...which in turn was inspired by the EU Directive for Regulations Regarding Regulation of Matters Regarding Regulation, section 983, subsection 35B-vii, paragraphs 49 through 107 (version 12.7.6-r12), which in turn is partially based on pages 10439-12117 of the EU Directive for the Import of Chewing Gum (version 191.6.0-gentoo-r8).
open document formats, which are extensible and usable by 3rd parties. At the moment, Microsoft Office 2007's OpenXML is just as good as ODF in this regards.
*cough* "Emulate Word 6.x/95/97 Footnote Placement" *cough* "Emulate Word 2002 Table Style Rules" *cough*
OOXML would've been nice if Microsoft hadn't published 6039 pages full of "do as Office does". ODF uses 762 pages without such implicit definitions. I agree that having a decent open standard is more important than having ODF at any cost, but the OOXML standard is a steaming heap and I have pity with the poor souls who have to implement that behemoth.
Open Office is better, but it is still clicky, clicky and can auto-wrong things.
Ugh. Don't remind me. Whenever I use a freshly installed version of OOo I trip over the program insisting that "1/2" has to mean some kind of abstruse date (it's not even in the current year but rather in 1970). It does that until I dig up the setting regarding auto"correction" and turn it off. I like that behavior even less because slashes don't belong in dates in my locale. When you try to make your program act smart don't make the implementation stupid.
Note: I get bitten by this often because I use OOo to manage my P&P character sheets. I would switch sheet generation to LaTeX, but I prefer to have them live-editable.
(Except that hardware is subject to price-discrimination in an highly evil way. The real versions are horribly expensive and everything else is ridiculously underpowered. Does it really cost nVidia ten times more to produce a 8800Ultra than a 8500GT? No it does NOT. If they wanted to kill off ATI they'd just have to sell the REAL chips, like GeForce8-based Quadros, for $80. They sell chips for $80 too and they are produced in the same factories with the same methods and same everything. So they'd still turn a profit.)
So there's no difference between the budget and premium lines? Of course there is. The premium lines usually are newer and implement the cutting edge of what NVIDIA (apparently they went to all uppercase) can offer whole the budget lines are two generations old. One thing that makes the GeForce 8800 more expensive than the GeForce 6800 is the fact that NVIDIA needs to recoup the development costs for the GeForce 8 series while it has already done so for the 6.
Of course you still pay extra for buying the gibbest cards simpley becaused they're the premium line, but don't pretend that NVIDIA had zero cost developing the stuff.
You're lucky you didn't build a house on Java. Building codes there require something like the following:
public class FloatingHouse extends House implements Floatable, Watertight { // remember to implement the following functions!
public void float(WaterLevel newWaterLevel) {}
public void unfloat() {}// gets called when the water drains away
public WaterLevel springLeak(int leakSize) {}// returns how much water currently is in the house
public void sink() {}// this is one expensive function }
1.) You don't have $100.
2.) $100 aren't worth it to you because you're fine with slight stuttering and/or low quality settings.
3.) You own a laptop.
Besides, even an 8800GTS can achieve single-digit framerates with modern games. Playing on 1400x1050 with all settings maxed, HDR on, 4x FSAA and 8X anisotropic filtering might stress out the card on some occasions.
And yes, I know someone who defines "being able to play a game well" as "being able to achieve 30+ fps under all conditions while running at the absolutely highest settings possible".
When I'll buy my MBP (holding out for Leopard) it's going to be the most powerful machine I own. If I can get near-native-performance Windows gaming on it for eighty bucks all I have to say is: I'll buy that for a dollar. Eighty, even.
It doesn't always have to be murder. One of the following might provide good fun as well.
"Say, is the accounting department thorough when it comes to tracking funds?"
"I'm just curious, what is the law over there like regarding embezzlement?"
"If I really needed to borrow some money from the company, could I? It doesn't have to be all official. Come on, you surely know if there are some relaxed accountants over there."
"By the way, does that company have any good trade secrets?"
*look up the address and note the name of a nearby business* "Uhh, isn't that near $BUSINESS? My ex works there and I don't want to accidentally violate the restraining order."
