Opera identifies itself as Explorer by default; it renders pages that would otherwise be blocked to it just fine. It sad they have to do it, but thats how it is.
Opera is a great value. Oooooh, it's not free, those money-whoring bastards! Well, i still think it's the best browser available today - i like Firefox a lot, but it can't compete in usability. When i use Opera, it just feels comfortable to use.
The latest version (Opera 7) is excellent. Damn fast, excelent render, very standart compliant, mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, password manager, download manager, integrated popup blocker, very handy Google/Amazon/Yahoo/etc search, mail client, the works. It's very stable, and if it happens to crash it humbly asks if you want to resume your browsing where it was when it died. And all this occupying less space both in memory and HD than the competiton - in fact, most of the installer accounts for the Sun Java runtime.
For 40 bucks, it's a great value (less if you're a studient). It irrtates me a bit when people diss this fine piece of software just because "it's not free". Firefox is IE done right, but Opera it's a whole different deal and quite better once you get accostumed to it.
I didn't play SS2 when it first come out. I tried the original SS looking for a Doom-clone and it didn't satisfy me, so i never bothered to look into the sequel. Besides it didn't ran that well on my computer back then.
Years later, with much better hardware i stumbled into a site that praised SS2 from top to bottom as the most underrated game ever. For some reason it stuck on me, and some days later i had a discussion with a friend who unconditionally loves the game, so i decided to give it a shot. When i found it on a bargain bin it went home with me.
A week later, i was so hooked my studies suffered. The game is, to this day, still the most atmospheric game i've played, and it sucked me in completely. It's tensefull, and creepy, and the "damn-that-made-me-jump-off-my-seat" moments just keep coming one after another (damn monkeys!). Doom 3 captured much of that atmosphere - and borrowed quite a lot from SS2, in fact; but the game itself wasn't anyware as good. Doom 3 is a shooter with a few jumpy moments, SS2 it's a suspense horror movie translated to the PC.
I enjoyed it inmensly. Graphics are dated, (through functional) but the gameplay are story are excellent and the sound, even by today standarts, is top notch - so much, playing it with headphones it's a must. By all means, if you're reading this and haven't tried it, do so.
Anyway, SS2, through it didn't sell well back when released it's to this day one of the most cherished games of all time. Unless they manage to fuck it up completely, System Shock 3 would sell like hot bread. I know i'm not the only one that would buy it in a heartbeat. Damn, i would even buy the original SS2 if they ported it to the Doom 3 engine. Twice.
I don't know why people love to hate Paul W. S. Anderson. I also liked Resident Evil, and Event Horizon is one of the finest space-horror movies since Alien. Soldier was a bit dull though.
I haven't seen Alien vs. Predator but i've heard it's pretty good (if you, well, want to see Aliens fighting Predators;) ).
Same goes for FPSes... have a sure hand, know the map, move fast, time the power-ups, and if you play in a team, work well together... then you should be able to swop between different games easier. With perhaps the exception of Quake3, which is unique in it's movement skills. (but has rather limited uncomplicated weapons)
Given, the game mechanics are similar, but i was refering to the, um, mastering of the game, if you will. CS and UT2k4 are both FPS but are played in a complete different way; i've seen excellent players of UT get quickly frustrated in CS, and even in Quake 3. When these people train as a team, they don't learn the mechanics of FPS, they practicaly study the maps and tactics of their game of choice. It's the only way they get the requiered edge. Which won't do them much good if they swicth title.
"Professional gamer" is awfuly broad, and covers a multitude of different games and game styles. Following my own example, if you play soccer you can be pretty sure rules won't change so dramatically your training would loose so much value overnight.
Seriously, more power to him. But who exactly pays him a salary? No pun intended, i've always wondered - it seems quite a sum for sponsorship of a relatively niche "sport", and i always thought the ones who decided to try making a living out of computer games aimed at competition prizes as their main income.
And, Starcraft? I know South Koreans are crazy about that game, but still... does people still gather arround to see someone playing it? I always thought that was one of the main problems with "cybersports"; if you play soccer, you're pretty much playing the same way people did 50 years ago. If you play Counterstrike and pour man-hours into it, who knows if you'll still be playing it the near future.
