That's ridiculous. When you're a kid, you also don't contribute to GDP (in a positive way, at least) either, but that doesn't mean that the metric is absurd. Somebody has to have more than $1.25 to provide you with food and shelter.
> Why would you think that our ability to reduce such risks isn't part of natural selection?
It is, but not when the ones who actually do the risk reduction are different from the ones who benefit from this reduction (stupid/unfit children, in this case).
And each of them is arbitrary. Give people a test relative to what they want to do and if they pass the test let them do it. Of course then you get into the annoying discussion about what "pass" means but just make the consequences be life or death and then the result will be clear. This is what our ancestors did.
Yeah, but then you'll end up with black people not being able to vote because their disadvantaged education doesn't allow them to score over some arbitrary threshold on some arbitrary test.
That's certainly possible, but there's real-world data available all over the internet, like here, for example. The short version: the whole system with a 5870 uses 290 Watts under full load, and two of them use 460, meaning that the second card added "just" 170 Watts.
WOW is a bad example, apparently (see the other reply), but it might help to think about in terms of how games are usually programmed. I am by no means a game programmer or even a professional programmer of any kind, so maybe somebody will correct me.
Basically, to render one frame, the game runs through what is usually called the "game loop", which contains all the code that has to be executed to result in a new frame. This typically includes basic stuff like checking the user's input, but also the important and CPU-intensive things like the AI or physics, and of course actually drawing the graphics. Finally, there's also a chunk of code that does the graphics. You can't just start with the next frame until you finish the current one, as for example the new position of a falling box would depend on its position and acceleration now, which in turn had to be calculated based on the previous data, etc.
So now it's probably starting to become clear that because the graphics rendering is only a part of the whole loop, no matter how fast it is, the lowest frame time will be set by the CPU (or the vice versa). Imagine that you have the ultimate badass GPU that can render anything in 0ms, but the processor is just average and takes 30ms to calculate physics and run the AI. So in the end, despite the super-fast graphics card, you're still only going to get at most ~33 FPS.
Sorry for replying to myself, but I forgot the other funny part. The even better one is that the public transport people are now on strike and anyone who's relying on them is fucked, since if you don't get to work you don't get paid. Thankfully I have my car plus I can work from home, but most people aren't so lucky.
Your forty-minute commute by car might, under ideal circumstances, be the same length, or even shorter. Or it might stretch out to forty-five or fifty minutes, during which time you can have a nap, read a book, catch up on the news, or connect to the onboard wifi. And the four or five grand per year you're saving turns into an annual two-week vacation in Switzerland, where you can see just how good public transit can get if it's funded properly.
Or it could stretch to 2 hours. This is the case for me, though that's the return trip times. If I drive, I'm at work in in 17-20 minutes depending on traffic, but if I use public transport, it's one hour if everything is perfectly on time. The marginal costs of riding the bus is almost the same as driving too.
And you know what's the funny part? This isn't Bumfuck, Texas or anything, that's the middle of Europe, I pay 60% tax on gas + road use "fee", and public transport is heavily subsidized. Sure I could sell my car and save a bit of money, but I'd rather get home sooner and jerk off or do something fun instead of being stuck in a hot smelly bus.
Finished the game yesterday. Overall, I agree with you - the game wasn't at all terrible, and the arstechnica review is full of shit. That's not to say that it was worth waiting 14 years or anything, it's still not a good game and overall I'd rate it C-, ok but not good.
One thing I'm not sure about is "ancient gameplay" that you mention. To me, the actual gameplay is sadly as modern as gets - you've got regenerative health, 2 weapons, painfully linear levels, etc. It's really bizarre how some of the defining DN3D qualities are completely missing: the interactivity (mostly), tons of guns (at the same time!), the Mighty Boots (both at the same time), and even the jetpack, not to mention all the other inventory toys.
I think that if they kept these key element from the original games in, it would have also forced them to reconsider some the worst design elements, such as the tiny linear levels and regenerative health, since you wouldn't really need reg. health if you could at any moment heal from the portable medkit, or quickly get to another portion of the map with the jetpack.