"No, thanks. Last time I went there I almost shot a cop. That state is fucked up, I tell you. If you live there you better pull out while you still can."
Well, the USA have made some remarkably dumb and exploitable laws recently (eg. the DMCA). Maybe German lawmakers decided that they, too, should make a law unburdened by things like real life.
Heck, my IT Security course this semester is illegal, as much of it involves subverting web applications, nmapping subnets of the university network and using Metasploit to get admin rights on VMs running badly-patched Windows images. Okay, so Metasploit is script-kiddish, but it's very useful to demonstrate how easily a single overflow bug can lead to a thoroughly compromised system.
Also, what good is a think tank without tracks and armor? We need motorized brains, dammit! No wonder the terrists keep blowing up stuff (mostly themselves, granted).
you're right. We didn't consider that and will immediately pull out of that website, as we do not want our name associated with Tom Cruise. Future ad partnerships will be with more wholesome sites like Yiffnet, Anthro Incest Paradise and goatse.cx.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Sincerely,
Proctor McGambleson,
VP of Marketing, Proctor and Gamble
If they want my creative output I have this awesome Sailor Moon/Dragonball/Captain Planet crossover* I'd like to sell them. Hey, it's not like it's not going to be an improvement over 90% of what's on TV now...
* Yes, it is as bad as it sounds and that's on purpose; I like trash. That and it was about damn time someone introduced a character called "Sailor Tuxedo Marsk".
No, reproducing P&P is exactly what JRPGs do not do. I was arguing pretty much only for western RPGs, since Japan has always loved rigid storylines. To be honest, I never was happy with JRPGs falling under the RPG label, since you don't really play a role but instead follow a character's story. There's nothing wrong with that (in fact I'm rather fond of that genre), but it doesn't try to do the same thing roleplaying does and thus when I talk about roleplaying games I usually implicitly exclude JRPGs.
I also don't ask for an emulation of the social aspect of P&P gaming - that's completely impossible to do in a singleplayer RPG. What I want is an emulation of the consequences of the social stuff: A world that changes depending on what you do and what you can do. That's something western RPGs are better at than JRPGs and that should be emphasized.
Although deep down we all know we want a game that constantly makes lame out-of-character jokes and keeps asking where the Mountain Dew is. *g*
*sigh* You really didn't get it at all. How does homeopathy work? You take something that causes the same symptoms and dilute it down to near nothingness. Now think: If EM fields cause cancers diluted EM fields heal it. Which is why both the patient and the electrodes should be put into a tub of water.
Awesome. Because most MMOs have a gameplay closely resembling Diablo. Sheesh, if that's what future CRPGs are going to look like I'm going to play squad-based RTSes and pretend that my squad is interacting with invisible NPCs.
Remove the pointless enemy bashing. Mostly remove loot. Don't award EXP just for killing an enemy. Eliminate grinding and replace it with actually doing something. Include some puzzles (along with ways around them). Make the game a crossbreed between Baldur's Gate, Monkey Island and Myst. That's gameplay I'm interested in. Adding the 210th "fetch me a stick*"-type quest (with the stick only being retrievable by killing the monsters guarding it, of course) is not going to make the game interesting.
I can hardly play a role when that role only differs from every other playable role in the attacks it can use to dispose of enemies. That's not roleplaying, it's hack'n'slay. When I play a highly intelligent character I want that to mean more than "Mana raised by 150%; MATK raised by 5".
* Yes, I quoted Progress Quest. Because it has the same level of complexity as most CRPGs.
Storytelling like Morrowind does it requires involvement from the player - you have to actively seek out and read the books, dig up non-main-quest NPCs etc. Many players do only what's strictly necessary to finish the main plot and miss out on all that (and sometimes they later complain that the game "had no story"). Apparently many people don't like it when they aren't automatically told everything...
Slashdot Mirror
Given that the section wasn't given I think the GP wasn't serious.
To be honest, I never liked the design of the eWok. The Wok Pro, on the other hand...
