It could be just a function of the computers I'm using now vs. those I was using then:
NS7 seems a LOT faster than NS6.
Mozilla still seems a bit on the slow side for me...
I tried firing up the Radio app - Looks nice. Too bad I'm at work and couldn't crank it up.:) It's based on RealPlayer, but despite Real for Linux it doesn't appear to be supported unter Linux, although I have yet to try it.
The only problem I've seen with it are one or two minor JS issues so far (The "equipment credit" plan description pages on dishnetwork.com don't seem to work right in NS7.)
RedHat doesn't include MP3 support by default in the distribution.
But at install, asks, "Would you like to download free MP3 support for XMMS?"
They've sold the distribution with a media player - But the MP3 capability is then distributed seperately, still by RedHat, but for free. (i.e. it is NEVER placed in their boxed distros)
Either it's not happening (the comments I've seen so far might explain why), or NS is withstanding it quite well.
I was shocked how fast I downloaded all 28 megs (NS, RealPlayer, Java 2, Flash, etc.) for a full install, even over my company's typically laggy connection.
Yes, I use NS7. It's more polished than Moz overall. I've been using the PR all summer (Why didn't they go through multiple PRs??? There was PR1 and that was it...) Yes, Moz might have some neat features, but overall I've had too many negative experiences with it. (Like refusing to access SSL pages - "Please download the PSM" - I DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED IT, DELETED AND REINSTALLED IT AGAIN - WORK GODDAMNIT!)
Interesting how Netscape Radio compares to (say) Musicmatch's radio offering. Haven't checked to see if it runs under Linux yet (2 hours 'till I get home), but it's gonna hurt MM if it can compare, considering that it appears to be free.
Essentially, it doesn't matter if you're using 183903248099041-but SSLv329780132 encryption between your computer and the mail system, because the monitor is ON YOUR COMPUTER and logs the email before it's encrypted.
It looks like Paybox operates a little differently
on
Shop Till It Drops
·
· Score: 2
But I figure some of these services probably operate like a 900 number in the US - Call the number, and your phone bill is charged. In such a case, such as (for example) a booth in a golf driving range.
Get to booth.
SMS a posted number, or call it, and dial/speak your booth number.
What this means is that you can use a radio that you have an FCC license for, or an unlicensed radio that is allowed in aircraft. (Example: Amateur radio gear and 802.11 equipment.)
You STILL can't use your cellular phone, because the FCC does not allow cell phones to be used more than a certain (very low) altitude AGL, because the phone suddenly gets LOS to multiple towers, which will cause interference with those towers. (At best case, each tower will see your signal and consider you a user and work around you - Still, that means that instead of using up 1 users' worth of capacity on one tower (the way the system capacities are designed), you will use up 1 users' worth of capacity on numerous towers.
Note in the article how much improvement there was in range when he was 1500 feet up - This is EXACTLY why cell phones are illegal in the air. Not because they interfere with flight systems, but because they interfere with cell phones on the ground.
Something similar occured when I was a little kid, a few months after we got our garage door opener.
Our neighbor, seeing ours and talking to my dad about it, decided to go out and buy/install one.
As to my dad: To his credit, he modified the resistors. (No DIPs, you had to clip resistors here) But he only clipped one.
Neighbor did the same thing when he installed his - He clipped just one.
Well, we hit that 1 in 7 chance of picking the same resistor. All of a sudden, our neighbor's garage door opened on him. So he walked to the garage, and hit his button.
Ours went up, his closed. My dad walks out. Eventually, they're both standing there and figure out what happened.
Both of em' clipped a second resistor and made sure not to clip the same one this time.:)
A few years ago I signed up for cellular service with Frontier Cellular in upstate NY, which was 50% owned by Bell Atlantic Mobile.
A month or so later, BAM bought the rest, and I was now a BAM customer.
Later, BAM merged with Airtouch and a few others to form Verizon Wireless.
The end result? With each buyout/merger, I was better off and felt more at ease (Moving? Hey, no problem, I can get a service relo now!)
Also, with the exception of the Verizon strike period 2 years or so ago, I have been an EXTREMELY happy VZW customer. Their customer service reps are (for the most part) intelligent and courteos, and a pleasure to deal with.