What I now imagine as a good Duke game, would probably have Crysis-size levels (and graphics) with even more emphasis on exploration and of course combat and humor similar to the old game. It sounds doable to me, but unfortunately, I don't really trust Gearbox deliver anything like this. Opposing Force was 12 years ago, and it was using HL engine and assets.
Yes they did, Gearbox just paid what was probably a decent amount of money for that game, polished it a bit as you say, and released it on the unsuspecting public. Now everyone knows that Duke sucks, and it's Gearbox's fault.
Not that Broussard is blameless, of course, he's an idiot and a terrible project manager, but Gearbox didn't have to buy/release the game in this state.
Yes, probably, I wasn't claiming otherwise. Just when we're talking about a realistic game, like Rainbow Six (pre-Vegas), it a) makes perfect sense: you can't carry more than a few weapons without them getting in the way IRL b) doesn't detract from the gameplay - I rarely needed to reload my smg/rifle, let alone use my sidearm in anything but the OH SHIT situations
Most games nowadays don't have these excuses, like for example Bulletstorm. It's a fun and completely ridiculous game, but for some reason you can't carry more than 2 (or 3?) weapons at once and that sucks a lot. Not only it prevents you from mixing up your kills and selecting the most appropriate gun for the situation, but I also ended up completing the whole game without using some of the weapons for more than a few minutes. So yeah, consoles ruin everything.
The only way in which Duke 3d compares poorly is its technical execution, the Build engine just wasn't as advanced as Quake and especially Quake 2 of course. You're free to dislike it certainly, but just declaring that it wasn't fun isn't really fair either. There are, simply, some things that make it more fun than other contemporary games, such as the highly interactive environments which, variety in weapons, enemies, and level design, and even the cheesy one liners.
I don't think it's rose colored glasses, I played the game back when it was reasonably new, and I liked it at the time, not just in my memories. I also played it very recently again, and it was a blast. And I'm talking original textures and models, none of the new HD textures and 3D models. Despite of this, the outdated graphics definitely didn't distract from the actual enjoyment
Regarding Mass Effect, never played it, but the recent CoD games just shit over everything that was good about shooters. Sadly, early reports are even that Duke was affected by its influence - there's the ridiculous regenerating health, much more linear levels, and, most bizarrely, a limit on how many weapons you can carry. It makes no sense in an unrealistic aracdy game like this, but apparently since CoD does that now, Duke has to follow the convention.
"Dodgy" is not the same thing as illegal. And even if it's something actually illegal, he'd probably be quite motivated to shut up about it whether there's an NDA or not, but this is where his personal ethics come in.
Yeah but it's 18 years later and we're using processors that are literally thousands of times faster than the original ones. In light of that, I think it's a rather pathetic achievement.
> There is a vast difference between your statement, and Bin Laden's. Namely, Bin Laden carried out 4 terrorist attacks against the US and murdered thousands of people. Insisting that your statement is the same as Bin Laden's is patently idiotic.
What, exactly, is the difference? As you can see, I've clearly carried out what could be considered acts of war against the US.
How are they going to know it's actually your pre-order, even if they do have the record in their system? Unless pre-ordering required signing up with your name and address information, the receipt is the only way.
By encouraged people to "steal and leak military secrets" you mean "expose murder and corruption", right? The guy who actually did expose murder and corruption got stuck naked in a tiny, empty cell and wasn't allowed to exercise to keep himself healthy or at least busy. Well done.
I can declare war on the United States too, observe: "I, mobby_6kl, declare war on the United States of America, for seriously pissing me off on several occasions, effective immediately".
I'm also responsible for planning and financing 911, sinking of the Titanic, assassination of JFK, the Lockerbie bombing, WWI, WWII, the Cuban missile crisis, and the black plague. Also the Zodiac murders.
So what now, are you going to send helicopters with a bunch of goons to violate the airspace of the country I live in, and then shoot a bunch of people who live in my house and pose no immediate threat?
You might want to get some updated facts, he wasn't involved in a firefight (unless being shot in the eye counts), and he wasn't using a human shield.
Slashdot Mirror
That's ridiculous. When you're a kid, you also don't contribute to GDP (in a positive way, at least) either, but that doesn't mean that the metric is absurd. Somebody has to have more than $1.25 to provide you with food and shelter.
