That sounds uniformly awesome. I did end up buying Tiger, and I've been satisfied with it. Quicktime seems MUCH less resource-hungry, and playing 720p H.264-encoded content, while not perfect, is still impressive on a 19" LCD at 1280x1024. And H.264 is, of course, within the mpeg-4 standard and thus, I assume, more CPU-intensive than HD broadcasts (do they use mpeg-2 or something else entirely?).
I'll soon be in a situation where I can effectively use a projector and have been idly looking at them. What are the specs on yours? How much was it?
I've also been playing WoW on my mini. Lack of shaders is disappointing, but it does still look nice.
Also, I got a 512MB DIMM a few weeks ago (need to build something I can stick the 256MB one in now; Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are jeering at my dated x86 PCs), which improved things considerably, but now I'm almost wishing I had just sprung for a 1GB.
I've heard that Valve charged full price for HL2 via Steam because VU wouldn't let them undercut the boxed versions. I guess we'll never know for sure if it's true, but the break with VU will allow them to set prices as they please.
That said, I did get mine via Steam, but I bought the $59 version which included the entire Valve back catalog via Steam.
Ah, thank you. I'm glad to know more about the BF implementation, but that still leaves me with DMCA fears both for content providers who might want to strip the signals of the BF and current ownders of BF-respecting hardware. Sounds like support is fairly easy to remove at the manufacturing level, though. Would that assumption be correct?
Question, sir. I noted a post of yours in an earlier topic mentioning having a Mac mini in your living room. What model of mini is it? Is that what you have the EyeTV 500 attached to? If so, how is the performance? I got one of the $599 minis and have enjoyed it immensely as my new primary desktop machine, but its form factor, power usage, and remote access potential make it very attractive for home theater use.
TiVo just needs to donate a unit or two and a one-year subscription to everone in Congress. And include a note that the broadcast flag will likely be applied to most everything and render it unrecordable. Surely TiVo would have a stake in this; if they're required to respect the BF in digital models, sales would surely suffer.
What some people are fearing is that since it's getting so close to July 1 already, many will have already invested in the implementation and using your logic won't see financial incentive to then ignore it.
All this is of course assuming that any real effort was required on the part of broadcasters to actually support it. As far as I've heard, it's just a bit set on the signal that BF-compliant hardware recognizes. If that's the case, broadcasters shouldn't have any real implementation costs. Content providers, on the other hand, might see significant advantage in implementing it if there is a sizable percentage of hardware out there that is BF-compliant. Especially if it's just setting a bit in the signal.
A combination of manufacturer unwillingness to unimplement it in already-compliant product designs, content producer perception of value, and content delivery vector potential DMCA liability if it's filtered out is what scares me.
I'm not sure I follow. Manufacturers aren't anymore required to support the BF as a required means of copy protection. The main legal problem would be, I think, people trying to cicumvent the BF recognition on devices (current and future) that already support it. And on that note, I have to wonder how many manufacturers will make the effort to remove it from future products. Offering a user-controllable ability to disable the function (firmware upgrade or whatever) I could see as DMCA fodder since the only practical use for the BF is simple copy prevention, but making devices that just don't include the BF functionality I don't see as being a problem.
Also, is there anywhere that has BF and non-BF devices listed?
Fu... fun? Games aren't about fun! It takes dedication and forsaking all else to obtain mastery of a game. That is the only path to true gaming satisfaction!
Actually, yeah, I love low-grav instagib in some instances, though with UT2004 standard-setting Onslaught provides an amazing combination of strategy, teamwork, and frantic action that's not quite so hostile to neophytes as some other modes.
You might look around at graphics card options before getting one for your current machine. Things seem to be leaning toward PCI-Express these days. There are AGP versions of the current generation, but eventually--and even now, to some degree--AGP is going to a very limiting factor. If you get an AGP card for your current machine, it means you're likely to go with an AGP motherboard when you decide to upgrade the rest, but the next generation of cards will likely heavily favor PCI-Express.
Re:Why are hackers thought of as overweight?
on
Gaming Hacks
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· Score: 1
I think it's just a matter of metabolism. Neither group gets exercise or eats well. Weight is therefore determined solely by one's natural metabolism. I posit that both hackers and programmers can be either sickly thin or fat. And that there are a few who do get occasional exercise and/or control their diet and either gain some muscle and/or shed some fat.
Are you talking original Quake? It was a bit choppy on my 486(don't remember if it was DX or DX2) 66MHz, nice and smooth on a K5 75MHz. And of course GLQuake was nice once hardware acceleration caught on.
