Eh, people go through all sorts of trouble to play specialized games, and lets face it; walking around in a robot, however encumbering, has *gotta* feel cool, way different than any simulator will make you feel.
I really think people will sacrifice a lot of playability for experience. If people paid to play pong against their friends instead of just playing table tennis or air hockey, they will pay good to ride around in a shufflebot. Just you wait:)
It is kind of pointless to put guns on it (implying a military purpose)
Quoted from the cunning translation:
"Now presently, the development machine is only the substance, but while being close, robot opposition (the game), in actual ones...! ?"
Now altavista's japanese isn't so great, but I'm pretty sure he intended the guns for a game; i mean, he is clearly not trying to sell the military on it. Darpa has its fingers in all the more immediately lucrative honeypots as it is, this shufflebot is just for fun and proof of concept. (for now...)
Of course, if a game using a (faster, please god faster) version of this thing took off, i'm sure they'd become more saleable as chassis for real-world stuff much much more quickly:)
Sure a tool would be easy to implement. They should, maybe, but then this article may not have gotten re-posted. And to be frank, I think its good it got duped.
A little redundancy can be very worthwhile, and its not like someone is forcing your eyelids open until you read the article again if you already saw it.
The point of course is that if it weren't reposted, I'd have missed this article (And I do read the main page compulsively). Its interesting news, and since I and a lot of others don't read the 'developers' section all too often(at the risk of sounding dumb, I admit that I only really understand a small fraction of the articles that go up in that section), its easy to miss some cool news.
If the Editor missed it the first time, than lots and lots of other slashdotters surely did; Especially nice to dupe it then if it never appeared on the main page (such as this one).
I think that this is reflected in the comments; Original post had 50 or so, this one is closer to 375, in a much shorter time period. there are a insightful comments from people who clearly didn't see the original post. Thats more people getting ideas and having responses. Awesome, rock and roll.
I guess it could be nice just to at least acknowledge initially its a duplicate post, like check right after submitting with a 'Hey these URLs are also Here, would you like to reference this older post?', which would make sure to get all the content; In this case, the first post of this article had several links that this one did not, and getting that content some limelight while we are duping is worth it.
To those of you who are meticulous readers, and never miss a single post; We have to see the same ads everyday from slashdot, seeing an article twice is no great tragedy. While you're spamming your senses anyway, it might as well be with something interesting. We are all benefitting from the extra comments, anyhow, so really its good for all of us.
About your pageload theory: I just think thats unfair. They get our pageloads either way, and harbor us no ill will to actually want to incite frustration. I hope.;) Just my two cents. -l
On the contrary, I think they have opted to test with a larger sample size. I don't exactly see how more users equates to no new work, I think that its much harder work to compensate for a drastically larger userbase and face all of their collective reactions to the service, not to mention how it will affect the software. (Although its likely their wealth is enough to make sure that serverload is virtually negligible)
I am, admittedly, -totally- unqualified to guess at the google master plan, or even speculate on things like markets or program testing;) It just that I do believe strongly that gmail is still in beta, and that they are still doing a considerable amount of work on it. The more users is the more community feedback, in either the direct form of service requests/suggestions or in public articles/forums. The more feedback, the more they know what they need and need not do to ensure the widest possible audience.
Competing with what? iPod mini? I'm sorry, but a clunky guy like that with 4gb of Memory Sticks doesn't sound like a competitor to iPod at all, it would rack you up to the cost of a full on iPod just to compete with the storage of the mini alone.
Mp3 playback is needed for games anyway, and I think doubles as a nice throwback to anybody who doesn't already have a smaller more battery efficient player.
My ADHD brain rejects the concept of portable loadtimes. It seems contradictory to the appeal of portables: Instant Gratification. Someone mentioned the bus/waiting in line? Play for 3-10 minutes at a time and 15-30 seconds of load time will feel a lot longer than if you're spending your weekend on final fantasy.
And my dvd collection loudly protests! Buy all my movies again, are you joking? Buy a whole movie JUST for this stupid thing? If it was a movie I would never want to watch on a real screen I wouldn't get it, and if my selection was only movies I'd be ok with only seeing on a teeny LCD it's not worth my money! pfff.
But, if I do end up watching a movie on it, I hope it has a little built in prop to lean it on or something, since i don't really want to hold it in my palm/futz with propping it against a book for an hour and a half. If it did stay still, I really think the screen(its a really nice screen aint it?) is in fact big enough that I could enjoy video on it OK. As long as its widescreen. And without Subtitles.
Speaking of the gorgeous screen, someone mentioned how they hoped it holds up to scratches. Well Duh! You just have to spend 30 dollars for a back of 10 plastic screen protectors every few months. Along with the cost of the nice fat memory card and maybe and extra battery pack and some neat sleeve to protect the screen further from deep scratches in your pack and maybe the car adaptor so you don't get f*%&*d on your roadtrip and maybe some nice PSP format movies you already own on DVD for your travels, this whole thing is starting to resemble a wet dream. A dream where you're rich.
