Sadly, this story is more hype than fact. While the headline makes it seem like the robot is something you need insurance for, if you click through to the SF Chronicle article (and then scroll down a bit), you'll see that it was merely an accident, probably due to some bug in the navigation software.
If you're into "Das Keyboard" because you want to improve your typing skills, I'd recommend a typing keyboard skin (for more, google [w/o quotes] "keyboard skin typing"), which is what I used. Also, (and I say this in all seriousness), covering the screen while copying from a sheet will really help your typing speed.
Also, if you take a look at the weights they use for the keys (which, incidentally, doesn't match up with the picture of "Das Keyboard" on the main page), the key weights seem arbitrarily chosen. Also, wouldn't they want to make various different versions of the keyboard, each key having different weights (for example, a developer version, an American/British English, German, French, Spanish, etc.)?
(a) SHORT TITLE- This Act may be cited as the `Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001'. (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS- The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
There ya go. While I share your sentiment, I gather that most people actually haven't read the USA PATRIOT Act, and don't actually know that it's an acronym...
[Gerhard Florin, head of EA in Europe,] said the distribution method for games would also change radically in the next round of consoles.
"A gamer could buy a starter disc for 10 euros. When he goes home he goes online and he could buy AI and levels as you go.
Most of the other posts (at least the ones modded +5) seem to focus on the hardware/marketing BS. Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, marketing BS is as it always has been: BS. But if something actually similiar to this "starter disc" system were to be released with the next generation of consoles, it would be Very Bad. Think Infinium's Phantom: a system where you download the game, and you never really have a physical copy of the game. I don't know about you, but I despise the idea of some gaming-on-demand system. All the obvious problems people pointed out with the Phantom immediately resurface in my mind: what if you pay for the game, and the server goes down? What if you want to play the game, and the content provider decides to go under maintainence? We've already seen this in thousands upon thousands of disgruntled WoW gamers (though I know that Blizzard is committed to fixing the problems, and that wasn't meant to be an insult of Blizzard at all). For the sake of sane people everywhere, I sincerely hope this newfangled "content delivery system" isn't put into place.
Also, am I the only one who just wants his consoles to play games? Granted, if I had the cash, I'd build a media center PC in a second, but that'd be dedicated to media. I'm really not feeling good about this whole convergence thing. The convergence thing, along with Bill Gates' push for "trusted computing" really make me trust my computer less.
Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE.
To put this in context, he goes on to say that he wants people to turn on auto-updates, because "you can know that there are hundreds of very smart people who are constantly improving your browser and making sure that you're safe".
About "communists":
Q: In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed? A: No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.
If I had any mod points, I mod down the parent, and mod up the sibling post. Windows Update is hardly the thing that needs improving. Although it's not perfect, and the parent's intentions were good, he should have mentioned the notorious security thing elsewhere.
If you weren't invited to participate in a Microsoft focus group (like most of us), you should still let them know what you think of Windows. With all the Microsoft criticism that occurs on Slashdot, I don't know why you don't go straight to the source. Maybe, if enough of us actually spend time and effort, we can write enough clear and thoughful replies to Microsoft to get them to change.
A little bonus: while searching for a contact form on Microsoft's website, I found this little nugget: Microsoft Usability Labs. It's essentially a focus group, and registration is open. (If you participate in the surveys [usually an hour or two long, according to the site], you can get something from the gratuity list.)
*waits for obligatory, pessimistic child post: "Microsoft is a huge corporation...they don't care about what a bunch of silly Slashdot geeks...they don't know what's best for the average consumer...it would cost Microsoft thousands to fix all their problems...*
Right on. I used Linux (Mandrake 10.0) as one half of a dual-boot system (though, for only about a month), and about two weeks after I had installed Linux, I saw a screenshot on the Internets of a desktop with a Dock-like bar at the bottom. I wanted that. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to find a way to do it, and about a month later, I removed Linux, but I really think that including a Dock-like app (possibly in Ubuntu, which is winning praises, and is also very OS X-like*) would definitely be killer. The closest a noob like me came to it was fluxbox, with it's sleek and sexy bar-thing (it's late; excuse me;]) at the bottom.
*Note the fact that Ubuntu has the menu at the top of the screen enabled by default in Gnome, and uses sudo instead of root by default. Plus, Ubuntu looks the best out of the box;]
I really wish I had some mod points, so I could mod the XBox post up. If you want a LAN party at a high-school level, going with an X-Box [Halo/Madden] tourney is the best idea, for all the points they already mentioned. I have small (8 person) X-Box LAN parties regularly, and it's always a lot of fun. Just make sure everything is planned out in advance (teams, maps, gamestyles [ctf/deathmatch, etc]), and that you're explicit about it. I would recommend having people sign up in teams of two or four, with each team bringing their own X-Box, controllers, and LAN cable (either regular cross-over cable, or X-Box connector cable [whatever it's called]). You could also rent that stuff to make more money. Also, make sure lots and lots of people know about it. Not just through morning announcements/posters, but word-of-mouth. Things seem to travel through word-of-mouth faster than anything in high school, anyway.
