For about 5 years of my life, I could barely walk. Moving from room to room in the house was a struggle (crawling was an option here)- doing anything outside was out of the question.
I had to modify my entire life. I used to be a mountain biker, runner, hiker, and 'normal person' but all of that was no longer available to me. So I became a hard-core videogame nerd.
Of course, the guy in question has it worse than I did, but the idea is the same. Never once did I ask for an accomodation. A lot of the world was shut off from me but I had to find things that I *could* do. I used a wheelchair a lot, and I appreciated the heck out of all of the access that has been built into our society. But *I* felt bad when I would go into a business that was not wheelchair accessible, because the business owner would freak out, thinking I was going to report them or something. I wasn't out trying to force society to conform to my problems- but I did appreciate when it did.
Eventually I was able to have a surgery that restored most of my mobility. But I haven't forgotten that feeling of helplessness when I couldn't do something that other people could. I can see the world from both points of view, and I try to help other people out as much as possible.
But the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else, are those who feel that their disability entitles them to accomodation.
It's all relative. 480p might be a lot better than 480i- but it is not going to be impressive, and give a person a good impression of HDTV. If someone is looking at a 480p signal, and they are told 'man, this is on an HDTV, and I got the good cables and everything' (like the original poster) then it really is no big deal.
If you spend a good amount of time on an Xbox controller, you actually get pretty good for FPSs. Just remember all the practice you've had with using a mouse for general computing- that is one of the reasons keyboard/mouse seems so good. Spend time on an Xbox, and it becomes second nature.
I played games on a PC for many, many years. The first time I played Halo on an Xbox, I thought the control scheme was an abomination- who the hell thought it would work?
Now 4 years later, I do great on an Xbox 360..the last time I played a game on the PC (Half Life 2) I *hated* the control scheme. I had been away from it for so long, that I had to re-learn it, and found it just as bad as when I was introduced to the Xbox controller.
Thanks to the Xbox 360's excellent controller, it won't take veterans of console first-person shooters very long to feel comfortable with the gameplay in Call of Duty 2. The default control scheme feels perfect right from the start, and there's a good chance that you'll be a genuine killing machine by the time you finish the brief tutorial that kicks off the game.
And then, of course, there are the controls. The debate between keyboard and mouse vs. controller still rages on, but in this fast-paced arcade-style shooter we didn't find the control pad be a serious handicap. While a sniping match would likely end in the favor of the player on the PC, playing through the offline levels was just as easy with a thumbstick as with a mouse.
As a middle-aged geek (37) and programmer, I just have too much stuff in my head to pay attention to EVERYTHING that I come across.
My wife is in charge of switching all of the clocks in the house and car during daylight savings changes. "Is this the one where you hold the button for 5 seconds, or do I have to hit it twice real fast?" that's my question. Honestly, if it were up to me, I would just wait 6 months until the clock was right again- or I would just unplug it at exactly midnight.
The REAL geek solution is to have clocks that synchonize themselves. (Computers/cell phones)
On the other hand, my cable TV system is just too damn complicated. I've got a Moxie system (don't know who makes it...don't care it's a cable box and DVR in High-Def). It works well, but there are a lot of things that take too long to do. Not that it was designed poorly, but it just does A LOT of stuff. I let my daughter take care of that. She cares enough about it to actually make it work, so does my wife.
I'm the idiot who has to give up the remote control, because I fuck it up each time. There are so damn many buttons, that I can never find things like 'info' or 'back'. So I end up watching a lot of fashion, and decorating shows, or whatever my wife or daughter want to watch.
Oh well...if I really cared enough, I could figure this stuff out. But I spend my whole work day figuring technical stuff out, and by the time I come home I don't want to do it anymore.
And no, I NEVER read the manual, or any on-screen instructions. Not because I feel I am too smart, or just above such things. Just because I really don't care if I get to use every feature...
On the other hand though- I've got a fairly complex camera, and I know how to use every feature of that. I've memorized just about every menu. Because I want to use it. I've made my choices on what I find important, and what I'm willing to ignore. You have to do that in today's world when we are surrounded by so much tech.
So I can understand people who just don't want to learn new things. It isn't always stupidity...maybe they just have other stuff going on in their head.
Unfortunately, the trend is to go with permanent labels now. The kind that won't peel off cleanly.
My computer is covered with them. I tried to take one off, and I ended up with a big mess...which I later covered with the sticker that came with my video card.
But it is convenient to have the one with the system specs on it. Ever since I stopped using my computer for gaming (about 3 years ago) I've had a hard time remembering which processor, how much memory, etc. etc. But luckily I've got that sticker on it to remind me.
