"Finally, towards the end of every console cycle, consoles get so cheap that you can afford to buy more than one of them."
I had a GameCube when they were still 300$ CDN, and I grabbed an Xbox when they dropped to $300 CDN. I didn't grab a PS2 until I bought a preowned one with trades, though, simply because I didn't think it was worth even 250$ CDN.
So in the space of one year, I spent about 800$ CDN on all 3 popular and current consoles. That's the same as upgrading my current PC to something more Doom3 friendly (a little less, since I'd need a very expensive processor and 9700 Pro). Why wait until they're dirt cheap, when you can get everything hooked up to your TV for less than keeping current on one system that's only good for RTS/FPS?
It is first-person persective, but it's not a first-person shooter. Until you use the left stick for strafing/moving, and the right stick for turning/aiming, it's not FPS.
Metroid Prime is one of the very few first-person action games in existence. It emphasizes action sequences over aiming skills, which is why I draw this distinction.
Plus, anyone who tries to play it like an FPS always ends up hating it. I've had a few people say they hated it because they couldn't use the C-stick for aiming/turing.
You'd see that the Japanese language and Korean flags aren't links. That makes it a bit of a moot point:)
Too bad more webdesigners don't just leave image borders turned on. It saves a lot of pointless clicking by most people.
Yes, because I like firmware backdoors. :p
on
Do You Write Backdoors?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Embedded applications are the worst place ever to place backdoors. Need I point out the Alcatel DSL modem issues caused by default passwords and backdoors for Cable providers?
At least on a computer, upgrading the software or replacing it is easy. In a fix environment, it's very bad to have any kind of insecurity.
If people in Nigeria want to feel safe, they should not allow the scammers to operate out of Nigeria. Since international law is taking too long, vigilantism is on the increase.
I don't support vigilantism, but something has to give. I think this is what will continue to happen. The same thing will probably happen to spammers, too. I know milder stuff has already happened to spammers (like that one website where the guy broke in and grabbed all the naked pictures of the spammer lady he could, and posted them).
"PS2 Graphics interface sucked if they really would like to make it nice they would implement OpenGL 2.0 clean (no legacy stuff) and stick with the SPU2 this would make people kill the X BOX for sure and get back the living room for SONY"
Forgive me if I sound a little odd here, but why is it good to hate Microsoft and not Sony? I mean, both are large corporations motivated to make as much money as possible. Both screw the customer the same way.
Nintendo's in the same boat. At least they have scaled back their particular measures of being brutal to 3rd parties.
It was really interesting. The enemies were weakened apropriately, not just your character. To facilitate squad combat, the map was meant to be played as a team. The four player spawn points were in a ditch you exited. Outside, the entire map was a large model of a piece of town where a war was being fought.
I think the neatest modification to the weapons was the grenade. It looked like a punch that threw the +1 health blue vials, except that they exploded on contact with the ground. Learning how to use this was interesting:)
Beyond that, you started with about 15 or 20 health. Any shots would kill you if you were hit twice. Even being hit once could kill you if it was from a sniper-type monster.
I haven't played the wad itself in 7 years now, so I don't remember all the details.
I'm more of a sci-fi buff than a fantasy buff, and Tolkien stuff seemed long-winded. Space opera stuff can be that way too, but I find it more interesting:)
Unfortunately, it seems like scripting a single-player perspective to a two-player perspective is too hard for most people. Is anyone willing to experiment with a system where each person sees something different, and they have to both play through twice together to get the full effect? So for, no.
In Perfect Dark, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and Time Splitters 2 (all co-operative capable games), the co-op modes are merely 2 people in story mode, instead of one.
Some games accept this, and only add it where possible (like Secret of Mana or FF6). But there's still a dearth of co-op games. This is why I want to buy Doom 2 for my GBA -- so I can co-op link play with my friends a good game again.
Society is a complex series of balances. By the Nigerian scammers swindling stupid and greedy people, they are building up a lot of negative feedback against Nigeria. If the Nigerians cared, they would not harbour it.
This is the same as a DDoS attack against an ISP that hosts spammers. Except that on/., you'd have everyone saying how good it was that they were DDoSed.
So why isn't GTA 3 Greatest Hits? The same reason that Halo for Xbox isn't a Platinum Hit -- too much money into people's pockets. This subverts the spirit of the Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits line, which is supposed to make budget gaming easier for people (especially with younger children).
They sell them at Electronics Boutique. I picked up one called Super Smash Bros -- it plays off of the game disc, and saves everything to a handy flash card I can take with me everywhere. Best of all, I don't have to worry about upgrading the OS on my machine -- it boots right off of the game disc!
