That plugs into the Wii Remote, just like a "Classic Controller." I want one that plugs straight into the Gamecube port on the console. After all, it's got a wire anyway -- why not just avoid wear and tear on the batteries entirely?
Gamepads, or the "classic" controllers he's whining about, actually suck quite a lot. They have terrible precision when compared to a mouse, don't work that well for things like Flight Sims when compared to a flightstick...
You need to make a distinction between thumb-joystick controllers and actual "classic" (non-analog) controllers. Regarding thumb joysticks, I agree with you: they're simply too small (and therefore too sensitive) to even begin to compete with a mouse/full-size joystick/whatever. But classic D-pad controllers, on the other hand, are different. Yes, they're not suited for flight sims in the same way a joystick is, in the sense of making smooth turns and such. However, flying (or in my forthcoming example, racing) games designed for D-pads can have their own other sort of appeal. Take F-Zero (and SNES racing game), for instance. It wasn't a realistic racing experience by any stretch of the imagination, but it was surprisingly satisfying when you (for example) hit the left or right buttons for exactly the right duration to aim your car exactly parallel to the straightaway barrier. It had it's own kind of precision that way -- different than the experience using a wheel or joystick, but just as worthwhile!
Button based games are like 2D platform Games vs 3D First Person Shooters, they will always be beloved, but I bet you they will feel 10 years ago pretty soon...
Nintendo is coming out with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a brand new side-scroller (3D graphics, but 2D gameplay). They're also coming out with Super Mario Galaxy 2. Personally, I'm much more excited about the former.
That's one major "innovation" I see the Wii bringing to gaming: we're finally getting past the point where the game designed to suit the technology available (i.e., "we've just come out with 3D, so everything must be 3d!") and to the point where the technology is designed to suit the game. And that's something to be happy about!
I wonder if there's an SNES-like controller for the Wii that plugs directly into the console instead of into the back of a Wii remote (which is just stupid). Know of one?
I'm not about to try to play Starcraft 2 using only motion controls. I need a keyboard. A *REAL* keyboard (not even a Chat Pad that has all of the right buttons).
More importantly, you need a mouse.
(Although, I've had an idea bumping around in my head for a RTS that would be controlled using a stylus (circle your troops to select rather than drag diagonally to make a bounding box; giving orders in a way similar to drawing football plays on a chalkboard; etc.).
The XBOX 360 controller imo is the best one to ever come out. Could you perform the dozens of different actions/moves in modern games with a snes controller? No.
Only if you think thumb joysticks were ever a good idea to begin with. Everything that the Xbox 360 controller can do that the SNES controller can't is done better by either a mouse or a real joystick, thankyouverymuch!
Having owned both consoles back in the day (actually, I still do own them, come to think of it...), I have to say that the SNES controller was superior to the Genesis one. First, it managed to be just as ergonomic to hold even though its roundness was considerably less prominent -- it's a tie in that regard. Second, and more importantly, the SNES controller had both more buttons and had them in a better layout. The Genesis's A-B-C arranged linearly meant it was hard to hit A then C (or vice-versa) in quick succession, while the SNES's A,B,X,Y arranged in a diamond meant the button you needed was always right next to the one your thumb was on. Plus, the SNES controller had the L and R "triggers" (though they weren't analog back then).
Personally, I think the SNES controller is the best design of the pre-thumb-joystick era, or perhaps even the best ever (especially since I'm not all that into thumb joysticks). Maybe that's rose-colored glasses, but I don't believe so. Runners up include the Sony Dual Shock (PS/PS2/PS3) and the Wii Remote (for the "thumb joystick era" and "new HCI gimmick" categories, respectively).
Ah, so that's why they're going for all the same markets as Clearwire (which was just launched here in Atlanta last week or so). I figured Comcast was trying to steal Clearwire's thunder...
Of course, who the fuck would pick Comcast over Clearwire -- or really, anyone else -- given the choice?! Even suicidal masochists have limits, and Comcast's BS is infinitely beyond them!
But demand staying relatively high doesn't mean it isn't over-valued. Beanie baby demand stayed high for a few years, but that doesn't mean they were actually worth 100s of dollars each as an investment. Right now the way people invest stocks are just like beanie babies- you buy them because other people want them, and hope to find someone else to buy them for more money later. That's unsustainable long term.