A GameCube LAN party would be just as fun (assuming you could get the equipment... I've personally never seen a GameCube Broadband Adaptor), with Mario Kart: Double Dash, or SSB:M. Also, make sure you have some reason for the losers of the tournament to stick around for... maybe get a few extra X-Boxes/GameCubes, and offer play on them at a reduced rate ($0.50/half hour).
Along a similar vein, you could maybe encourage people to bring other games/Game Boys/DS's. Just make sure you offer The Disclaimer (see the last point).
Don't be afraid to jack up the cost of refreshments (not too high, obviously). It's how the movie theaters make their money, and you could probably make a steal on refreshments alone.
One last thing, and this is probably the most important... make sure you offer The Disclaimer: "[We/The school/etc] are not responsible for any lost or stolen items." Again, along this train of thought, you may want to emulate rules your school has about things like this...
Water that "isn't wet" is hardly water...
on
The Year In Ideas
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Apparently, it's a "carbon-based molecule" with "fire-safety applications". Last time I checked, water only contained hydrogen and oxygen, not carbon.
Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP
on
Google Suggest
·
· Score: 1
Plus, if you actually type in "sex" (or "sexually transmitted disease")
...and press enter...
...you still get a result...
Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP
on
Google Suggest
·
· Score: 1
How exactly is this a problem? Regular ol' Google Search provides over 8 billion pages. Is typing "sex" (or, more appropriately, "sexually tramsmitted disease") and then pressing return such a big hassle, that you need Google to automatically complete it for you? Plus, if you actually type in "sex" (or "sexually transmitted disease"), you still get a result, so I think you're jumping the gun to say they're censoring you.
Then again, they may want to avoid the CPU load that AutoCompleting "sex" may bring...
-- Obligatory meme: In Korea, only old people don't use Google Complete!
If you look at the article, it shows that the "73 inch screens" are nothing more than Alienware computers hooked up to a projector, and with the user sitting about 3 feet from the wall. I don't know what could be inside the "game spheres", but the 180 game screen looks very cool. Plus, realistically, you see a lot of things through your peripheral vision; your actual center field of vision is very small (if I remember correctly, roughly 5-6 cm in diameter).
I really like this idea. It reminds me of the story that was on Slashdot a while ago, about having video game tournaments at movie theaters.
Perhaps you don't remember, but sometime during E3 (perhaps it was around then; I don't remember exactly) I think Tycho briefly mentioned he read PvP. I know he made a jab at them in one of the comics (again, it was published sometime around E3), so that lead me to believe that he reads it, or at least knows the creators.
Is it just me, or does this post remind anyone of some pages on the Internet that feature ads tightly integrated into the page, where certain keywords are actually hyperlinks to product pages? (Yahoo News is an example, where they feature a link, in parentheses, to related news and Internet searches, for items such as Iraq, President Bush, etc.)
If what I'm saying sounds really obvious, then I might have just pointed out a potential marketing advantage/annoying piece of advertising in RDF.
Slashdot Mirror
Global Frequency torrent link
Just in case you were curious, as I was...
FYI: The torrent's hosted on Demonoid, so if you're getting "unconnectable" errors, you might want to try registering there.
Sadly, this story is more hype than fact. While the headline makes it seem like the robot is something you need insurance for, if you click through to the SF Chronicle article (and then scroll down a bit), you'll see that it was merely an accident, probably due to some bug in the navigation software.
If you're into "Das Keyboard" because you want to improve your typing skills, I'd recommend a typing keyboard skin (for more, google [w/o quotes] "keyboard skin typing"), which is what I used. Also, (and I say this in all seriousness), covering the screen while copying from a sheet will really help your typing speed. Also, if you take a look at the weights they use for the keys (which, incidentally, doesn't match up with the picture of "Das Keyboard" on the main page), the key weights seem arbitrarily chosen. Also, wouldn't they want to make various different versions of the keyboard, each key having different weights (for example, a developer version, an American/British English, German, French, Spanish, etc.)?
While you're laughing at their demise, I'm enjoying 300 KB/s download speeds from the Coral link.
Quote at the bottom of the page:
Also, am I the only one who just wants his consoles to play games? Granted, if I had the cash, I'd build a media center PC in a second, but that'd be dedicated to media. I'm really not feeling good about this whole convergence thing. The convergence thing, along with Bill Gates' push for "trusted computing" really make me trust my computer less.
About "communists":Silly logic, if you ask me.