I think that at this point, a credit card is the *standard* way of paying for gas. It's faster, easier, and more convenient. Slide card in, start pump, and a minute or two later, take receipt and go.
Mobil goes even further with SpeedPass, which authenticates even faster than a CC.
One of the things I HATE about living in NJ - There are labor laws that *REQUIRE* gas to be pumped by an attendant.
Guess what - At the Hess station near where I live, the attendant takes your credit card, and just slides it into the pump. Something I could just as easily do myself...
I hear that supposedly in some places in Europe mobile phones have enough market penetration that they can be used as a form of payment. (I believe similar to calling a 1-900 number... You can dial a number to pay for, for example, a booth at a golf driving range.) I could be WAY off on this though.
And don't forget EZ-Pass, automatic highway toll payment.
I have a CF->PCMCIA adapter - MUCH faster than a USB reader, and in fact indistinguishable from the much more expensive ATA PCMCIA cards.
CF cards have a built-in IDE interface, connecting them to an IDE bus is a matter of passive wiring. (There are adapters to do this for $10-20, MAYBE $30, but I'm positive it's not more than that. My CF-PCMCIA adapter cost me $10)
Yes, manufacturers spend a lot. But when developing, they have tradeoffs. A stiff ride (good handling) vs. a smooth ride (bad handling) - Unfortunately a majority of cars sold for the American market default to the comfort (read: shitty handling) end of this spectrum. There's also the issue of cost - Good suspension parts cost much more $$$ than regular stock suspension parts.
That said, most ricers don't know squat about proper suspension upgrades and take things too far/go the wrong way. (Like the Nissan with an ungly sheetmetal wing bouncing down the highway I saw a few days ago) But a properly done suspension upgrade (Like Eibach Pro-Kit springs) FOLLOWED BY A REALIGNMENT can do wonders for a car. (For example: The Pro-Kit for a Chrysler LeBaron lowers it by about an inch, and gives MUCH better handling without sacrificing too much ride due to the fact that they're progressive-rate springs, not a feature the stock springs had. 1" is reasonable, esp. considering that most late-80s and early 90s Chryslers rode pretty high) FYI, I believe Eibach makes the stock springs for some high-end cars, such as McLaren, so they're not some cheezy market-fad-to-ricers outfit.
Most ricers just cut their springs rather than putting in replacements designed for their car, and that's where they go wrong. Their car bounces like crazy, and none of em' bother with the necessary realignment after they screw up their suspension.
Even if you're profitable, stockholders will only be happy if you're growing. (And growing fast)
I'm sure MS's cash flow is positive. In fact, I'm sure MS could take a LOT of market hits before its cashflow ever goes negative. While MS can sometimes be a little slow to adapt (Internet, for example), unlike the RIAA, they DO know how to adapt to a changing market and adapt well. Even if the market is close to saturation and MS's growth slows to a standstill, I don't see them hitting a money-losing situation for years, even of Linux continues its near-explosive growth in market share.
But it's possibly for a company to grow 20% in a year and STILL get slammed by stockholders. (Lucent was in this boat - 20% growth just wasn't good enough when Nortel, JDSU, Corning, and all the other guys in the optical industry grew 30-40%. Ignore the fact that a year after that optical networking crashed and now almost all of the aforementioned companies are in dire straits.)
LA is completely different... They have negative cash flow and no hope for it to ever go positive. They should quite while they're ahead.
Microsoft's cash pile is growing (at an obscene rate I might add)
Liquid Audio's is shrinking at an even more obscene rate.
Potential for improvement - A little demo
on
Tenebrae Quake
·
· Score: 2
Probably the worst thing about the new engine is that the textures... suck.
The author took the original textures and added bumpmapping/glossmaps to them. An improvement, but still, the base textures are 8-bit low-res images.
Check out http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/atd7/testmap.z ip
testmap.bsp goes in tenebrae\maps, the.tgas got in tenebrae\override
There are two bumpmaps - bump2 and bump1 - Copy thone or the other to mmetal1_2_bump.tga to switch between em'.
Yes, it is a gay looking texture. So sue me, it was a few minutes of work and is just a variant of the gimp.org basic patterns tutorial. BUT it is much higher resolution than the originals, and isn't degraded from close-up viewing. It also shows off the glossmapping capability (The greenish-blue is highest gloss, blue is mid-gloss, purple is lowest gloss, but blue is at a lower elevation in the bumpmap) One has noise added to the bumpmap for extra texture.
