Text Adventures were "Text" Adventures because they didn't have the graphics horsepower around back then that they have now. If the creators of Zork started out today, they'd make a game with a simliar design with 3d graphics.
Oh, you mean they'd make Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic.:)
Re:First war post!
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I couldn't agree more. In a way I felt like I was watching a teaser trailer. "Here's the approximately 30 seconds of war footage..less than we expected..."
Almost as if the press was disappointed. They wanted the "movie" but the "Gov't" only gave them the teaser trailer.
Get a clue. War is war. If they want their casualties, if they want death, destruction, and chaos -- it will come.
But this is not something we should be anticipating like a movie. This is something we will all have to live through whether we want to or _not_ -- and the consequences will be mixed at best.
Having survived the Windows 98 to ME, Windows ME to 2000, and Windows 2000 to XP migration curves, I have to say, that until this thing reaches release candidate status, all bets are off.
I remember installing every single Win 98 beta that came out -- what a buggy headache (especially the early Active Desktops) -- when I could have spent my time being productive, and waiting and watching.
This time, I will wait and watch.
So far all I see in Longhorn is Windows XP with a few new panes, some screen reogranization and some pretty icons. Until I see a dynamic, functional difference that is not just screen reogranization or eye candy, I'll be convinced that this is just more of the same, in a new package, with some bugfixes, speed optimization and additional hardware support (like DVD burning, for example).
Oh, and I forgot.net, which I think will be the equivalent of embedding the channel bar into the OS and trying to make it look more "seamless" in the OS. Remember the subscription channel bar in Win 98, that no one ever uses and hates?
I could have guessed those "improvements", without even seeing one screenshot. Come on, MS, where's the real innovation?
A quote from his Nemesis review: " think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another 1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy."
BBCi has revealed plans for its 40th anniversary of Doctor Who webcast: a remake by Big Finish Productions of the classic "lost" Doctor Who story Shada, written by the late Douglas Adams. "Shada" was originally abandoned due to an industrial strike, although it was eventually released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker. In this new version of "Shada", the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) is reunited with old friends Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) "in a quest to track down the most dangerous book in the universe." The cast features such notables as James Fox ("A Passage to India," "The Remains of the Day") as Professor Chronotis, Andrew Sachs (best remembered as daffy waiter Manuel on "Fawlty Towers") as Skagra, Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood in the "Harry Potter" films) as Chris Parsons, Hannah Gordon (presenter of UK Channel Four's "Watercolor Challenge" and originally in the Doctor Who serial "The Highlanders") as the voice of Skagra's ship, Susannah Harker ("Ultraviolet") as Clare Keightley, Melvyn Hayes ("Quatermass II," "Ain't Half Hot, Mum") as college porter Wilkin, and Stuart Crossman in an unknown role. "This is a tremendously exciting project," director Nicholas Pegg told BBCi. "We've really pulled out all the stops on this one. We've had a fantastic time in the studio and I hope people will agree that we've done justice to one of the greatest writers Doctor Who was ever blessed with." Says Big Finish producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, "This is a great opportunity to finally produce Doctor Who's most famous lost script, and a fine tribute to Douglas Adams." Lee Sullivan will produce animation for the new webcast and Gary Russell, on authority from the estate of Douglas Adams, has tailored the script to add some framing information and tie it into the story. BBCi senior producer James Goss stated on the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, "Big Finish have come up with a neat way of fitting the new Shada into continuity without messing around with the original script too much. Without going into detail, there's a short prelude set on Gallifrey, where the Doctor turns up to see Romana, explaining that they've got some unfinished business to attend to... involving a call for help from an old friend that they appear to have been somehow prevented from answering." At right, a photo from BBCi with McGann, Ward and K-9. The recording was taped in early November, and is set for debut on BBCi next spring. (Thanks to BBCi, as well as everyone who wrote in to let us know about it and the report on Biggerstaff's website)
Hydrogen fuel cell technology was OK'd by the Bush administration for one reason -- hydrogen fuel stations around the nation charging us for the fuel.
Other energy sources, such as electric, could possibly be refined to be rechargable and reusable for considerable distances and have rechargable batteries that last 3-4 years with the same development curve.
I don't think Hydrogen is the real choice here -- electric is -- but the US Gov't wants a renewable resource that will still make them the biggest profit. Don't be fooled -- we are getting ripped off.
