Boy, really not reading much today. The second screen works while the laptop is in suspend. I'm still waiting for you to explain how that's done without OS modifications.
I have not read much about Windows Vista features, but i'll take a shot on this. If the laptop, the main processor etc. is on suspend, then it does not matter what OS is running there as the processor does not get power to work with. If the underlying operating system does work, then the suspend mode is some kind of soft-suspend, meaning that it's just running on low-power which could most propably be used on every OS just by throttling the processor etc.
I would guess this feature is implemented by having a low power consumption processor with a bit of memory and a LCD (aka. a PDA) running on the laptop while the main components are in the suspend mode. And the information is synced from the main OS to the PDA when going to the suspend, but not updated till the computer wakes up; well not updated with information from the OS, might update stuff from the internet by getting some network info from the OS going in to the suspension and using that.
So in, any of these hypotheses, it could be done in user mode.
Still, sure i'm glad that Microsoft is innovating, most of the best innovations have been simple stuff that everyone could have implemented. I really hope that Windows Vista is going to be the best Windows operating system, as sadly we seem to be stuck on that platform for many things. I myself would like to see a collabrative effort of companies and inviduals to create the perfect global operating system that would be openfree and beerfree. One can wish.
No such thing as ctrl-c copying on Windows Command Prompt either, why? Because ctrl-c is the default key on every OS i have used to interrrupt running software on a command-prompt/terminal. Even if you mark the text on Windows Command Prompt you can't copy it with ctrl-c, you press enter. So actually NOT supporting ctrl-c on the terminal is quite a standard way of behaviour.
Eclipse works fine on 1G of ram, haven't tried on less.
About Vi, i have used Vim for years and i had a LOT of problems moving to Eclipse at work for coding. But in the end, learning Eclipses refactoring, autofixing/completing tools made me work a lot faster even if i don't have all the functions from Vim. BUT, the editor is not bad at all when you learn the shortcuts, there is no command mode so it might feel more like Emacs than Vi(m). You should try typing ctrl-shift-l on the editor to get a keysheet, there are a lot of useful shortcuts. Most used ones for me are:
- ctrl-o : Shows a popup list of all the methods and variables in this class (I'm programming in Java) which can be filtered by just typing a start of the method on your keyboard. Pressing enter will jump to that method.
- ctrl-shift-up/down : Move between methods.
- ctrl-shift-c : Comment selected lines.
- ctrl-j : And type text for lookup search.
Just a tip of the iceberg really. That ctrl-shift-up/down sucks a bit as you have to move your hands from letters to arrows, but you can reset these to ctrl-j/k or whatever you wish.
Very good point that there are nude textures involved that was included by the Rockstar games. It might be that the developers did this feature for fun, never intented to be released, but the content was accidentally put in gold. It's easy to make this kind of a mistake in a big production when there are strict schedules etc. But as you said, it is included so they have some culpability. Even though i don't think they should be punished in any way because the content cannot be accessed by normal means.
How can the creators be resposinble for material that was never supposed to be seen. How about in an online game, for example an MMORPG where people strip their clothes and use the dance emotes to act some really naughty stuff. Is the creators resposible for people "abusing" the system to create something that would be over the original rating of the game? How are the programmers supposed to block from player doing things like this? How about those Video Game porn archives where there are really really naughty scenes involving Pikachu and Yoshi, i guess those games should be banned too.
As the GamerGirlAdvance article said, this is just works of the anti-GTA crowd. There are no intellectual/logical base for these accusations, they are just flames that are thrown towards their enemy. In court, i doubt that these claims would stand. The only problem is some distributors and store owners that might ban the game from their shelves by these flames. On the other hand, the sales of the game will propably rise anyhow as it gains more free controversial press.
This game is a classic. It has fast-paced shooting action where enemies are coming from everywhere around you. The weapon system works by combining weapons, for example if you get homing+flame you get a flameball that you can control at your will. The weapon upgrades come up with short intervals so you can switch and test out your weapons at will. You can have two weapons at the time which are either combined or used separately. These sections of the game are excellent, but what makes it more special? The game has a LOT of special stages and bosses. Every level has at least one boss sequence and then there is the little dice game level where there are if i remember correct at least 10 different boss fights depending how you roll the dice. Then of course you got the mines level where you are on a cart driving forward and can switch between the floor and the ceiling and a small ingame space-shooter aka. R-Type.
This has been the best arcade-beat/shoot'em'up game for me since i first got it for the Mega Drive (Genesis). I encourage you to try it out, if you like the genre then i'm sure you'll love this game. I do.