And Half-Life I recall playing on a K6 200MHz with a 3DFX Voodoo 1 (4MB card) without problems, though things got considerably better on a K6-2 450MHz, and later on a Voodoo2 I got on eBay. Though I guess those were using the 3DFX miniGL drivers, as I recall crashing when I tried to use DirectX on those. I wonder if there are miniGL wrappers available.
You might consider looking into getting a GeForce4 MX card. Those are like beefed up GeForce2 GTS cards and I'm sure can be found on eBay for $20 or so, or $30-$40 new. That should alleviate your OpenGL problems. Or if you want to jump into pixel shaders, I'm sure a second-hand GeForce 3 or 4 can't cost much, though finding PCI variants migh be hard (I'm assuming Intel Extreme means integrated video and thus no AGP slot).
Yeah, the Wipeout Pure hack or, oh, I don't know, a USB cable and a computer? Put the PSP in USB Mode, and it automatically mounts as a removable drive in operating systems that support USB drives (Windows 2000/XP, OS X, and I assume recent Linux versions).
A firmware upgrade with the ability to connect to download sites would be nice, though. Could even use a PSP-specific XML file on participating sites.
The subscriber base for the subscription service you suggest would be a subset of the set that includes people who own a big PS2, a network adapter, the hard drive, and Frequency or Amplitude. They're certainly not going to store songs on $25 8MB memory cards, and downloading or streaming every time you play the song doesn't seem like a very good idea.
Now that you mention it, though, that would be a pretty awesome feature to make buying an XBox port (maybe even a Frequency+Amplitude 2-pack!) worth it. Isn't there a version of Karaoke Revolution for XBox?
Also, have you tried the online play for Amplitude? I never got around to it, and now I'd need to buy a new ethernet cable to reach my PS2.
It's too bad that Mark Hamill has mostly sworn off the Joker voice, though. Hamill's Joker was amazing throughout the animated series, and in Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Hamill claims the laugh was ruining his voice, though.
And yeah, "The Batman" is unwatchable. The only redeeming part is that the voice actor for Joker seemed to at least partly try to emulate Hamill. At least in the first episode. I don't know if he's shown up again or not.
I never got around to watching Volume 2, but I've read that monologue a couple of times and it doesn't sit right with me. The first thing that struck me is that since the 80s, and maybe before, Bruce Wayne has been Batman's disguise. Wayne is there to keep Waynecorp running and keep Batman funded. The second thing is Spider-Man, though it's a more valid point. While the whole Spider-Man deal is an extension and coping mechanism for Parker's guilt, it does seem to be kept mostly separate from his civilian self, though lines blur, and the comic medium's use of internal monologue helps that blurring. Especially in Batman stories.
And then there's Superman. I see him as being Smallville Clark Kent with two disguises. One is Metropolis Kent who is all doubt and meekness. The other is Superman, infallible and utterly confident. Both seem to be extremes of Clark's actual personality. He's full of self doubt and guilt, but is fundamentally set on doing what's right for as many people as possible. I'd really suggest you read "Superman for all Seasons" by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. It's a pretty great retelling of Clark's life from arrival in Smallville to the beginnings of Superman's dealings with Luthor in Metropolis.
I know the monologue in Kill Bill was intentionally cynical, and maybe it fits better with Silver Age stories, but in recent times, as storytelling has gotten better, the lines between hero and civilian have been very well blurred, as well as definitive knowledge of who is who.
I actually just read that two nights ago. Had been looking in shops for it for a while but finally resorted to Amazon. It's very much a Moore story. Felt a lot like parts of Watchmen. Might have been the 80s art style in part. I liked it, but... either I somehow misread the ending, or Batman is crazier than anyone would imagine. Joker just paralyzed Batgirl (paving the way for super-librarian Oracle, which I find to be a really great name for what she does after that) after killing several others, and then tries to destroy Gordon's sanity completely. And Batman laughs. Maybe I should read it again, and Joker realized that he really was abnormal and admitted it to Batman, but even then, the laughing Batman seemed a little off after the night's other events. Managed to fit a lot in a reasonably short story, though. Definitely among the top Batman stories I've read, and manages to feel modern Batman-ish without being Millesque.
Is the iTrip specifically banned, or is it some blanket ban on unlicensed radio transmitters in the UK? The product web site states a 10-30 foot (~3-10 meter, I guess) range depending on radio receiver quality, that range apparently conforming to FCC requirements; it's not like you're going to be running some pirate radio station with one.
I should really look into Griffin Technologies, as they're based here in Nashville. Seems like a neat company, despite the preponderance of Apple-styled peripherals.
He mentioned replacing aftermarket chips. So either he bought some extra RAM elsewhere when he got his G5, or the "purchase" was the purchase of the extra RAM.