I agree that RealNames is an outdated concept,and can be integrated into existing search engines in the way Google did with ther ad-per-click payment program without having to "outsource". Heck, even I have coded a keyword search algorhythm that generates ads based on searches, and I don't consider myself that sophisticated of a programmer.
Pity. RealNames at one point had searches "Naked Dancing Llama" lead to the NDL page at no charge -- which proves in my mind that there had to be some true geeks employed somewhere in the mess.
This is absolutely true. I can't even get the Java runtime to be recognized in XP -- it just tells me to download the netscape plugin finder. (If anyone has any suggestions on this, please don't hesitate to email me).
On this note, I got a reply from the manufacturer:
Like any optical device we suggest that you rest your eyes 10 minutes out of every hour. This is the same as your desktop monitor.
It takes a few minutes for your eye to adjust to the monocular image when you first wear the pom head mount display. After 20 minutes of use your brain totally adjusts and you can see the headmount image or the free eye image at will.
Sitting staring at a CRT causes me enough eye strain as it is. I'm trying to imagine how staring at a 800x600 screen zapping straight into my brain could possibly be safe for me.
With all this hype over gigabyte-drive driven players, I'm happy with my Rio Volt SP250.
9 minutes to burn a CD of 650 meg worth of music (which is plenty for a week or so of driving); plus I have an instant backup of my mp3s.
And with CD-Rs going for as cheap as 5-6 cents a CD, I can have 20 gig worth in no time.
Plus the SP250 has the radio tuner, the rechargable batteries, and can be plugged into any stereo system.
On my budget, I'm really not worried about the gigabyte or stick driven mp3 players -- a few extra minutes versus $100 - $700 more spending is not really worth my time -- and not when I can expand my collection indefinitely via CD for much cheaper.
Hi. I am working on a Liberal Studies degree at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Within the program, I have found one thing.
If you restate what the professor said, and then refute it with solid arguments, they value your opinion. If you skip over anything they said and launch into a criticism of what you THINK they said, they are likely to think you are just some punky kid and ignore you and possibly fail you. Why give you any courtesy if you've shown them none?
Finding this out has allowed me to agree to disagree with several of my professors and not tell them "how to run their class"..rather let them run their class and show insight and relevant opinions when appropriate.
Who would want students who would tell the teachers how to run the class?
I recently purchased a Rio SP250 player from SonicBlue. It supports CDs and CDRs and CDRWs and WinAmp playlists. Now, for $170 for the player, plus $60 for 200 CDs, I'm at 120+ gig of storage for $230 bucks, plus it's portable...and I can always increase my collection.
The Rio also supports WMA (eek) and has an FM tuner. With the line out, I can hook it up to any stereo system.
SL
Hook a regular CD player into the audio in of your sound card, and sample with a.wav software program like Sound Forge. If it's a digital in, you won't even have any reduction in quality.
I work at a midsized.com that survived the crash and is actually growing quite nicely. One of our databases crashed a few days ago and we've been working on a long recovery ever since. My boss was concentrating highly on the recovery of the database; and didn't say a word about the tragedy. "How," I wondered, "could someone be so unfeeling? Who is going to be looking at our database right now??"
Only do I find out after the database is recovered that my boss's oldest brother was on route to DC and grounded in Cleveland and he hadn't heard from his brother..and was doing whatever it took to keep his sanity; in this case, concentrating on his business.
The lesson? This effects everyone, from the lowest tech to the CEO, and everyone is going to deal with it differently, but bottom line, EVERYONE cares about this.
For the record, Dr. Who is actually in production. Not on TV though, audio adventures..with the original cast members. The stories vary widely in quality, but it is nice to hear the voices again. Also nice are the new 8th doctor adventures (the guy in the 1996 TV movie).
Check it out at: http://www.doctorwho.co.uk
Speaking of radioactive emissions, I am wondering if my CRT has any radioactive emissiosn I should be concerned about. I recently purchased one of those scotch monitor guard things to get rid of glare. But am I going to radiate my brain by staring at this screen all day? I'm more worried about that than any cell phone.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, you mean they'd make Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic.
I couldn't agree more. In a way I felt like I was watching a teaser trailer. "Here's the approximately 30 seconds of war footage..less than we expected..."
Almost as if the press was disappointed. They wanted the "movie" but the "Gov't" only gave them the teaser trailer.
Get a clue. War is war. If they want their casualties, if they want death, destruction, and chaos -- it will come.
