This is almost exactly what I was going to enter into this discussion if no-one else had. I'm very happy with my new 505, and have managed to use the glorious tools provided by libprs500 over at mobileread to put pdf books on the reader in a more zoom-friendly format (usually lrf or rtf). It has made reading more enjoyable for me as a nerd because (though it's embarassing to admit) it resembles the device Picard reads on in Star Trek TNG. Though it's not got text search like the Kindle, it's a niche feature that a small (but vocal) group are looking for in a book-reading interface.
The Digital Editions update is supposedly coming in January, but it's mostly rumours at the moment.
Oh, and for when you do decide: Welcome to the ebook world!
This cannot bode well for graduate students... well... maybe for the chunky among us... but let's hope this doesn't catch on. I can already see profs carried about on the shoulders to and from meetings... Clearly you haven't been to Cambridge...
Where are they? In Science Fiction, and maybeour kids' dreams. Aside from computational limits, until such things as "emotion tagged recollections" become profitable or interesting for a company, it simply won't happen. R&D is prohibitively expensive, the military and the consumer are the only gatekeepers in that world. Unless you appeal to one of them, it ain't happening.
It used to be done by games having cheats, passwords, or level codes to enable you to get past the tricky stuff. I think there are still 'all-weapons' or 'godmode' cheats for modern games, but it's not the same- the cheats are overpowered and the gameplay isn't challenging enough for some gamers.
I think the answer may be on the horizon in adaptive gameplay, where the difficulty and challenge is always on that threshold of acceptable "gain vs. struggle" (see the ideas of flOw's design for this psychology-based point of view).
There are some games with this design already included, and it'll probably get better. It'll be interesting where easy-medium-hard applies to the experience you're going to have getting through the game, as opposed to simply upping the A.I. and health of NPCs (meaning that the gameplay adapts so you're nearly always on the verge of death when you have it on "hard", no matter if you're a n00b or an elite player).
While some of the content does seem largely design-based and awesome, the inclusion of UnrealED chapters to think about 3D alone seems limiting for the HUGE range that "level design" could cover.
Is there anything that offers up more of the design discussions, without any of the specific (or at least just a lot more varied) implementations.
I'm thinking MUDs, Space Games (no physical obstacles, many degrees of freedom), and D&D levels. Anything out there that could apply to such a range?
I thought electronics (especially computer electronics) would do excellently in 0% humidity, that's why they can fly into space and stuff. What's the benefit (from a circuit's point of view) of having higher moisture content in the surrounding air? Is it something to do with static buildup?
I think it's one of the marks of a fantastic game, when you enjoy it so much that you'll happily relive the moments with added challenges. Undertaking tasks so amazingly frustrating as carrying a gnome through a railway while being shot at by a helicopter, and actually ENJOYING the game is an astounding achievement.
Though I liked Ep1 simply for the return to the HL2 world, Ep2 managed to get me to play all the way through at least 3 times (and many more times through certain enjoyable sections) specifically for adding stuff like this, and the dev commentary.
I would have liked some special reward or unlock for completing all of their challenges, though I guess the accomplishment itself is a reward of sorts.
I find it sad that once a fanbase has got large enough, the options usually become "spread ads everywhere to pay for it". I'm not stating your decisions are wrong or anything, I just really would like a better solution than purely 'selling out', for want of a better phrase. Could the wiki be distributed among a peer of servers? I'm not a guru, but there must be some kinda of distributing system that can operate on commercial scales with the power of grassroots equipment/connections? Anyone got any suggestions here?
I think you are misusing "easier" when you really mean "more powerful". While I completely agree that Linux-based distros have a wealth of restoring and recovery capabilities above and beyond anything Microsoft pumps out, I disagree that accessing this power is "easy" when compared to a windows GUI interface for simple mistakes in settings. If I can make the mistakes in GUI, I should be able to fix my mistakes in GUI also.
This mentality that "users just need to get used to Linux, and drop their Windows attitude" will simply not fly. Who (apart from some smart-asses here) has been raised solely on *nix boxes their whole life? We have all had to use Windows or Macs at some point! While they aren't the 'perfect' UI, they are the predominant one. A parallel could be brought up about car design and interface; many concept vehicles completely redesign how a driver uses the vehicle, yet the mainstream isn't willing to change the old and understood for someone's idea of 'better'.
I was actually looking into securing a forum from spammers earlier when this question came into my head:
How do I make questions that are simple enough to be obvious to legitimate members, but obscure for outsourced human spammers?
I then wondered exactly WHY I'd want to use simple questions anyway, surely I'd want people posting intelligently, so why not moderate at the first access point! Elitism, sure, but I don't think that asking for some mathematically obscure reference for a forum catering to that userbase is Evil, nor any other purpose-specific odd questions. The truly determined can always google the answers.
