Darn, I'm already set on buying a Thinkpad T42 for christmas this year. Well, i just hope the legendary IBM laptop support doesn't go poof next year:/
As another poster mentioned, IBM might have taken this move to free themselves from Microsoft to push unix/Linux wihout being a target of the usual bullying practices.
But it get's really interresting if you take IBM's Cell chip into the equasion. We already specualted that Cell will mostlikely run some sort of Unix, could IBM have dropped their Wintel line in favor of atleast trying to push Cell based workstations and laptops into the highend market?
It's actually pretty sad to see Nokia go from "best phones around" to "bad design with useless gimicks" in such a short time. Imho the N3210 is one of the best mobiles, that are just phones and nothing more, but after that, Nokia pretty much lost it.
Origin Creates great games. EA buys Origin. Origin Creates a crappy game (U8) under EA's influence. Richard Gariott leaves origin. Origin is just a empty husk, providing support for UO, living from their inherited IP.
Bullfrog Creates great games. EA buys Bullfrog. Peter Molyneaux leaves Bullfrog. Bullfro is just an empty husk, programming updated versions of old games, living from their inherited IP.
Dynamix creates Great games. Sierry buys Dynamix. Dynamix releases Tribes2 Prematurely under Sierra's influence. Sierra closes down Dynamix. Sierra tries to patch Tribes2 with inhouse developers. about 1 year later, they hire ex-dynamix employees to finish the game.......
Bluetooth Dead?... WTF? I don't know about the US, but here in Europe, Blutetooth is currently starting up Bigtime, and is on the brink to replace any kind of IR/DECT/Custom Wireless connection.
Heise is running some background artices (in German, and mostly in print only). http://www.heise.de/mobil/bluetooth/
I'm still using the Hp deskjet520 printer i bought for my first PC (486/33) around 1993/94. Heck, i can remember using it to cheat in my math classes, where i used the incredible 300 dpi resolution to print ultra tiny notes:)
It will mostlikely survive some more years, since the whole gearing is completely made of metal for instance.
It seems that HP doesn't produce homeoffice printers at this qualitylevel anymore. But one of the golden quotes of a printer Salesman i askes about it is still somewhat sad but true.
"If they would have continued to build printers that last over a decade, who would have bought a new one next year?".
ummm... I think the visual effect of the "holographic" Doctor/Shrink in Seaquest DSV was created by projecting the image of him on a wall of smoke that was sucked across the room in a stream of air.
It actually was a pretty nice effect to get that translucent, wavy look without any CGI.
THe game world was hideously boring with nothing to do other than crowd into one of 8, count em 8 dungeons supposed to provide thousands of players with areas to hack their way through.
Correct, but i have to throw in, that i read that UO was originally designed for about 300 to 500 players per shard (more like the other MMO's/MUD's back then) and they completly got overrun with players since they didnt expect that much interrest in this kind of games in the first place.
This also explains the openness of the game, since in old MMO's the "target audience" was mature/intelligent/whatever enough to make the game enjoyable for everyone, even if they built (the textual) Rooms themselves.
The mass appeal brought in the less controlled people that thought senseless PK'ing was a legal playstyle when they are bored.
I also noticed that (NS is incredible, but is limited by the ancient HL engine imho).
My Guess is it, that it's mostly the great number of HL installs out there and the much larger audience that stems from there.
Could also be the better support by valve and the bigger modding community overall.
Q3 ofcourse is a much more flexible engine than HL, but i cant really comment on the differences of modding in detail. The methods of modding etc. should be pretty similar, since the HL engine was branched of somewhere between Quake1 and Quake2, but still uses most of the same basic concepts.
The box was plain, deep Black with the gametitle in dark blue. It was so radiant Black and opposing the screaming color schemes of other games in that time, it really stuck out. Not to mention that U7 was one of the best RPG's ever made, and the black box foreshadowed the deep, dark and brooding storyline.
Did anyone else get the idea, that Microsoft is in effect pullig the same management/technology stunt it did with Windows95/98/ME all over?
E.G. Win95 mostly served the purpose of creating a middleway between DOS and the Windows Api. All DOS apps ran more or less, and all apps build in the "new" windows api worked a lot better (ofcourse). Then, after 5 years, when even the last software vendor had switched over, they could introduce Windows2000, that ran these Apps better than anything before it, and was build upon actually usable technology.
So... think about.NET and it's primary feature of machine independent code. Could MS be planning to have programmers create all of the smaller, not that speed dependent frontend apps to the.Net runtime, so they can finally drop the ever aging 80x86 architecture sometimes down the road?
heh yes, the original german RTCW used US screenshots for the manual. one of them features a soldier with a swaistika.
The realy funny part is, in some of the very first shippings, when holding the manual against the light you can actutally see a somewhat swaistika shaped area on one page, that seems to be drawn over by hand using an ink marker:)
Wolfenstein 3D and Kz-manager are NOT INDEXED! read on...