This is a Virtualized PC -- all it sees are the hardware components emulated by the host operating system.
This is akin to saying that VMWare can somehow tell my that I have an SB Live! -- it can't. All it knows is that it has SB16 emulation inside, and that it writes the output of that to/dev/dsp.
This is pure paranoia talking. Perhaps you should invest in more aluminium for your head.
In addition to their great single and multiplayer modes, some of those games also have online multiplayer and online new missions (without PC-patch-upgrade-Windows hell), and a lot also support system link (without the LAN-party PC-patch-upgrade-reinstall-new-hardware-Windows hell). The Xbox is a better gaming PC, and the best console for multi-platform releases.
If you don't have an Xbox to play the games, sell it. Or go to an EB and ask someone what games are good. Don't whine about it like a spoiled brat.
Note: I own almost every console (next-gen, first-gen, etc), and have over 200 games. If a console has more than 7 good games, I buy it and the games. Very, very few consoles actually can't reach that limit; the Xbox had no problem doing it (although the GCN does have ~20 great games).
But, the Xbox at least will boost the sound levels on ripped tracks (which are internally WMA at some level, and sound like shit -- even vocals distort because of the shittyness of this codec).
Reformatted to not be a dumbass.
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I was thinking to myself what NASA should do to increase mankind's presence in orbit and how to go about it. It is apparent to just about everyone that the current Space Transportation System (STS) is in need of replacement. The last time we tried to do that was under the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) under the Clinton administration. That program was a failure, not because of Clintons people, but because there were technological and monetary hurdles that couldn't be properly addressed.
However there is a way to do this. Right now the STS fleet is grounded, so the immediate concern is how to keep the ISS in orbit and fully manned. Russian President Putin has promised to build more Soyuz space craft to insure ISS is manned and supplied. From what I've found, it cost Russian anywhere from 25 to 50 million bucks to launch a manned Soyuz and a little less for a Progress supply ship.
I would propose that the US discontinue any crew transport missions for the Shuttle to ISS and pay a significant portion of the money needed to keep Soyuz ships flying to ISS instead. If these ships cost 50 million bucks then there is a savings of about 400 million bucks for each transport (the Shuttle cost an estimated 450 million to fly). When the Shuttle is back on in the air, it should ONLY fly construction missions to finish the ISS. The the STS should be retired.
That begs the question, what do we do with 450 mil for each flight that doesn't go? Since there are typically 6 or 7 flights by the Shuttle per year, about half of them are for significant construction of ISS. So we are looking at a savings of nearly 1.5 billion per fiscal year. THAT money should be invested in a completely new Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) space shuttle like the X-33 was meant to be. But that's not all. In order for space travel to become affordable, space vehicles must become more affordable.
Building 5 space shuttles cost the taxpayers between 3 and 5 billion for each one (the Endeavor cost 3 billion because it was built from spare parts). If we could build say 20 or 30 space shuttles, the cost could possibly be cut in half or perhaps more. NASA doesn't need 20 or 30 shuttles, however, if we could get the European Space Agency (ESA), the Russians, the Japanese, Aussies, and even the Koreans to join up with the promise of owning their own shuttles, the cost could be easily be spread out.
You see, the Europeans would get out from under NASA's shadow which they have for so long hated. They wanted to build a ship back in the 80's called the Sanger but they didn't have the money for it. The Europeans don't have the experience of space travel that we or the Russians do but they do have a lot of technology and engineering that they can bring to the table. The Russians are obvious additions because of their experience. What they can't bring to the table in money, they can definitly bring in know how.
The Japanese have always wanted a manned space program but they too don't have the money to foot the bill for all the R&D involved. In addition, their rocket program has suffered many setbacks. The Koreans might look on this as national pride IMO and a chance to play with the big boys. We of course know more about Shuttles than anyone and of course can bring more money to the table.
America would still have its leadership role in the project but would still have to work with members of the development and building team. You see, I no longer see space exploration as an American dream. This is a HUMAN endeavor. We as Americans (or Russians) just happen to be better at it than anyone else. If we build a shuttle or two that can haul cargo and personnel to low Earth orbit in a cost effective manner, we will see more and more people going and that is the goal. Get more up there so we can do more.
