I LOVE the windows key. Well, first I had to swap it with caps lock (using Keytweak), then you can download a nice little program called autohotkey. Suddenly you have a whole keyboard's worth of scriptable hotkeys at your disposal, all using the caps-lock key which is is conveniently located. I'll never be able to go back.
Strangely enough, I enjoy the opposite. I want games to quit pretending like they have real worlds in them. The closer they get to looking like a real world, the more annoying it is when you don't understand what you are "supposed to do." I feel like I'm trapped in a fake world.
Older style games where things were much more confined annoyed me less -- they were overtly trapping you, and I didn't get frustrated.
For example, in a 2d side-scroller, it doesn't bother me that I can't break out the windows in the background and go through them. That background is just art, and I can safely ignore it.
But more immersive games blur the art and the world more, and you spend more time wondering if that glass window is something you're supposed to be able to break and go through, or maybe it's indestructible and the developers were lazy. It just feels like, because the world is supposed to seem MORE real, that all the ways that it isn't real and interactive are more annoying than if you just went back to purposely limiting the game.
In that sense, I enjoy game cliches (levels, crates, stupid enemies, etc), because I know what the rules of them are, and don't waste time wondering "am I supposed to interact with this thing somehow?", instead, I can focus on having fun playing the game.
While I don't necessarily entirely disagree with your claims of how bad GIMP's UI was, I have an anecdote (yay for horrible anecdotal stories!) that seems to indicate to the contrary.
My wife decided to start dabbling into digital scrapbooking. I wasn't going to run out and buy her a copy of Photoshop Elements for something she may not really decide she wants to do, so it was free tools all the way. We tried things like Paint.NET, but they couldn't reasonably handle the large resolution files that digital scrapbooking deals with.
So I cringed and installed GIMP. I assumed she'd get frustrated, never figure it out, and give up. (She's your standard non-techy, the type of person that opens Word any time they need to type anything with text) Instead, with a short tutorial (by me) about how layers work, she dove right in, understood most of the interface, and had a blast playing with it. She had no more trouble with its interface than she does with any other programs.
I was impressed. The GIMP just climbed another rung up the ladder of respectability in my book. (for non-professional graphics people)
And what about those who either choose not to have a cellphone, or can't afford one? Not everyone is willing to dedicate themselves to multi-year plans, or spend a not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset so they can pay (exhorbitantly) as they go.
The answer is: sorry, tough luck. AT&T has no duty to you to provide these pay phones for you. If they stop being profitable, they stop existing. They don't care about whether you are willing to dedicate yourself to a multi-year plan.
I'm not saying I like the result, but it's the way life works:(
actually an optimist has only disappointments in his life. compare that to a pessemist who has only happy surprises.
While clever, my experience is that an optimist not only expects the best, but sees the best in every situation, so they are usually happy or satisfied with the results.
A pessimist expects the worst, and then sees the negative in the situation, and grudgingly thinks, "see, what did I tell you?"
The oldest living organisms, yes, are in the US, but they are the bristlecone pine trees. The highest temperature recorded on earth was in Libya. If you are going to brag about where you live, at least be accurate, please.
More the fact that you don't care. If you are talking on the phone, your primary attention is on the conversation, and you don't care what appears on your screen. But we all know that advertising works by having brand awareness enter your general consciousness. So the related items appearing on the screen in front of you will be useful but non-intrusive advertising. Like highway billboards...you don't have to look at them, but (in moderation), they aren't really obtrusive like TV ads are.
Yes, it will be free. Whether it will match your own preferred definition of free is another question. I prefer the definition as in "fat-free", as in "this product is Microsoft-Office-Free". So yes, it's free.
In other words: if you want them to clarify what they mean by free, maybe you should also.
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the system prefs lets you change mouse tracking speed, but not turn of acceleration. (Which I really don't like)
I must be an exception in how I use windows...I never mess with virus scanners, but I also never have gotten a virus, spyware, etc. I don't tend to have trouble with having to reinstall windows, and have never had trouble with WGA or unwanted communication. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an MS fanboy (I rather dislike them as a company), but I don't really have trouble with XP...it just works;-)
Thank you for the well-written response. Everyone else just tells me that my mac should already have wireless and bluetooth (it's a mac mini that didn't get those options). Not useful:)
As far as acceleration, at least you understand what I mean...everyone else was trying to tell me how to change tracking speed. It's less about trying to get it to flick across the screen rapidly, as it is to always be consistently fast. A high acceleration curve has always driven me nuts, whether on windows or anything else.