There's nothing stopping someone from using high-res textures/bumpmaps - The engine supports it, someone just has to make the content.
The Outlook conduit is only included on the Palm Desktop software CDs that come with Palms (Any Palm or related device after the Palm III or so.
Download versions of Palm Desktop don't include the Chapura conduit (which I've head works VERY well. I hate Outlook myself, I find Palm Desktop to be far faster and nicer than Outlook.)
After reading the documentation, it looks like this engine hack can't reach its fullest potential without some modifications to the actual content (maps, textures)
http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~cholleme/tenebrae/tech ni cal/textures.htm has information on how to create texures including bumpmaps and gloss maps for Tenebrae. So if they are created, high-res textures CAN be used!
See http://www.geocities.com/q1textures/ for an example of textures that can be used as a starting point. These are high-res, but no bump/gloss maps (whereas Tenebrae comes with bump/gloss maps, but no improvements otherwise on the stock Q1 8-bit lowres textures.)
If you go to any map other than E1M1 you'll notice that the lighting just isn't as spectactular, nor are the textures - That's because the author only generated bumpmaps for the E1M1 textures and only tweaked the lighting for the E1M1 map.
Try taking one of the high-res texture packs from the above site and putting the TGAs in the tenebrae/override directory, and firing up dm2 or dm4.
You'll see that Tenebrae DOES support high-res texture packs. Unfortunately, dm2's lighting is CRAP under Tenebrae. (Note that the docs say elsewhere that Tenebrae only uses maps where the spawnflag for DM is off - This is probably it.)
I would love to see Tenebrae with high-res bumpmapped textures. I'm gonna try tweaking the lighting in the BSP this afternoon, but I don't have the ability to do the bumpmaps.:(
A merger of Tenebrae and Telejano would be cool too...
Then you get the "grenade demo" - only mildly neat, until he starts shooting grenades at the ceiling in the E1M1 rocket launcher room. (Well, RL in deathmatch, nailgun otherwise) - REALLY cool.
Some people (including myself) think that anything more recent than Quake Classic just... Doesn't compare.
The original Team Fortress was by far the best (Especially the Canal Zone capture and hold map - Now THAT was fun to play! No one else has come up with a C&H map for more recent TFs that was anywhere close to CZ in complexity, size, and joy of gameplay.
Let's not forget that Quake3 could use its sounds revamped up to classic Quake standards. Rocket explosions have just been plain wussy since classic Quake.
And Threewave CTF was by far the most fun CTF I've ever played - 3W for Quake 3 is close, but as of yet no mapper has yet to create a map like McKinley Base where the advanced sizzlefry (LG suiciding on the enemy flag carrier in the water) could be put to such good use. And classic 3W maps meant you HAD to learn the grapple to get the best mobility - Not like most other CTF mods where you've got a grapple on a map that's entirely playable without it, so it's just a way of moving faster, not of getting to new areas.
Too bad the source release fragmented the classic Quake scene, finally killing a game that was lasting a LONG time even in the face of Quake 2 and (to some degree) Q3.
I noticed the timeline doesn't include expansion packs for some games.
They don't matter?
Some don't. But some do, as they contain MASSIVE improvements in the graphics engine, to take an already immersive game and make it even more realistic.
I get the impression that EQ's Shadows of Luclin expansion is such an engine improvement, as it's listed by NVIDIA as using MANY more features than previous games.
Dark Age of Camelot's new expansion pack is also such an example - It's going to use the per-pixel shaders, etc. to make the engine MUCH more realistic. It was officially announced a while ago, and supposedly will be out in late Fall 2002.
Correction: Not first product
on
VisionTek Folds
·
· Score: 2
Before the TnT was the Riva 128.
It was about even with the original Voodoo, but had integrated 2d/3d that was pretty good.
Slashdot Mirror
Digital cell phones (at least CDMA, and probably TDMA has some encryption too) are pretty secure.
In general, the amount of $$$$ required to possibly spoof a phone is far greater than the amount of financial gain possible from such activities.