...which in turn was inspired by the EU Directive for Regulations Regarding Regulation of Matters Regarding Regulation, section 983, subsection 35B-vii, paragraphs 49 through 107 (version 12.7.6-r12), which in turn is partially based on pages 10439-12117 of the EU Directive for the Import of Chewing Gum (version 191.6.0-gentoo-r8).
open document formats, which are extensible and usable by 3rd parties. At the moment, Microsoft Office 2007's OpenXML is just as good as ODF in this regards.
*cough* "Emulate Word 6.x/95/97 Footnote Placement" *cough* "Emulate Word 2002 Table Style Rules" *cough*
OOXML would've been nice if Microsoft hadn't published 6039 pages full of "do as Office does". ODF uses 762 pages without such implicit definitions. I agree that having a decent open standard is more important than having ODF at any cost, but the OOXML standard is a steaming heap and I have pity with the poor souls who have to implement that behemoth.
Which might be just what he did.
Even further, does it have the ability to design custom workflow plugins?
TeX is a Turing-complete language. You can write pretty much everything you want in it.
Open Office is better, but it is still clicky, clicky and can auto-wrong things.
Ugh. Don't remind me. Whenever I use a freshly installed version of OOo I trip over the program insisting that "1/2" has to mean some kind of abstruse date (it's not even in the current year but rather in 1970). It does that until I dig up the setting regarding auto"correction" and turn it off. I like that behavior even less because slashes don't belong in dates in my locale. When you try to make your program act smart don't make the implementation stupid.
Note: I get bitten by this often because I use OOo to manage my P&P character sheets. I would switch sheet generation to LaTeX, but I prefer to have them live-editable.
I think the order of priorities should be like this: Braille, Armenian, Linear A, Sütterlin, Gaelic, Hentaigana.
For example the WRT54G used to be Linux based, however starting with revision 5 they switched to vxWorks which let them cut the RAM and Flash in half.
And then they released the L revisions because they noticed that the WRT54G was so popular because it was Linux based.
(Except that hardware is subject to price-discrimination in an highly evil way. The real versions are horribly expensive and everything else is ridiculously underpowered. Does it really cost nVidia ten times more to produce a 8800Ultra than a 8500GT? No it does NOT. If they wanted to kill off ATI they'd just have to sell the REAL chips, like GeForce8-based Quadros, for $80. They sell chips for $80 too and they are produced in the same factories with the same methods and same everything. So they'd still turn a profit.)
So there's no difference between the budget and premium lines? Of course there is. The premium lines usually are newer and implement the cutting edge of what NVIDIA (apparently they went to all uppercase) can offer whole the budget lines are two generations old. One thing that makes the GeForce 8800 more expensive than the GeForce 6800 is the fact that NVIDIA needs to recoup the development costs for the GeForce 8 series while it has already done so for the 6.
Of course you still pay extra for buying the gibbest cards simpley becaused they're the premium line, but don't pretend that NVIDIA had zero cost developing the stuff.
1.) You don't have $100.
2.) $100 aren't worth it to you because you're fine with slight stuttering and/or low quality settings.
3.) You own a laptop.
Besides, even an 8800GTS can achieve single-digit framerates with modern games. Playing on 1400x1050 with all settings maxed, HDR on, 4x FSAA and 8X anisotropic filtering might stress out the card on some occasions.
And yes, I know someone who defines "being able to play a game well" as "being able to achieve 30+ fps under all conditions while running at the absolutely highest settings possible".
When I'll buy my MBP (holding out for Leopard) it's going to be the most powerful machine I own. If I can get near-native-performance Windows gaming on it for eighty bucks all I have to say is: I'll buy that for a dollar. Eighty, even.
It doesn't always have to be murder. One of the following might provide good fun as well.
"Say, is the accounting department thorough when it comes to tracking funds?"
"I'm just curious, what is the law over there like regarding embezzlement?"
"If I really needed to borrow some money from the company, could I? It doesn't have to be all official. Come on, you surely know if there are some relaxed accountants over there."
"By the way, does that company have any good trade secrets?"
*look up the address and note the name of a nearby business* "Uhh, isn't that near $BUSINESS? My ex works there and I don't want to accidentally violate the restraining order."
