Why can't they just leave nice simple books alone? If they want to invent new paradigms to value-add to the ocular experience they should go waste their time adding 3D to movies or some such shit.
Exactly. Faxes are cheap, ubiquitous and if you really don't want the physical device you can plug an old 33.6 modem into the serial port of any Linux server, configure and run Hylafax, and install free client software on your Windows PCs for sending. As a plus you don't get woken at 3am by the BRRRRRRRR of a thermal printer spitting out some spammy graphic-laden ad. And it's easy to configure TSIs to block said spammers.
My 13 yo daughter has been running her own minecraft server for quite a while now. She's registered a domain name and runs her own forum & website for the group she plays with. She's also coding the web pages by hand, using a text editor. (Computer programming is her fave topic at school.) Keep 'em off the streets, that's what I say.
Dr. Corbett should be running for President of the USA, or at least a position of real power. I'm just an outsider looking in, but if more politicians spoke and thought like this the whole world would be a better place.
While you are at it, teach them CTRL+C (Command+C) and CTRL+V and CTRL+A. At least 25% of users have never seen any of these amazing combos in action either.
For most first novels, Ctrl+A and Ctrl+X, then save and close is a pretty useful combination.
One of my free (as in beer) desktop applications will create a calibre-friendly html export from a project. I leave it up to the user to download and install Calibre, and to manually import and convert this exported html file to their ebook of choice. It's not that hard to work things like this, even if it's another step for the user.
(Exporting to ebook is a very minor feature in my software, and I'm planning a proper epub export soon in any case.)
I don't care what the previews say, good or bad, my copy is reserved and my kids have ordered theirs too. Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion have all kept me entertained for hundreds of hours, and I doubt Skyrim will be any different.
My current screen is a 24" at 1920x1200. I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP just to get the improved desktop & font scaling but it's still not enough. I don't really want to drop to a lower rez, since I am a programmer, but I'm thinking a 32" 1920xwhatever screen might be the go...
There are many reasons why someone would choose a novel editor instead of a word processor. Authors deal with 80,000+ word documents, not two page business letters, and a tool which breaks the novel down into chapters and scenes and also allows you to view details on characters, locations and so on is always going to be more efficient.
(Incidentally, I'm the guy behind freeware yWriter. I'm a programmer and a published author, and am currently getting my fifth novel ready for the publisher.)
(Personally, I've actually bought copies on Steam of older games I also own on physical media. It's only a few bucks, and the convenience of being able to install the game at the click of a button -- instead of having to dig around for the disk and then hope it still works -- is well worth the money. Strange, really: this suppsoedly evil DRM platform means I can play games I own more easily than the DRM-free versions!)
+1 to this. I've purchased quite a few Steam games I already own on disk, simply because they originally came on DVDs which don't work on Virtual CD. (I'm not into NOCD cracks & patches.) I'm violently opposed to hunting for a particular disk just so I can play a particular game - if I wanted to do that I'd buy a console.
Funnily enough, when I did a comp sci degree in the late 90's the lecturer had just convinced the department to toss out Pascal and use Java for the main programming course instead. We were the guinea pigs, and since I already knew enough C and C++ to be dangerous, I was very happy.
The first time I played multiplayer was Doom I on a local lan with three machines. My cousin (a total noob at any kind of gaming... or PCs) was like one of those target dummies in Oblivion, and my brother and I chased him all over the map blowing him up, mowing him down and generally turning him into dog food. Fun!
One of the last times I played multiplayer, online, was Command & Conquer (yes, the original, and yes, that long ago.) I spent a couple of hours gradually getting the upper hand, and just when I was ready to move on the opposition they quit the game.
Battlefield 1942 held my online interest for a while, but I got fed up when nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, could seem to manage the idea of scout = spotting, artillery = firing at spotted target. There was a big rush for the planes, then the Big Guns What Go Boom, and then it might have well have been lab rats on the other side of the screen, pounding their keyboards and grinning inanely as the artillery went POP and BANG and FLASH. No idea what they were aiming at - walls, airplanes, the sea - but they were obviously enjoying themselves because even lobbing grenades into their bunkers didn't seem to stop them.
In the doctored image you can see the colours of the windows taskbar/start button in the un-edited portion, but darker. They probably just took the projected slide, drew a matte around it and brightened/sharpened up that section.
For my own 'donationware' apps I make the point that I'd rather have 10 people contribute $5 each than have one person decide they can't afford $25.
The internet is Big. Really Big. And if a million people tip in $7 or so (the current average) you have a sizeable chunk of change.
For more on this see JA Konrath's blog, where he explains exactly how much he's making selling his ebooks on Amazon vs royalties his publisher pays him. Different industry, similar result.
.. went the same way. You could buy a blank C15 tape for around the price of a comic, then copy a mate's ZX Speccy game onto each side. Those of us lucky enough to have a part-time job could buy the originals for around a fiver each. Who wanted a comic which you could read in about ten minutes?
A budget DVD game at AUD $15-$25 or a music album with maybe two decent tracks for $20-$30.. I know which I'd get more hours of entertainment from.
I still have every 3d card I've ever bought, from the Voodoo 1 with its clacky relay and passthrough cable through to my current Nvidia 9600gt. Add the cost of them all together and they probably owe me a very nice car.
Slashdot Mirror
Why can't they just leave nice simple books alone? If they want to invent new paradigms to value-add to the ocular experience they should go waste their time adding 3D to movies or some such shit.
Exactly. Faxes are cheap, ubiquitous and if you really don't want the physical device you can plug an old 33.6 modem into the serial port of any Linux server, configure and run Hylafax, and install free client software on your Windows PCs for sending. As a plus you don't get woken at 3am by the BRRRRRRRR of a thermal printer spitting out some spammy graphic-laden ad. And it's easy to configure TSIs to block said spammers.