If I had any mod points, I mod down the parent, and mod up the sibling post. Windows Update is hardly the thing that needs improving. Although it's not perfect, and the parent's intentions were good, he should have mentioned the notorious security thing elsewhere. If you weren't invited to participate in a Microsoft focus group (like most of us), you should still let them know what you think of Windows. With all the Microsoft criticism that occurs on Slashdot, I don't know why you don't go straight to the source. Maybe, if enough of us actually spend time and effort, we can write enough clear and thoughful replies to Microsoft to get them to change. A little bonus: while searching for a contact form on Microsoft's website, I found this little nugget: Microsoft Usability Labs. It's essentially a focus group, and registration is open. (If you participate in the surveys [usually an hour or two long, according to the site], you can get something from the gratuity list.) *waits for obligatory, pessimistic child post: "Microsoft is a huge corporation...they don't care about what a bunch of silly Slashdot geeks...they don't know what's best for the average consumer...it would cost Microsoft thousands to fix all their problems...*
Right on. I used Linux (Mandrake 10.0) as one half of a dual-boot system (though, for only about a month), and about two weeks after I had installed Linux, I saw a screenshot on the Internets of a desktop with a Dock-like bar at the bottom. I wanted that. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to find a way to do it, and about a month later, I removed Linux, but I really think that including a Dock-like app (possibly in Ubuntu, which is winning praises, and is also very OS X-like*) would definitely be killer. The closest a noob like me came to it was fluxbox, with it's sleek and sexy bar-thing (it's late; excuse me ;]) at the bottom.
;]
*Note the fact that Ubuntu has the menu at the top of the screen enabled by default in Gnome, and uses sudo instead of root by default. Plus, Ubuntu looks the best out of the box
I really wish I had some mod points, so I could mod the XBox post up. If you want a LAN party at a high-school level, going with an X-Box [Halo/Madden] tourney is the best idea, for all the points they already mentioned. I have small (8 person) X-Box LAN parties regularly, and it's always a lot of fun. Just make sure everything is planned out in advance (teams, maps, gamestyles [ctf/deathmatch, etc]), and that you're explicit about it. I would recommend having people sign up in teams of two or four, with each team bringing their own X-Box, controllers, and LAN cable (either regular cross-over cable, or X-Box connector cable [whatever it's called]). You could also rent that stuff to make more money. Also, make sure lots and lots of people know about it. Not just through morning announcements/posters, but word-of-mouth. Things seem to travel through word-of-mouth faster than anything in high school, anyway.
A GameCube LAN party would be just as fun (assuming you could get the equipment... I've personally never seen a GameCube Broadband Adaptor), with Mario Kart: Double Dash, or SSB:M. Also, make sure you have some reason for the losers of the tournament to stick around for... maybe get a few extra X-Boxes/GameCubes, and offer play on them at a reduced rate ($0.50/half hour).
Along a similar vein, you could maybe encourage people to bring other games/Game Boys/DS's. Just make sure you offer The Disclaimer (see the last point).
Don't be afraid to jack up the cost of refreshments (not too high, obviously). It's how the movie theaters make their money, and you could probably make a steal on refreshments alone.
One last thing, and this is probably the most important... make sure you offer The Disclaimer: "[We/The school/etc] are not responsible for any lost or stolen items." Again, along this train of thought, you may want to emulate rules your school has about things like this...
Kudos to this submitter... He actually bothered to Coralize all the links!
Cell phone courtesy cards.
Apparently, it's a "carbon-based molecule" with "fire-safety applications". Last time I checked, water only contained hydrogen and oxygen, not carbon.
How exactly is this a problem? Regular ol' Google Search provides over 8 billion pages. Is typing "sex" (or, more appropriately, "sexually tramsmitted disease") and then pressing return such a big hassle, that you need Google to automatically complete it for you? Plus, if you actually type in "sex" (or "sexually transmitted disease"), you still get a result, so I think you're jumping the gun to say they're censoring you.
Then again, they may want to avoid the CPU load that AutoCompleting "sex" may bring...
--
Obligatory meme: In Korea, only old people don't use Google Complete!
Bad Boys of Punctuation And the infamous... Mr. Period Returns
Lycos Anti-Spam Screensaver... "The SETI for spam"
Does anyone besides me see possible applications of this neural research in robotics?
If you look at the article, it shows that the "73 inch screens" are nothing more than Alienware computers hooked up to a projector, and with the user sitting about 3 feet from the wall. I don't know what could be inside the "game spheres", but the 180 game screen looks very cool. Plus, realistically, you see a lot of things through your peripheral vision; your actual center field of vision is very small (if I remember correctly, roughly 5-6 cm in diameter). I really like this idea. It reminds me of the story that was on Slashdot a while ago, about having video game tournaments at movie theaters.
Perhaps you don't remember, but sometime during E3 (perhaps it was around then; I don't remember exactly) I think Tycho briefly mentioned he read PvP. I know he made a jab at them in one of the comics (again, it was published sometime around E3), so that lead me to believe that he reads it, or at least knows the creators.
Kerfuffle? Someone's been watching too much Whose Line is it Anyway.
Is it just me, or does this post remind anyone of some pages on the Internet that feature ads tightly integrated into the page, where certain keywords are actually hyperlinks to product pages? (Yahoo News is an example, where they feature a link, in parentheses, to related news and Internet searches, for items such as Iraq, President Bush, etc.) If what I'm saying sounds really obvious, then I might have just pointed out a potential marketing advantage/annoying piece of advertising in RDF.