Not to seem like an exclusive hater, the DS is no dreamboat. I find the two screen thing gimmicky at first, although its function in Metroid sofar did extend the gamespace and make the game feel a bit fuller. The touching bit I think is awesome, but the screen does feel cramped, and using it makes it hard to remember to look at the other screen. The wireless, as I read on slashdot, isn't up to the PSP's level, and the hardware is generally less powered.
hat I DO like is the clamshell, it protects from scratches like the GBA SP. I really like that, my old gameboys always died because the screens were too scratched.
I want the Stylus capabilitie and some clamshell action with the PSP*cough*, it would be good for watching the little movies for both choosing options and viewing, and it would protect that gorgeous screen. And it would be fun to see people boot OSes onto it and use it as a PDA. THEN it might might might be worth my extra 50 bucks, even with the loadtimes. Heres hoping touching the screen wouldn't break it really fast.
Until then, I'll take the DS and its Already Extensive GBA library and excellent, loadtimeless performance.
Standard consumers (like our reviewer here) are easily misled by these sorts of labels.
I'm all for mass consumer literacy in technology, and ultimately I think it is the customer buying the product that should be able to critically assess what they are buying, not be bought by the glamour of jive words.
I still stand by my statement; although for need of a product I will often buy a product from a company that doesn't meet my standards, I want to buy from companies which independantly take real pride in their work that shows in their merchandise, not just another product which meets standards that many customers are known to be baffled but impressed by.
"I blame the USB committee for allowing devices to be touted as USB 2.0 when, in fact, they are the same speed as USB 1.1."
I think that we should actually blame the company, who is putting labels on their product which overstate the technology. Compliance laboratories are worked pretty hard to my knowledge, and it becomes increasingly difficult to weed out products which poorly meet the specifications. I want to support a company which produces high grade equipment, not one who works just hard enough for the selling point.
Yoshitaka Amano began character design for Squaresoft's FF series with FFIV; He went on to do work on a majority of final fantasy titles since (even if not necesarily on character design). He is the reason Cecil looked so damn cool and that the FFVI instruction booklet deserves to be framed.
He invented moogles, for chrissake!
Regardless of the other qualities of the feature, I have a question; Where is Yoshitaka Amano? While Nabuo gets extensive mention and a bio, I don't think I saw Amano's name more than twice the whole time; and only briefly in the two biographies! Ever since his first character designs on FFIV, I believe his illustrations have shaped the entire franchise into something extraordinary, giving the designers inspiration and providing a truly unique flavor to the series.
The omission of his contributions isn't just bad; it should be immediately corrected. Here'ssomehelp.
This same technique of superimposing photographs was used in the 30s and 40s a lot in misguided attempts at criminal/racial profiling. They would superimpose a bunch of criminals, and believed that 'criminal traits' would show up in the final product. If my education serves, the nazis also used this technique to profile Jewish people. A lot of work to figure out theres such a thing as a Jewish nose.
Slashdot Mirror
I really think people will sacrifice a lot of playability for experience. If people paid to play pong against their friends instead of just playing table tennis or air hockey, they will pay good to ride around in a shufflebot. Just you wait :)
It is kind of pointless to put guns on it (implying a military purpose) Quoted from the cunning translation: "Now presently, the development machine is only the substance, but while being close, robot opposition (the game), in actual ones...! ?" Now altavista's japanese isn't so great, but I'm pretty sure he intended the guns for a game; i mean, he is clearly not trying to sell the military on it. Darpa has its fingers in all the more immediately lucrative honeypots as it is, this shufflebot is just for fun and proof of concept. (for now...) Of course, if a game using a (faster, please god faster) version of this thing took off, i'm sure they'd become more saleable as chassis for real-world stuff much much more quickly :)
Sure a tool would be easy to implement. They should, maybe, but then this article may not have gotten re-posted. And to be frank, I think its good it got duped.
;)
A little redundancy can be very worthwhile, and its not like someone is forcing your eyelids open until you read the article again if you already saw it.
The point of course is that if it weren't reposted, I'd have missed this article (And I do read the main page compulsively). Its interesting news, and since I and a lot of others don't read the 'developers' section all too often(at the risk of sounding dumb, I admit that I only really understand a small fraction of the articles that go up in that section), its easy to miss some cool news.
If the Editor missed it the first time, than lots and lots of other slashdotters surely did; Especially nice to dupe it then if it never appeared on the main page (such as this one).
I think that this is reflected in the comments; Original post had 50 or so, this one is closer to 375, in a much shorter time period. there are a insightful comments from people who clearly didn't see the original post. Thats more people getting ideas and having responses. Awesome, rock and roll.
I guess it could be nice just to at least acknowledge initially its a duplicate post, like check right after submitting with a 'Hey these URLs are also Here, would you like to reference this older post?', which would make sure to get all the content; In this case, the first post of this article had several links that this one did not, and getting that content some limelight while we are duping is worth it.
To those of you who are meticulous readers, and never miss a single post; We have to see the same ads everyday from slashdot, seeing an article twice is no great tragedy. While you're spamming your senses anyway, it might as well be with something interesting. We are all benefitting from the extra comments, anyhow, so really its good for all of us.