The indexing practice here in germany actually is a bit more fine grained than they discribed in that article. At first, there are two institutions. The USK (Unterhaltungssoftwareselbstkontrolle/Voluntary gamesself control) USK,a non govermental institution, that tests games, and gives out age recommendations ranging from "educational/no age limit" to "not below 18".
The second institute is the "Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefÃhrdende schriften/ federal control comission of Youth endangering media" or BPJS, the federal organ.
The functioning of these 2 institutions have been changed a bit recently. Before, the USK was allowed to test any game they saw fit, but was only able to issue recommendations, while the BPJS was able to index or ban games (more on that later), but was only allowed to test games when an official complaint has been filed with them.
The new law basically says, that every game, that is not tested and rated by the USK has to be treated like it has an USK18 (not below 18) tag.
The rest of the system still stands. The BPJS need to get an complaint about the contents of a certain game (which requires that game to be sold in Germany first), then test it for some weeks (in which the game still is beeing sold) and then decides it the game is left alone as USK18, gets indexed, or gets "eingezogen".
To clear up the terms. USK18 means, the game may not be sold to minors, but can be displayed and advertised.
Indexed means, it may not be shown in public or be advertised, but still can be sold to adults. (in effect, its even possible to display and offer the game, but only in the classical "smut corner" that is inacessible to minors, most stores shun that. Big retailers won't sell these games, gameshops usually have a small stack behind the counter where so you have to ask to get them.
Eingezogen is in effect banned. Ownership in general is still allowed, but any form of distribution, even in private, is forbidden. This usually only applies to heavy Racial/Nazi content. (Mein kampf, Kzmanager and Wolfenstein3D all are Banned and NOT indexed).
Hope that clears it up.. i stopped counting just how often i wrote this in various threads on god-know-how-many newspages, since i yet have to come about one single american article about the german jugendschutz (youth protection) that atlest gets the basic facts right.
hmm, i recall how my brother told me about something like this 10 or so years ago. He said, that there where Students in our home town, that snuck an walkie-talkie into the casino, and reported every result of the gambling machines outside, trying to analyze and precalculate the results.
That was the first time someone told me about the machine-random-problem, so it stuck.
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Darn, I'm already set on buying a Thinkpad T42 for christmas this year. Well, i just hope the legendary IBM laptop support doesn't go poof next year :/
As another poster mentioned, IBM might have taken this move to free themselves from Microsoft to push unix/Linux wihout being a target of the usual bullying practices.
But it get's really interresting if you take IBM's Cell chip into the equasion. We already specualted that Cell will mostlikely run some sort of Unix, could IBM have dropped their Wintel line in favor of atleast trying to push Cell based workstations and laptops into the highend market?
I don't know how big this is in the US, but German media is currently going completely bonkers because we only made place 12. ;)
Talk about hurt pride.
Actually, FarCry is a German game......
They might just be preparing for the PSP to bounce back into that market later....
or maybe that's just wishful thinking...
File under "Useless Nokia invention No. 174432".
It's actually pretty sad to see Nokia go from "best phones around" to "bad design with useless gimicks" in such a short time.
Imho the N3210 is one of the best mobiles, that are just phones and nothing more, but after that, Nokia pretty much lost it.
And Kids, remember Crapradio!,- radio.
your friendly-neighborhood-game-related-only-streaming
Origin Creates great games.
......
EA buys Origin.
Origin Creates a crappy game (U8) under EA's influence.
Richard Gariott leaves origin.
Origin is just a empty husk, providing support for UO, living from their inherited IP.
Bullfrog Creates great games.
EA buys Bullfrog.
Peter Molyneaux leaves Bullfrog.
Bullfro is just an empty husk, programming updated versions of old games, living from their inherited IP.
Dynamix creates Great games.
Sierry buys Dynamix.
Dynamix releases Tribes2 Prematurely under Sierra's influence.
Sierra closes down Dynamix.
Sierra tries to patch Tribes2 with inhouse developers.
about 1 year later, they hire ex-dynamix employees to finish the game.
The Manga version of Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM) also had one of these.
It even looks quite similar design wise.....
Bluetooth Dead?... WTF?
I don't know about the US, but here in Europe, Blutetooth is currently starting up Bigtime, and is on the brink to replace any kind of IR/DECT/Custom Wireless connection.
Heise is running some background artices (in German, and mostly in print only).
http://www.heise.de/mobil/bluetooth/
I'm still using the Hp deskjet520 printer i bought for my first PC (486/33) around 1993/94. Heck, i can remember using it to cheat in my math classes, where i used the incredible 300 dpi resolution to print ultra tiny notes :)
It will mostlikely survive some more years, since the whole gearing is completely made of metal for instance.
It seems that HP doesn't produce homeoffice printers at this qualitylevel anymore. But one of the golden quotes of a printer Salesman i askes about it is still somewhat sad but true.