NASA has already learned that it needs to get out of the space launching business and get into the Space Exploration and Space Science business. NASA was essentially going to sell the Shuttles to the United Space Alliance and lease them back. The USA was going to maintain the Shuttles and NASA or Air Force pilots were going to fly them. NASA needs to get away from the space monopoly that it has created so that competition can be built. The same thing happened when NASA got out of the satelite launching business after the Challenger disaster.
Getting people to compete and getting a new reliable shuttle with the world behind it will establish a firm foothold in space for the human race. Right now we have had our foot in the door for too long and earlier this month it got jammed. Now it's time to kick open the door and step inside. Once we have a firm foundation in orbit and on the moon, then we can procede to the Planets and the stars.
(I really don't see why 10+ paragraphs worth of stuff would ever be formatted is one giant blob. That this was modded up was incredible -- I know I can't read a 50 sentence blob!)
Hard to damage tiles?
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The same ceramic tiles which, at least on Challenger and Columbia (the first two shuttles built), took years to install because they kept breaking my the force of being pressed by a human finger onto the hull.
The original tiles were very delicate and obscenely hard to attach. New glues were developed, but it still took a long time because they kept breaking. It wouldn't take much to damage it, especially since Columbia was the first operational shuttle of 20 years service, with all the first-generation problems that implies!
That's why anyone who can sell one million albums gets a platinum record embossed by the RIAA.
Michael Jackson is the only artist to go platinum many numbers of times. "Thriller" sold over 21 million copies, a world record.
An average band sells maybe 1/5th of that # of copies if they are famous.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is special because it sold almost 8 million copies of that game in the individual package and in the collections (source). It's very rare that games actually sell that many, and the recording industry is supposed to clear more titles because the albums themselves are usually 1/4th the cost of a video game.
So, no, there is no such fiction as a large number of sales which allow anyone to survive on the small fraction of a royalty they actually receive from one purchase.
No where in the article does it mention heart attacks. I wouldn't doubt it if these people who didn't like veggies also had more heart attacks.
The article also states that the people who avoided veggies had higher-than-average sensitivity to bitterness, not supertasting as you've dubbed it. Which makes sense, since green veggies have bitterness as one of their flavour components.
Slashdot Mirror
"Finally, towards the end of every console cycle, consoles get so cheap that you can afford to buy more than one of them."
I had a GameCube when they were still 300$ CDN, and I grabbed an Xbox when they dropped to $300 CDN. I didn't grab a PS2 until I bought a preowned one with trades, though, simply because I didn't think it was worth even 250$ CDN.
So in the space of one year, I spent about 800$ CDN on all 3 popular and current consoles. That's the same as upgrading my current PC to something more Doom3 friendly (a little less, since I'd need a very expensive processor and 9700 Pro). Why wait until they're dirt cheap, when you can get everything hooked up to your TV for less than keeping current on one system that's only good for RTS/FPS?
Because it was illegal to not use a Western Electric 500 bought from MaBell.
It is first-person persective, but it's not a first-person shooter. Until you use the left stick for strafing/moving, and the right stick for turning/aiming, it's not FPS.
Metroid Prime is one of the very few first-person action games in existence. It emphasizes action sequences over aiming skills, which is why I draw this distinction.
Plus, anyone who tries to play it like an FPS always ends up hating it. I've had a few people say they hated it because they couldn't use the C-stick for aiming/turing.
You'd see that the Japanese language and Korean flags aren't links. That makes it a bit of a moot point :)
Too bad more webdesigners don't just leave image borders turned on. It saves a lot of pointless clicking by most people.
Embedded applications are the worst place ever to place backdoors. Need I point out the Alcatel DSL modem issues caused by default passwords and backdoors for Cable providers?
At least on a computer, upgrading the software or replacing it is easy. In a fix environment, it's very bad to have any kind of insecurity.
If people in Nigeria want to feel safe, they should not allow the scammers to operate out of Nigeria. Since international law is taking too long, vigilantism is on the increase.
I don't support vigilantism, but something has to give. I think this is what will continue to happen. The same thing will probably happen to spammers, too. I know milder stuff has already happened to spammers (like that one website where the guy broke in and grabbed all the naked pictures of the spammer lady he could, and posted them).
"PS2 Graphics interface sucked if they really would like to make it nice they would implement OpenGL 2.0 clean (no legacy stuff) and stick with the SPU2 this would make people kill the X BOX for sure and get back the living room for SONY"
Forgive me if I sound a little odd here, but why is it good to hate Microsoft and not Sony? I mean, both are large corporations motivated to make as much money as possible. Both screw the customer the same way.
Nintendo's in the same boat. At least they have scaled back their particular measures of being brutal to 3rd parties.