I wasn't saying that demand due to the existence of 401Ks would stay high "for a few years;" I was saying that demand would stay high indefinitely -- i.e., until there was some fundamental change in our banking system. In that case, the valuation just becomes "normal."
Or in other words, it's analogous to inflation -- would you say that bread is over-valued because people are willing to pay more than 3 cents/loaf for it? If there were a good reason to suspect it'd be selling for that price again eventually, then sure! But there's not, so 3 dollars/loaf has become the "normal" price. Similarly, if these investors aren't going to go away for the forseeable future, then the prices including their influence are the "normal" prices!
Actually even the why its inflated is pretty easy to answer- 401Ks. In the 80s 401Ks came into being, causing a lot of small time investors to put their money in the market, where previously it would go into CDs and other small investments. More money going into the market chasing the same shares causes price inflation by simple supply and demand.
But then if you assume 401Ks aren't going away (and I think that's a reasonable assumption), then the demand is going to stay high and the market isn't over-valued at all. Now, it means there won't be the same level of growth (unless of course, more new investors come in), but there's no danger of an imminent collapse either (at least not for that particular reason).
What you state makes no sense. The people the FDIC would have paid would have lost money over certain amounts, had the banks been allowed to fail completely. By keeping the banks alive, those people instead get to keep all of their money.
WTF?! Anyone simultaneously rich and stupid enough to keep more than $100,000 (or whatever it is) in the same account deserves to lose it! It's not as if it's hard to avoid, you know; you just open another account!
How is your scenario, where people lose some of their money supposed to be better than the the present case where they get to keep 100% of their money?
Because in your scenario, the incompetent bank managers get to keep extra money, while the taxpayers lose money they couldn't afford to spend to begin with!
Well, read the TOS, and quit wondering. You grant YouTube (google) a non-exclusive right to redistribute as they see fit, and that includes deals with big organisations that deal with broadcast (TV) material.
Yeah, but that's for YouTube, so it's irrelevant. The question is, what do you agree to in MySpace's TOS?
Besides, even if we did assume it was like YouTube's in that you grant YouTube (or analogously, MySpace) a right to redistribute, the redistribution in this case was done by a third party who never had that right anyway!
Even if NASA did do it itself, "society" would be paying for it anyway...
Actually, this should be better in two important ways: not only could crowd-sourcing could accomplish the task much more efficiency than $50-grand-space-pen-NASA could to begin with, but also the cost would be distributed across the entire Internet, rather than being shouldered only by American taxpayers! It's a win-win-win* situation, I'd say.
(* for NASA, and for space geeks, and for taxpayers)
The thing is, dont half ass the pdf by simply encapsulating images. they need to do a real OCR on it and separate things out to images that are not typewritten....the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the documents is that it is easily searched. which means all text must be text and not images. Yes that includes his handwriting.
I agree, but the second most important aspect is that the images of the original get preserved too. The ideal way to do it is to have the image be displayed, but with the OCR'd text linked to it so that when you highlight the image with the text selection tool, the text is what actually gets selected.
I'm undecided about whether the image of the typewritten text should be preserved, or whether it should actually be replaced with PDF text using a Courier-like font -- the latter would be better for usability (readability), but the former would be more authentic.
But maps are "facts themselves." Unless, of course, you want to argue that there's "artistry" in deciding what kind of information to put on the map -- but then you could argue that there's exactly the same kind of artistry in deciding what to include in a database!
In other words, if the Copyright Act of 1790 made a distinction between maps and databases, then it was wrong. Either both should be copyrightable, or (better yet) neither should be!
...it leaves me wondering why there isn't a larger community behind it and whether it will ever pick up. I've tried asking in a few comments on their internet blog but they were not answered...
Seems like you already know the answer! It's hard to build a community when you're snubbing everyone who shows any interest...
In the future history of Star Trek, mankind was only able to evolve beyond petty political correctness with the Zephram Cochrane's 2nd most famous invention: anti-wadding panties. When no one was able to get their panties in a wad, everyone was finally able to relax and stop being personally wounded by silly words.