Also, is it OS X in general that is picky about RAM, or is it the G5 systems (I'm assuming the latter)? I got a 512MB PC3200 DIMM that was on sale at CompUSA a few weeks ago and stuck it in my mini (G4, of course), and have had no problems. Everything's a bit more responsive now now that there's less swapping to and from the 4200rpm HDD.
But can you do 'caddr' and such using 'first' and 'rest'?
I used LISP in an AI class. Seemed very interesting, and definitely useful for some applications. I almost wish I had done more with it. Almost. And yeah, I didn't learn about 'first' and 'rest' in that class, either.
The best part is that none of the three were correct! While I assume it's not all that rare, it's not every day that you see a triple misspelling, especially when the poster actually knows how to spell it, and especially when the rest of the comment is grammatically and typographically sound.
Just because it's 14 characters doesn't mean a child couldn't remember it. Make it a passphrase or an acronym out of a sentence your kids can remember.
Kid: "Bah, I can't remember, do I include 'a' and 'the' in the acronym?" [puzzling through reasonably long sentence, typing]
Computer: "Incorrect password. User account disabled. An e-mail has been sent to the system administrator."
Kid: "Crap, Dad's on a business trip and my report is due tomorrow, and I can't access my files from Mom's account! And since the hard drive is encrypted and/or password protected, I can't even access it from another computer!" [fails school]
Re:Such Innovation In a Time of Little
on
We Love Katamari
·
· Score: 1
Canadian/French, thus not Japanese. I used the terms "non-Japanese" and "Western" specifically to allow for various Ubisoft things and I assume others not based in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll soon be in a situation where I can effectively use a projector and have been idly looking at them. What are the specs on yours? How much was it?
I've also been playing WoW on my mini. Lack of shaders is disappointing, but it does still look nice.
Also, I got a 512MB DIMM a few weeks ago (need to build something I can stick the 256MB one in now; Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are jeering at my dated x86 PCs), which improved things considerably, but now I'm almost wishing I had just sprung for a 1GB.
So then it becomes rock, paper, scissors, dynamite!
That said, I did get mine via Steam, but I bought the $59 version which included the entire Valve back catalog via Steam.
Ah, thank you. I'm glad to know more about the BF implementation, but that still leaves me with DMCA fears both for content providers who might want to strip the signals of the BF and current ownders of BF-respecting hardware. Sounds like support is fairly easy to remove at the manufacturing level, though. Would that assumption be correct?
Question, sir. I noted a post of yours in an earlier topic mentioning having a Mac mini in your living room. What model of mini is it? Is that what you have the EyeTV 500 attached to? If so, how is the performance? I got one of the $599 minis and have enjoyed it immensely as my new primary desktop machine, but its form factor, power usage, and remote access potential make it very attractive for home theater use.
TiVo just needs to donate a unit or two and a one-year subscription to everone in Congress. And include a note that the broadcast flag will likely be applied to most everything and render it unrecordable. Surely TiVo would have a stake in this; if they're required to respect the BF in digital models, sales would surely suffer.
All this is of course assuming that any real effort was required on the part of broadcasters to actually support it. As far as I've heard, it's just a bit set on the signal that BF-compliant hardware recognizes. If that's the case, broadcasters shouldn't have any real implementation costs. Content providers, on the other hand, might see significant advantage in implementing it if there is a sizable percentage of hardware out there that is BF-compliant. Especially if it's just setting a bit in the signal.
A combination of manufacturer unwillingness to unimplement it in already-compliant product designs, content producer perception of value, and content delivery vector potential DMCA liability if it's filtered out is what scares me.
Also, is there anywhere that has BF and non-BF devices listed?
Actually, yeah, I love low-grav instagib in some instances, though with UT2004 standard-setting Onslaught provides an amazing combination of strategy, teamwork, and frantic action that's not quite so hostile to neophytes as some other modes.
You might look around at graphics card options before getting one for your current machine. Things seem to be leaning toward PCI-Express these days. There are AGP versions of the current generation, but eventually--and even now, to some degree--AGP is going to a very limiting factor. If you get an AGP card for your current machine, it means you're likely to go with an AGP motherboard when you decide to upgrade the rest, but the next generation of cards will likely heavily favor PCI-Express.
I think it's just a matter of metabolism. Neither group gets exercise or eats well. Weight is therefore determined solely by one's natural metabolism. I posit that both hackers and programmers can be either sickly thin or fat. And that there are a few who do get occasional exercise and/or control their diet and either gain some muscle and/or shed some fat.