It could be just a function of the computers I'm using now vs. those I was using then:
:) It's based on RealPlayer, but despite Real for Linux it doesn't appear to be supported unter Linux, although I have yet to try it.
NS7 seems a LOT faster than NS6.
Mozilla still seems a bit on the slow side for me...
I tried firing up the Radio app - Looks nice. Too bad I'm at work and couldn't crank it up.
The only problem I've seen with it are one or two minor JS issues so far (The "equipment credit" plan description pages on dishnetwork.com don't seem to work right in NS7.)
RedHat doesn't include MP3 support by default in the distribution.
But at install, asks, "Would you like to download free MP3 support for XMMS?"
They've sold the distribution with a media player - But the MP3 capability is then distributed seperately, still by RedHat, but for free. (i.e. it is NEVER placed in their boxed distros)
Either it's not happening (the comments I've seen so far might explain why), or NS is withstanding it quite well.
I was shocked how fast I downloaded all 28 megs (NS, RealPlayer, Java 2, Flash, etc.) for a full install, even over my company's typically laggy connection.
Yes, I use NS7. It's more polished than Moz overall. I've been using the PR all summer (Why didn't they go through multiple PRs??? There was PR1 and that was it...) Yes, Moz might have some neat features, but overall I've had too many negative experiences with it. (Like refusing to access SSL pages - "Please download the PSM" - I DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED IT, DELETED AND REINSTALLED IT AGAIN - WORK GODDAMNIT!)
Interesting how Netscape Radio compares to (say) Musicmatch's radio offering. Haven't checked to see if it runs under Linux yet (2 hours 'till I get home), but it's gonna hurt MM if it can compare, considering that it appears to be free.
This software = keylogger on steroids.
Essentially, it doesn't matter if you're using 183903248099041-but SSLv329780132 encryption between your computer and the mail system, because the monitor is ON YOUR COMPUTER and logs the email before it's encrypted.
But I figure some of these services probably operate like a 900 number in the US - Call the number, and your phone bill is charged. In such a case, such as (for example) a booth in a golf driving range.
Get to booth.
SMS a posted number, or call it, and dial/speak your booth number.
Account gets charged, you can now use the booth.
What this means is that you can use a radio that you have an FCC license for, or an unlicensed radio that is allowed in aircraft. (Example: Amateur radio gear and 802.11 equipment.)
You STILL can't use your cellular phone, because the FCC does not allow cell phones to be used more than a certain (very low) altitude AGL, because the phone suddenly gets LOS to multiple towers, which will cause interference with those towers. (At best case, each tower will see your signal and consider you a user and work around you - Still, that means that instead of using up 1 users' worth of capacity on one tower (the way the system capacities are designed), you will use up 1 users' worth of capacity on numerous towers.
Note in the article how much improvement there was in range when he was 1500 feet up - This is EXACTLY why cell phones are illegal in the air. Not because they interfere with flight systems, but because they interfere with cell phones on the ground.
Something similar occured when I was a little kid, a few months after we got our garage door opener.
:)
Our neighbor, seeing ours and talking to my dad about it, decided to go out and buy/install one.
As to my dad: To his credit, he modified the resistors. (No DIPs, you had to clip resistors here) But he only clipped one.
Neighbor did the same thing when he installed his - He clipped just one.
Well, we hit that 1 in 7 chance of picking the same resistor. All of a sudden, our neighbor's garage door opened on him. So he walked to the garage, and hit his button.
Ours went up, his closed. My dad walks out. Eventually, they're both standing there and figure out what happened.
Both of em' clipped a second resistor and made sure not to clip the same one this time.
A few years ago I signed up for cellular service with Frontier Cellular in upstate NY, which was 50% owned by Bell Atlantic Mobile.
A month or so later, BAM bought the rest, and I was now a BAM customer.
Later, BAM merged with Airtouch and a few others to form Verizon Wireless.
The end result? With each buyout/merger, I was better off and felt more at ease (Moving? Hey, no problem, I can get a service relo now!)
Also, with the exception of the Verizon strike period 2 years or so ago, I have been an EXTREMELY happy VZW customer. Their customer service reps are (for the most part) intelligent and courteos, and a pleasure to deal with.
I think that at this point, a credit card is the *standard* way of paying for gas. It's faster, easier, and more convenient. Slide card in, start pump, and a minute or two later, take receipt and go.