How is an email not in writing? Because it's not recorded on a stone tablet?
Seems like the burden of proof is on the wrong party here.
> Why would you think that our ability to reduce such risks isn't part of natural selection?
It is, but not when the ones who actually do the risk reduction are different from the ones who benefit from this reduction (stupid/unfit children, in this case).
you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.
Yeah, but then you'll end up with black people not being able to vote because their disadvantaged education doesn't allow them to score over some arbitrary threshold on some arbitrary test.
That's certainly possible, but there's real-world data available all over the internet, like here, for example. The short version: the whole system with a 5870 uses 290 Watts under full load, and two of them use 460, meaning that the second card added "just" 170 Watts.
WOW is a bad example, apparently (see the other reply), but it might help to think about in terms of how games are usually programmed. I am by no means a game programmer or even a professional programmer of any kind, so maybe somebody will correct me.
Basically, to render one frame, the game runs through what is usually called the "game loop", which contains all the code that has to be executed to result in a new frame. This typically includes basic stuff like checking the user's input, but also the important and CPU-intensive things like the AI or physics, and of course actually drawing the graphics. Finally, there's also a chunk of code that does the graphics. You can't just start with the next frame until you finish the current one, as for example the new position of a falling box would depend on its position and acceleration now, which in turn had to be calculated based on the previous data, etc.
So now it's probably starting to become clear that because the graphics rendering is only a part of the whole loop, no matter how fast it is, the lowest frame time will be set by the CPU (or the vice versa). Imagine that you have the ultimate badass GPU that can render anything in 0ms, but the processor is just average and takes 30ms to calculate physics and run the AI. So in the end, despite the super-fast graphics card, you're still only going to get at most ~33 FPS.
On the other hand, he already murdered more people in other countries than Bush did in his two terms.
Sorry for replying to myself, but I forgot the other funny part. The even better one is that the public transport people are now on strike and anyone who's relying on them is fucked, since if you don't get to work you don't get paid. Thankfully I have my car plus I can work from home, but most people aren't so lucky.
Your forty-minute commute by car might, under ideal circumstances, be the same length, or even shorter. Or it might stretch out to forty-five or fifty minutes, during which time you can have a nap, read a book, catch up on the news, or connect to the onboard wifi. And the four or five grand per year you're saving turns into an annual two-week vacation in Switzerland, where you can see just how good public transit can get if it's funded properly.
Or it could stretch to 2 hours. This is the case for me, though that's the return trip times. If I drive, I'm at work in in 17-20 minutes depending on traffic, but if I use public transport, it's one hour if everything is perfectly on time. The marginal costs of riding the bus is almost the same as driving too.
And you know what's the funny part? This isn't Bumfuck, Texas or anything, that's the middle of Europe, I pay 60% tax on gas + road use "fee", and public transport is heavily subsidized. Sure I could sell my car and save a bit of money, but I'd rather get home sooner and jerk off or do something fun instead of being stuck in a hot smelly bus.
Finished the game yesterday. Overall, I agree with you - the game wasn't at all terrible, and the arstechnica review is full of shit. That's not to say that it was worth waiting 14 years or anything, it's still not a good game and overall I'd rate it C-, ok but not good.
One thing I'm not sure about is "ancient gameplay" that you mention. To me, the actual gameplay is sadly as modern as gets - you've got regenerative health, 2 weapons, painfully linear levels, etc. It's really bizarre how some of the defining DN3D qualities are completely missing: the interactivity (mostly), tons of guns (at the same time!), the Mighty Boots (both at the same time), and even the jetpack, not to mention all the other inventory toys.
I think that if they kept these key element from the original games in, it would have also forced them to reconsider some the worst design elements, such as the tiny linear levels and regenerative health, since you wouldn't really need reg. health if you could at any moment heal from the portable medkit, or quickly get to another portion of the map with the jetpack.
What I now imagine as a good Duke game, would probably have Crysis-size levels (and graphics) with even more emphasis on exploration and of course combat and humor similar to the old game. It sounds doable to me, but unfortunately, I don't really trust Gearbox deliver anything like this. Opposing Force was 12 years ago, and it was using HL engine and assets.