This does sound cool, but the Jason Bournes and Ethan Hunts of this world will have pen recording device and simply play the sounds back when needed. Hell, if they can do it with voice recognition, this is a walk in the park. I imagine you'd need some pretty good audio capture filters to get this working in any kind of busy commercial environment, and to translate the 'sound signature' across different nib timbres and pitches.
That would seem helpful, though many people have some form of answer-phone/voicemail system, and (as someone who also suffers from TFA's problem) many of the cold callers, or even automated robot callers still get through. I'm getting sick and tired of deleting 5+ messages a day that simply hang up, or record a robot speech into my answerphone from people I don't know/want to deal with!
For the record, I do usually set the 5+ phones in our house to silent when watching a movie, and only a couple on the lowest volume at other times.
Slashdot Mirror
The Digital Editions update is supposedly coming in January, but it's mostly rumours at the moment.
Oh, and for when you do decide: Welcome to the ebook world!
It must be bad when "Sly" Stallone is more reliable than you.
Fixed that fore you.
Where are they? In Science Fiction, and maybeour kids' dreams. Aside from computational limits, until such things as "emotion tagged recollections" become profitable or interesting for a company, it simply won't happen. R&D is prohibitively expensive, the military and the consumer are the only gatekeepers in that world. Unless you appeal to one of them, it ain't happening.
I think the answer may be on the horizon in adaptive gameplay, where the difficulty and challenge is always on that threshold of acceptable "gain vs. struggle" (see the ideas of flOw's design for this psychology-based point of view).
There are some games with this design already included, and it'll probably get better. It'll be interesting where easy-medium-hard applies to the experience you're going to have getting through the game, as opposed to simply upping the A.I. and health of NPCs (meaning that the gameplay adapts so you're nearly always on the verge of death when you have it on "hard", no matter if you're a n00b or an elite player).
Good, I'm not the only one thinking this "high security seed vault" is really a cover for slicing daemons from children...
Is there anything that offers up more of the design discussions, without any of the specific (or at least just a lot more varied) implementations.
I'm thinking MUDs, Space Games (no physical obstacles, many degrees of freedom), and D&D levels. Anything out there that could apply to such a range?
Well, I've yet to see a Doctor of Love here...
Sir, this is slashdot. For many of the people here, cloning is the only way to pass on their genetic information.
(btw IANAEE - electrical engineer)
Though I liked Ep1 simply for the return to the HL2 world, Ep2 managed to get me to play all the way through at least 3 times (and many more times through certain enjoyable sections) specifically for adding stuff like this, and the dev commentary.
I would have liked some special reward or unlock for completing all of their challenges, though I guess the accomplishment itself is a reward of sorts.
Holding chairs? Modern taskmasters hurl chairs. Far more efficient.
Finally a calling for me to turn tags back on. If only we could moderate them.
I find it sad that once a fanbase has got large enough, the options usually become "spread ads everywhere to pay for it". I'm not stating your decisions are wrong or anything, I just really would like a better solution than purely 'selling out', for want of a better phrase. Could the wiki be distributed among a peer of servers? I'm not a guru, but there must be some kinda of distributing system that can operate on commercial scales with the power of grassroots equipment/connections? Anyone got any suggestions here?
This mentality that "users just need to get used to Linux, and drop their Windows attitude" will simply not fly. Who (apart from some smart-asses here) has been raised solely on *nix boxes their whole life? We have all had to use Windows or Macs at some point! While they aren't the 'perfect' UI, they are the predominant one. A parallel could be brought up about car design and interface; many concept vehicles completely redesign how a driver uses the vehicle, yet the mainstream isn't willing to change the old and understood for someone's idea of 'better'.
That was what it was about... wasn't it?
...pun intended :P
How do I make questions that are simple enough to be obvious to legitimate members, but obscure for outsourced human spammers?
I then wondered exactly WHY I'd want to use simple questions anyway, surely I'd want people posting intelligently, so why not moderate at the first access point! Elitism, sure, but I don't think that asking for some mathematically obscure reference for a forum catering to that userbase is Evil, nor any other purpose-specific odd questions. The truly determined can always google the answers.
This does sound cool, but the Jason Bournes and Ethan Hunts of this world will have pen recording device and simply play the sounds back when needed. Hell, if they can do it with voice recognition, this is a walk in the park. I imagine you'd need some pretty good audio capture filters to get this working in any kind of busy commercial environment, and to translate the 'sound signature' across different nib timbres and pitches.
At least that's not a "no, never", right?
For the record, I do usually set the 5+ phones in our house to silent when watching a movie, and only a couple on the lowest volume at other times.
In Soviet Russian, the radio listens to YOU!
What good is a phone call... if you cannot speak?