I kinda did the same thing, except the other direction.
I'm a Mac-head since 8.1 (late 1998). I got hooked on Unreal Tournament, to the point of adding a Voodoo3 3000 to my G3 and flashing it to work on the Mac. But there was never a version of UnrealEd for Mac. So I bought a cheap-o PC. That has now become my top choice in the latest console war.:)
While I'm not as bitter about it as you, I've had similar problems with my recent ATI purchase. The card is crap, the power consumption argument is way off, and the drivers are a pain in the ass.
The card is crap I upgraded from a GeForce 3. Not a Ti, just a plain ol' GF3. I was expecting some boosted framerates in UT2k3 and U2XMP, since I had originally bought the GF3 to boost performance in the original UT. Instead, I got similar or lower framerates with the only benefit being that those rates were at a higher resolution. So I can play a stuttery, 20 FPS game at 1024x768 on a GF3, or I can play a stuttery, 25 FPS game at 1280x1024 on my shiny, new Radeon 9600XT. Yay.
The power consumption argument is way off The GF3 worked fine in my old case, despite the 250W PSU in it. When I upgraded to the R9600XT, I upgraded the case and PSU as well, since I knew the card would probably need more juice. The new PSU is 350W. I ended up RMA-ing the first video card because it wouldn't allow the system to even boot. Swapping the GF3 back in made everything work fine. Even now, I have to hit the power switch, wait for everything to spin up, hit the power again and force it to shut down, and wait 45 seconds before I can actually make the damn thing boot. Yeah, low power consumption. Sure.
The drivers are a pain in the ass Maybe I'm just spoiled by nVidia's drivers, where you only have to download and run the installer, then reboot. Maybe I'm spoiled by Apple, who doesn't even require a driver installation 90% of the time. But I sure as hell don't like having to uninstall, reboot, install, reboot every time ATI finds a bug or adds a feature I won't ever use. Of course, I never know that that's all there is to the update beforehand, because they hype the driver release as bringing 20938042984% speed increases in every game past, present, or future. Reality check... make it easy and people other than fanboys will flock to your product.
ATI needs some major help in the driver department. nVidia needs some major help in the leaving-a-slot-open-between-card-and-fan-so-you-ca n-at-least-make-toast department. And, yes, I give the editors permission to use that one if they want.
There's a flipside to this. Some games are changed drastically in the sequel and the fanbase evaporates and/or complains very loudly. For example, Unreal Tournament 2003 didn't go over well because most UT players wanted UT with updated graphics. I know I did.
You'd think they'd learn. Don't use sequels just to slap a high-selling name on something that isn't proven. It's the same problem Hollywood has. They raise expectations by namedropping, then let the fans down by making something inferior or just plain off-target.
There's a certain customer of theirs that seems to be able to view anything, anytime, and without paying. His name is Jack Valenti. I would appreciate your services.
While you're snipping, allow me to apply your services to another type of code that he's using without paying for it. It's a very advanced genetic algorithm...
I was thinking along similar lines, except more with the idea that Microsoft is the two-faced party here. Think about it. They market themselves as "user friendly" yet they make something so blatantly unfriendly to the user that it won't allow them to do things they're legally allowed to do. Two-faced, indeed.
Good thing I bought the floor model, then. And for $200 off, too!
By the way, buying a floor model allows you to inspect for dead pixels and assures you that this unit is up and running beyond the warranty time is over. Floor models are tried and true and are a good purchase, as long as you can get over the fact that it's not "virgin" equipment.
In the St. Louis area, the local Pepsi bottler ran a promo giving away free Blues tickets instead of the iTunes promo. Right about the same time as the Blues fired their head coach during a massive slump, which they pulled out of in time to reach the playoffs and be eliminated in the first round. Pepsi sure knows how to market their product...
When you add a WMA file to the library, it says, "One or more of the songs you are adding to iTunes, including , are in the WMA format. iTunes will automatically convert them to the MP3 format so that they can be added to your iTunes music library."
Now I can finally convert all these old WMA files that idiots kept ripping thinking they had MP3's.
Try ICEOWS. The interface kicks all sorts of booty, plus it works with every zip-ish format I've ever encountered, along with more than a few I haven't encountered.
