Erm, because hard drives are significantly faster for reading than CDs or even DVDs. Plus there's the added benefit that, unlike on console, you don't have to pay for about 1MB of flaky memory for each savegame.
Of course it makes sense to not boot into a bloated multitasking environment if you only want to play games, but installing games makes PC versions much faster and more responsive than their console equivalents.
I'm sure I'm not the only once infuriated by console loading times and those stupid "door scenes" from Resident Evil on the PSOne. Notice that in PC versions, these annoying semi-cut scenes could be skipped...
Personally, at the moment, I don't mind having to clutter up my hard disk if it means that my gaming experience is sped up and that I don't have to bother changing CDs all the time. I CD-crack all my software for convenience and it also means you can put your own audio CDs in the drive to listen to as you play.
Yes, it is possible to activate the Ctrl-Alt-Del requisite in XP although it's a (fairly) hidden option. Control Panel holds no clues and I'm not even certain if it's possible through the administrative tools in the Computer Management Console. Still, all you have to do is hit [Windows+R] and type control userpasswords2 into the Run box. This presents you with a user settings control window from which you can add and remove users, alter privileges and change passwords. Inside the "Advanced" tab, you can force users to have to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to use the "secure logon".
Having said that, it's worth noting that in Windows 9x it's possible to block Ctrl-Alt-Del with a bit of minor coding. Sounds interesting...
If these moons are gravitationally astatic, stochastic motion could account for their motion in this deterministic system. We all know how complication three-body motion is, so with the number of objects affected by various gravitational fields out there, it would be incredibly hard to predict any movement at all. I wish them good luck in trying to precisely "understand how the moons can coexist with each other".
Is it not possible that these moons are so unstable that they will have relatively short lifespans? Might they soon end up crashing into the planet's surface or interact together and get flung off out of the solar system?
Exactly. First Apple changed the iPod's key layout and now Nokia's been pissing about with their numberpads. Is there nothing left to be said for good old muscle memory?
Even if the user interface is left unchanged, it takes some time for users to get used to the new positions of vital keys...
...but I've never understood the purpose of 'phones which can play music yet only have enough room for "up to 50 minutes of near CD-quality music". Go-betweens rarely turn out well and what's the point in having to convert your music to 96kb/s just to fit a whole album on there?
Mobile 'phones often suffer from poor battery life as it is and I can only see this feature reducing it yet more. Why include an additional "feature" that is detrimental to the device's main function? It's a pain having to switch the music on a player at the best of times, but why would you consider it when you've only got fifty minutes and no upgradabilty? I can't help thinking it's only bloated for the sake of it and to appear more trendy. I dread to learn the ways in which Nokia have organised music downloads straight into the 'phone from mobile services...
Finally, I'm sure I'm not the only one to lament the lack of Vorbis compatibility. As for LAME, I bet you could barely even fit one song on there...
But he can't possibly compete against Marey Carey's not-so-different tactic of giving out free porn.
Re:Creator's rights and copying technologies
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Ask Neil Gaiman
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· Score: 1
Good point. But surely there is sufficiently trashy reading material being produced to appeal to the masses?
Perhaps the major problem is easy of digitising? I have no idea how ebooks are created, but the process must be significantly more long winded than ripping a CD or smuggling a video camera into the local megaplex...
Re:Creator's rights and copying technologies
on
Ask Neil Gaiman
·
· Score: 1
In addition, although authors aren't actually filing high-profile lawsuits at the moment, it's certainly an issue on website contributors' minds. Everything2's recently concocted copyright policy is clear evidence of this.
While copyright violations aren't actively being challenged right now, I believe it's only a matter of time before lawyers inform their greedy clients of the potential windfalls. However, currently, illegal distribution of copyrighted texts has not nearly reached the level of mp3/film/apps/games sharing. This is largely due to the inconveniences involved in reading any acquired data. Regardless, I do think that it's something likely to attract a lot more attention in the future...
Yeah, I've known people who bought Apple laptops only to put Linux on. However, I still don't understand them. Really, for the price a PC is so much better value that the decision is effectly already made for you.
Also, bear in mind that the aesthetics of PC laptops are getting better each day and nothing can beat them for raw power and (slightly more marginally) upgradeability.
Maybe so, maybe not. Darwin certainly would have had an easier life if the authorities were ready for his ideas. Remember that people were still being persecuted for almost a hundred years after the publication of On the Origin of Species. Much of the world still believes in primitive religious ideals. The Industrial Revolution was a very cruel time to live in and, although it greatly benefited humanity, the costs were huge. And no, I'd argue that the Cold War and Nagasaki and Hiroshima show that we are not responsible enough to deal with e=mc^2 yet. In fact, with recent catastrophes and wars, humans are still being constantly reminded how unprepared we are for the knowledge we posses.