I have had three failures with Matrox DiamondMax 9 160GB drives in a year. Every time i a got a new HD in factory package but they still seem to break on me. This current Maxtor HD that just came to replace the last one that broke has been in use for 3 weeks and yesterday i had some CRC errors with it. So i scanned it and voila, 19 relocated sectors, i scanned again 107 relocated sectors. So it seems that it's dying on me again. I have changed the motherboard, power supply, IDE cable and i do have surge protection by UPS.
I think there are two options now, heat or just really freaking bad harddrives from Maxtor (the same machine has 3 Samsungs in it and they have been working fine all the time).
What is the recommended temperature range for harddrives, what about Maxtor harddrives? My Maxtor drive shows 39-40 degrees celsius when in use, is that too much?
One of my most involving scenes in games was surprisingly in an action game. The game was Steel Battalion. Here is a link if you don't know about this game: http://xbox.ign.com/articles/362/362157p1.html
In short, the game is played by three pedals, two joysticks and a LOT of buttons. This system can really immerse you in a game, especially if you die in the game you'll have to start the whole campaign from the start. The game is really evil, and really immersive. My moment was in a night mission, i was on a light VT checking through the canyons, everything was quite quiet some enemy VT's here and there, nothing special. Then i found a large open area with a huge blaster door in the wall. Of course i tried to open it. Waited for it to open.. OH CRAP, three or more BIG VTs against my tiny one. After peeing myself i started turning my VT and started to run with heat-sensing missiles closing in. In Steel Battalion if you turn too hard you are going to fall, and this happened to mee. CHAFF CHAFF CHAFF, whew, missiles missed. Get up get up get up! My small VT had a feature to use extra power to run really fast, but if you tax it too much you the VT is going to overheat, if you accelerate too fast you are going to fall. And in the panic i accelerated too fast and fell down, no chaffs left i ended up getting some hits. The next few minutes was zigzagging with the overdrive and barely making it out. I was so immersed in the game that my hands hurt after squeezing the joysticks too hard and couldn't play the game on that day anymore =)
If you went through the quest portals you would end up in the party area of that mission, but there also was a way to go into a kind of free exploring mode where you could travel on the map yourself. When you went through the quest portals and looked at the map you could see that there are gaps in where you have visited, when freely exploring you can actually travel these gaps. I only played on the public beta a while ago so i don't remember if these areas were instanced or not.
Because some security features have pros and cons. It might make your system more secure but suddenly normal users can't use CDs and so on. These wizards can tailor the systems security according to your needs, not general needs which will not be as secure as a complete customized system.
Doesn't Windowsupdate have any security checks on the validity of updates?
I use Gentoo Linux and it has quite nice security checks for checking that everything i'm installing through its package manager is what it is supposed to be. First i use random rsync server to fetch "package-definitions" called ebuilds and with them MD5 hashes of the software files. What makes it secure is that we have random rsync servers and random mirrors for the files themselves. So in theory cracker has to crack at least two servers(main rsync server and main file server where everything gets mirrored from) to infect a Gentoo Linux system. I'm don't really know all the details of Gentoo Linux package-manager and its security checks, but this is how it acts approximately, at least the last time i checked. Hmm.. ofcourse there is a possibility that the original software server is already cracked when Gentoo Ebuild-developers make their ebuilds&hashes.
For me it's the browser that makes all the difference. I haven't updated my flash. But it works full speed on Mozilla/Firefox, but for example with Epiphany it is slow as hell.
The code of adventure-games: Do what you are not supposed to do, if it doesn't kill you try again. Example titles include: Monkey Island series, Sam & Max etc.
Well, at first i hated DOA3(was it 3 on XBox?). But it just needed some readjustment from Virtua Fighter 2 & Soul Calibur veteran. But after i got into it it was really great; especially when playing with four players. One thing that needed improvement was dodging, after too many hours of playing this all of us could dodge most of the attacks.. well i don't know how it could be improved.
Offer performance tracking at the same time.
on
Privacy in the Woods?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I didn't read other posts as i am in a hurry, but i hope this is not a duplicate of anyone's idea.
Offer every hiker of the are somekind of tracking device that will be used to track your location if you are lost AND to track the time it took you to hike from tracking point to tracking point so they can use it as somekind of performance analysis.
So they would voluntarily opt to your tracking which benefits those who get's lost on the way, and those who don't get lost.
Steel Battalion has some unique kind of difficulty; you'll have to master controlling the VT(mech) with two joysticks, about 30 buttons if i remember correct and three pedals. It's an unique experience that every "serious" gamer should experience.