(And since she seems to want me as her bitch, I don't care ;))
It was really interesting. The enemies were weakened apropriately, not just your character. To facilitate squad combat, the map was meant to be played as a team. The four player spawn points were in a ditch you exited. Outside, the entire map was a large model of a piece of town where a war was being fought.
:)
I think the neatest modification to the weapons was the grenade. It looked like a punch that threw the +1 health blue vials, except that they exploded on contact with the ground. Learning how to use this was interesting
Beyond that, you started with about 15 or 20 health. Any shots would kill you if you were hit twice. Even being hit once could kill you if it was from a sniper-type monster.
I haven't played the wad itself in 7 years now, so I don't remember all the details.
I'm more of a sci-fi buff than a fantasy buff, and Tolkien stuff seemed long-winded. Space opera stuff can be that way too, but I find it more interesting :)
But what is it?
I mean, it obviously is a battle. Is it a civil war battle? An ancient Chinese battle? What? I've never heard of it before.
Unfortunately, it seems like scripting a single-player perspective to a two-player perspective is too hard for most people. Is anyone willing to experiment with a system where each person sees something different, and they have to both play through twice together to get the full effect? So for, no.
In Perfect Dark, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and Time Splitters 2 (all co-operative capable games), the co-op modes are merely 2 people in story mode, instead of one.
Some games accept this, and only add it where possible (like Secret of Mana or FF6). But there's still a dearth of co-op games. This is why I want to buy Doom 2 for my GBA -- so I can co-op link play with my friends a good game again.
Society is a complex series of balances. By the Nigerian scammers swindling stupid and greedy people, they are building up a lot of negative feedback against Nigeria. If the Nigerians cared, they would not harbour it.
/., you'd have everyone saying how good it was that they were DDoSed.
This is the same as a DDoS attack against an ISP that hosts spammers. Except that on
It's 10 months + 500,000 copies or more.
So why isn't GTA 3 Greatest Hits? The same reason that Halo for Xbox isn't a Platinum Hit -- too much money into people's pockets. This subverts the spirit of the Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits line, which is supposed to make budget gaming easier for people (especially with younger children).
They sell them at Electronics Boutique. I picked up one called Super Smash Bros -- it plays off of the game disc, and saves everything to a handy flash card I can take with me everywhere. Best of all, I don't have to worry about upgrading the OS on my machine -- it boots right off of the game disc!
Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sold over a million copies, but it's not retailing for 19.99$ USD.
Consider this before purchasing the game.
This is a Virtualized PC -- all it sees are the hardware components emulated by the host operating system.
/dev/dsp.
This is akin to saying that VMWare can somehow tell my that I have an SB Live! -- it can't. All it knows is that it has SB16 emulation inside, and that it writes the output of that to
This is pure paranoia talking. Perhaps you should invest in more aluminium for your head.
In addition to their great single and multiplayer modes, some of those games also have online multiplayer and online new missions (without PC-patch-upgrade-Windows hell), and a lot also support system link (without the LAN-party PC-patch-upgrade-reinstall-new-hardware-Windows hell). The Xbox is a better gaming PC, and the best console for multi-platform releases.
If you don't have an Xbox to play the games, sell it. Or go to an EB and ask someone what games are good. Don't whine about it like a spoiled brat.
Note: I own almost every console (next-gen, first-gen, etc), and have over 200 games. If a console has more than 7 good games, I buy it and the games. Very, very few consoles actually can't reach that limit; the Xbox had no problem doing it (although the GCN does have ~20 great games).
But, the Xbox at least will boost the sound levels on ripped tracks (which are internally WMA at some level, and sound like shit -- even vocals distort because of the shittyness of this codec).
I was thinking to myself what NASA should do to increase mankind's presence in orbit and how to go about it. It is apparent to just about everyone that the current Space Transportation System (STS) is in need of replacement. The last time we tried to do that was under the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) under the Clinton administration. That program was a failure, not because of Clintons people, but because there were technological and monetary hurdles that couldn't be properly addressed.
However there is a way to do this. Right now the STS fleet is grounded, so the immediate concern is how to keep the ISS in orbit and fully manned. Russian President Putin has promised to build more Soyuz space craft to insure ISS is manned and supplied. From what I've found, it cost Russian anywhere from 25 to 50 million bucks to launch a manned Soyuz and a little less for a Progress supply ship.