Rock 'N' Roll Racing wasn't the first of its series. RPM Racing was, and it had that same 3/4 view of the track. Of course, the artwork was not as good, the weapons weren't as diverse, the controls were sluggish, and the music was uninspired. But it did have a track editor!
The Bible is not a science textbook. That said, it isn't inaccurate on scientific matters.
There are plenty of fossils buried in silt deposits in Nevada at altitudes where no river could possibly have been, in areas where the average rainfall is a mere fraction of an inch each year. Geology, right?
The Sphinx in Egypt shows signs of water erosion, again in an area where annual rainfall is negligible. More geology.
Meanwhile, any dead tree matter (read: wood) from an ark that existed 4500 years ago is probably long gone. This expedition will prove nothing.
On another note, I was under the impression that the "four corners of the Earth" referred to compass points. True, compasses haven't been around that long, but the concept of North, South, East, and West have been around for millenia.
Meanwhile, the prophet Isaiah speaks of "One dwelling above the circle of the Earth." The Hebrew word translated as "circle" can also mean "ball" or "sphere". Note that a sphere is the only shape that looks like a circle from any angle. And for all you folks out there that wish to nitpick, yes, the Earth is actually an oblate spheroid, being slightly flattened at the poles. It still looks round from space... and Isaiah didn't need to go there to find that out. Isaiah's writings date back to approximately 800 to 850 B.C.E., by the way.
Slot machines, until recently, were not subject to the Gambler's Fallacy. Mechanical slots actually turned out a jackpot based on a set of gears reaching the correct position.
Frequently, they paid out in a regular interval, and in sub-intervals and sub-sub-intervals, paid bigger prizes.
That all changed with computer controlled slots, since a decent random number seed screws up the interval every time the machine is rebooted, which is every day.
Yeah, but he's not talking about their "value" RAM, he's talking about the higher performance HyperX stuff.
I bought some of that same RAM when it was $75, and to be fair, that was one of newegg's One Day Sale items. The regular price even at that time was closer to $90. Two weeks ago, it was $102.50. As of right now, it's $115.
This price increase isn't a steady 4-month rise. It's a 1-month spike. Here's to hoping it goes back down just as quickly.
Not to mention that "Q" has been permanently marred by John DeLancie playing a spook and eventually an alien on Stargate SG-1. I'll never see Q the same way again. I'll always expect his eyes to glow.
Think what the uproar would've been if they would've killed Seven of Nine. That character singlehandedly (pun intended) saved Voyager.
I've recently gotten hooked on Stargate. It's probably the first show since DS9 (sci-fi or not) that I watch for a reason other than "because it has hot chicks in skin-tight clothing." Then again, I did start to watch right around the time they had Vanessa Angel playing an alien... Hmmm... Tok'ra Barbie... Yum.
If you use iTunes, the only handheld player that can help you is an iPod.
Funny, my now-ancient Creative Nomad 6GB player works just fine with iTunes for both MacOS and MacOS X. I haven't tried it with Windows, but I assume it works with iTunes there as well.
I'm not "stuck" doing anything. There's always an off switch. Interestingly enough, that's pretty much what became of that old Nomad. I didn't use it much, so I turned it off and stuck it in the closet with the rest of the junk that doesn't work.
They introduced the titanium PowerBooks with the slogan "Power and Sex" and at the same MacWorld show, introduced new G4's with the slogan "ProCreate."
Not to mention that all those nasty porn sites that try to install dialers and crap always fail on a Mac, making the Mac the best porn-surfing computer ever.
Hell, Apple has been telling people to take it up the ass for years. People complain that it hurts, but they keep buying more Macs for those "outrageous" prices.;)
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I kinda did the same thing, except the other direction.
:)
I'm a Mac-head since 8.1 (late 1998). I got hooked on Unreal Tournament, to the point of adding a Voodoo3 3000 to my G3 and flashing it to work on the Mac. But there was never a version of UnrealEd for Mac. So I bought a cheap-o PC. That has now become my top choice in the latest console war.
Pay off MGM and have "Schrodinger" as version 10.8.
While I'm not as bitter about it as you, I've had similar problems with my recent ATI purchase. The card is crap, the power consumption argument is way off, and the drivers are a pain in the ass.
a n-at-least-make-toast department. And, yes, I give the editors permission to use that one if they want.
