Whoa, that flamebait mod must have come from somebody that hasn't had to deal with a MS development tools. Parent post is informative and/or insightful.
Here's my bitch list... err, gamers bill of rights I mean:
Physics: If you are going to try to make a realistic combat simulation game, make sure that those nicely detailed 50 ton tanks don't come to a dead stop when you run into a wooden crate! (Battlefield 2)
Keyboard Controls: If you are going to make a racing game that allows keyboard controls, make sure the controls are usable on more than the 100hp car you start out with. Nothing sucks quite as much as spinning out on every little turn. This one is for Juiced. NFSU2 got this right.
Splash Screens: If you want me to know that X, Y, and Z all made parts of the game, give me a way to skip past them! I don't want to sit through 30 seconds of mandatory splash screens each time the game loads. This is really sickening when the game has a problem and keeps crashing. I didn't spend a ton of money on a PC that can load stuff damn near instantly just to be delayed for marketing purposes. At least make the video files easy to find so I can delete them.
I tried freezing a drive that wasn't working once. Didn't help any.
What did help was taking the cover off and physically holding the arm in place so the head couldn't jump back and forth. Drive worked well enough to get data off after that.
It should be noted that this solution was simply a result of getting really pissed off at the drive because nothing else would work.
I didn't realize there was a new connector either. Well, until I ordered a Seagate SATA drive and realized there was no place to plug in a molex connector. Had to wait 3 days till the adapters came in. I hate waiting.
Now, could somebody explain why the hell they made a new power connector?
Things I like to tinker with when I'm feeling overly geeky and bored.
* RSA Factoring Challenge - because nobody has found a "magic" formula for instant factoring. * Physics simulations - just because its fun to draw a ball on the screen and have it bounce around in a realitic fashion. * 3D graphics - because it looks cool
The RSA challenge I play with when I feel more like thinking than coding. The other two are nice when I want to tinker for awhile, but also want quick visual results, which in turn keep me motivated to keep going further.
No problem Nate, I'm working on keeping that problem from happening in the future. Last time I had to restore your system, I installed a package to take screen captures every 10 seconds and save them to an MPEG file. Next time you call me with a problem, I'll just look through the video file to see what you were doing for the previous 24 hours.
If they'd have recorded a few more minutes, they would have heard:
"And that was Rings of Dust by Azuza Maklar and the Merangins. A lovely tune written in the 29403.425's. We're going to take a short commercial break right now, but please stay with us for a long evening of soothing klakbar instrumentals on WSAT."
One thing that jumps right out at me is how much the performance must suck for those with less than optimal video cards. When you double-click to zoom in on a location, it starts scaling the full-screen images, with a semi-transparent sidebar over it. At home I have a decent video card, although at work I have built-in video and it can barely handle the large flashing ads on some websites.
There's also the whole issue of the satellite imagery being too dark. That's just disturbing. It looks like they took all their images during a power outage.
One final complaint - the streets have "bumps" in them. Basically it looks like the street quickly shifts in one direction by about a full street width.
I'm sure there's more things wrong with it, but thats just what I've noticed in a few minutes.
Besides that, it looks like they need to up the performance of their web server. I get lots of broken images. Usually 1 or 2 for every full screen refresh of the map, either by zoom, or scroll.
As somebody else pointed out, the site is run by AOL.
BUT... couldn't you use this to find out if you're on somebodies list? Run a fight against somebody and get their score. Then sign off AIM and run the fight again to see if their score went down. Repeat a couple times to verify its you that affected their score. Note: I have not personally tried this... yet.
The only "cheat" I've found is for detecting invisible people. Although many people have video cards that don't handle cube mapping which gives the same results. So I guess it can't really be called a cheat.
Lag is lag, I can't really imagine xbox live as being any better. I'm not familiar with how the xbox version works though.
No, it "shouldn't" be the solution, but in the case of a dedicated server where the host isn't available to kick a player out, you have to come up with your own methods. The only other solution you have in that scenario is to leave the game yourself. I'd much rather get the problem players to leave.
Halo for PC isn't that bad though. Since its fairly easy to run a modded map, the people that like to do weird stuff play those maps. Regular people play the other maps.
The ones that get out of line can usually be taken care of with a little social engineering. If they're relatively new to the game, having somebody tell them to "press Alt F4 for the mod list" sometimes works. Other times you can just annoy them until they leave. For example, follow them around and keep walking in front of them. This usually has the effect of making them TK you. 6 of those and you're banned from the server.
So there are ways of dealing with jerks online, you just have to know how to handle yourself most importantly.
Be glad to help - just give me your e-mail address and I'll send you over an executable. I'll even be so nice as to include an MD5 hash so you know its secure.
Ok, so lets say you take a photograph. You decide to put it online and you want to use the Attribution license from Creative Commons, like many people do on Flickr. According to that license, people have to give you credit for your picture.
Now, lets say that I find your pic and I plan on using it on my website. Lets also say that you're like everybody else on Flickr and don't specify "HOW" credit is to be given to you. Can I just assume that a 1pt font is ok? How about a comment in the HTML source. I don't know what I can do with it without having to go through the trouble of contacting you. So how has that simplified anything?
I would too. Those screens may be going through the xbox video chips, but that doesn't mean its producing those images at 60fps or has things like collision detection or competitor AI running at the same time.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoa, that flamebait mod must have come from somebody that hasn't had to deal with a MS development tools. Parent post is informative and/or insightful.
Unicycle
Skateboard
Cross Country Skiing
Moon Shoes
Stilts
Dog Sled
Hot Air Balloon
Ya know, this is why you're not getting that promotion. Fred's getting promoted cause he wears moon shoes. Get with the program slacker.