And Half-Life I recall playing on a K6 200MHz with a 3DFX Voodoo 1 (4MB card) without problems, though things got considerably better on a K6-2 450MHz, and later on a Voodoo2 I got on eBay. Though I guess those were using the 3DFX miniGL drivers, as I recall crashing when I tried to use DirectX on those. I wonder if there are miniGL wrappers available.
You might consider looking into getting a GeForce4 MX card. Those are like beefed up GeForce2 GTS cards and I'm sure can be found on eBay for $20 or so, or $30-$40 new. That should alleviate your OpenGL problems. Or if you want to jump into pixel shaders, I'm sure a second-hand GeForce 3 or 4 can't cost much, though finding PCI variants migh be hard (I'm assuming Intel Extreme means integrated video and thus no AGP slot).
A firmware upgrade with the ability to connect to download sites would be nice, though. Could even use a PSP-specific XML file on participating sites.
The subscriber base for the subscription service you suggest would be a subset of the set that includes people who own a big PS2, a network adapter, the hard drive, and Frequency or Amplitude. They're certainly not going to store songs on $25 8MB memory cards, and downloading or streaming every time you play the song doesn't seem like a very good idea.
Now that you mention it, though, that would be a pretty awesome feature to make buying an XBox port (maybe even a Frequency+Amplitude 2-pack!) worth it. Isn't there a version of Karaoke Revolution for XBox?
Also, have you tried the online play for Amplitude? I never got around to it, and now I'd need to buy a new ethernet cable to reach my PS2.
I love when harmless tech is made illegal by shortsighted or vague regulations. And by "love," I mean, "find very frustrating."
And yeah, "The Batman" is unwatchable. The only redeeming part is that the voice actor for Joker seemed to at least partly try to emulate Hamill. At least in the first episode. I don't know if he's shown up again or not.
And then there's Superman. I see him as being Smallville Clark Kent with two disguises. One is Metropolis Kent who is all doubt and meekness. The other is Superman, infallible and utterly confident. Both seem to be extremes of Clark's actual personality. He's full of self doubt and guilt, but is fundamentally set on doing what's right for as many people as possible. I'd really suggest you read "Superman for all Seasons" by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. It's a pretty great retelling of Clark's life from arrival in Smallville to the beginnings of Superman's dealings with Luthor in Metropolis.
I know the monologue in Kill Bill was intentionally cynical, and maybe it fits better with Silver Age stories, but in recent times, as storytelling has gotten better, the lines between hero and civilian have been very well blurred, as well as definitive knowledge of who is who.
I actually just read that two nights ago. Had been looking in shops for it for a while but finally resorted to Amazon. It's very much a Moore story. Felt a lot like parts of Watchmen. Might have been the 80s art style in part. I liked it, but... either I somehow misread the ending, or Batman is crazier than anyone would imagine. Joker just paralyzed Batgirl (paving the way for super-librarian Oracle, which I find to be a really great name for what she does after that) after killing several others, and then tries to destroy Gordon's sanity completely. And Batman laughs. Maybe I should read it again, and Joker realized that he really was abnormal and admitted it to Batman, but even then, the laughing Batman seemed a little off after the night's other events. Managed to fit a lot in a reasonably short story, though. Definitely among the top Batman stories I've read, and manages to feel modern Batman-ish without being Millesque.
I should really look into Griffin Technologies, as they're based here in Nashville. Seems like a neat company, despite the preponderance of Apple-styled peripherals.
Also, is it OS X in general that is picky about RAM, or is it the G5 systems (I'm assuming the latter)? I got a 512MB PC3200 DIMM that was on sale at CompUSA a few weeks ago and stuck it in my mini (G4, of course), and have had no problems. Everything's a bit more responsive now now that there's less swapping to and from the 4200rpm HDD.
I used LISP in an AI class. Seemed very interesting, and definitely useful for some applications. I almost wish I had done more with it. Almost. And yeah, I didn't learn about 'first' and 'rest' in that class, either.
The best part is that none of the three were correct! While I assume it's not all that rare, it's not every day that you see a triple misspelling, especially when the poster actually knows how to spell it, and especially when the rest of the comment is grammatically and typographically sound.
Or maybe one in very small print taped to the back side of the door and consent consists entirely of walking through the door.
Kid: "Bah, I can't remember, do I include 'a' and 'the' in the acronym?" [puzzling through reasonably long sentence, typing]
Computer: "Incorrect password. User account disabled. An e-mail has been sent to the system administrator."
Kid: "Crap, Dad's on a business trip and my report is due tomorrow, and I can't access my files from Mom's account! And since the hard drive is encrypted and/or password protected, I can't even access it from another computer!" [fails school]
Canadian/French, thus not Japanese. I used the terms "non-Japanese" and "Western" specifically to allow for various Ubisoft things and I assume others not based in the US.