I like the PBS in HD, it is extremely sharp, crisp, and clear.
But oddly, it looks a little bit like a stereoscope where you have one eye closed. Or a 3-D Viewmaster (remember that little thing you put up to your eye and pull the lever to change the picture that came on the disk).
I don't know why, but it just has that quality to me- maybe because the edges of things aren't fuzzy.
But whenever someone comes over and wants to see a sample of HD, PBS is always the most impressive.
Same number of polygons. Same textures...I would assume it would look the same, but just a bit clearer.
We'll have to wait until Xbox 360 specific games come out (not the initial crop) to see a bigger difference.
But when I was playing through Halo 2 on my Xbox, I noticed the jaggies they pointed out. But not on the main characters (Master Chief, aliens) they looked a lot better than the humans.
Yes, at this point it seems like it was a really bad idea- but I have gone 4+ years of using the feature successfully. If it takes me a few weeks to replace it, I don't consider it a failure at all. Just something that had run the end of its course. (Not a few weeks of work, but a few weeks until it is implemented...probably 5 or 6 hours of actual work)
In fact, what I am currently using is HTMLArea 1.x. (And a few editors prior to that) Someone up above had provided a link to the new HTMLArea 2.x, which is cross-platform. This should solve my problem. Last I looked, about a year ago, it seemed like HTMLArea 2.x wasn't ready for production. I guess it is now.
I don't consider 4 years to be a bad run at all. At the time there was very little support for a cross-browser solution, other than a Java applet, which had problems of its own. IEs editor features were pretty good. I really don't mind rolling with what makes sense, and changing it when need be.
I still use ColdFusion a lot. For years people have said, "You use ColdFusion?!? You need to change!"
And they've told me to change to:
Perl ASP PHP ASP.Net
If I had changed every time the current technology ceased to be in vogue, I would spend all my time re-writing my code. I would rather stick with what works.
ColdFusion as a platform could die off tomorrow, and that would be fine. That doesn't mean that all of my apps die at the same time. My server would still be running even if Macromedia/Adobe stops development. I've already dodged at least 2 bullets that would have put me in a worse position than I am now (ASP and Perl) so without a crystal ball it would be impossible to be sure that any move is a better move.
Re:Thanks for Fixing the Problem
on
Google Fixes IE Bug
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I create web apps for a very widely distributed organization. We have dozens of different offices, all using their own type of Internet connection.
2 of our ISPs (which are actually government agencies) have blocked IE usage completely. They simply can't get on the network using IE.
This was in response to last week's security issues.
One of the apps we run uses IE specific (Active X) controls. They are not required but they just make it much easier for the users. Now those have been blocked in two locations- causing me a lot of headaches. Of course, the standard answer would be, "why did you use IE specific code?" It was an option for users...but they began to rely upon it.
So I for one, wish that Microsoft would either:
A- fix the security problems B- release an 'IE Secure' browser, that is stripped down but secure or C- Umm...short of fixing the problems I don't have many other needs.
I really wouldn't mind if they had a totally secure version of their browser. Just stripped down functionality (cookies, javascript, etc) and pull out the other junk. Yes...we used some of the other junk, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.
By the way, I am now on the market for a good cross-browser in-line WYSIWYG HTML editor. A flash version would be great too.
Because only.01% of the population would actually give a damn about this information getting out. Who the hell really cares if people know what I am doing with my Xbox? I don't care...and nobody who would actually bother to see what I am doing would care either.
In the real world this isn't seen as a 'privacy issue.' It is seen as a cool feature.
But somehow that paranoid.01% have all congregated here on Slashdot...and they all seem to be very noisy.
And if I had to guess...they are the same people who wouldn't buy a Microsoft product anyway...so the problem will solve itself.
Are there really PC gamers who stopped paying PC games and went solely to the Xbox?
Heck yeah...
I'm one of them. I switched over about 2.5 years ago, and I haven't regretted it at all.
Now I buy a ton more games than I used to. On the PC I bought maybe 5 or 6 games a year. Now I buy about 20 Xbox games each year.
The big difference is that now I am not spending my time, effort and money on just getting my hardware to work with the PC games. The final straw came with Rallisport Challenge. On my PC, it crashed all the time. So I bought a new video card, because the developer recommended it. That reduced the crashes, but I still couldn't complete more than 3 or 4 races without the game crashing to the desktop.
I went to a friends house to play some games on his Xbox. He brought out Rallisport Challenge...and at first I complained about the graphics...and the fact that he didn't have a steering wheel. We kept playing..and I realized 20 races later that the game hadn't crashed at all. And...I thought it was fun that we could both play at the same time.