The card is crap
I upgraded from a GeForce 3. Not a Ti, just a plain ol' GF3. I was expecting some boosted framerates in UT2k3 and U2XMP, since I had originally bought the GF3 to boost performance in the original UT. Instead, I got similar or lower framerates with the only benefit being that those rates were at a higher resolution. So I can play a stuttery, 20 FPS game at 1024x768 on a GF3, or I can play a stuttery, 25 FPS game at 1280x1024 on my shiny, new Radeon 9600XT. Yay.
The power consumption argument is way off
The GF3 worked fine in my old case, despite the 250W PSU in it. When I upgraded to the R9600XT, I upgraded the case and PSU as well, since I knew the card would probably need more juice. The new PSU is 350W. I ended up RMA-ing the first video card because it wouldn't allow the system to even boot. Swapping the GF3 back in made everything work fine. Even now, I have to hit the power switch, wait for everything to spin up, hit the power again and force it to shut down, and wait 45 seconds before I can actually make the damn thing boot. Yeah, low power consumption. Sure.
The drivers are a pain in the ass
Maybe I'm just spoiled by nVidia's drivers, where you only have to download and run the installer, then reboot. Maybe I'm spoiled by Apple, who doesn't even require a driver installation 90% of the time. But I sure as hell don't like having to uninstall, reboot, install, reboot every time ATI finds a bug or adds a feature I won't ever use. Of course, I never know that that's all there is to the update beforehand, because they hype the driver release as bringing 20938042984% speed increases in every game past, present, or future. Reality check... make it easy and people other than fanboys will flock to your product.
ATI needs some major help in the driver department. nVidia needs some major help in the leaving-a-slot-open-between-card-and-fan-so-you-c
There's a flipside to this. Some games are changed drastically in the sequel and the fanbase evaporates and/or complains very loudly. For example, Unreal Tournament 2003 didn't go over well because most UT players wanted UT with updated graphics. I know I did.
You'd think they'd learn. Don't use sequels just to slap a high-selling name on something that isn't proven. It's the same problem Hollywood has. They raise expectations by namedropping, then let the fans down by making something inferior or just plain off-target.
There's a certain customer of theirs that seems to be able to view anything, anytime, and without paying. His name is Jack Valenti. I would appreciate your services.
While you're snipping, allow me to apply your services to another type of code that he's using without paying for it. It's a very advanced genetic algorithm...
I inserted a random deity into the reading of the last paragraph of your post, and it happened to turn up "Janus." Oops. Should I try again?
I was thinking along similar lines, except more with the idea that Microsoft is the two-faced party here. Think about it. They market themselves as "user friendly" yet they make something so blatantly unfriendly to the user that it won't allow them to do things they're legally allowed to do. Two-faced, indeed.
Good thing I bought the floor model, then. And for $200 off, too!
By the way, buying a floor model allows you to inspect for dead pixels and assures you that this unit is up and running beyond the warranty time is over. Floor models are tried and true and are a good purchase, as long as you can get over the fact that it's not "virgin" equipment.
No, they'll spin it off.
In the St. Louis area, the local Pepsi bottler ran a promo giving away free Blues tickets instead of the iTunes promo. Right about the same time as the Blues fired their head coach during a massive slump, which they pulled out of in time to reach the playoffs and be eliminated in the first round. Pepsi sure knows how to market their product...
I'll stick with Coke, thanks.
In that case, the cops will just have to *gasp* do some good, old investigation to find the criminal! Oh, the humanity! Think of the children!
Man, it doesn't get any slicker than that.
When you add a WMA file to the library, it says, "One or more of the songs you are adding to iTunes, including , are in the WMA format. iTunes will automatically convert them to the MP3 format so that they can be added to your iTunes music library."
Now I can finally convert all these old WMA files that idiots kept ripping thinking they had MP3's.
Someone's unofficial report on that forum also indicates that it converts from WMA to AAC.
I'm about to install, so I'll check it out and let you know.
Try ICEOWS. The interface kicks all sorts of booty, plus it works with every zip-ish format I've ever encountered, along with more than a few I haven't encountered.
Olaf unleashes hot fury!