Mobil goes even further with SpeedPass, which authenticates even faster than a CC.
One of the things I HATE about living in NJ - There are labor laws that *REQUIRE* gas to be pumped by an attendant.
Guess what - At the Hess station near where I live, the attendant takes your credit card, and just slides it into the pump. Something I could just as easily do myself...
I hear that supposedly in some places in Europe mobile phones have enough market penetration that they can be used as a form of payment. (I believe similar to calling a 1-900 number... You can dial a number to pay for, for example, a booth at a golf driving range.) I could be WAY off on this though.
And don't forget EZ-Pass, automatic highway toll payment.
USB has nothing to do with CompactFlash...
I have a CF->PCMCIA adapter - MUCH faster than a USB reader, and in fact indistinguishable from the much more expensive ATA PCMCIA cards.
CF cards have a built-in IDE interface, connecting them to an IDE bus is a matter of passive wiring. (There are adapters to do this for $10-20, MAYBE $30, but I'm positive it's not more than that. My CF-PCMCIA adapter cost me $10)
People are slamming down *drink concentrate* now????
That "concentrated tea drink" is not meant for direct consumption man...
If they go out of business you're screwed...
Things in the industry are that bad.
Doesn't help that a lot of their customers (KPNQwest, Worldcom) are going under.
There are some exceptions to that...
Yes, manufacturers spend a lot. But when developing, they have tradeoffs. A stiff ride (good handling) vs. a smooth ride (bad handling) - Unfortunately a majority of cars sold for the American market default to the comfort (read: shitty handling) end of this spectrum. There's also the issue of cost - Good suspension parts cost much more $$$ than regular stock suspension parts.
That said, most ricers don't know squat about proper suspension upgrades and take things too far/go the wrong way. (Like the Nissan with an ungly sheetmetal wing bouncing down the highway I saw a few days ago) But a properly done suspension upgrade (Like Eibach Pro-Kit springs) FOLLOWED BY A REALIGNMENT can do wonders for a car. (For example: The Pro-Kit for a Chrysler LeBaron lowers it by about an inch, and gives MUCH better handling without sacrificing too much ride due to the fact that they're progressive-rate springs, not a feature the stock springs had. 1" is reasonable, esp. considering that most late-80s and early 90s Chryslers rode pretty high) FYI, I believe Eibach makes the stock springs for some high-end cars, such as McLaren, so they're not some cheezy market-fad-to-ricers outfit.
Most ricers just cut their springs rather than putting in replacements designed for their car, and that's where they go wrong. Their car bounces like crazy, and none of em' bother with the necessary realignment after they screw up their suspension.
Even if you're profitable, stockholders will only be happy if you're growing. (And growing fast)
I'm sure MS's cash flow is positive. In fact, I'm sure MS could take a LOT of market hits before its cashflow ever goes negative. While MS can sometimes be a little slow to adapt (Internet, for example), unlike the RIAA, they DO know how to adapt to a changing market and adapt well. Even if the market is close to saturation and MS's growth slows to a standstill, I don't see them hitting a money-losing situation for years, even of Linux continues its near-explosive growth in market share.
But it's possibly for a company to grow 20% in a year and STILL get slammed by stockholders. (Lucent was in this boat - 20% growth just wasn't good enough when Nortel, JDSU, Corning, and all the other guys in the optical industry grew 30-40%. Ignore the fact that a year after that optical networking crashed and now almost all of the aforementioned companies are in dire straits.)
LA is completely different... They have negative cash flow and no hope for it to ever go positive. They should quite while they're ahead.
Microsoft's cash pile is growing (at an obscene rate I might add)
Liquid Audio's is shrinking at an even more obscene rate.
Probably the worst thing about the new engine is that the textures... suck.
z ip
.tgas got in tenebrae\override
The author took the original textures and added bumpmapping/glossmaps to them. An improvement, but still, the base textures are 8-bit low-res images.
Check out http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/atd7/testmap.
testmap.bsp goes in tenebrae\maps, the
There are two bumpmaps - bump2 and bump1 - Copy thone or the other to mmetal1_2_bump.tga to switch between em'.