"No, thanks. Last time I went there I almost shot a cop. That state is fucked up, I tell you. If you live there you better pull out while you still can."
Don't forget to log everything and periodically release a digest of the most amusing conversations.
Well, the USA have made some remarkably dumb and exploitable laws recently (eg. the DMCA). Maybe German lawmakers decided that they, too, should make a law unburdened by things like real life.
Heck, my IT Security course this semester is illegal, as much of it involves subverting web applications, nmapping subnets of the university network and using Metasploit to get admin rights on VMs running badly-patched Windows images. Okay, so Metasploit is script-kiddish, but it's very useful to demonstrate how easily a single overflow bug can lead to a thoroughly compromised system.
Also, what good is a think tank without tracks and armor? We need motorized brains, dammit! No wonder the terrists keep blowing up stuff (mostly themselves, granted).
Criminals are forced to work in government, obviating the need for prisons.
You demons! No wonder everyboody hates you!
Dear Mr. Dircha,
you're right. We didn't consider that and will immediately pull out of that website, as we do not want our name associated with Tom Cruise. Future ad partnerships will be with more wholesome sites like Yiffnet, Anthro Incest Paradise and goatse.cx.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Sincerely,
Proctor McGambleson,
VP of Marketing, Proctor and Gamble
If they want my creative output I have this awesome Sailor Moon/Dragonball/Captain Planet crossover* I'd like to sell them. Hey, it's not like it's not going to be an improvement over 90% of what's on TV now...
* Yes, it is as bad as it sounds and that's on purpose; I like trash. That and it was about damn time someone introduced a character called "Sailor Tuxedo Marsk".
No, reproducing P&P is exactly what JRPGs do not do. I was arguing pretty much only for western RPGs, since Japan has always loved rigid storylines. To be honest, I never was happy with JRPGs falling under the RPG label, since you don't really play a role but instead follow a character's story. There's nothing wrong with that (in fact I'm rather fond of that genre), but it doesn't try to do the same thing roleplaying does and thus when I talk about roleplaying games I usually implicitly exclude JRPGs.
I also don't ask for an emulation of the social aspect of P&P gaming - that's completely impossible to do in a singleplayer RPG. What I want is an emulation of the consequences of the social stuff: A world that changes depending on what you do and what you can do. That's something western RPGs are better at than JRPGs and that should be emphasized.
Although deep down we all know we want a game that constantly makes lame out-of-character jokes and keeps asking where the Mountain Dew is. *g*
*sigh* You really didn't get it at all. How does homeopathy work? You take something that causes the same symptoms and dilute it down to near nothingness. Now think: If EM fields cause cancers diluted EM fields heal it. Which is why both the patient and the electrodes should be put into a tub of water.
Awesome. Because most MMOs have a gameplay closely resembling Diablo. Sheesh, if that's what future CRPGs are going to look like I'm going to play squad-based RTSes and pretend that my squad is interacting with invisible NPCs.
Remove the pointless enemy bashing. Mostly remove loot. Don't award EXP just for killing an enemy. Eliminate grinding and replace it with actually doing something. Include some puzzles (along with ways around them). Make the game a crossbreed between Baldur's Gate, Monkey Island and Myst. That's gameplay I'm interested in. Adding the 210th "fetch me a stick*"-type quest (with the stick only being retrievable by killing the monsters guarding it, of course) is not going to make the game interesting.
I can hardly play a role when that role only differs from every other playable role in the attacks it can use to dispose of enemies. That's not roleplaying, it's hack'n'slay. When I play a highly intelligent character I want that to mean more than "Mana raised by 150%; MATK raised by 5".
* Yes, I quoted Progress Quest. Because it has the same level of complexity as most CRPGs.
Storytelling like Morrowind does it requires involvement from the player - you have to actively seek out and read the books, dig up non-main-quest NPCs etc. Many players do only what's strictly necessary to finish the main plot and miss out on all that (and sometimes they later complain that the game "had no story"). Apparently many people don't like it when they aren't automatically told everything...