About your pageload theory: I just think thats unfair. They get our pageloads either way, and harbor us no ill will to actually want to incite frustration. I hope.
Just my two cents.
-l
On the contrary, I think they have opted to test with a larger sample size. I don't exactly see how more users equates to no new work, I think that its much harder work to compensate for a drastically larger userbase and face all of their collective reactions to the service, not to mention how it will affect the software. (Although its likely their wealth is enough to make sure that serverload is virtually negligible) I am, admittedly, -totally- unqualified to guess at the google master plan, or even speculate on things like markets or program testing ;) It just that I do believe strongly that gmail is still in beta, and that they are still doing a considerable amount of work on it. The more users is the more community feedback, in either the direct form of service requests/suggestions or in public articles/forums. The more feedback, the more they know what they need and need not do to ensure the widest possible audience.
I'm glad somebody else thought this sounded bizarre. :)
From the west coast, are we? Anyone who calls out two buck chuck has to be :)
Mp3 playback is needed for games anyway, and I think doubles as a nice throwback to anybody who doesn't already have a smaller more battery efficient player.
My ADHD brain rejects the concept of portable loadtimes. It seems contradictory to the appeal of portables: Instant Gratification. Someone mentioned the bus/waiting in line? Play for 3-10 minutes at a time and 15-30 seconds of load time will feel a lot longer than if you're spending your weekend on final fantasy.
And my dvd collection loudly protests! Buy all my movies again, are you joking? Buy a whole movie JUST for this stupid thing? If it was a movie I would never want to watch on a real screen I wouldn't get it, and if my selection was only movies I'd be ok with only seeing on a teeny LCD it's not worth my money! pfff.
But, if I do end up watching a movie on it, I hope it has a little built in prop to lean it on or something, since i don't really want to hold it in my palm/futz with propping it against a book for an hour and a half. If it did stay still, I really think the screen(its a really nice screen aint it?) is in fact big enough that I could enjoy video on it OK. As long as its widescreen. And without Subtitles.
Speaking of the gorgeous screen, someone mentioned how they hoped it holds up to scratches. Well Duh! You just have to spend 30 dollars for a back of 10 plastic screen protectors every few months. Along with the cost of the nice fat memory card and maybe and extra battery pack and some neat sleeve to protect the screen further from deep scratches in your pack and maybe the car adaptor so you don't get f*%&*d on your roadtrip and maybe some nice PSP format movies you already own on DVD for your travels, this whole thing is starting to resemble a wet dream. A dream where you're rich.
Not to seem like an exclusive hater, the DS is no dreamboat. I find the two screen thing gimmicky at first, although its function in Metroid sofar did extend the gamespace and make the game feel a bit fuller. The touching bit I think is awesome, but the screen does feel cramped, and using it makes it hard to remember to look at the other screen. The wireless, as I read on slashdot, isn't up to the PSP's level, and the hardware is generally less powered.
hat I DO like is the clamshell, it protects from scratches like the GBA SP. I really like that, my old gameboys always died because the screens were too scratched.
I want the Stylus capabilitie and some clamshell action with the PSP*cough*, it would be good for watching the little movies for both choosing options and viewing, and it would protect that gorgeous screen. And it would be fun to see people boot OSes onto it and use it as a PDA. THEN it might might might be worth my extra 50 bucks, even with the loadtimes. Heres hoping touching the screen wouldn't break it really fast.
Until then, I'll take the DS and its Already Extensive GBA library and excellent, loadtimeless performance.
I'm all for mass consumer literacy in technology, and ultimately I think it is the customer buying the product that should be able to critically assess what they are buying, not be bought by the glamour of jive words.
I still stand by my statement; although for need of a product I will often buy a product from a company that doesn't meet my standards, I want to buy from companies which independantly take real pride in their work that shows in their merchandise, not just another product which meets standards that many customers are known to be baffled but impressed by.
I think that we should actually blame the company, who is putting labels on their product which overstate the technology. Compliance laboratories are worked pretty hard to my knowledge, and it becomes increasingly difficult to weed out products which poorly meet the specifications. I want to support a company which produces high grade equipment, not one who works just hard enough for the selling point.
He invented moogles, for chrissake!
Regardless of the other qualities of the feature, I have a question; Where is Yoshitaka Amano? While Nabuo gets extensive mention and a bio, I don't think I saw Amano's name more than twice the whole time; and only briefly in the two biographies! Ever since his first character designs on FFIV, I believe his illustrations have shaped the entire franchise into something extraordinary, giving the designers inspiration and providing a truly unique flavor to the series.
The omission of his contributions isn't just bad; it should be immediately corrected. Here's some help.
This same technique of superimposing photographs was used in the 30s and 40s a lot in misguided attempts at criminal/racial profiling. They would superimpose a bunch of criminals, and believed that 'criminal traits' would show up in the final product. If my education serves, the nazis also used this technique to profile Jewish people. A lot of work to figure out theres such a thing as a Jewish nose.