How do the hybrid cars do in bitter cold conditions? Do they run well? How does the heater work? I'm thinking of environments where the temperature is, say, -15 degrees Fahrenheit.
How do they do on really long hills? Up a 7% grade for 15 miles at 50 MPH?
These may be corner cases for some drivers, but one or both of these conditions exists on most of my road trips.
The claim was made that it is *illegal* to *use* libdecss et al, is simply false.
I called the OP on that, and some argument ensued. But nobody posted chapter and verse of the law (or even named a jurisdiction) that makes the *USE* of DeCSS or other DVD decoders illegal.
I don't want to participate in a side argument. I just don't want that kind of disinformation to stand. It is *not* illegal to *use* these decoders to watch DVDs.
I am quite certain that the depths of my imagination are far more disturbing than anything these graphic video games can portray.
Chopping, bludgeouning, burning, crushing, eating corpses, seducing/being seduced by succubi and nymphs, looting shops and killing shopkeepers and soldiers, summoning demons in hell, you name it.
Very little of this kind of stuff actually goes on in these graphic video games, and when it does, it is *never* anywhere near as violent as what goes on in my imagination when I am playing a game like Nethack. Video cannot even begin to represent this level of madness.
You have definitely described Temple of Apshai or one of its sequels. I thought the idea of putting descriptions in the book was a great idea. It allowed the creators of the game to really push the envelope and squeeze every single byte out of these limited machines for gameplay and graphics, and offload all that text to a book.
>As for Nethack, it died, when they added the fountains.
Of all the things to get upset about, this one seems very weird to me. What was your problem? The small chance of a free wish?
I see fountains as a last chance to summon Demogorgon if he didn't show up in Hell. So my characters almost never touch them at all (because it's the rare hero who actually *wants* to summon Demogorgon;-)
Sometimes I will #dip in fountains in order to try to create pools of water, because that can be very handy to have on the upper levels.
But I certainly never saw the fountains as a problem. There have been lots of exploitable bugs and such over the years. So it's kind of strange to me that you'd pick fountains as your cowardly excuse to stop playing;-)
>You can patent anything if your government is stupid enough to pass the laws.
If people allow their government to do the cowardly thing and obey US laws, even though they are not actually subject to them, maybe they deserve to die.
>PS: Linux users are breaking the LAW every time they watch a DVD using their OS.
Untrue.
Distributors of some types of DVD decoding software may be doing so in violation of civil statutes in certain jurisdictions, but I must ask you to cite the specific prohibition you claimed in your PS:. Chapter and verse of the applicable law, please, don't waste our time with "DMCA". I know all about the DMCA, the DVD/CCA/CSS issues, etc.
Yeah, if you can put 2-channel audio into the camera in the digital domain, that is very, very cool stuff for a consumer device. Just take a 2-channel mix off the board (SP/DIF? It's a Sony, so I hope it has that), and use it as a reference track or whatever, and do multitrack audio however you want.
I do think very much in terms of multitrack recording, since any video I would be doing, would be of musical acts where the audio is much more than merely incidental stuff. Consumer audio gear already gives us great multitrack digital audio.
I played all the Epyx "Apshai" games on the TRS-80 Model-I. I also learned quite a few tricks for pushing the envelope on a Model-I, because Apshai set up a bunch of Z-80 machine language routines and called them from BASIC.
As for BBS games, I ran a BBS through the 80s and 90s, and while I loved Operation Overkill (and hung out with its creator Dustin "Weazal Dub" Nulf a few times), I could not play TW2002 or BRE myself. My users certainly seemed to enjoy those games, but I think I was too antisocial even for a multiplayer BBS game...
I've ascended several Nethack characters, including two on tournament servers just so I don't have to deal with accusations of savescumming.
I just finished reading another article (linked from this one) about Dungeons of Daggorath. I really liked that game a lot, and managed to beat it once, but only by saving the game (to cassette!) very, very often at the end. Crazy game, great pace.
I'd rather have a timecode system (SMTPE would do fine) on the camera, and a compatable system on an external sound recorder, something that is completely solid-state, and would allow the use of real mics and preamps. If I *wanted* to use a small condensor mic and hang the recorder on the camera, I still could, but I would certainly appreciate the ability to do proper sound recording and be assured that the sound could be sync'd to the video. But then, I am far more interested in audio than video, and, maybe I'm imagining a more professionally oriented camera than what the article is actually about.
>Anyone remember the Tandy Radio Shack Model 100/101/102 "laptops"?
The Model 100 revolutionized jornalism. This was in no small part due to the fact that it ran on AA batteries -- available anywhere in the world, and that it was the first portable computer to easily combine a word processor and a modem, the perfect and obvious thing for field reporters. They were extremely reliable, and were a de facto standard for quite a few years.