And thanks for the pointers to quicksilver, camino, fink, and macports. I'll take a look.
I'm in the process of trying the same thing: trying to discover OS X. And I don't get it. I'm not trolling, I want someone to sell me on why it's better.
So far: 1. I have some cheap usb hardware (wireless network dongle, bluetooth, etc). No drivers for mac. (I've spent hours searching mailing lists) 2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app. 3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts. I can't figure this one out either. 4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal? 5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc). I could try compiling myself, or I've found older versions that other people have built for them, but that's rather a step backwards instead of forwards.
So yeah, I don't get it yet. I like that it's BSD-based and being able to drop to a terminal. The UI is pretty. But my XP machine also "just works", (and my linux box is fun when I want to go tweaking things) so I really want to know what makes the mac so much better?
Again, I'm not trying to troll...I just thought I'd finally give the thing an honest try, but I'm not yet seeing what the big deal is. Can I get one of you fanboys to point me towards what I'm missing?
I've beat blaster master a few times (yes, it's hard, but actually not THAT bad). The same for BattleToads. Ninja Gaiden really isn't bad either...I've done a run through without losing a life.
Now the REAL challenging game for nes is Snake Rattle and Roll. I've tried so many times, but could never beat the moon level without save-state cheating on an emulator.
When you factor in things like your time maintaining Windows (downloading Windows updates, scanning for viruses, spyware, etc.), the cost of anti-virus/anti-spyware protection
This argument cracks me up. I don't mind linux at all, but c'mon, I spent next to ZERO time doing these things you're talking about, and I use windows at work every day. If you use your brain, you don't need to worry about viruses and spyware. Downloading windows updates might take a few seconds (to click "ok, install these") every month or two.
I spend WAY more time fussing with my linux box, whenever I want to do something new. New printer? Mess with config files. Try to get my camera working? Mess with config files. Try to get my internal wireless card working? Oh, it's not supported. Try to get my usb wireless card working? Mess with config files. (yes, yes, I know that some distributions handle some types of hardware nicely. But this is just my experience on my Fedora box that I setup less than a year ago).
Again, I'm not saying linux is bad, or windows is great. I'm just laughing at this ridiculous argument about time spent on maintenance.
I'm a programmer at NCSA....there are a number of other small research projects we do, other than just supercomputer-related. I have a bachelors degree in CS, nothing special.
Organized religion as we know it would probably crumble, how could you accept something that says the force that created the entire universe personally created us too, in his own image to boot, when there could be hundreds of civilizations out there more advanced in every way than us.
Um, no. Many (most?) intelligent Christians don't believe that man and God are physically resemblant. To them, the concept of being made "in his image" implies that there is some sort of other similarity that isn't found on the rest of earth. Sentience, perhaps? Or maybe some other non-tangible component, a spirituality or "soul". Existence of strange sentient alien life outside of earth would pose some interesting questions to Christianity or other organized religions as we know them, but there's absolutely no reason that they would suddenly crumble and die.
Prepare to see every good in America sold at the same price through all outlets. This sucks.
Nah, you're overlooking the Wal-Mart effect. Most producers of products need Wal-Mart more than Wal-Mart needs them, and Wal-Mart has a tradition of making this clear, and squeezing companies in ways that they don't want to be squeezed.
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I LOVE the windows key. Well, first I had to swap it with caps lock (using Keytweak), then you can download a nice little program called autohotkey. Suddenly you have a whole keyboard's worth of scriptable hotkeys at your disposal, all using the caps-lock key which is is conveniently located. I'll never be able to go back.
But unfortunately, Warcraft 1 looked like poop compared to Starcraft.