The difficulty level notches up a bit on the fact that if you die and didn't eject, you'll have to start the campaign from the beginning. Same thing happens if you waste too many expensive VT's, thus not having enough points to buy even the cheapest one.
After playing and playing and playing, you'll start to get a hang of it, but it is still quite difficult. When you complete it you can raise the difficulty if the normal level wasn't enough for you.
> When I tell people that the stuff they are doing... making full copies or even mixes of their CD collections and sharing them with friends is technically illegal under current law... they laugh. When I show them the law... check out the DMCA, they are shocked... but they figure no-one can stop them.
I wonder that in how many countries this is actually illegal, and as far as i know, if someone is selling their products in a specific country they adhere to the local laws.
In Finland it is legal to make copies of your bought albums to your friends. And on TV they were discussing this fact and a lawyer type said that there isn't actually an illegal way to share stuff online in Finland, because you are sharing them to your "friends". Selling the copies is a different matter.
Your point is good. Most don't know they might be doing something illegal as they can copy it so easily. Just as it is with VHS etc. it all seems legal because no one notices if you copy it.. except for profits from the company that makes the product.
Maybe it has something to do with overly compressing music, as seems to be the case on 98% of modern records. In classical recordings the music has it's ups and downs volume-wise, on modern recordings the volume is almost flat. Maybe our brains get the energy for listening to progressing sounds of pitch, rhytmical qualities and volume? I trust that these scientists tested on music that is not loop-based, but progressive.. but did they test on a record that is not overly compressed?
By those images i get the feeling that N-Gage2 is a bit rugged up, and that would be an excellent design decision as i'm sure that many children will want a cellphone(at least in finland it seems that _everybody_ has one) with "special" games and you propably know how children treat their "toys".
And by those images it seems likely that it still misses shoulder-buttons which is a must feature for any game-controller.
Can't see any dedicated buttons for volume adjustment either. Well, only time will tell.
I'll have to agree with paranoos about Gunstar Heroes. I have played that game over and over and over again, it really never gets boring.
Another title that should be mentioned is Alien Soldier. Which is also one of the top side-scroller games.
Mazin Saga was also great with it's Street Fighter -style boss fights.
Low refresh rates can easily be seen with the "side of your eye" look away from the monitor but still "look" at the monitor and you'll see the effect. I noticed this years ago when i had 60Hz refresh rate on my monitor, and my TV was directly to the left of my monitor.
Slashdot Mirror
I would guess this feature is implemented by having a low power consumption processor with a bit of memory and a LCD (aka. a PDA) running on the laptop while the main components are in the suspend mode. And the information is synced from the main OS to the PDA when going to the suspend, but not updated till the computer wakes up; well not updated with information from the OS, might update stuff from the internet by getting some network info from the OS going in to the suspension and using that.
So in, any of these hypotheses, it could be done in user mode.
Still, sure i'm glad that Microsoft is innovating, most of the best innovations have been simple stuff that everyone could have implemented. I really hope that Windows Vista is going to be the best Windows operating system, as sadly we seem to be stuck on that platform for many things. I myself would like to see a collabrative effort of companies and inviduals to create the perfect global operating system that would be openfree and beerfree. One can wish.
No such thing as ctrl-c copying on Windows Command Prompt either, why? Because ctrl-c is the default key on every OS i have used to interrrupt running software on a command-prompt/terminal. Even if you mark the text on Windows Command Prompt you can't copy it with ctrl-c, you press enter. So actually NOT supporting ctrl-c on the terminal is quite a standard way of behaviour.
Nor did 8.51 work on Windows
Eclipse works fine on 1G of ram, haven't tried on less.
About Vi, i have used Vim for years and i had a LOT of problems moving to Eclipse at work for coding. But in the end, learning Eclipses refactoring, autofixing/completing tools made me work a lot faster even if i don't have all the functions from Vim. BUT, the editor is not bad at all when you learn the shortcuts, there is no command mode so it might feel more like Emacs than Vi(m). You should try typing ctrl-shift-l on the editor to get a keysheet, there are a lot of useful shortcuts. Most used ones for me are:
- ctrl-o : Shows a popup list of all the methods and variables in this class (I'm programming in Java) which can be filtered by just typing a start of the method on your keyboard. Pressing enter will jump to that method.
- ctrl-shift-up/down : Move between methods.
- ctrl-shift-c : Comment selected lines.
- ctrl-j : And type text for lookup search.
Just a tip of the iceberg really. That ctrl-shift-up/down sucks a bit as you have to move your hands from letters to arrows, but you can reset these to ctrl-j/k or whatever you wish.