I bought an Xbox the next day.
I've downloaded a few demos to my PC since then...just to see what I've been missing. And it hasn't been much.
In fact, I just finished playing Far Cry: Instincts on the Xbox. That game was awesome. Sure the PC graphics were better...but the Xbox version was more fun. (It is a VERY different game...not a port...)
This is just another way that Micro$oft is trying to screw the entire economy, and send us all into the poor-house.
Those money-grubbers from Redmond are ONLY concerned about one thing!
From the article
At the launch of the 360, only the Microsoft-developed "Perfect Dark Zero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Kameo: Elements of Power" are available for what has been the industry-standard price of $50. Titles from Electronic Arts, Sega, 2K Sports, Ubisoft and Activision all cost $5-$10 more than that.
What? It wasn't Microsoft that was sticking it to us? How can that be?!? All the cool guys on Slashdot say they are the WORST company in the world...
But there already is a huge difference in the number of miles per year that Americans drive, vs. Europeans. Typically, Americans drive about 12,000 miles per year. Europeans drive about 12,000 KILOMETERS per year.
So for a combination of reasons, and I am sure that gas prices are one of them, Europeans drive about 40% fewer miles/kilometers than Americans.
Of course, people will say it has to do with country size. But there are many other factors.
Going out for a 'sunday drive' still happens all across America. And driving 30 miles to save a few bucks happens all the time.
First, most of your statements are incorrect. Most towns DO have public transportation in the form of a bus system. And, there ARE trains. I just rode one from Sacramento to San Jose last month. And there were plenty of people.
But, realistically, the busses and trains are not usable for most people.
Why? Because the system is not built up. And why isn't it built up? Because our society is too used to personal transportation.
And most people won't make the switch until they have to. My suggestion is- give them a good reason to finally make that switch.
You're right. Germany is a good example because their population density is much greater than the U.S., and because they have already had to deal with the problems that we are going to be facing.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, my wang worked/s.
The nerves that go into your man-member, and those that control your legs are different, so I was safe.
I'm a very lucky person- I am formerly disabled.
For about 5 years of my life, I could barely walk. Moving from room to room in the house was a struggle (crawling was an option here)- doing anything outside was out of the question.
I had to modify my entire life. I used to be a mountain biker, runner, hiker, and 'normal person' but all of that was no longer available to me. So I became a hard-core videogame nerd.
Of course, the guy in question has it worse than I did, but the idea is the same. Never once did I ask for an accomodation. A lot of the world was shut off from me but I had to find things that I *could* do. I used a wheelchair a lot, and I appreciated the heck out of all of the access that has been built into our society. But *I* felt bad when I would go into a business that was not wheelchair accessible, because the business owner would freak out, thinking I was going to report them or something. I wasn't out trying to force society to conform to my problems- but I did appreciate when it did.
Eventually I was able to have a surgery that restored most of my mobility. But I haven't forgotten that feeling of helplessness when I couldn't do something that other people could. I can see the world from both points of view, and I try to help other people out as much as possible.
But the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else, are those who feel that their disability entitles them to accomodation.
Well, I do NEED to continue living. Otherwise, I wouldn't exist. Living is a requirement for me.
So for there to be an 'I' requires me to live, and to eat. If something requires something else in order to exist, then that item NEEDS the other.
I need to eat. The world may not need me to eat...but I need to eat.
I think the word 'need' can be defined for a human as: "Necessary to sustain life."
I don't just WANT to eat, I NEED to eat (in order to continue living.)
It's all relative. 480p might be a lot better than 480i- but it is not going to be impressive, and give a person a good impression of HDTV. If someone is looking at a 480p signal, and they are told 'man, this is on an HDTV, and I got the good cables and everything' (like the original poster) then it really is no big deal.
I played games on a PC for many, many years. The first time I played Halo on an Xbox, I thought the control scheme was an abomination- who the hell thought it would work?
Now 4 years later, I do great on an Xbox 360..the last time I played a game on the PC (Half Life 2) I *hated* the control scheme. I had been away from it for so long, that I had to re-learn it, and found it just as bad as when I was introduced to the Xbox controller.
It's all what you're used to.
Here's a quote from the Gamespy review of Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360:
Here is a more direct comparison from Global Gaming:
Not a surprise that the Gamecube didn't shine like a new penny on your HDTV.
You need to send an HD signal (Not ED) to get things started. Then you need to have a graphics chip able to actually drive that resolution.