Holy Toledo!
Rock 'N' Roll Racing wasn't the first of its series. RPM Racing was, and it had that same 3/4 view of the track. Of course, the artwork was not as good, the weapons weren't as diverse, the controls were sluggish, and the music was uninspired. But it did have a track editor!
Meanwhile, the only art you get out of the stuff at the museum is when you stand there and wonder "wtf is *this* supposed to be?"
Note that the artist is the guy who made it, not the guy who looks at it or uses it.
No, no... not doomed. Beleaguered. Get it right. :)
The Bible is not a science textbook. That said, it isn't inaccurate on scientific matters.
There are plenty of fossils buried in silt deposits in Nevada at altitudes where no river could possibly have been, in areas where the average rainfall is a mere fraction of an inch each year. Geology, right?
The Sphinx in Egypt shows signs of water erosion, again in an area where annual rainfall is negligible. More geology.
Meanwhile, any dead tree matter (read: wood) from an ark that existed 4500 years ago is probably long gone. This expedition will prove nothing.
On another note, I was under the impression that the "four corners of the Earth" referred to compass points. True, compasses haven't been around that long, but the concept of North, South, East, and West have been around for millenia.
Meanwhile, the prophet Isaiah speaks of "One dwelling above the circle of the Earth." The Hebrew word translated as "circle" can also mean "ball" or "sphere". Note that a sphere is the only shape that looks like a circle from any angle. And for all you folks out there that wish to nitpick, yes, the Earth is actually an oblate spheroid, being slightly flattened at the poles. It still looks round from space... and Isaiah didn't need to go there to find that out. Isaiah's writings date back to approximately 800 to 850 B.C.E., by the way.
Slot machines, until recently, were not subject to the Gambler's Fallacy. Mechanical slots actually turned out a jackpot based on a set of gears reaching the correct position.
Frequently, they paid out in a regular interval, and in sub-intervals and sub-sub-intervals, paid bigger prizes.
That all changed with computer controlled slots, since a decent random number seed screws up the interval every time the machine is rebooted, which is every day.
Yeah, but he's not talking about their "value" RAM, he's talking about the higher performance HyperX stuff.
I bought some of that same RAM when it was $75, and to be fair, that was one of newegg's One Day Sale items. The regular price even at that time was closer to $90. Two weeks ago, it was $102.50. As of right now, it's $115.
This price increase isn't a steady 4-month rise. It's a 1-month spike. Here's to hoping it goes back down just as quickly.
I wish I could give you a gold star. I guess a browser-text-colored asterisk will have to do.
*
There you go. Around here, we take care of the sane ones.
Not to mention that "Q" has been permanently marred by John DeLancie playing a spook and eventually an alien on Stargate SG-1. I'll never see Q the same way again. I'll always expect his eyes to glow.
At least they blew him out an airlock.
Andromeda has life because of... well, you know.
Think what the uproar would've been if they would've killed Seven of Nine. That character singlehandedly (pun intended) saved Voyager.
I've recently gotten hooked on Stargate. It's probably the first show since DS9 (sci-fi or not) that I watch for a reason other than "because it has hot chicks in skin-tight clothing." Then again, I did start to watch right around the time they had Vanessa Angel playing an alien... Hmmm... Tok'ra Barbie... Yum.
If you use iTunes, the only handheld player that can help you is an iPod.
Funny, my now-ancient Creative Nomad 6GB player works just fine with iTunes for both MacOS and MacOS X. I haven't tried it with Windows, but I assume it works with iTunes there as well.
I'm not "stuck" doing anything. There's always an off switch. Interestingly enough, that's pretty much what became of that old Nomad. I didn't use it much, so I turned it off and stuck it in the closet with the rest of the junk that doesn't work.
Apple does plenty to sponsor porn already.
;)
They introduced the titanium PowerBooks with the slogan "Power and Sex" and at the same MacWorld show, introduced new G4's with the slogan "ProCreate."
Not to mention that all those nasty porn sites that try to install dialers and crap always fail on a Mac, making the Mac the best porn-surfing computer ever.
Hell, Apple has been telling people to take it up the ass for years. People complain that it hurts, but they keep buying more Macs for those "outrageous" prices.
Maybe iPorn is just the next logical step.