Yes they did, Gearbox just paid what was probably a decent amount of money for that game, polished it a bit as you say, and released it on the unsuspecting public. Now everyone knows that Duke sucks, and it's Gearbox's fault.
Not that Broussard is blameless, of course, he's an idiot and a terrible project manager, but Gearbox didn't have to buy/release the game in this state.
Do you know where Singapore is?
Well to be fair, Tux-labeled cake is probably how most Linux users got to be the size they are.
Yes, probably, I wasn't claiming otherwise. Just when we're talking about a realistic game, like Rainbow Six (pre-Vegas), it
a) makes perfect sense: you can't carry more than a few weapons without them getting in the way IRL
b) doesn't detract from the gameplay - I rarely needed to reload my smg/rifle, let alone use my sidearm in anything but the OH SHIT situations
Most games nowadays don't have these excuses, like for example Bulletstorm. It's a fun and completely ridiculous game, but for some reason you can't carry more than 2 (or 3?) weapons at once and that sucks a lot. Not only it prevents you from mixing up your kills and selecting the most appropriate gun for the situation, but I also ended up completing the whole game without using some of the weapons for more than a few minutes. So yeah, consoles ruin everything.
Maybe. If our State Dept. got hacked, people would freak out even if it was just a bunch of "where are we going for lunch" messages.
It would also be considered an act of war by the US, and some assholes will certainly call for retaliation with cruise missiles.
The only way in which Duke 3d compares poorly is its technical execution, the Build engine just wasn't as advanced as Quake and especially Quake 2 of course. You're free to dislike it certainly, but just declaring that it wasn't fun isn't really fair either. There are, simply, some things that make it more fun than other contemporary games, such as the highly interactive environments which, variety in weapons, enemies, and level design, and even the cheesy one liners.
I don't think it's rose colored glasses, I played the game back when it was reasonably new, and I liked it at the time, not just in my memories. I also played it very recently again, and it was a blast. And I'm talking original textures and models, none of the new HD textures and 3D models. Despite of this, the outdated graphics definitely didn't distract from the actual enjoyment
Regarding Mass Effect, never played it, but the recent CoD games just shit over everything that was good about shooters. Sadly, early reports are even that Duke was affected by its influence - there's the ridiculous regenerating health, much more linear levels, and, most bizarrely, a limit on how many weapons you can carry. It makes no sense in an unrealistic aracdy game like this, but apparently since CoD does that now, Duke has to follow the convention.
That's because you're supposed to use laptops with TrackPoints.
*smug smile*
"Dodgy" is not the same thing as illegal. And even if it's something actually illegal, he'd probably be quite motivated to shut up about it whether there's an NDA or not, but this is where his personal ethics come in.
Yeah but it's 18 years later and we're using processors that are literally thousands of times faster than the original ones. In light of that, I think it's a rather pathetic achievement.
> There is a vast difference between your statement, and Bin Laden's. Namely, Bin Laden carried out 4 terrorist attacks against the US and murdered thousands of people. Insisting that your statement is the same as Bin Laden's is patently idiotic.
What, exactly, is the difference? As you can see, I've clearly carried out what could be considered acts of war against the US.
How are they going to know it's actually your pre-order, even if they do have the record in their system? Unless pre-ordering required signing up with your name and address information, the receipt is the only way.
By encouraged people to "steal and leak military secrets" you mean "expose murder and corruption", right? The guy who actually did expose murder and corruption got stuck naked in a tiny, empty cell and wasn't allowed to exercise to keep himself healthy or at least busy. Well done.
I can declare war on the United States too, observe:
"I, mobby_6kl, declare war on the United States of America, for seriously pissing me off on several occasions, effective immediately".
I'm also responsible for planning and financing 911, sinking of the Titanic, assassination of JFK, the Lockerbie bombing, WWI, WWII, the Cuban missile crisis, and the black plague. Also the Zodiac murders.
So what now, are you going to send helicopters with a bunch of goons to violate the airspace of the country I live in, and then shoot a bunch of people who live in my house and pose no immediate threat?
You might want to get some updated facts, he wasn't involved in a firefight (unless being shot in the eye counts), and he wasn't using a human shield.