A friend of a friend suggested keeping an unsecured wireless access point powered up, but not connected to your network.
My 13 yo daughter has been running her own minecraft server for quite a while now. She's registered a domain name and runs her own forum & website for the group she plays with. She's also coding the web pages by hand, using a text editor. (Computer programming is her fave topic at school.) Keep 'em off the streets, that's what I say.
It's legos without running out of bricks.
That link is going on every email I send from this day forth. Or maybe every fourth email I send from this day.
You were lucky. One of my deceased relatives has a stack of mouldering copies eight feet high sitting on top of his grave, and more keep turning up.
Dr. Corbett should be running for President of the USA, or at least a position of real power. I'm just an outsider looking in, but if more politicians spoke and thought like this the whole world would be a better place.
Programming is not normally done with copy and paste.
It is if you get paid per Lines Of Code rather than by the hour ...
While you are at it, teach them CTRL+C (Command+C) and CTRL+V and CTRL+A. At least 25% of users have never seen any of these amazing combos in action either.
For most first novels, Ctrl+A and Ctrl+X, then save and close is a pretty useful combination.
One of my free (as in beer) desktop applications will create a calibre-friendly html export from a project. I leave it up to the user to download and install Calibre, and to manually import and convert this exported html file to their ebook of choice. It's not that hard to work things like this, even if it's another step for the user. (Exporting to ebook is a very minor feature in my software, and I'm planning a proper epub export soon in any case.)
I don't care what the previews say, good or bad, my copy is reserved and my kids have ordered theirs too. Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion have all kept me entertained for hundreds of hours, and I doubt Skyrim will be any different.
My current screen is a 24" at 1920x1200. I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP just to get the improved desktop & font scaling but it's still not enough. I don't really want to drop to a lower rez, since I am a programmer, but I'm thinking a 32" 1920xwhatever screen might be the go ...
There are many reasons why someone would choose a novel editor instead of a word processor. Authors deal with 80,000+ word documents, not two page business letters, and a tool which breaks the novel down into chapters and scenes and also allows you to view details on characters, locations and so on is always going to be more efficient.
(Incidentally, I'm the guy behind freeware yWriter. I'm a programmer and a published author, and am currently getting my fifth novel ready for the publisher.)
(Personally, I've actually bought copies on Steam of older games I also own on physical media. It's only a few bucks, and the convenience of being able to install the game at the click of a button -- instead of having to dig around for the disk and then hope it still works -- is well worth the money. Strange, really: this suppsoedly evil DRM platform means I can play games I own more easily than the DRM-free versions!)
+1 to this. I've purchased quite a few Steam games I already own on disk, simply because they originally came on DVDs which don't work on Virtual CD. (I'm not into NOCD cracks & patches.) I'm violently opposed to hunting for a particular disk just so I can play a particular game - if I wanted to do that I'd buy a console.
Funnily enough, when I did a comp sci degree in the late 90's the lecturer had just convinced the department to toss out Pascal and use Java for the main programming course instead. We were the guinea pigs, and since I already knew enough C and C++ to be dangerous, I was very happy.
(OP replying) You don't know my cousin ...
The first time I played multiplayer was Doom I on a local lan with three machines. My cousin (a total noob at any kind of gaming ... or PCs) was like one of those target dummies in Oblivion, and my brother and I chased him all over the map blowing him up, mowing him down and generally turning him into dog food. Fun!
One of the last times I played multiplayer, online, was Command & Conquer (yes, the original, and yes, that long ago.) I spent a couple of hours gradually getting the upper hand, and just when I was ready to move on the opposition they quit the game.
Battlefield 1942 held my online interest for a while, but I got fed up when nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, could seem to manage the idea of scout = spotting, artillery = firing at spotted target. There was a big rush for the planes, then the Big Guns What Go Boom, and then it might have well have been lab rats on the other side of the screen, pounding their keyboards and grinning inanely as the artillery went POP and BANG and FLASH. No idea what they were aiming at - walls, airplanes, the sea - but they were obviously enjoying themselves because even lobbing grenades into their bunkers didn't seem to stop them.
In the doctored image you can see the colours of the windows taskbar/start button in the un-edited portion, but darker. They probably just took the projected slide, drew a matte around it and brightened/sharpened up that section.
I have another data point. Give my kids mobile phones and their output falls too. I mean, those things are distracting
For my own 'donationware' apps I make the point that I'd rather have 10 people contribute $5 each than have one person decide they can't afford $25.
The internet is Big. Really Big. And if a million people tip in $7 or so (the current average) you have a sizeable chunk of change.
For more on this see JA Konrath's blog, where he explains exactly how much he's making selling his ebooks on Amazon vs royalties his publisher pays him. Different industry, similar result.
Hiding it in the basement of a university in the most remote capital city on the planet seems to work. Unless the Vogons turn up.
.. went the same way. You could buy a blank C15 tape for around the price of a comic, then copy a mate's ZX Speccy game onto each side. Those of us lucky enough to have a part-time job could buy the originals for around a fiver each. Who wanted a comic which you could read in about ten minutes?
.. I know which I'd get more hours of entertainment from.
A budget DVD game at AUD $15-$25 or a music album with maybe two decent tracks for $20-$30
So you still lose your wallet, but now you get to watch it on youtube from three different angles.
I still have every 3d card I've ever bought, from the Voodoo 1 with its clacky relay and passthrough cable through to my current Nvidia 9600gt. Add the cost of them all together and they probably owe me a very nice car.