I'm far from certain, but I suspect that the risks involved with being unready for dialogue with other intelligent life forms will be several magnitudes higher than those in past history. Maybe we can cope with the responsibility, but it would be disastrous is if it turns out we cannot. It is up to us as a species to try and grow in maturity as quickly as we do in knowledge.
Yes, indeed. How can humanity start on such a huge endeavour as space colonisation when, back on earth, we are beset by petty rifts and fragmented by power? How relevant is a moon base to the huge proportion of the world's population entrenched in poverty?
I think that before we can seriously think about this, the species as a whole has to grow and mature. Any sort of advanced space exploration has to be undertaken in unity in the name of every Earthling. Until we can learn to live with each other, we can't hope or dare to have any meaningful dialogue with other intelligent races. Otherwise, I fear that any serious adventure into space is destined to end badly...
Seeing as its best feature is the wireless multiplayer gaming, Nokia has effectively let the whole round off into its own foot by making it so cumbersome to change games. This is absolutely ridiculous especially the inconvenience of having to carry the game cartridges separately.
Personally, I would be discouraged from engaging in a multiplayer game with people purely due to the inconvenience. Combine the counterintuitive rotation required for calls with fashion-conscious style-Nazis who buy the latest 'phones, and Nokia's surely onto a loser. What's more, N-Gage is a shockingly bad name.
Maybe so, but he could at least go into more details instead of dumbly quoting Lord Acton. Most people are aware that power has a tendency to corrupt, but they would be more worried if they were given examples of how their governments abuse privileges.
Q: There's a dialogue going on right now about the Patriot Act. You have often stated that you think parts of this act are misguided or not terribly effective. Which parts and why?
A:One of the problems with making security tradeoffs is that there are many overlapping security concerns. The Patriot Act has given the government and police unprecedented powers. Many of these powers are Draconian and fly directly in the face of a free society.
Of course, if you assume that the government and the police are 100% benevolent and good, there's no reason not to give them ultimate power. But history shows, in this country and abroad, both that power corrupts and that even an honest organization invariably includes a dishonest few.
I agree with a lot of what he says, but I wish he would actually answer what the questions ask instead of simply stating the obvious...
Bruce talks a great deal about security tradeoffs. Despite the fact that he's a big security guy, he states that he doesn't lock his back door, because I know the risk of burglary is slight. A security expert who cannot be bothered to turn a knob on his door... eh, what?
Surely, now everyone's read this, all his local burgulars will pop round to steal his TV when he's away at the next book signing?
Yeah, I just thought that any sort of troubleshooting that should need to occur would be pretty darn difficult without being able to tell what's really going on. If it ever gets into a really bad state, it would be nearly impossible to recover your expensive little box...
Smaller than PDA-class devices and without traditional input/output (I/O) capabilities such as a keyboard or display
Even though it's not running Windows, surely some sort of display would be semi-necessary? I'd hate being stuck with a useless paperweight after getting haxored or whatever...
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Erm, because hard drives are significantly faster for reading than CDs or even DVDs. Plus there's the added benefit that, unlike on console, you don't have to pay for about 1MB of flaky memory for each savegame.
Of course it makes sense to not boot into a bloated multitasking environment if you only want to play games, but installing games makes PC versions much faster and more responsive than their console equivalents.
I'm sure I'm not the only once infuriated by console loading times and those stupid "door scenes" from Resident Evil on the PSOne. Notice that in PC versions, these annoying semi-cut scenes could be skipped...
Personally, at the moment, I don't mind having to clutter up my hard disk if it means that my gaming experience is sped up and that I don't have to bother changing CDs all the time. I CD-crack all my software for convenience and it also means you can put your own audio CDs in the drive to listen to as you play.
Yes, it is possible to activate the Ctrl-Alt-Del requisite in XP although it's a (fairly) hidden option. Control Panel holds no clues and I'm not even certain if it's possible through the administrative tools in the Computer Management Console. Still, all you have to do is hit [Windows+R] and type control userpasswords2 into the Run box. This presents you with a user settings control window from which you can add and remove users, alter privileges and change passwords. Inside the "Advanced" tab, you can force users to have to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to use the "secure logon".
Having said that, it's worth noting that in Windows 9x it's possible to block Ctrl-Alt-Del with a bit of minor coding. Sounds interesting...
You fucking git.
Your mum?
If these moons are gravitationally astatic, stochastic motion could account for their motion in this deterministic system. We all know how complication three-body motion is, so with the number of objects affected by various gravitational fields out there, it would be incredibly hard to predict any movement at all. I wish them good luck in trying to precisely "understand how the moons can coexist with each other".
Is it not possible that these moons are so unstable that they will have relatively short lifespans? Might they soon end up crashing into the planet's surface or interact together and get flung off out of the solar system?
Because otherwise things like this will happen. Competition is always healthy and there's no point leaving NASA with the monopoly on space travel.
What's so bad about offering another perspective toward the whole of the universe?