Maybe they add a windows key ;-)
(I haven't used later thinkpads, so maybe they do have them, but all the ones I used had the windows keys mysteriously missing)
Strangely enough, I enjoy the opposite. I want games to quit pretending like they have real worlds in them. The closer they get to looking like a real world, the more annoying it is when you don't understand what you are "supposed to do." I feel like I'm trapped in a fake world.
Older style games where things were much more confined annoyed me less -- they were overtly trapping you, and I didn't get frustrated.
For example, in a 2d side-scroller, it doesn't bother me that I can't break out the windows in the background and go through them. That background is just art, and I can safely ignore it.
But more immersive games blur the art and the world more, and you spend more time wondering if that glass window is something you're supposed to be able to break and go through, or maybe it's indestructible and the developers were lazy. It just feels like, because the world is supposed to seem MORE real, that all the ways that it isn't real and interactive are more annoying than if you just went back to purposely limiting the game.
In that sense, I enjoy game cliches (levels, crates, stupid enemies, etc), because I know what the rules of them are, and don't waste time wondering "am I supposed to interact with this thing somehow?", instead, I can focus on having fun playing the game.
While I don't necessarily entirely disagree with your claims of how bad GIMP's UI was, I have an anecdote (yay for horrible anecdotal stories!) that seems to indicate to the contrary.
My wife decided to start dabbling into digital scrapbooking. I wasn't going to run out and buy her a copy of Photoshop Elements for something she may not really decide she wants to do, so it was free tools all the way. We tried things like Paint.NET, but they couldn't reasonably handle the large resolution files that digital scrapbooking deals with.
So I cringed and installed GIMP. I assumed she'd get frustrated, never figure it out, and give up. (She's your standard non-techy, the type of person that opens Word any time they need to type anything with text) Instead, with a short tutorial (by me) about how layers work, she dove right in, understood most of the interface, and had a blast playing with it. She had no more trouble with its interface than she does with any other programs.
I was impressed. The GIMP just climbed another rung up the ladder of respectability in my book. (for non-professional graphics people)
And what about those who either choose not to have a cellphone, or can't afford one? Not everyone is willing to dedicate themselves to multi-year plans, or spend a not-insignificant number of dollars on a handset so they can pay (exhorbitantly) as they go.
:(
The answer is: sorry, tough luck. AT&T has no duty to you to provide these pay phones for you. If they stop being profitable, they stop existing. They don't care about whether you are willing to dedicate yourself to a multi-year plan.
I'm not saying I like the result, but it's the way life works
Why did you have to end up sounding like zombo.com?
actually an optimist has only disappointments in his life.
compare that to a pessemist who has only happy surprises.
While clever, my experience is that an optimist not only expects the best, but sees the best in every situation, so they are usually happy or satisfied with the results.
A pessimist expects the worst, and then sees the negative in the situation, and grudgingly thinks, "see, what did I tell you?"
Do tell then...I can't find ANYTHING out there on the intarwebs that tells a pattern. Until I see a working description, I call BS
Money is plentiful in every non-NES Zelda game,
I always felt that money was plentiful in Zelda 1.
And Zelda 2 didn't have money.
And those were the only Zelda games on the nes....
Um, no.
The oldest living organisms, yes, are in the US, but they are the bristlecone pine trees. The highest temperature recorded on earth was in Libya. If you are going to brag about where you live, at least be accurate, please.
More the fact that you don't care. If you are talking on the phone, your primary attention is on the conversation, and you don't care what appears on your screen. But we all know that advertising works by having brand awareness enter your general consciousness. So the related items appearing on the screen in front of you will be useful but non-intrusive advertising. Like highway billboards...you don't have to look at them, but (in moderation), they aren't really obtrusive like TV ads are.
Yes, it will be free. Whether it will match your own preferred definition of free is another question. I prefer the definition as in "fat-free", as in "this product is Microsoft-Office-Free". So yes, it's free.
In other words: if you want them to clarify what they mean by free, maybe you should also.