I would propose that the US discontinue any crew transport missions for the Shuttle to ISS and pay a significant portion of the money needed to keep Soyuz ships flying to ISS instead. If these ships cost 50 million bucks then there is a savings of about 400 million bucks for each transport (the Shuttle cost an estimated 450 million to fly). When the Shuttle is back on in the air, it should ONLY fly construction missions to finish the ISS. The the STS should be retired.
That begs the question, what do we do with 450 mil for each flight that doesn't go? Since there are typically 6 or 7 flights by the Shuttle per year, about half of them are for significant construction of ISS. So we are looking at a savings of nearly 1.5 billion per fiscal year. THAT money should be invested in a completely new Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) space shuttle like the X-33 was meant to be. But that's not all. In order for space travel to become affordable, space vehicles must become more affordable.
Building 5 space shuttles cost the taxpayers between 3 and 5 billion for each one (the Endeavor cost 3 billion because it was built from spare parts). If we could build say 20 or 30 space shuttles, the cost could possibly be cut in half or perhaps more. NASA doesn't need 20 or 30 shuttles, however, if we could get the European Space Agency (ESA), the Russians, the Japanese, Aussies, and even the Koreans to join up with the promise of owning their own shuttles, the cost could be easily be spread out.
You see, the Europeans would get out from under NASA's shadow which they have for so long hated. They wanted to build a ship back in the 80's called the Sanger but they didn't have the money for it. The Europeans don't have the experience of space travel that we or the Russians do but they do have a lot of technology and engineering that they can bring to the table. The Russians are obvious additions because of their experience. What they can't bring to the table in money, they can definitly bring in know how.
The Japanese have always wanted a manned space program but they too don't have the money to foot the bill for all the R&D involved. In addition, their rocket program has suffered many setbacks. The Koreans might look on this as national pride IMO and a chance to play with the big boys. We of course know more about Shuttles than anyone and of course can bring more money to the table.
America would still have its leadership role in the project but would still have to work with members of the development and building team. You see, I no longer see space exploration as an American dream. This is a HUMAN endeavor. We as Americans (or Russians) just happen to be better at it than anyone else. If we build a shuttle or two that can haul cargo and personnel to low Earth orbit in a cost effective manner, we will see more and more people going and that is the goal. Get more up there so we can do more.
NASA has already learned that it needs to get out of the space launching business and get into the Space Exploration and Space Science business. NASA was essentially going to sell the Shuttles to the United Space Alliance and lease them back. The USA was going to maintain the Shuttles and NASA or Air Force pilots were going to fly them. NASA needs to get away from the space monopoly that it has created so that competition can be built. The same thing happened when NASA got out of the satelite launching business after the Challenger disaster.
Getting people to compete and getting a new reliable shuttle with the world behind it will establish a firm foothold in space for the human race. Right now we have had our foot in the door for too long and earlier this month it got jammed. Now it's time to kick open the door and step inside. Once we have a firm foundation in orbit and on the moon, then we can procede to the Planets and the stars.
(I really don't see why 10+ paragraphs worth of stuff would ever be formatted is one giant blob. That this was modded up was incredible -- I know I can't read a 50 sentence blob!)
The same ceramic tiles which, at least on Challenger and Columbia (the first two shuttles built), took years to install because they kept breaking my the force of being pressed by a human finger onto the hull.
The original tiles were very delicate and obscenely hard to attach. New glues were developed, but it still took a long time because they kept breaking. It wouldn't take much to damage it, especially since Columbia was the first operational shuttle of 20 years service, with all the first-generation problems that implies!
That's why anyone who can sell one million albums gets a platinum record embossed by the RIAA.
Michael Jackson is the only artist to go platinum many numbers of times. "Thriller" sold over 21 million copies, a world record.
An average band sells maybe 1/5th of that # of copies if they are famous.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is special because it sold almost 8 million copies of that game in the individual package and in the collections (source). It's very rare that games actually sell that many, and the recording industry is supposed to clear more titles because the albums themselves are usually 1/4th the cost of a video game.
So, no, there is no such fiction as a large number of sales which allow anyone to survive on the small fraction of a royalty they actually receive from one purchase.
The game I play is called Metroid Prime. It works great on my new HDTV. Progressive scan is the best thing to happen to video games.
No where in the article does it mention heart attacks. I wouldn't doubt it if these people who didn't like veggies also had more heart attacks.
The article also states that the people who avoided veggies had higher-than-average sensitivity to bitterness, not supertasting as you've dubbed it. Which makes sense, since green veggies have bitterness as one of their flavour components.
"Bah, duck tape won't do anything! Too fragile, too many cracks."
I think duck tape has too many quacks myself.