Nintendo's 480p really wasn't that big of a deal. It's not until you get to 720p, or 1080i (or p for Sony) that things get interesting.
In California, the average age for a white male (the category I fit into) is 72.61 years.
So I am actually over the hill, on my way down.
The Xbox 360 will play nearly all of the good Xbox games.
Here's a list of the backward compatible games.
Just about every game I still want to play is on that list.
As a middle-aged geek (37) and programmer, I just have too much stuff in my head to pay attention to EVERYTHING that I come across.
My wife is in charge of switching all of the clocks in the house and car during daylight savings changes. "Is this the one where you hold the button for 5 seconds, or do I have to hit it twice real fast?" that's my question. Honestly, if it were up to me, I would just wait 6 months until the clock was right again- or I would just unplug it at exactly midnight.
The REAL geek solution is to have clocks that synchonize themselves. (Computers/cell phones)
On the other hand, my cable TV system is just too damn complicated. I've got a Moxie system (don't know who makes it...don't care it's a cable box and DVR in High-Def). It works well, but there are a lot of things that take too long to do. Not that it was designed poorly, but it just does A LOT of stuff. I let my daughter take care of that. She cares enough about it to actually make it work, so does my wife.
I'm the idiot who has to give up the remote control, because I fuck it up each time. There are so damn many buttons, that I can never find things like 'info' or 'back'. So I end up watching a lot of fashion, and decorating shows, or whatever my wife or daughter want to watch.
Oh well...if I really cared enough, I could figure this stuff out. But I spend my whole work day figuring technical stuff out, and by the time I come home I don't want to do it anymore.
And no, I NEVER read the manual, or any on-screen instructions. Not because I feel I am too smart, or just above such things. Just because I really don't care if I get to use every feature...
On the other hand though- I've got a fairly complex camera, and I know how to use every feature of that. I've memorized just about every menu. Because I want to use it. I've made my choices on what I find important, and what I'm willing to ignore. You have to do that in today's world when we are surrounded by so much tech.
So I can understand people who just don't want to learn new things. It isn't always stupidity...maybe they just have other stuff going on in their head.
Unfortunately, the trend is to go with permanent labels now. The kind that won't peel off cleanly.
My computer is covered with them. I tried to take one off, and I ended up with a big mess...which I later covered with the sticker that came with my video card.
But it is convenient to have the one with the system specs on it. Ever since I stopped using my computer for gaming (about 3 years ago) I've had a hard time remembering which processor, how much memory, etc. etc. But luckily I've got that sticker on it to remind me.
I like the PBS in HD, it is extremely sharp, crisp, and clear.
But oddly, it looks a little bit like a stereoscope where you have one eye closed. Or a 3-D Viewmaster (remember that little thing you put up to your eye and pull the lever to change the picture that came on the disk).
I don't know why, but it just has that quality to me- maybe because the edges of things aren't fuzzy.
But whenever someone comes over and wants to see a sample of HD, PBS is always the most impressive.
Protected by whom? I assume you are referring to the government.
So, the government should be involved in our lives down to the level where they can determine which text editor we do, or don't, use?
And what about Apple's dominance of the portable music player market. Should the government be doing something about that?
This would make sense...except for the fact that Apple controls most of the DRM music market.
I wouldn't expect anything different.
Same number of polygons. Same textures...I would assume it would look the same, but just a bit clearer.
We'll have to wait until Xbox 360 specific games come out (not the initial crop) to see a bigger difference.
But when I was playing through Halo 2 on my Xbox, I noticed the jaggies they pointed out. But not on the main characters (Master Chief, aliens) they looked a lot better than the humans.
Yes, at this point it seems like it was a really bad idea- but I have gone 4+ years of using the feature successfully. If it takes me a few weeks to replace it, I don't consider it a failure at all. Just something that had run the end of its course. (Not a few weeks of work, but a few weeks until it is implemented...probably 5 or 6 hours of actual work)
In fact, what I am currently using is HTMLArea 1.x. (And a few editors prior to that) Someone up above had provided a link to the new HTMLArea 2.x, which is cross-platform. This should solve my problem. Last I looked, about a year ago, it seemed like HTMLArea 2.x wasn't ready for production. I guess it is now.
I don't consider 4 years to be a bad run at all. At the time there was very little support for a cross-browser solution, other than a Java applet, which had problems of its own. IEs editor features were pretty good. I really don't mind rolling with what makes sense, and changing it when need be.
I still use ColdFusion a lot. For years people have said, "You use ColdFusion?!? You need to change!"