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the system prefs lets you change mouse tracking speed, but not turn of acceleration. (Which I really don't like)
;-)
I must be an exception in how I use windows...I never mess with virus scanners, but I also never have gotten a virus, spyware, etc. I don't tend to have trouble with having to reinstall windows, and have never had trouble with WGA or unwanted communication. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an MS fanboy (I rather dislike them as a company), but I don't really have trouble with XP...it just works
Thank you for the well-written response. Everyone else just tells me that my mac should already have wireless and bluetooth (it's a mac mini that didn't get those options). Not useful :)
As far as acceleration, at least you understand what I mean...everyone else was trying to tell me how to change tracking speed. It's less about trying to get it to flick across the screen rapidly, as it is to always be consistently fast. A high acceleration curve has always driven me nuts, whether on windows or anything else.
And thanks for the pointers to quicksilver, camino, fink, and macports. I'll take a look.
I'm in the process of trying the same thing: trying to discover OS X. And I don't get it. I'm not trolling, I want someone to sell me on why it's better.
So far:
1. I have some cheap usb hardware (wireless network dongle, bluetooth, etc). No drivers for mac. (I've spent hours searching mailing lists)
2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app.
3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts. I can't figure this one out either.
4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal?
5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc). I could try compiling myself, or I've found older versions that other people have built for them, but that's rather a step backwards instead of forwards.
So yeah, I don't get it yet. I like that it's BSD-based and being able to drop to a terminal. The UI is pretty. But my XP machine also "just works", (and my linux box is fun when I want to go tweaking things) so I really want to know what makes the mac so much better?
Again, I'm not trying to troll...I just thought I'd finally give the thing an honest try, but I'm not yet seeing what the big deal is. Can I get one of you fanboys to point me towards what I'm missing?
Ha, just wait until you make it to the last level. You'll die like a pathetic little fly. I know I did....
I've beat blaster master a few times (yes, it's hard, but actually not THAT bad). The same for BattleToads. Ninja Gaiden really isn't bad either...I've done a run through without losing a life.
Now the REAL challenging game for nes is Snake Rattle and Roll. I've tried so many times, but could never beat the moon level without save-state cheating on an emulator.
When you factor in things like your time maintaining Windows (downloading Windows updates, scanning for viruses, spyware, etc.), the cost of anti-virus/anti-spyware protection
This argument cracks me up. I don't mind linux at all, but c'mon, I spent next to ZERO time doing these things you're talking about, and I use windows at work every day. If you use your brain, you don't need to worry about viruses and spyware. Downloading windows updates might take a few seconds (to click "ok, install these") every month or two.
I spend WAY more time fussing with my linux box, whenever I want to do something new. New printer? Mess with config files. Try to get my camera working? Mess with config files. Try to get my internal wireless card working? Oh, it's not supported. Try to get my usb wireless card working? Mess with config files. (yes, yes, I know that some distributions handle some types of hardware nicely. But this is just my experience on my Fedora box that I setup less than a year ago).
Again, I'm not saying linux is bad, or windows is great. I'm just laughing at this ridiculous argument about time spent on maintenance.
I agree. I avoid antivirus programs, other than a semi-annual scan to see if anything is messed up. Never had a virus/worm yet!
Not entirely true. He spends a lot of effort making things that will work by loading off the link-cable, which has the load the entire game into RAM.
After watching Sycko now I am very afraid to live in the USA. How can you live there?
Because real life and Michael Moore's documentary aren't really the same thing.
I'm a programmer at NCSA....there are a number of other small research projects we do, other than just supercomputer-related. I have a bachelors degree in CS, nothing special.
Organized religion as we know it would probably crumble, how could you accept something that says the force that created the entire universe personally created us too, in his own image to boot, when there could be hundreds of civilizations out there more advanced in every way than us.
Um, no. Many (most?) intelligent Christians don't believe that man and God are physically resemblant. To them, the concept of being made "in his image" implies that there is some sort of other similarity that isn't found on the rest of earth. Sentience, perhaps? Or maybe some other non-tangible component, a spirituality or "soul". Existence of strange sentient alien life outside of earth would pose some interesting questions to Christianity or other organized religions as we know them, but there's absolutely no reason that they would suddenly crumble and die.
Prepare to see every good in America sold at the same price through all outlets. This sucks.
Nah, you're overlooking the Wal-Mart effect. Most producers of products need Wal-Mart more than Wal-Mart needs them, and Wal-Mart has a tradition of making this clear, and squeezing companies in ways that they don't want to be squeezed.