This is yet another instance of describing something as a "breakthrough" only if you've had your head up your butt for the last, oh I don't know, decade or so. I'm not a PC fanboy, but I do get sick of people claiming this is a new phenomena when in fact user generated content has been pushing the future of gaming for a long time.
Not only has this been done already, but it (in regard to consoles) it was done in a much more open and standard environment that you didn't have to pay extra for (in the case of the XBox360).
There are video cards out there that cost almost $600. There are processors that cost over $1000 dollars, and there are games that cost over $150 per year to play on top of the $50.00 you pay for it up front. Oh, and guess what? People buy them.
You want to know WTF Sony is thinking? For starters, how much money they are going to rake in. I for one am going to laugh my ass off when Sony sells out of the PS3 this year. This zealot attitude that so many (certainly not all) people have on this site toward anyone with market share really amazes me sometimes. Don't like what Sony's doing, don't buy it. Just don't go around predicting the demise of Sony, cause it ain't gonna happen. Sony is not Sega, the PS3 is not the Jaguar, and $600 is not going to be too expensive for a lot of people.
Mod me a troll, call it flamebait, but somebody has to say it.
There was an article talking about how Wal Mart wants to move the recording industry to sell them CD's cheap enough so they could retail them for no more than $9.99. Sounds like Apple is trying to do something along these lines as well, but can Apple move an industry like Wal Mart (which constitutes about 20% of all CD's sold) is trying?
Am I the only one thinking this is a Death Star? While we're all debating orbital trajectory and definition, Alderaan is being mercilessly pummeled. Sad, just sad.
Let's not forget that not one, NOT ONE terrorist has EVER been caught crossing the US-Mexican border. However, the potential LAX bomber was caught trying to cross over into the US from Canada (turns steely glare directly north).
According to the Washington Post , the US has a laughingly low number of border patrol agents on the northern border.
From TFA: "The United State posts more than five agents per mile across our southern border. By contrast, we post less than one agent every five miles across our northern border. What's more, as the United States has cut off urban crossing points in places such as El Paso and San Diego, it has forced many illegal immigrants to go through the Arizona desert -- a brutal journey, particularly for someone with no knowledge of the terrain. Would-be terrorists coming from Canada are not only less likely to be caught, they are less likely to die along the way.
There also happen to be many more potential jihadists in Canada. Unlike Mexico, with its negligible Arab and Muslim population, Canada in recent decades has welcomed large numbers of immigrants from the Middle East. And while the vast majority are law-abiding, Canadian authorities estimate that roughly 50 terrorist groups operate in the country. In their study, Leiken and Brooke identify three suspected terrorists who have tried to enter the United states from Canada, including Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian native arrested in December 1999 on his way to blow up Los Angeles International Airport."
I love my country, but seriously, this is just so out of hand now. To paraphrase The Talking Heads: "We're on a road to nowhere."
I don't know why Dell is partnering on this. They've had dkms for a while now, and it sounds like it does pretty much the same thing. I've used it in PCLinuxOS for about a year now for loading NVidia drivers without needing to compile anything, and it works fine.
The fact that the install covers 23 screenshots should tell you that they need to seriously streamline it. Xandros takes a half a dozen mouse clicks, and it's done. PCLinuxOS (which I think is the best home user desktop distro) takes about the same. PC-BSD is very simple as well.
An install should consist of: 1. Create users. 2. Would like me to create the partitions for you? (offer an advanced feature as well) 3. Are you going to use DHCP, or a static address? 4. Would you like to review the software that is going to be installed? 5. Click next to complete.
That's it.
Those who created the OS should know the apps that 95% of computer users use. A web browser (with plugins pre-installed), an e-mail reader, multimedia apps, games, OpenOffice, and of course, the hardware correctly probed and installed. The security settings should be reasonable, and the first set of updates should be applied automatically.
Once the PC is up, take users to a Welcome screen, and ask if they would like to setup automatic updates, install additional software, and point them to an FAQ, or let them know how to get help.
Suse does many of these things right, but bombarding the user with so many questions during the install makes an intimidating first impression that turns users off.
Microsoft had a positional controller loooooong before Nintendo, or Sony. They came out with a special edition of the Sidewinder that offered many of the same features as these "next gen" controllers. I believe it was about 1997 or 98 when it was available (it was discontinued after about a year).
Since TW Telecom is a part of Time Warner, does this mean they will charge extra for access to sites such as AOL? Or how about accessing a downloaded or streamed movie from Warner Brothers or HBO? Or how about streaming or downloading music from Time Warner artists?
Seems they'd be shooting themselves in the foot with their customers (which I am), and puts them in a possible legal situation if they charge extra for other site's services, and not for their own.