Except for certain PDA devices with keyboards, I have yet to see a portable computer that matches the battery life of a model 100 TRS-80 -- a Kyocera product, by the way. These machines were an absolute joy to use; but I'm not saying we were not painfully aware of their limitations.
The subject says "used" as though rogue is past-tense...
Lots of people still play rogue. I prefer Nethack, of course. By "prefer", I mean, I prefer its gameplay to any other computer game that I have tried *ever*.
I'm from the same "day", and I remember being painfully aware that digital storage had not reached the levels where audio and video would be possible. What I didn't expect, was that the "plateau of human proportions" would be reached so quickly or exceeded so dramatically (exceeded, that is, in the sense that audio recording quality is so far beyond the threshold of human perception that we don't actually *need* any more advances -- this is yet to come for video.)
They live in the moment. In the scenario I gave, you would be reinforcing *correct* behavior -- crawling out of the hole and getting into the crate or whatever, gets me tunafish...
The alternative, negative reinforcement of "bad" behavior does not work better. I still do it, of course. I get the big spray bottles they sell for institutional cleaning (they last longer and work better than the ones they sell in grocery stores for hair or whatever). No cat will endure more than a couple of hard squirts from the bottle. Best thing there is for cat (and dog) discipline. After a while all you have to do is shake a water bottle:-)
>I can't help but wonder why any of them keep at it, when at this point it is going to be a highly >publicized loss that will follow each of them for the rest of their careers.
I will bet you that everyone involved continues to live in a comfortable house in a nice neighborhood, and will never need to give a second thought to ordering a $100 steak.
A failure in your or my career might actually lead to "not living indoors", or "eating substantially fewer than one meal per day."
>New evidence can be entered after discovery is closed but it's got to be something that would cause >a great injustice if not considered.
New evidence can be entered only if all parties agree to open discovery. The window can't be opened for one party only and remain closed for another -- that is fundamentally unfair, and would lead easily to a mistrial.
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How do the hybrid cars do in bitter cold conditions? Do they run well? How does the heater work? I'm thinking of environments where the temperature is, say, -15 degrees Fahrenheit.
How do they do on really long hills? Up a 7% grade for 15 miles at 50 MPH?
These may be corner cases for some drivers, but one or both of these conditions exists on most of my road trips.
The claim was made that it is *illegal* to *use* libdecss et al, is simply false.
I called the OP on that, and some argument ensued. But nobody posted chapter and verse of the law (or even named a jurisdiction) that makes the *USE* of DeCSS or other DVD decoders illegal.
I don't want to participate in a side argument. I just don't want that kind of disinformation to stand. It is *not* illegal to *use* these decoders to watch DVDs.
I am quite certain that the depths of my imagination are far more disturbing than anything these graphic video games can portray.
Chopping, bludgeouning, burning, crushing, eating corpses, seducing/being seduced by succubi and nymphs, looting shops and killing shopkeepers and soldiers, summoning demons in hell, you name it.
Very little of this kind of stuff actually goes on in these graphic video games, and when it does, it is *never* anywhere near as violent as what goes on in my imagination when I am playing a game like Nethack. Video cannot even begin to represent this level of madness.
"Were it true that the USAn's were under tyrrany, I'd not be able to speak out against my government"
Tyranny is all-or-nothing? You either have no rights or you live in a free utopian ideal?
Tyranny is a process, and we are allowing it to take place.
You have definitely described Temple of Apshai or one of its sequels.
I thought the idea of putting descriptions in the book was a great idea. It allowed the creators of the game to really push the envelope and squeeze every single byte out of these limited machines for gameplay and graphics, and offload all that text to a book.
>As for Nethack, it died, when they added the fountains.
;-)
;-)
Of all the things to get upset about, this one seems very weird to me.
What was your problem? The small chance of a free wish?
I see fountains as a last chance to summon Demogorgon if he didn't show up in Hell. So my characters almost never touch them at all (because it's the rare hero who actually *wants* to summon Demogorgon
Sometimes I will #dip in fountains in order to try to create pools of water, because that can be very handy to have on the upper levels.
But I certainly never saw the fountains as a problem. There have been lots of exploitable bugs and such over the years. So it's kind of strange to me that you'd pick fountains as your cowardly excuse to stop playing
>You assume the United States is the only one with a stupid government.
Not at all. On the other hand, I presume that other nations have people who will stand up to tyranny -- USAn's are already defeated.
DRM potentially locks me out of my own creative work, speaking as a content-producing artist.
If your interpretation were correct, then everyone who used *any* DVD player of any kind, would commit the identical offense.
>You can patent anything if your government is stupid enough to pass the laws.
If people allow their government to do the cowardly thing and obey US laws, even though they are not actually subject to them, maybe they deserve to die.
>PS: Linux users are breaking the LAW every time they watch a DVD using their OS.
Untrue.