Indeed. This happens time after time after time with hot new releases; it's no coindicence whenever a magazine gets an exclusive review scores are always above 90%.
Still, i think HL2 will be a damn fine game.
I see it on a cybercafe all the time as well. MMORPG players become, and i'm not exaggerating, literally addicted to those games. People playing 6 to 10 hours in a row with red tired eyes, clicking on things endlessly, is normal arround here. There's a group that starts playing at 10pm and leaves 12am the next day. One of them even brings a calculator - something with the point system those games use. It's sickening.
I don't know what is with those games. I've tried them a few times and found them way to repetitive, and this is from a guy who enjoys FPSs; perhaps it's the "social" edge of interacting with real people, but you get that in pretty much every online game available.
I don't know. Sony has a history of having excellent hardware and killing it with idiotic buisness practices (Minidisc and Memory Sticks pop to mind). They had it right more than once though, though it's not the norm, notably with the PlayStation and orignal Walkman.
Honestly, i think that unless they manage to atleast drop the price significantly, the PSP is doomed to come second to the DS. The DS has a number of very innovative features, good battery life, and the price is right. Hell, i don't want a portable console and i'm interested in it, just for the cool factor. Dual screen, touch sensitive and integrated wifi is just too much, and the posibilties for gaming are endless.
And last, but not least, it has Nintendo behind it, which means it automatically gets a number of good, fun games at release date. Say what you want about Nintendo, but their games are plain fun and well made.
Now it's possible that the PSP will be delayed, i don't really think it stands a chance against the DS. The PSP will sell, of course, but not like the DS will.
Ran just fine with kernel 2.6.8, Athlon XP1800+, 512mb and a GeForce 5200FX. It runs smoother, just like Quake 3 and 2 did - i don't know if it's FPS related, but the game just feels less jerkier and more responsive. It also loads MUCH faster (also experienced this with UT2k4), and this is with the *.pak files symlinked from a Windows partiton.
All in all, iD delivered. My hat is off to you guys, great work! And thank you so much.
A long time ago, Gremlin released a game called "Normality, Inc." (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Normal ity), which was just what you described: an adventure game with an FPS engine. The game is an hillarious adventure in a totalitarian futurustic world a-la-1984, and sadly was grossly overlooked by many. If you're on the mood, try it on DOSBox. Recommended.
I think i'll always preffer 2d action adventures, but this has been done before, very well, and it actually worked. Imagine a terrror adventure a-la-Gabriel Knight using the Doom 3 engine...
Are they? I've been waiting years for "modular laptops", much like desktop PCs... i don't think they exist (yet). God knows how much i'd love one:)
Of course, if you buy your parts and build your system with it, there's no "OEM tax" to be paid. That, and being able to upgrade a laptop easily would be a dream.
Yes, but that's not the point. Of course it can happen (and probably does, a lot); thing is the logic behind it is basically you buy a PC only to run Windows; any attempt to sell it without it (be it with clean hard drives, FreeDOS, Linux or whatever) is encouraging piracy... of Windows. The logic behind it has sense only to Microsoft, which would get to sell more OEM licenses. In fact, i don't even think they're concerned that much about pirated copies, as long as they can keep the OEM cashflow running.
There are quite a few users who would be very, very, VERY happy of being able to buy, say, a laptop without a preinstalled OS, which is also charged to them.
I beleive the problem here is the lightbulbs you've grown accostumed to: they pour out yellow-orangeish light. Try a "natural light" bulb (they're sold down here as "reading" bulbs), they're sky-blue coated and give a very warm white light. After using a couple in my room i swicthed to fluorescent bulbs and they light almost identically.
Absolutely true. The old HP Laserjet line of printers is still very valued; i've seen some places selling models years old with prices comparables with new ones. And if you ever used one, it makes perfect sense: those printers simple refuse to fail. They are a better value than a new model.