Wait a minute! Could I actually be glad that I'm with Time Warner? (washes mouth out with soap)
What people have to understand is that Ubuntu, for all it's goodness, is pretty much a polished over version of Debian Testing. If you want a shiny new OS, create a cron job to run apt-get dist-upgrade every 7 days (after you've added the testing/security repositories). You could have a new Debian every week if you wanted to.:)
Wouldn't Picard's days at SA have been more interesting? I mean, he was a party animal, ladies man, and was stabbed through the heart in a fight. Sounds more interesting to me.
Being a Trek fan for the last, oh, 25 years, I REALLY think they need to step outside of Trek lore to create something that will be worth watching. Of course it probably won't happen, but with the commercial and/or critical successes of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly , Paramount needs to wakeup and realize that if they don't change soon, they risk the franchise as a whole.
I remember back in the day (circa 1998), I used to ask noob questions and get flamed all the time. I swore to never be one of those people, but I do live by the saying "Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime".
I always instruct noobs to stop phrasing their questions as, "Somebody tell me how to do this", and start phrasing them as, "I've tried this, this and this, but still can't figure it out. Can someone tell me where I could the information on how to do this? I'm new, and if needed, can post additional information if needed. Thanks in advance!". I found out quickly that people came out of the woodwork with helpful ideas, suggestions, and links to information that very nearly always solved my issue.
I also tell them that they are now responsible with sharing that information back to the community to help out others. You don't need to be a programmer to give back to the OSS community. Sharing your knowledge and experiences is every bit as valuable.
I think that pretty much everyone agrees that global warming is a real threat. The only problem is that everyone is working the deal all crabbed. They need to stop selling people on the problem, and start selling them on the answer. Everyone knows it's a problem. It's not a question of if, but when it will be a calamity. Fine, people know that, and people understand that. However, nobody tells them what to do about it other than to stop doing what you're doing now. The guy who modified his Prius to get 180 miles per gallon has come up with an answer. OK, somebody show people how they can implement that. That's a good solution that doesn't require major government backing (especially under the current "administration"), and doesn't require the auto industry to get involved (although if they are smart, they would). A smart group of investors can push this forward instead. The cost is maybe a couple thousand dollars to the user, and viola! They save the environment and keep some money in their pocket long term. People can't see past next week in most cases, so stop telling them in ten years that something bad is gonna happen, and start selling them on solutions that make sense now, and will divert a disaster later.
I have a 9 year old (I know he's not a teenager) that would easily rather play Yugi-Oh or Vs than just about any game out there. I have been carting him to tournaments and events for the last six months or so to see crowds swelling from about 10 or 15 to 50 or 60 players. Not just kids either. By far the largest groups are 15-20 year olds, and not your stereotypical D&D or other tabletop type players either. The GenCon Yugi Oh event last year pulled in a few hundred players, and in Vs., you can win some big money playing the Pro Circuit.
There used to be a time when a new Debian leader election would not have been relegated to a sub headline on Slashdot.
I agree with others on this thread that excess architectures need to be dumped, and a firm timeline needs to be put in place.
I say putting out a new Stable release every 12 months is the way to go. Debian has an excellent reputation for it's performance and stability. Six months is too soon to keep up that reputation. A new Testing release would be available every six months. With security updates on Stable being current version minus one (i.e. Debian 3.2 comes out, Debian 3.1 will still be supported, but 3.0 no longer will be).
If this is true (and there certainly are some questions about this story), what kind of fuel does this add to the debate over creating seperate internets much like the Chinese are proposing?
Look no further than projectoffset.com for an example of an independent on the verge of a revolution. The game engine and initial artwork/models are all done by three guys in their apartment. Living proof that great gameplay (these are the same guys who worked on Savage) and great graohics can live side by side. Just the words Epic Fantasy First Person Shooter get my juices goin!
While in theory, I wholeheartedly support this, in practice, this could have some unintended negative consequences.
One aspect of this that is often overlooked, is whether or not these laptops will be used at all. Remember, $100 in the US (and many other countries) is very cheap. In the countries that this is intended for, it's a lot. Perhaps even several months wages. When you are looking at not being able to feed yourself or your family, that laptop will most likely become a bartering tool, or sold outright to get food on the table.
Taking it a step further, you may even see people losing their lives over this. In some under-developed countries, it's nothing to take someone's life over something worth a small fraction of the value of these laptops.
I always wondered what made anyone think that this would be a success in the first place. Registering your pr0n site as a.com, etc would always be the preffered method, since you site would have a better chance of getting around filters. Just another instance of non-technical people trying to make technical decisions.
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Dear Bill, I found it for you. http://www.google.com/search?q=movie+maker+download+windows+xp&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a Regards, Your Customer
This is yet another instance of describing something as a "breakthrough" only if you've had your head up your butt for the last, oh I don't know, decade or so. I'm not a PC fanboy, but I do get sick of people claiming this is a new phenomena when in fact user generated content has been pushing the future of gaming for a long time.