More like, mankind didn't evolve beyond it, and racism only quit being an issue because they had other species to fear/hate instead.
If you're standing on the public sidewalk you can look anywhere you want.
Unless you're Google, in which case OMG evuhl korporationz 1984!!!!
More like, unless you're doing it systematically and making the images public.
What Google does is justifiably treated differently than what this guy did in the same way that armed robbery of a bank is treated differently than a 5-year-old stealing a candy bar from a store.
A 10" or 12" (4:3) touchscreen (or Wacom-style digitizer), less than 1/2" thick (preferably 1/4", like an iPod Nano), 12 hour battery life, slow processor (good enough for web surfing). It would be perfect!
Video out (VGA or otherwise) is unnecessary in this class of machine -- but even if you did want it, you could use Mini DisplayPort. Ethernet is unnecessary. USB is necessary, but is also thin enough to fit -- and if it isn't, you could use Mini- or Micro-USB.
Slashdot Mirror
That plugs into the Wii Remote, just like a "Classic Controller." I want one that plugs straight into the Gamecube port on the console. After all, it's got a wire anyway -- why not just avoid wear and tear on the batteries entirely?
You need to make a distinction between thumb-joystick controllers and actual "classic" (non-analog) controllers. Regarding thumb joysticks, I agree with you: they're simply too small (and therefore too sensitive) to even begin to compete with a mouse/full-size joystick/whatever. But classic D-pad controllers, on the other hand, are different. Yes, they're not suited for flight sims in the same way a joystick is, in the sense of making smooth turns and such. However, flying (or in my forthcoming example, racing) games designed for D-pads can have their own other sort of appeal. Take F-Zero (and SNES racing game), for instance. It wasn't a realistic racing experience by any stretch of the imagination, but it was surprisingly satisfying when you (for example) hit the left or right buttons for exactly the right duration to aim your car exactly parallel to the straightaway barrier. It had it's own kind of precision that way -- different than the experience using a wheel or joystick, but just as worthwhile!
Nintendo is coming out with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a brand new side-scroller (3D graphics, but 2D gameplay). They're also coming out with Super Mario Galaxy 2. Personally, I'm much more excited about the former.
That's one major "innovation" I see the Wii bringing to gaming: we're finally getting past the point where the game designed to suit the technology available (i.e., "we've just come out with 3D, so everything must be 3d!") and to the point where the technology is designed to suit the game. And that's something to be happy about!
I wonder if there's an SNES-like controller for the Wii that plugs directly into the console instead of into the back of a Wii remote (which is just stupid). Know of one?
More importantly, you need a mouse. (Although, I've had an idea bumping around in my head for a RTS that would be controlled using a stylus (circle your troops to select rather than drag diagonally to make a bounding box; giving orders in a way similar to drawing football plays on a chalkboard; etc.).
Only if you think thumb joysticks were ever a good idea to begin with. Everything that the Xbox 360 controller can do that the SNES controller can't is done better by either a mouse or a real joystick, thankyouverymuch!
Having owned both consoles back in the day (actually, I still do own them, come to think of it...), I have to say that the SNES controller was superior to the Genesis one. First, it managed to be just as ergonomic to hold even though its roundness was considerably less prominent -- it's a tie in that regard. Second, and more importantly, the SNES controller had both more buttons and had them in a better layout. The Genesis's A-B-C arranged linearly meant it was hard to hit A then C (or vice-versa) in quick succession, while the SNES's A,B,X,Y arranged in a diamond meant the button you needed was always right next to the one your thumb was on. Plus, the SNES controller had the L and R "triggers" (though they weren't analog back then).
Personally, I think the SNES controller is the best design of the pre-thumb-joystick era, or perhaps even the best ever (especially since I'm not all that into thumb joysticks). Maybe that's rose-colored glasses, but I don't believe so. Runners up include the Sony Dual Shock (PS/PS2/PS3) and the Wii Remote (for the "thumb joystick era" and "new HCI gimmick" categories, respectively).
Ah, so that's why they're going for all the same markets as Clearwire (which was just launched here in Atlanta last week or so). I figured Comcast was trying to steal Clearwire's thunder...