But this is not something we should be anticipating like a movie. This is something we will all have to live through whether we want to or _not_ -- and the consequences will be mixed at best.
Does this mean I now have a sure fire way of remembering where I put my car keys?
At the time I was both a "gotta have the newest thing" freak and a habitual procrastinator. :)
I think we all go through that stage in our late teens.
Chris
..the more they stay the same.
.net, which I think will be the equivalent of embedding the channel bar into the OS and trying to make it look more "seamless" in the OS. Remember the subscription channel bar in Win 98, that no one ever uses and hates?
Having survived the Windows 98 to ME, Windows ME to 2000, and Windows 2000 to XP migration curves, I have to say, that until this thing reaches release candidate status, all bets are off.
I remember installing every single Win 98 beta that came out -- what a buggy headache (especially the early Active Desktops) -- when I could have spent my time being productive, and waiting and watching.
This time, I will wait and watch.
So far all I see in Longhorn is Windows XP with a few new panes, some screen reogranization and some pretty icons. Until I see a dynamic, functional difference that is not just screen reogranization or eye candy, I'll be convinced that this is just more of the same, in a new package, with some bugfixes, speed optimization and additional hardware support (like DVD burning, for example).
Oh, and I forgot
I could have guessed those "improvements", without even seeing one screenshot. Come on, MS, where's the real innovation?
Time will tell.
Chris
A quote from his Nemesis review:
" think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another 1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy."
Now I'll NEVER be able to forget my ex-girlfriend!
BBCi has revealed plans for its 40th anniversary of Doctor Who webcast: a remake by Big Finish Productions of the classic "lost" Doctor Who story Shada, written by the late Douglas Adams. "Shada" was originally abandoned due to an industrial strike, although it was eventually released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker. In this new version of "Shada", the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) is reunited with old friends Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) "in a quest to track down the most dangerous book in the universe." The cast features such notables as James Fox ("A Passage to India," "The Remains of the Day") as Professor Chronotis, Andrew Sachs (best remembered as daffy waiter Manuel on "Fawlty Towers") as Skagra, Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood in the "Harry Potter" films) as Chris Parsons, Hannah Gordon (presenter of UK Channel Four's "Watercolor Challenge" and originally in the Doctor Who serial "The Highlanders") as the voice of Skagra's ship, Susannah Harker ("Ultraviolet") as Clare Keightley, Melvyn Hayes ("Quatermass II," "Ain't Half Hot, Mum") as college porter Wilkin, and Stuart Crossman in an unknown role. "This is a tremendously exciting project," director Nicholas Pegg told BBCi. "We've really pulled out all the stops on this one. We've had a fantastic time in the studio and I hope people will agree that we've done justice to one of the greatest writers Doctor Who was ever blessed with." Says Big Finish producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, "This is a great opportunity to finally produce Doctor Who's most famous lost script, and a fine tribute to Douglas Adams." Lee Sullivan will produce animation for the new webcast and Gary Russell, on authority from the estate of Douglas Adams, has tailored the script to add some framing information and tie it into the story. BBCi senior producer James Goss stated on the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, "Big Finish have come up with a neat way of fitting the new Shada into continuity without messing around with the original script too much. Without going into detail, there's a short prelude set on Gallifrey, where the Doctor turns up to see Romana, explaining that they've got some unfinished business to attend to... involving a call for help from an old friend that they appear to have been somehow prevented from answering." At right, a photo from BBCi with McGann, Ward and K-9. The recording was taped in early November, and is set for debut on BBCi next spring. (Thanks to BBCi, as well as everyone who wrote in to let us know about it and the report on Biggerstaff's website)
I say we send in Hemos or Cowboy Ray's resumes so we have a Warner operative on the inside!
The Naked Dancing Llama has a spotless driving record so you are all safe for now.
See him in his ferrari at: http://www.frolic.org/intro.html
Am I the only one that misread this as H2G2 and thought it was some sort of Douglas Adams conference?
Hydrogen fuel cell technology was OK'd by the Bush administration for one reason -- hydrogen fuel stations around the nation charging us for the fuel.
Other energy sources, such as electric, could possibly be refined to be rechargable and reusable for considerable distances and have rechargable batteries that last 3-4 years with the same development curve.
I don't think Hydrogen is the real choice here -- electric is -- but the US Gov't wants a renewable resource that will still make them the biggest profit. Don't be fooled -- we are getting ripped off.