Not only has this been done already, but it (in regard to consoles) it was done in a much more open and standard environment that you didn't have to pay extra for (in the case of the XBox360).
Here's a news flash for everybody!!
There are video cards out there that cost almost $600. There are processors that cost over $1000 dollars, and there are games that cost over $150 per year to play on top of the $50.00 you pay for it up front. Oh, and guess what? People buy them.
You want to know WTF Sony is thinking? For starters, how much money they are going to rake in. I for one am going to laugh my ass off when Sony sells out of the PS3 this year. This zealot attitude that so many (certainly not all) people have on this site toward anyone with market share really amazes me sometimes. Don't like what Sony's doing, don't buy it. Just don't go around predicting the demise of Sony, cause it ain't gonna happen. Sony is not Sega, the PS3 is not the Jaguar, and $600 is not going to be too expensive for a lot of people.
Mod me a troll, call it flamebait, but somebody has to say it.
There was an article talking about how Wal Mart wants to move the recording industry to sell them CD's cheap enough so they could retail them for no more than $9.99. Sounds like Apple is trying to do something along these lines as well, but can Apple move an industry like Wal Mart (which constitutes about 20% of all CD's sold) is trying?
Am I the only one thinking this is a Death Star? While we're all debating orbital trajectory and definition, Alderaan is being mercilessly pummeled. Sad, just sad.
Let's not forget that not one, NOT ONE terrorist has EVER been caught crossing the US-Mexican border. However, the potential LAX bomber was caught trying to cross over into the US from Canada (turns steely glare directly north).
According to the Washington Post , the US has a laughingly low number of border patrol agents on the northern border.
From TFA: "The United State posts more than five agents per mile across our southern border. By contrast, we post less than one agent every five miles across our northern border. What's more, as the United States has cut off urban crossing points in places such as El Paso and San Diego, it has forced many illegal immigrants to go through the Arizona desert -- a brutal journey, particularly for someone with no knowledge of the terrain. Would-be terrorists coming from Canada are not only less likely to be caught, they are less likely to die along the way.
There also happen to be many more potential jihadists in Canada. Unlike Mexico, with its negligible Arab and Muslim population, Canada in recent decades has welcomed large numbers of immigrants from the Middle East. And while the vast majority are law-abiding, Canadian authorities estimate that roughly 50 terrorist groups operate in the country. In their study, Leiken and Brooke identify three suspected terrorists who have tried to enter the United states from Canada, including Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian native arrested in December 1999 on his way to blow up Los Angeles International Airport."
I love my country, but seriously, this is just so out of hand now. To paraphrase The Talking Heads: "We're on a road to nowhere."
they were confronted with the burial tome of Mary Magdalene, thus confirming that Jesus WAS married!
I don't know why Dell is partnering on this. They've had dkms for a while now, and it sounds like it does pretty much the same thing. I've used it in PCLinuxOS for about a year now for loading NVidia drivers without needing to compile anything, and it works fine.
an airplane that could only go 1500 feet from my house? Oh, wait....
The fact that the install covers 23 screenshots should tell you that they need to seriously streamline it. Xandros takes a half a dozen mouse clicks, and it's done. PCLinuxOS (which I think is the best home user desktop distro) takes about the same. PC-BSD is very simple as well.
An install should consist of:
1. Create users.
2. Would like me to create the partitions for you? (offer an advanced feature as well)
3. Are you going to use DHCP, or a static address?
4. Would you like to review the software that is going to be installed?
5. Click next to complete.
That's it.
Those who created the OS should know the apps that 95% of computer users use. A web browser (with plugins pre-installed), an e-mail reader, multimedia apps, games, OpenOffice, and of course, the hardware correctly probed and installed. The security settings should be reasonable, and the first set of updates should be applied automatically.
Once the PC is up, take users to a Welcome screen, and ask if they would like to setup automatic updates, install additional software, and point them to an FAQ, or let them know how to get help.
Suse does many of these things right, but bombarding the user with so many questions during the install makes an intimidating first impression that turns users off.
Microsoft had a positional controller loooooong before Nintendo, or Sony. They came out with a special edition of the Sidewinder that offered many of the same features as these "next gen" controllers. I believe it was about 1997 or 98 when it was available (it was discontinued after about a year).
Since TW Telecom is a part of Time Warner, does this mean they will charge extra for access to sites such as AOL? Or how about accessing a downloaded or streamed movie from Warner Brothers or HBO? Or how about streaming or downloading music from Time Warner artists?
Seems they'd be shooting themselves in the foot with their customers (which I am), and puts them in a possible legal situation if they charge extra for other site's services, and not for their own.