Very good point that there are nude textures involved that was included by the Rockstar games. It might be that the developers did this feature for fun, never intented to be released, but the content was accidentally put in gold. It's easy to make this kind of a mistake in a big production when there are strict schedules etc. But as you said, it is included so they have some culpability. Even though i don't think they should be punished in any way because the content cannot be accessed by normal means.
How can the creators be resposinble for material that was never supposed to be seen. How about in an online game, for example an MMORPG where people strip their clothes and use the dance emotes to act some really naughty stuff. Is the creators resposible for people "abusing" the system to create something that would be over the original rating of the game? How are the programmers supposed to block from player doing things like this? How about those Video Game porn archives where there are really really naughty scenes involving Pikachu and Yoshi, i guess those games should be banned too.
As the GamerGirlAdvance article said, this is just works of the anti-GTA crowd. There are no intellectual/logical base for these accusations, they are just flames that are thrown towards their enemy. In court, i doubt that these claims would stand. The only problem is some distributors and store owners that might ban the game from their shelves by these flames. On the other hand, the sales of the game will propably rise anyhow as it gains more free controversial press.
Ah.. this is the classic "do something really really bad so you can do the lesser bad with people applauding you for it" system.
This game is a classic. It has fast-paced shooting action where enemies are coming from everywhere around you. The weapon system works by combining weapons, for example if you get homing+flame you get a flameball that you can control at your will. The weapon upgrades come up with short intervals so you can switch and test out your weapons at will. You can have two weapons at the time which are either combined or used separately. These sections of the game are excellent, but what makes it more special? The game has a LOT of special stages and bosses. Every level has at least one boss sequence and then there is the little dice game level where there are if i remember correct at least 10 different boss fights depending how you roll the dice. Then of course you got the mines level where you are on a cart driving forward and can switch between the floor and the ceiling and a small ingame space-shooter aka. R-Type.
This has been the best arcade-beat/shoot'em'up game for me since i first got it for the Mega Drive (Genesis). I encourage you to try it out, if you like the genre then i'm sure you'll love this game. I do.
I have had three failures with Matrox DiamondMax 9 160GB drives in a year. Every time i a got a new HD in factory package but they still seem to break on me. This current Maxtor HD that just came to replace the last one that broke has been in use for 3 weeks and yesterday i had some CRC errors with it. So i scanned it and voila, 19 relocated sectors, i scanned again 107 relocated sectors. So it seems that it's dying on me again. I have changed the motherboard, power supply, IDE cable and i do have surge protection by UPS.
I think there are two options now, heat or just really freaking bad harddrives from Maxtor (the same machine has 3 Samsungs in it and they have been working fine all the time).
What is the recommended temperature range for harddrives, what about Maxtor harddrives? My Maxtor drive shows 39-40 degrees celsius when in use, is that too much?
One of my most involving scenes in games was surprisingly in an action game. The game was Steel Battalion. Here is a link if you don't know about this game: http://xbox.ign.com/articles/362/362157p1.html
In short, the game is played by three pedals, two joysticks and a LOT of buttons. This system can really immerse you in a game, especially if you die in the game you'll have to start the whole campaign from the start. The game is really evil, and really immersive. My moment was in a night mission, i was on a light VT checking through the canyons, everything was quite quiet some enemy VT's here and there, nothing special. Then i found a large open area with a huge blaster door in the wall. Of course i tried to open it. Waited for it to open.. OH CRAP, three or more BIG VTs against my tiny one. After peeing myself i started turning my VT and started to run with heat-sensing missiles closing in. In Steel Battalion if you turn too hard you are going to fall, and this happened to mee. CHAFF CHAFF CHAFF, whew, missiles missed. Get up get up get up! My small VT had a feature to use extra power to run really fast, but if you tax it too much you the VT is going to overheat, if you accelerate too fast you are going to fall. And in the panic i accelerated too fast and fell down, no chaffs left i ended up getting some hits. The next few minutes was zigzagging with the overdrive and barely making it out. I was so immersed in the game that my hands hurt after squeezing the joysticks too hard and couldn't play the game on that day anymore =)
That is Steel Battalion.
If you went through the quest portals you would end up in the party area of that mission, but there also was a way to go into a kind of free exploring mode where you could travel on the map yourself. When you went through the quest portals and looked at the map you could see that there are gaps in where you have visited, when freely exploring you can actually travel these gaps. I only played on the public beta a while ago so i don't remember if these areas were instanced or not.
Because some security features have pros and cons. It might make your system more secure but suddenly normal users can't use CDs and so on. These wizards can tailor the systems security according to your needs, not general needs which will not be as secure as a complete customized system.