And they've told me to change to:
Perl
ASP
PHP
ASP.Net
If I had changed every time the current technology ceased to be in vogue, I would spend all my time re-writing my code. I would rather stick with what works.
ColdFusion as a platform could die off tomorrow, and that would be fine. That doesn't mean that all of my apps die at the same time. My server would still be running even if Macromedia/Adobe stops development. I've already dodged at least 2 bullets that would have put me in a worse position than I am now (ASP and Perl) so without a crystal ball it would be impossible to be sure that any move is a better move.
I create web apps for a very widely distributed organization. We have dozens of different offices, all using their own type of Internet connection.
2 of our ISPs (which are actually government agencies) have blocked IE usage completely. They simply can't get on the network using IE.
This was in response to last week's security issues.
One of the apps we run uses IE specific (Active X) controls. They are not required but they just make it much easier for the users. Now those have been blocked in two locations- causing me a lot of headaches. Of course, the standard answer would be, "why did you use IE specific code?" It was an option for users...but they began to rely upon it.
So I for one, wish that Microsoft would either:
A- fix the security problems
B- release an 'IE Secure' browser, that is stripped down but secure
or
C- Umm...short of fixing the problems I don't have many other needs.
I really wouldn't mind if they had a totally secure version of their browser. Just stripped down functionality (cookies, javascript, etc) and pull out the other junk. Yes...we used some of the other junk, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.
By the way, I am now on the market for a good cross-browser in-line WYSIWYG HTML editor. A flash version would be great too.
The .01% are the people who do NOT want the Live Aware stuff turned on.
So, rather than making the overwhelming majority turn it ON, they decided to let the tinfoil hats turn it OFF.
I think the answer is obvious-
.01% of the population would actually give a damn about this information getting out. Who the hell really cares if people know what I am doing with my Xbox? I don't care...and nobody who would actually bother to see what I am doing would care either.
.01% have all congregated here on Slashdot...and they all seem to be very noisy.
Because only
In the real world this isn't seen as a 'privacy issue.' It is seen as a cool feature.
But somehow that paranoid
And if I had to guess...they are the same people who wouldn't buy a Microsoft product anyway...so the problem will solve itself.
Heck yeah...
I'm one of them. I switched over about 2.5 years ago, and I haven't regretted it at all.
Now I buy a ton more games than I used to. On the PC I bought maybe 5 or 6 games a year. Now I buy about 20 Xbox games each year.
The big difference is that now I am not spending my time, effort and money on just getting my hardware to work with the PC games. The final straw came with Rallisport Challenge. On my PC, it crashed all the time. So I bought a new video card, because the developer recommended it. That reduced the crashes, but I still couldn't complete more than 3 or 4 races without the game crashing to the desktop.
I went to a friends house to play some games on his Xbox. He brought out Rallisport Challenge...and at first I complained about the graphics...and the fact that he didn't have a steering wheel. We kept playing..and I realized 20 races later that the game hadn't crashed at all. And...I thought it was fun that we could both play at the same time.
I bought an Xbox the next day.
I've downloaded a few demos to my PC since then...just to see what I've been missing. And it hasn't been much.
In fact, I just finished playing Far Cry: Instincts on the Xbox. That game was awesome. Sure the PC graphics were better...but the Xbox version was more fun. (It is a VERY different game...not a port...)
Those money-grubbers from Redmond are ONLY concerned about one thing!
From the article
What? It wasn't Microsoft that was sticking it to us? How can that be?!? All the cool guys on Slashdot say they are the WORST company in the world...
Nope-
No problems with the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty. Everything works fine.
Cheaters get booted.
Live is good.
But there already is a huge difference in the number of miles per year that Americans drive, vs. Europeans. Typically, Americans drive about 12,000 miles per year. Europeans drive about 12,000 KILOMETERS per year.
So for a combination of reasons, and I am sure that gas prices are one of them, Europeans drive about 40% fewer miles/kilometers than Americans.
Of course, people will say it has to do with country size. But there are many other factors.
Going out for a 'sunday drive' still happens all across America. And driving 30 miles to save a few bucks happens all the time.
First, most of your statements are incorrect. Most towns DO have public transportation in the form of a bus system. And, there ARE trains. I just rode one from Sacramento to San Jose last month. And there were plenty of people.
But, realistically, the busses and trains are not usable for most people.
Why? Because the system is not built up. And why isn't it built up? Because our society is too used to personal transportation.
And most people won't make the switch until they have to. My suggestion is- give them a good reason to finally make that switch.
You're right. Germany is a good example because their population density is much greater than the U.S., and because they have already had to deal with the problems that we are going to be facing.