Exactly. First Apple changed the iPod's key layout and now Nokia's been pissing about with their numberpads. Is there nothing left to be said for good old muscle memory?
Even if the user interface is left unchanged, it takes some time for users to get used to the new positions of vital keys...
...but I've never understood the purpose of 'phones which can play music yet only have enough room for "up to 50 minutes of near CD-quality music". Go-betweens rarely turn out well and what's the point in having to convert your music to 96kb/s just to fit a whole album on there?
Mobile 'phones often suffer from poor battery life as it is and I can only see this feature reducing it yet more. Why include an additional "feature" that is detrimental to the device's main function? It's a pain having to switch the music on a player at the best of times, but why would you consider it when you've only got fifty minutes and no upgradabilty? I can't help thinking it's only bloated for the sake of it and to appear more trendy. I dread to learn the ways in which Nokia have organised music downloads straight into the 'phone from mobile services...Finally, I'm sure I'm not the only one to lament the lack of Vorbis compatibility. As for LAME, I bet you could barely even fit one song on there...
But he can't possibly compete against Marey Carey's not-so-different tactic of giving out free porn.
Good point. But surely there is sufficiently trashy reading material being produced to appeal to the masses?
Perhaps the major problem is easy of digitising? I have no idea how ebooks are created, but the process must be significantly more long winded than ripping a CD or smuggling a video camera into the local megaplex...
In addition, although authors aren't actually filing high-profile lawsuits at the moment, it's certainly an issue on website contributors' minds. Everything2's recently concocted copyright policy is clear evidence of this.
While copyright violations aren't actively being challenged right now, I believe it's only a matter of time before lawyers inform their greedy clients of the potential windfalls. However, currently, illegal distribution of copyrighted texts has not nearly reached the level of mp3/film/apps/games sharing. This is largely due to the inconveniences involved in reading any acquired data. Regardless, I do think that it's something likely to attract a lot more attention in the future...
Yeah, I've known people who bought Apple laptops only to put Linux on. However, I still don't understand them. Really, for the price a PC is so much better value that the decision is effectly already made for you.
Also, bear in mind that the aesthetics of PC laptops are getting better each day and nothing can beat them for raw power and (slightly more marginally) upgradeability.
Mac zealots' satisfaction and happiness is directly proportional to the amount of money lining Steve Jobs' pockets...
Maybe so, maybe not. Darwin certainly would have had an easier life if the authorities were ready for his ideas. Remember that people were still being persecuted for almost a hundred years after the publication of On the Origin of Species. Much of the world still believes in primitive religious ideals. The Industrial Revolution was a very cruel time to live in and, although it greatly benefited humanity, the costs were huge. And no, I'd argue that the Cold War and Nagasaki and Hiroshima show that we are not responsible enough to deal with e=mc^2 yet. In fact, with recent catastrophes and wars, humans are still being constantly reminded how unprepared we are for the knowledge we posses.
I'm far from certain, but I suspect that the risks involved with being unready for dialogue with other intelligent life forms will be several magnitudes higher than those in past history. Maybe we can cope with the responsibility, but it would be disastrous is if it turns out we cannot. It is up to us as a species to try and grow in maturity as quickly as we do in knowledge.
Yes, indeed. How can humanity start on such a huge endeavour as space colonisation when, back on earth, we are beset by petty rifts and fragmented by power? How relevant is a moon base to the huge proportion of the world's population entrenched in poverty?
I think that before we can seriously think about this, the species as a whole has to grow and mature. Any sort of advanced space exploration has to be undertaken in unity in the name of every Earthling. Until we can learn to live with each other, we can't hope or dare to have any meaningful dialogue with other intelligent races. Otherwise, I fear that any serious adventure into space is destined to end badly...
Seeing as its best feature is the wireless multiplayer gaming, Nokia has effectively let the whole round off into its own foot by making it so cumbersome to change games. This is absolutely ridiculous especially the inconvenience of having to carry the game cartridges separately.
Personally, I would be discouraged from engaging in a multiplayer game with people purely due to the inconvenience. Combine the counterintuitive rotation required for calls with fashion-conscious style-Nazis who buy the latest 'phones, and Nokia's surely onto a loser. What's more, N-Gage is a shockingly bad name.
More likely: this magnet is the cause of the power outages...
Maybe so, but he could at least go into more details instead of dumbly quoting Lord Acton. Most people are aware that power has a tendency to corrupt, but they would be more worried if they were given examples of how their governments abuse privileges.
Yes. Personally, with such expertise, I think he could and should have been a lot more ruthless in his diatribe against the Patriot Act.
Yeah, I just thought that any sort of troubleshooting that should need to occur would be pretty darn difficult without being able to tell what's really going on. If it ever gets into a really bad state, it would be nearly impossible to recover your expensive little box...
Surely you're not that gullible?
Why doesn't it cover the infinite number of monkeys on typewriters method that Microsoft is clearly still debugging?