Doesn't Windowsupdate have any security checks on the validity of updates?
I use Gentoo Linux and it has quite nice security checks for checking that everything i'm installing through its package manager is what it is supposed to be. First i use random rsync server to fetch "package-definitions" called ebuilds and with them MD5 hashes of the software files. What makes it secure is that we have random rsync servers and random mirrors for the files themselves. So in theory cracker has to crack at least two servers(main rsync server and main file server where everything gets mirrored from) to infect a Gentoo Linux system. I'm don't really know all the details of Gentoo Linux package-manager and its security checks, but this is how it acts approximately, at least the last time i checked. Hmm.. ofcourse there is a possibility that the original software server is already cracked when Gentoo Ebuild-developers make their ebuilds&hashes.
Well, nothing is completely secure.
> CS I think balances these two, despite being the first game in the genre to populatize the no-respawn rule.
I'm quite sure that Action-Quake2 came before CS, and it was popular at the time.
For me it's the browser that makes all the difference. I haven't updated my flash. But it works full speed on Mozilla/Firefox, but for example with Epiphany it is slow as hell.
The code of adventure-games: Do what you are not supposed to do, if it doesn't kill you try again. Example titles include: Monkey Island series, Sam & Max etc.
Well, at first i hated DOA3(was it 3 on XBox?). But it just needed some readjustment from Virtua Fighter 2 & Soul Calibur veteran. But after i got into it it was really great; especially when playing with four players. One thing that needed improvement was dodging, after too many hours of playing this all of us could dodge most of the attacks.. well i don't know how it could be improved.
I didn't read other posts as i am in a hurry, but i hope this is not a duplicate of anyone's idea.
Offer every hiker of the are somekind of tracking device that will be used to track your location if you are lost AND to track the time it took you to hike from tracking point to tracking point so they can use it as somekind of performance analysis.
So they would voluntarily opt to your tracking which benefits those who get's lost on the way, and those who don't get lost.
Steel Battalion has some unique kind of difficulty; you'll have to master controlling the VT(mech) with two joysticks, about 30 buttons if i remember correct and three pedals. It's an unique experience that every "serious" gamer should experience.
The difficulty level notches up a bit on the fact that if you die and didn't eject, you'll have to start the campaign from the beginning. Same thing happens if you waste too many expensive VT's, thus not having enough points to buy even the cheapest one.
After playing and playing and playing, you'll start to get a hang of it, but it is still quite difficult. When you complete it you can raise the difficulty if the normal level wasn't enough for you.
I wonder that in how many countries this is actually illegal, and as far as i know, if someone is selling their products in a specific country they adhere to the local laws.
In Finland it is legal to make copies of your bought albums to your friends. And on TV they were discussing this fact and a lawyer type said that there isn't actually an illegal way to share stuff online in Finland, because you are sharing them to your "friends". Selling the copies is a different matter.
Your point is good. Most don't know they might be doing something illegal as they can copy it so easily. Just as it is with VHS etc. it all seems legal because no one notices if you copy it.. except for profits from the company that makes the product.
Maybe it has something to do with overly compressing music, as seems to be the case on 98% of modern records. In classical recordings the music has it's ups and downs volume-wise, on modern recordings the volume is almost flat. Maybe our brains get the energy for listening to progressing sounds of pitch, rhytmical qualities and volume? I trust that these scientists tested on music that is not loop-based, but progressive.. but did they test on a record that is not overly compressed?
> If Finland is anything like the USA, you'll see people talking on cell phones bloody everywhere!
Well, i live in a city with almost 20k population.. no, it is has not been a problem in bigger cities either.
It's illegal in Finland to talk to your cellphone and drive if you are not using hands-free.
By those images i get the feeling that N-Gage2 is a bit rugged up, and that would be an excellent design decision as i'm sure that many children will want a cellphone(at least in finland it seems that _everybody_ has one) with "special" games and you propably know how children treat their "toys". And by those images it seems likely that it still misses shoulder-buttons which is a must feature for any game-controller. Can't see any dedicated buttons for volume adjustment either. Well, only time will tell.
I'll have to agree with paranoos about Gunstar Heroes. I have played that game over and over and over again, it really never gets boring. Another title that should be mentioned is Alien Soldier. Which is also one of the top side-scroller games. Mazin Saga was also great with it's Street Fighter -style boss fights.
Low refresh rates can easily be seen with the "side of your eye" look away from the monitor but still "look" at the monitor and you'll see the effect. I noticed this years ago when i had 60Hz refresh rate on my monitor, and my TV was directly to the left of my monitor.