"If they would have continued to build printers that last over a decade, who would have bought a new one next year?".
of that Quake3 cheating prog, that would steal your Cdkey in the process.
ummm... I think the visual effect of the "holographic" Doctor/Shrink in Seaquest DSV was created by projecting the image of him on a wall of smoke that was sucked across the room in a stream of air.
It actually was a pretty nice effect to get that translucent, wavy look without any CGI.
THe game world was hideously boring with nothing to do other than crowd into one of 8, count em 8 dungeons supposed to provide thousands of players with areas to hack their way through.
Correct, but i have to throw in, that i read that UO was originally designed for about 300 to 500 players per shard (more like the other MMO's/MUD's back then) and they completly got overrun with players since they didnt expect that much interrest in this kind of games in the first place.
This also explains the openness of the game, since in old MMO's the "target audience" was mature/intelligent/whatever enough to make the game enjoyable for everyone, even if they built (the textual) Rooms themselves.
The mass appeal brought in the less controlled people that thought senseless PK'ing was a legal playstyle when they are bored.
I also noticed that (NS is incredible, but is limited by the ancient HL engine imho).
My Guess is it, that it's mostly the great number of HL installs out there and the much larger audience that stems from there.
Could also be the better support by valve and the bigger modding community overall.
Q3 ofcourse is a much more flexible engine than HL, but i cant really comment on the differences of modding in detail.
The methods of modding etc. should be pretty similar, since the HL engine was branched of somewhere between Quake1 and Quake2, but still uses most of the same basic concepts.
Ultima VII:The Black gate.
The box was plain, deep Black with the gametitle in dark blue.
It was so radiant Black and opposing the screaming color schemes of other games in that time, it really stuck out.
Not to mention that U7 was one of the best RPG's ever made, and the black box foreshadowed the deep, dark and brooding storyline.
Did anyone else get the idea, that Microsoft is in effect pullig the same management/technology stunt it did with Windows95/98/ME all over?
.NET and it's primary feature of machine independent code. .Net runtime, so they can finally drop the ever aging 80x86 architecture sometimes down the road?
E.G. Win95 mostly served the purpose of creating a middleway between DOS and the Windows Api. All DOS apps ran more or less, and all apps build in the "new" windows api worked a lot better (ofcourse). Then, after 5 years, when even the last software vendor had switched over, they could introduce Windows2000, that ran these Apps better than anything before it, and was build upon actually usable technology.
So... think about
Could MS be planning to have programmers create all of the smaller, not that speed dependent frontend apps to the
heh yes, the original german RTCW used US screenshots for the manual. one of them features a soldier with a swaistika. The realy funny part is, in some of the very first shippings, when holding the manual against the light you can actutally see a somewhat swaistika shaped area on one page, that seems to be drawn over by hand using an ink marker :)
Wolfenstein 3D and Kz-manager are NOT INDEXED!
,a non govermental institution, that tests games, and gives out age recommendations ranging from "educational/no age limit" to "not below 18".
read on...
The indexing practice here in germany actually is a bit more fine grained than they discribed in that article.
At first, there are two institutions. The USK (Unterhaltungssoftwareselbstkontrolle/Voluntary gamesself control) USK
The second institute is the "Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefÃhrdende schriften/ federal control comission of Youth endangering media" or BPJS, the federal organ.
The functioning of these 2 institutions have been changed a bit recently. Before, the USK was allowed to test any game they saw fit, but was only able to issue recommendations, while the BPJS was able to index or ban games (more on that later), but was only allowed to test games when an official complaint has been filed with them.
The new law basically says, that every game, that is not tested and rated by the USK has to be treated like it has an USK18 (not below 18) tag.
The rest of the system still stands.
The BPJS need to get an complaint about the contents of a certain game (which requires that game to be sold in Germany first), then test it for some weeks (in which the game still is beeing sold) and then decides it the game is left alone as USK18, gets indexed, or gets "eingezogen".
To clear up the terms.
USK18 means, the game may not be sold to minors, but can be displayed and advertised.
Indexed means, it may not be shown in public or be advertised, but still can be sold to adults. (in effect, its even possible to display and offer the game, but only in the classical "smut corner" that is inacessible to minors, most stores shun that. Big retailers won't sell these games, gameshops usually have a small stack behind the counter where so you have to ask to get them.
Eingezogen is in effect banned.
Ownership in general is still allowed, but any form of distribution, even in private, is forbidden. This usually only applies to heavy Racial/Nazi content. (Mein kampf, Kzmanager and Wolfenstein3D all are Banned and NOT indexed).
Hope that clears it up.. i stopped counting just how often i wrote this in various threads on god-know-how-many newspages, since i yet have to come about one single american article about the german jugendschutz (youth protection) that atlest gets the basic facts right.
hmm, i recall how my brother told me about something like this 10 or so years ago.
He said, that there where Students in our home town, that snuck an walkie-talkie into the casino, and reported every result of the gambling machines outside, trying to analyze and precalculate the results.
That was the first time someone told me about the machine-random-problem, so it stuck.