by itself, probably more effort than the average hoaxster is willing to commit.
Wow, they're so cheap, I'm gonna buy two!
No, six!
No, twelve!
BAKER'S DOZEN!
I told you that I'm crazy for those iPods, cousin!
Nice name. That was the 2nd phrase I ever learned in Mandarin.
I'm guessing it'll be more like All The Web's music search. It returns links to pages with any type of music media (.rm, .mp3, even .mid) containing or linked to the keywords you search for.
Does a really good job, too. Last night I finally started practicing for my conducting final (which is in about 10 minutes) and ATW saved my ass by finding me several recordings of the song I needed to study.
Aaah Guilty Gear XX #Reload: the game that changed my life forever. Although it was already released for Japanese PS2 when the Xbox port came out, I believe.
Now I just have to wait longingly for them to release Slash to console, and in the meantime satiate my hunger for it by watching Japanese match vids.
Now, Wikipedia has its faults.. but to be honest, I find it a hugely relevant, usually accurate and very enjoyable resource, sometimes marred by personal agendas and bias.
Seriously. Wikipedia is a tool, similar to almost all sites presenting information on the internet: good for a quick reference, but not authoritative. And I think most people realize that.
A few weeks ago I was writing a paper on Thelonious Monk. Wikipedia says he started playing piano at age six, but, for example, this site says age nine. So Wikipedia has a 50% chance of being wrong on that point. But really I don't mind, and I'm not going to stop using it, because Wikipedia is more of a springboard and a starting place in exploring a subject, rather than an etched-in-stone authority. And I think most people "get" that. The Register, apparently, does not.
Who said anything about political freedom? The original poster said "communism" and I said "market economy". Neither of us mentioned political freedom at all. Maybe you're confusing communism with authoritarianism.
Actually Singapore is a market economy. It's one of the reasons they've been able to turn their economy around since they had a recession in 2001. The government is very business-friendly.
I am actually considering moving to Singapore, and read about this while I was researching what it is like. Singapore actually is kind of to me, an interesting experiment in censorship. On the one hand, as a liberty-loving American, I'm wary of a place where speaking your mind can get you thrown in jail. On the other hand, singapore has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, is one of the cleanest countries in the world, has a very uncorrupt government, and somehow manages to keep a lot of different ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, Indian, many more) together mostly peacefully--in the most densely populated country on the planet, no less. This makes me wonder how much of it is due to the strict laws regarding racism, censorship, and morality (a lot of movies are censored or banned, pornography and oral sex is illegal, etc).
Basically, I see the censorship/nanny state-sim, and I see the apparent economic and social success of the country, and I have to wonder how much they are related. And I wonder if I would give up some of my rights to live in a country that seems to be doing just fine without them.
In OS X, when you open the GIMP under X11, the spash screen is the most annoying part of the whole program. It's always on top, and it takes at least a minute to load all the fonts, extensions, scripts etc. Please, if you're going to have a splash screen, at least make sure other windows aren't stuck behind it! Maybe it is different in Windows or Linux, but it's a real peeve of mine on OS X.
Actually, Malkin is ethnic Filipino. And yes, cute as she may be, she is a racist. If not racist herself, then an apologist for the racist actions of others. She wrote an entire book defending the internment of Japanese citizens in the US during WWII. She defended a practice that was basically imprisonment of a group of people who had not committed any crimes, but who simply were born Japanese.
Yes but I think we can agree that people who don't play WoW for a two days don't suffer from "irritability, headaches, anxiety, cognitive disturbances and sleep disruption", as smokers do.
Or maybe I'm mistaken. Are there any WoW addicts here who had physical withdrawal symptoms after two days of not playing?
Well I know you were probably joking, but really after reading the article, they're talking about different mechanisms in the brain.
:/
The article talks about how stimuli related to an addictive game/substance can trigger strong desires and reactions in addicted people. However, if you show my mother (a devout Catholic and Sunday school teacher) a cross, she doesn't get the urge to suddenly go to chuch and pray.
On the other hand, if I watch a Japanese Guilty Gear match, I really do feel restless and end up firing up my Xbox for some sweet, sweet release.
Now if you'll excuse me I gotta go play some Guilty Gear
For many years, I've been a fan of roleplaying Multi-User Dungeons, AKA "MUDs". There are a lot of bad ones, but the best ones combine deep gameplay mechanics, vast, ever-changing worlds, great fantasy settings and an opportunity to roleplay interesting characters of your own design.
I'm reasonably sure the answer is "no." If it did, everybody on slashdot would be constantly bitching about how they aren't going to buy it.
According to the comments on the linked page, you have to type in your name/password after agreeing to the EULA. This is really non-standard and hopefully will set off alarms in people's heads when they wonder why they have to do that (OS X doesn't ask for your password often). But something tells me most users will just go ahead and give the app free reign anyway. Not that I blame them, you'd expect to be able to trust Sony, a freaking huge "legitimate" corporation for Pete's sake.
I'm sorry, did you even read your own post? Let's look at what you said:
I was shocked once to find that some arcane method I came up with of changing the note value/time signature relationship was the offical method listed in the manual.
What?? Arcane means "understood by few; mysterious or secret". You just said that the official way to change (whatever) is "understood by few; mysterious or secret." Uh, that's the fucking DEFINITION of bad UI.
You can do all sorts of weird modern notation, and it's all pretty quick and easy. By easy I mean - once you start to think like the program, you'll be fine.
Again, the point isn't that Finale *can't* do something, it is that it often can't do things in a CLEAR, LOGICAL, CONSISTENT manner. You say "start to think like the program." C'mon, seriously, do you really think that is indicative of good design when you have to try to think like the program? It's not. Programs are tools, they should be subservient to my way of thinking, not overriding to it.
What a novel idea. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go play me some Oregon Trail.