Here's my bitch list... err, gamers bill of rights I mean:
Physics: If you are going to try to make a realistic combat simulation game, make sure that those nicely detailed 50 ton tanks don't come to a dead stop when you run into a wooden crate! (Battlefield 2)
Keyboard Controls: If you are going to make a racing game that allows keyboard controls, make sure the controls are usable on more than the 100hp car you start out with. Nothing sucks quite as much as spinning out on every little turn. This one is for Juiced. NFSU2 got this right.
Splash Screens: If you want me to know that X, Y, and Z all made parts of the game, give me a way to skip past them! I don't want to sit through 30 seconds of mandatory splash screens each time the game loads. This is really sickening when the game has a problem and keeps crashing. I didn't spend a ton of money on a PC that can load stuff damn near instantly just to be delayed for marketing purposes. At least make the video files easy to find so I can delete them.
I tried freezing a drive that wasn't working once. Didn't help any.
What did help was taking the cover off and physically holding the arm in place so the head couldn't jump back and forth. Drive worked well enough to get data off after that.
It should be noted that this solution was simply a result of getting really pissed off at the drive because nothing else would work.
You at least wear an anti-static wrist strap while you're doing that, right.
Challenge to Perl geeks -
Write a dupe checker in 512 characters.
I didn't realize there was a new connector either. Well, until I ordered a Seagate SATA drive and realized there was no place to plug in a molex connector. Had to wait 3 days till the adapters came in. I hate waiting.
Now, could somebody explain why the hell they made a new power connector?
Things I like to tinker with when I'm feeling overly geeky and bored.
* RSA Factoring Challenge - because nobody has found a "magic" formula for instant factoring.
* Physics simulations - just because its fun to draw a ball on the screen and have it bounce around in a realitic fashion.
* 3D graphics - because it looks cool
The RSA challenge I play with when I feel more like thinking than coding. The other two are nice when I want to tinker for awhile, but also want quick visual results, which in turn keep me motivated to keep going further.
No problem Nate, I'm working on keeping that problem from happening in the future. Last time I had to restore your system, I installed a package to take screen captures every 10 seconds and save them to an MPEG file. Next time you call me with a problem, I'll just look through the video file to see what you were doing for the previous 24 hours.
How much you willing to pay?
If they'd have recorded a few more minutes, they would have heard:
"And that was Rings of Dust by Azuza Maklar and the Merangins. A lovely tune written in the 29403.425's. We're going to take a short commercial break right now, but please stay with us for a long evening of soothing klakbar instrumentals on WSAT."
One thing that jumps right out at me is how much the performance must suck for those with less than optimal video cards. When you double-click to zoom in on a location, it starts scaling the full-screen images, with a semi-transparent sidebar over it. At home I have a decent video card, although at work I have built-in video and it can barely handle the large flashing ads on some websites.
There's also the whole issue of the satellite imagery being too dark. That's just disturbing. It looks like they took all their images during a power outage.
One final complaint - the streets have "bumps" in them. Basically it looks like the street quickly shifts in one direction by about a full street width.
I'm sure there's more things wrong with it, but thats just what I've noticed in a few minutes. Besides that, it looks like they need to up the performance of their web server. I get lots of broken images. Usually 1 or 2 for every full screen refresh of the map, either by zoom, or scroll.
Looks like tubgirl is more popular than goatse.
As somebody else pointed out, the site is run by AOL.
BUT... couldn't you use this to find out if you're on somebodies list? Run a fight against somebody and get their score. Then sign off AIM and run the fight again to see if their score went down. Repeat a couple times to verify its you that affected their score. Note: I have not personally tried this... yet.
The only "cheat" I've found is for detecting invisible people. Although many people have video cards that don't handle cube mapping which gives the same results. So I guess it can't really be called a cheat.
Lag is lag, I can't really imagine xbox live as being any better. I'm not familiar with how the xbox version works though.
No, it "shouldn't" be the solution, but in the case of a dedicated server where the host isn't available to kick a player out, you have to come up with your own methods. The only other solution you have in that scenario is to leave the game yourself. I'd much rather get the problem players to leave.
Halo for PC isn't that bad though. Since its fairly easy to run a modded map, the people that like to do weird stuff play those maps. Regular people play the other maps.
The ones that get out of line can usually be taken care of with a little social engineering. If they're relatively new to the game, having somebody tell them to "press Alt F4 for the mod list" sometimes works. Other times you can just annoy them until they leave. For example, follow them around and keep walking in front of them. This usually has the effect of making them TK you. 6 of those and you're banned from the server.
So there are ways of dealing with jerks online, you just have to know how to handle yourself most importantly.
No, no, no. If you're serious - you can't just say that you met your wife over IRC and then don't tell the story.
He's not dead, he's simply stuck in the transporter buffer of his disabled ship sitting on a Dyson sphere awaiting to be rescued.
Be glad to help - just give me your e-mail address and I'll send you over an executable. I'll even be so nice as to include an MD5 hash so you know its secure.
Ok, so lets say you take a photograph. You decide to put it online and you want to use the Attribution license from Creative Commons, like many people do on Flickr. According to that license, people have to give you credit for your picture.
Now, lets say that I find your pic and I plan on using it on my website. Lets also say that you're like everybody else on Flickr and don't specify "HOW" credit is to be given to you. Can I just assume that a 1pt font is ok? How about a comment in the HTML source. I don't know what I can do with it without having to go through the trouble of contacting you. So how has that simplified anything?
8^d Wtf, are you trying to stick your tongue up your nose?
Some Day
No I haven't seen the video. Is it online somewhere?
I would too. Those screens may be going through the xbox video chips, but that doesn't mean its producing those images at 60fps or has things like collision detection or competitor AI running at the same time.