You mean Hampsterdance.com, my friend. And please don't forget about our friend the Naked Dancing Llama.
I agree that RealNames is an outdated concept,and can be integrated into existing search engines in the way Google did with ther ad-per-click payment program without having to "outsource". Heck, even I have coded a keyword search algorhythm that generates ads based on searches, and I don't consider myself that sophisticated of a programmer.
Pity. RealNames at one point had searches "Naked Dancing Llama" lead to the NDL page at no charge -- which proves in my mind that there had to be some true geeks employed somewhere in the mess.
Chris
This is absolutely true. I can't even get the Java runtime to be recognized in XP -- it just tells me to download the netscape plugin finder. (If anyone has any suggestions on this, please don't hesitate to email me).
On this note, I got a reply from the manufacturer:
Like any optical device we suggest that you rest your eyes 10 minutes out of every hour. This is the same as your desktop monitor.
It takes a few minutes for your eye to adjust to the monocular image when you first wear the pom head mount display. After 20 minutes of use your brain totally adjusts and you can see the headmount image or the free eye image at will.
Sincerely,
Sam Boot
Retail Channel Manager
Sitting staring at a CRT causes me enough eye strain as it is. I'm trying to imagine how staring at a 800x600 screen zapping straight into my brain could possibly be safe for me.
With all this hype over gigabyte-drive driven players, I'm happy with my Rio Volt SP250.
9 minutes to burn a CD of 650 meg worth of music (which is plenty for a week or so of driving); plus I have an instant backup of my mp3s.
And with CD-Rs going for as cheap as 5-6 cents a CD, I can have 20 gig worth in no time.
Plus the SP250 has the radio tuner, the rechargable batteries, and can be plugged into any stereo system.
On my budget, I'm really not worried about the gigabyte or stick driven mp3 players -- a few extra minutes versus $100 - $700 more spending is not really worth my time -- and not when I can expand my collection indefinitely via CD for much cheaper.
Hi. I am working on a Liberal Studies degree at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Within the program, I have found one thing.
If you restate what the professor said, and then refute it with solid arguments, they value your opinion. If you skip over anything they said and launch into a criticism of what you THINK they said, they are likely to think you are just some punky kid and ignore you and possibly fail you. Why give you any courtesy if you've shown them none?
Finding this out has allowed me to agree to disagree with several of my professors and not tell them "how to run their class"..rather let them run their class and show insight and relevant opinions when appropriate.
Who would want students who would tell the teachers how to run the class?
I recently purchased a Rio SP250 player from SonicBlue. It supports CDs and CDRs and CDRWs and WinAmp playlists. Now, for $170 for the player, plus $60 for 200 CDs, I'm at 120+ gig of storage for $230 bucks, plus it's portable...and I can always increase my collection. The Rio also supports WMA (eek) and has an FM tuner. With the line out, I can hook it up to any stereo system. SL
Hook a regular CD player into the audio in of your sound card, and sample with a .wav software program like Sound Forge. If it's a digital in, you won't even have any reduction in quality.
Then, convert to MP3.
Well, that was easy, wasn't it?
SL
I work at a midsized .com that survived the crash and is actually growing quite nicely. One of our databases crashed a few days ago and we've been working on a long recovery ever since. My boss was concentrating highly on the recovery of the database; and didn't say a word about the tragedy. "How," I wondered, "could someone be so unfeeling? Who is going to be looking at our database right now??"
Only do I find out after the database is recovered that my boss's oldest brother was on route to DC and grounded in Cleveland and he hadn't heard from his brother..and was doing whatever it took to keep his sanity; in this case, concentrating on his business.
The lesson? This effects everyone, from the lowest tech to the CEO, and everyone is going to deal with it differently, but bottom line, EVERYONE cares about this.
Terrific, except his e-mail CGI says "illegal domain" Doh.
For the record, Dr. Who is actually in production. Not on TV though, audio adventures..with the original cast members. The stories vary widely in quality, but it is nice to hear the voices again. Also nice are the new 8th doctor adventures (the guy in the 1996 TV movie). Check it out at: http://www.doctorwho.co.uk
Speaking of radioactive emissions, I am wondering if my CRT has any radioactive emissiosn I should be concerned about. I recently purchased one of those scotch monitor guard things to get rid of glare. But am I going to radiate my brain by staring at this screen all day? I'm more worried about that than any cell phone.