Of course, who the fuck would pick Comcast over Clearwire -- or really, anyone else -- given the choice?! Even suicidal masochists have limits, and Comcast's BS is infinitely beyond them!
I wasn't saying that demand due to the existence of 401Ks would stay high "for a few years;" I was saying that demand would stay high indefinitely -- i.e., until there was some fundamental change in our banking system. In that case, the valuation just becomes "normal."
Or in other words, it's analogous to inflation -- would you say that bread is over-valued because people are willing to pay more than 3 cents/loaf for it? If there were a good reason to suspect it'd be selling for that price again eventually, then sure! But there's not, so 3 dollars/loaf has become the "normal" price. Similarly, if these investors aren't going to go away for the forseeable future, then the prices including their influence are the "normal" prices!
But then if you assume 401Ks aren't going away (and I think that's a reasonable assumption), then the demand is going to stay high and the market isn't over-valued at all. Now, it means there won't be the same level of growth (unless of course, more new investors come in), but there's no danger of an imminent collapse either (at least not for that particular reason).
WTF?! Anyone simultaneously rich and stupid enough to keep more than $100,000 (or whatever it is) in the same account deserves to lose it! It's not as if it's hard to avoid, you know; you just open another account!
Because in your scenario, the incompetent bank managers get to keep extra money, while the taxpayers lose money they couldn't afford to spend to begin with!
Yeah, but that's for YouTube, so it's irrelevant. The question is, what do you agree to in MySpace's TOS?
Besides, even if we did assume it was like YouTube's in that you grant YouTube (or analogously, MySpace) a right to redistribute, the redistribution in this case was done by a third party who never had that right anyway!
Even if NASA did do it itself, "society" would be paying for it anyway...
Actually, this should be better in two important ways: not only could crowd-sourcing could accomplish the task much more efficiency than $50-grand-space-pen-NASA could to begin with, but also the cost would be distributed across the entire Internet, rather than being shouldered only by American taxpayers! It's a win-win-win* situation, I'd say.
(* for NASA, and for space geeks, and for taxpayers)
I agree, but the second most important aspect is that the images of the original get preserved too. The ideal way to do it is to have the image be displayed, but with the OCR'd text linked to it so that when you highlight the image with the text selection tool, the text is what actually gets selected.
I'm undecided about whether the image of the typewritten text should be preserved, or whether it should actually be replaced with PDF text using a Courier-like font -- the latter would be better for usability (readability), but the former would be more authentic.
But maps are "facts themselves." Unless, of course, you want to argue that there's "artistry" in deciding what kind of information to put on the map -- but then you could argue that there's exactly the same kind of artistry in deciding what to include in a database!
In other words, if the Copyright Act of 1790 made a distinction between maps and databases, then it was wrong. Either both should be copyrightable, or (better yet) neither should be!
I'm talking about the HTML of the site itself, the Pirate Pay logo images, etc.
No, you're wrong. There's plenty of copyrighted material hosted on TPB, but it's completely legal because TPB is itself the copyright holder!
So then, does it make me a criminal if I'm driving down the highway and move over to get out of the way of a speeder?
Does it include things other than consumer electronics, too? I'd like to be able to look up stuff like ODB2 (on-board diagnostics, for vehicles).
Seems like you already know the answer! It's hard to build a community when you're snubbing everyone who shows any interest...
Nobody.
Yes!
This is why stuff like that gets separated from everything else and marked something like "non-Free" or "non-U.S. users only." Check it, you'll see.
More like, mankind didn't evolve beyond it, and racism only quit being an issue because they had other species to fear/hate instead.
More like, unless you're doing it systematically and making the images public.
What Google does is justifiably treated differently than what this guy did in the same way that armed robbery of a bank is treated differently than a 5-year-old stealing a candy bar from a store.
A 10" or 12" (4:3) touchscreen (or Wacom-style digitizer), less than 1/2" thick (preferably 1/4", like an iPod Nano), 12 hour battery life, slow processor (good enough for web surfing). It would be perfect!
Video out (VGA or otherwise) is unnecessary in this class of machine -- but even if you did want it, you could use Mini DisplayPort. Ethernet is unnecessary. USB is necessary, but is also thin enough to fit -- and if it isn't, you could use Mini- or Micro-USB.