Wait a minute! Could I actually be glad that I'm with Time Warner? (washes mouth out with soap)
What people have to understand is that Ubuntu, for all it's goodness, is pretty much a polished over version of Debian Testing. If you want a shiny new OS, create a cron job to run apt-get dist-upgrade every 7 days (after you've added the testing/security repositories). You could have a new Debian every week if you wanted to. :)
if you are a Firefly fan. Sci-Fi was on the short list of networks that could bring the show back. I doubt they have enough money to do it now.
Wouldn't Picard's days at SA have been more interesting? I mean, he was a party animal, ladies man, and was stabbed through the heart in a fight. Sounds more interesting to me.
Being a Trek fan for the last, oh, 25 years, I REALLY think they need to step outside of Trek lore to create something that will be worth watching. Of course it probably won't happen, but with the commercial and/or critical successes of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly , Paramount needs to wakeup and realize that if they don't change soon, they risk the franchise as a whole.
I remember back in the day (circa 1998), I used to ask noob questions and get flamed all the time. I swore to never be one of those people, but I do live by the saying "Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime".
I always instruct noobs to stop phrasing their questions as, "Somebody tell me how to do this", and start phrasing them as, "I've tried this, this and this, but still can't figure it out. Can someone tell me where I could the information on how to do this? I'm new, and if needed, can post additional information if needed. Thanks in advance!". I found out quickly that people came out of the woodwork with helpful ideas, suggestions, and links to information that very nearly always solved my issue.
I also tell them that they are now responsible with sharing that information back to the community to help out others. You don't need to be a programmer to give back to the OSS community. Sharing your knowledge and experiences is every bit as valuable.
I think that pretty much everyone agrees that global warming is a real threat. The only problem is that everyone is working the deal all crabbed. They need to stop selling people on the problem, and start selling them on the answer. Everyone knows it's a problem. It's not a question of if, but when it will be a calamity. Fine, people know that, and people understand that. However, nobody tells them what to do about it other than to stop doing what you're doing now. The guy who modified his Prius to get 180 miles per gallon has come up with an answer. OK, somebody show people how they can implement that. That's a good solution that doesn't require major government backing (especially under the current "administration"), and doesn't require the auto industry to get involved (although if they are smart, they would). A smart group of investors can push this forward instead. The cost is maybe a couple thousand dollars to the user, and viola! They save the environment and keep some money in their pocket long term. People can't see past next week in most cases, so stop telling them in ten years that something bad is gonna happen, and start selling them on solutions that make sense now, and will divert a disaster later.
I have a 9 year old (I know he's not a teenager) that would easily rather play Yugi-Oh or Vs than just about any game out there. I have been carting him to tournaments and events for the last six months or so to see crowds swelling from about 10 or 15 to 50 or 60 players. Not just kids either. By far the largest groups are 15-20 year olds, and not your stereotypical D&D or other tabletop type players either. The GenCon Yugi Oh event last year pulled in a few hundred players, and in Vs., you can win some big money playing the Pro Circuit.
There used to be a time when a new Debian leader election would not have been relegated to a sub headline on Slashdot. I agree with others on this thread that excess architectures need to be dumped, and a firm timeline needs to be put in place. I say putting out a new Stable release every 12 months is the way to go. Debian has an excellent reputation for it's performance and stability. Six months is too soon to keep up that reputation. A new Testing release would be available every six months. With security updates on Stable being current version minus one (i.e. Debian 3.2 comes out, Debian 3.1 will still be supported, but 3.0 no longer will be).
about putting my cell close to my head. Nope, no danger there!
If this is true (and there certainly are some questions about this story), what kind of fuel does this add to the debate over creating seperate internets much like the Chinese are proposing?
That's just it. It's a violation of the constitution, so I doubt that Congress even knows.
Look no further than projectoffset.com for an example of an independent on the verge of a revolution. The game engine and initial artwork/models are all done by three guys in their apartment. Living proof that great gameplay (these are the same guys who worked on Savage) and great graohics can live side by side. Just the words Epic Fantasy First Person Shooter get my juices goin!
While in theory, I wholeheartedly support this, in practice, this could have some unintended negative consequences. One aspect of this that is often overlooked, is whether or not these laptops will be used at all. Remember, $100 in the US (and many other countries) is very cheap. In the countries that this is intended for, it's a lot. Perhaps even several months wages. When you are looking at not being able to feed yourself or your family, that laptop will most likely become a bartering tool, or sold outright to get food on the table. Taking it a step further, you may even see people losing their lives over this. In some under-developed countries, it's nothing to take someone's life over something worth a small fraction of the value of these laptops.
I always wondered what made anyone think that this would be a success in the first place. Registering your pr0n site as a .com, etc would always be the preffered method, since you site would have a better chance of getting around filters. Just another instance of non-technical people trying to make technical decisions.