Distributors of some types of DVD decoding software may be doing so in violation of civil statutes in certain jurisdictions, but I must ask you to cite the specific prohibition you claimed in your PS:. Chapter and verse of the applicable law, please, don't waste our time with "DMCA". I know all about the DMCA, the DVD/CCA/CSS issues, etc.
Yeah, if you can put 2-channel audio into the camera in the digital domain, that is very, very cool stuff for a consumer device. Just take a 2-channel mix off the board (SP/DIF? It's a Sony, so I hope it has that), and use it as a reference track or whatever, and do multitrack audio however you want.
I do think very much in terms of multitrack recording, since any video I would be doing, would be of musical acts where the audio is much more than merely incidental stuff. Consumer audio gear already gives us great multitrack digital audio.
I played all the Epyx "Apshai" games on the TRS-80 Model-I. I also learned quite a few tricks for pushing the envelope on a Model-I, because Apshai set up a bunch of Z-80 machine language routines and called them from BASIC.
As for BBS games, I ran a BBS through the 80s and 90s, and while I loved Operation Overkill (and hung out with its creator Dustin "Weazal Dub" Nulf a few times), I could not play TW2002 or BRE myself. My users certainly seemed to enjoy those games, but I think I was too antisocial even for a multiplayer BBS game...
>Lately I've bought an Alphasmart Dana
Very nice; I didn't know about these -- thanks.
>And maybe one day you will beat it.
I've ascended several Nethack characters, including two on tournament servers just so I don't have to deal with accusations of savescumming.
I just finished reading another article (linked from this one) about Dungeons of Daggorath. I really liked that game a lot, and managed to beat it once, but only by saving the game (to cassette!) very, very often at the end. Crazy game, great pace.
I'd rather have a timecode system (SMTPE would do fine) on the camera, and a compatable system on an external sound recorder, something that is completely solid-state, and would allow the use of real mics and preamps. If I *wanted* to use a small condensor mic and hang the recorder on the camera, I still could, but I would certainly appreciate the ability to do proper sound recording and be assured that the sound could be sync'd to the video. But then, I am far more interested in audio than video, and, maybe I'm imagining a more professionally oriented camera than what the article is actually about.
>So why are we paying through the nose for what should be CHEAPER?
It's lighter, it's new, shiny, and sexy, and CEOs of Asian manufacturers need big money.
>Anyone remember the Tandy Radio Shack Model 100/101/102 "laptops"?
The Model 100 revolutionized jornalism. This was in no small part due to the fact that it ran on AA batteries -- available anywhere in the world, and that it was the first portable computer to easily combine a word processor and a modem, the perfect and obvious thing for field reporters. They were extremely reliable, and were a de facto standard for quite a few years.
Except for certain PDA devices with keyboards, I have yet to see a portable computer that matches the battery life of a model 100 TRS-80 -- a Kyocera product, by the way. These machines were an absolute joy to use; but I'm not saying we were not painfully aware of their limitations.
The subject says "used" as though rogue is past-tense...
Lots of people still play rogue. I prefer Nethack, of course. By "prefer", I mean, I prefer its gameplay to any other computer game that I have tried *ever*.
I'm from the same "day", and I remember being painfully aware that digital storage had not reached the levels where audio and video would be possible. What I didn't expect, was that the "plateau of human proportions" would be reached so quickly or exceeded so dramatically (exceeded, that is, in the sense that audio recording quality is so far beyond the threshold of human perception that we don't actually *need* any more advances -- this is yet to come for video.)
>Also, this probably isn't unprecedented in human history.
Port Royal?
They live in the moment. In the scenario I gave, you would be reinforcing *correct* behavior -- crawling out of the hole and getting into the crate or whatever, gets me tunafish...
:-)
The alternative, negative reinforcement of "bad" behavior does not work better. I still do it, of course. I get the big spray bottles they sell for institutional cleaning (they last longer and work better than the ones they sell in grocery stores for hair or whatever). No cat will endure more than a couple of hard squirts from the bottle. Best thing there is for cat (and dog) discipline. After a while all you have to do is shake a water bottle
>I can't help but wonder why any of them keep at it, when at this point it is going to be a highly
>publicized loss that will follow each of them for the rest of their careers.
I will bet you that everyone involved continues to live in a comfortable house in a nice neighborhood, and will never need to give a second thought to ordering a $100 steak.
A failure in your or my career might actually lead to "not living indoors", or "eating substantially fewer than one meal per day."
We live in a different world from them, get it?
>New evidence can be entered after discovery is closed but it's got to be something that would cause
>a great injustice if not considered.
New evidence can be entered only if all parties agree to open discovery. The window can't be opened for one party only and remain closed for another -- that is fundamentally unfair, and would lead easily to a mistrial.
>And now they say "if only we were allowed to add this new evidence, there would be a case" ???
If they truly have new evidence, they can file a new case. Civil law does allow that, no double-jeapordy doctrine here.