Yes, it is a gay looking texture. So sue me, it was a few minutes of work and is just a variant of the gimp.org basic patterns tutorial. BUT it is much higher resolution than the originals, and isn't degraded from close-up viewing. It also shows off the glossmapping capability (The greenish-blue is highest gloss, blue is mid-gloss, purple is lowest gloss, but blue is at a lower elevation in the bumpmap) One has noise added to the bumpmap for extra texture.
There's nothing stopping someone from using high-res textures/bumpmaps - The engine supports it, someone just has to make the content.
The Outlook conduit is only included on the Palm Desktop software CDs that come with Palms (Any Palm or related device after the Palm III or so.
Download versions of Palm Desktop don't include the Chapura conduit (which I've head works VERY well. I hate Outlook myself, I find Palm Desktop to be far faster and nicer than Outlook.)
After reading the documentation, it looks like this engine hack can't reach its fullest potential without some modifications to the actual content (maps, textures)
h ni cal/textures.htm has information on how to create texures including bumpmaps and gloss maps for Tenebrae. So if they are created, high-res textures CAN be used!
:(
http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~cholleme/tenebrae/tec
See http://www.geocities.com/q1textures/ for an example of textures that can be used as a starting point. These are high-res, but no bump/gloss maps (whereas Tenebrae comes with bump/gloss maps, but no improvements otherwise on the stock Q1 8-bit lowres textures.)
If you go to any map other than E1M1 you'll notice that the lighting just isn't as spectactular, nor are the textures - That's because the author only generated bumpmaps for the E1M1 textures and only tweaked the lighting for the E1M1 map.
Try taking one of the high-res texture packs from the above site and putting the TGAs in the tenebrae/override directory, and firing up dm2 or dm4.
You'll see that Tenebrae DOES support high-res texture packs. Unfortunately, dm2's lighting is CRAP under Tenebrae. (Note that the docs say elsewhere that Tenebrae only uses maps where the spawnflag for DM is off - This is probably it.)
I would love to see Tenebrae with high-res bumpmapped textures. I'm gonna try tweaking the lighting in the BSP this afternoon, but I don't have the ability to do the bumpmaps.
A merger of Tenebrae and Telejano would be cool too...
If he includes support for TGA or PNG textures (like in the Telejano engine), the quality will be AMAZING...
Only two though... And they do NOT do justice to the capabilities of these hacks.
Do "timedemo demo1"
First you get the standard demo1.
Then you get the "grenade demo" - only mildly neat, until he starts shooting grenades at the ceiling in the E1M1 rocket launcher room. (Well, RL in deathmatch, nailgun otherwise) - REALLY cool.
Some people (including myself) think that anything more recent than Quake Classic just... Doesn't compare.
The original Team Fortress was by far the best (Especially the Canal Zone capture and hold map - Now THAT was fun to play! No one else has come up with a C&H map for more recent TFs that was anywhere close to CZ in complexity, size, and joy of gameplay.
Let's not forget that Quake3 could use its sounds revamped up to classic Quake standards. Rocket explosions have just been plain wussy since classic Quake.
And Threewave CTF was by far the most fun CTF I've ever played - 3W for Quake 3 is close, but as of yet no mapper has yet to create a map like McKinley Base where the advanced sizzlefry (LG suiciding on the enemy flag carrier in the water) could be put to such good use. And classic 3W maps meant you HAD to learn the grapple to get the best mobility - Not like most other CTF mods where you've got a grapple on a map that's entirely playable without it, so it's just a way of moving faster, not of getting to new areas.
Too bad the source release fragmented the classic Quake scene, finally killing a game that was lasting a LONG time even in the face of Quake 2 and (to some degree) Q3.
I noticed the timeline doesn't include expansion packs for some games.
They don't matter?
Some don't. But some do, as they contain MASSIVE improvements in the graphics engine, to take an already immersive game and make it even more realistic.
I get the impression that EQ's Shadows of Luclin expansion is such an engine improvement, as it's listed by NVIDIA as using MANY more features than previous games.
Dark Age of Camelot's new expansion pack is also such an example - It's going to use the per-pixel shaders, etc. to make the engine MUCH more realistic. It was officially announced a while ago, and supposedly will be out in late Fall 2002.
Before the TnT was the Riva 128.
It was about even with the original Voodoo, but had integrated 2d/3d that was pretty good.