And currently, HP printers (which are indeed their main cash cow) are horrible. Their inkjet printers, much like Epson and Lexmark, suck and are basically throwaway consumables - the insanely high price of the ink doesn't help either. I haven't played with their new Laserjet line but have hear nothing but bad rap about them.
Right now, Cannon is the only printer manufacturer that has a decent low price inkjet model. I have one where i work and never gave me an issue. Ink could be cheper though.
My family and me were watching it on TV an were awestruck of how poorly Bush managed the debate. Like i said, i know little about Kerry (and i'm weary to pour trust on politicians... you know, past experience), but he struck me as someone very intelligent in his answers and ideas.
I'm Argentinian. Last night i caught the Kerry-Bush debate on CNN. I honestly have no idea about the backgrounds of Kerry, but he managed to give a coherent response every time, to the point, and made Bush sound like a 3-year old for most of the duration of the event. Most of the time it was personal accusations to Kerry about exactly that, changing his mind over time. Some people seem to beleive it's a sin.
Much agreed. The parent post with the George Carlin quote touched this in a more humorous way, but the point is the same. No one wants their kids bombarded with such ideas, but they should atleast have a clue about the world they live in. Otherwise, it's all rude awakenings, just like you said.
Slashdot Mirror
Opera identifies itself as Explorer by default; it renders pages that would otherwise be blocked to it just fine. It sad they have to do it, but thats how it is.
Opera is a great value. Oooooh, it's not free, those money-whoring bastards! Well, i still think it's the best browser available today - i like Firefox a lot, but it can't compete in usability. When i use Opera, it just feels comfortable to use.
The latest version (Opera 7) is excellent. Damn fast, excelent render, very standart compliant, mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, password manager, download manager, integrated popup blocker, very handy Google/Amazon/Yahoo/etc search, mail client, the works. It's very stable, and if it happens to crash it humbly asks if you want to resume your browsing where it was when it died. And all this occupying less space both in memory and HD than the competiton - in fact, most of the installer accounts for the Sun Java runtime.
For 40 bucks, it's a great value (less if you're a studient). It irrtates me a bit when people diss this fine piece of software just because "it's not free". Firefox is IE done right, but Opera it's a whole different deal and quite better once you get accostumed to it.
Oh yes. Yes. Absolutely, yes. Completely.
I didn't play SS2 when it first come out. I tried the original SS looking for a Doom-clone and it didn't satisfy me, so i never bothered to look into the sequel. Besides it didn't ran that well on my computer back then.
Years later, with much better hardware i stumbled into a site that praised SS2 from top to bottom as the most underrated game ever. For some reason it stuck on me, and some days later i had a discussion with a friend who unconditionally loves the game, so i decided to give it a shot. When i found it on a bargain bin it went home with me.
A week later, i was so hooked my studies suffered. The game is, to this day, still the most atmospheric game i've played, and it sucked me in completely. It's tensefull, and creepy, and the "damn-that-made-me-jump-off-my-seat" moments just keep coming one after another (damn monkeys!). Doom 3 captured much of that atmosphere - and borrowed quite a lot from SS2, in fact; but the game itself wasn't anyware as good. Doom 3 is a shooter with a few jumpy moments, SS2 it's a suspense horror movie translated to the PC.
I enjoyed it inmensly. Graphics are dated, (through functional) but the gameplay are story are excellent and the sound, even by today standarts, is top notch - so much, playing it with headphones it's a must. By all means, if you're reading this and haven't tried it, do so.
Anyway, SS2, through it didn't sell well back when released it's to this day one of the most cherished games of all time. Unless they manage to fuck it up completely, System Shock 3 would sell like hot bread. I know i'm not the only one that would buy it in a heartbeat. Damn, i would even buy the original SS2 if they ported it to the Doom 3 engine. Twice.
I don't know why people love to hate Paul W. S. Anderson. I also liked Resident Evil, and Event Horizon is one of the finest space-horror movies since Alien. Soldier was a bit dull though.
;) ).
I haven't seen Alien vs. Predator but i've heard it's pretty good (if you, well, want to see Aliens fighting Predators
Same goes for FPSes... have a sure hand, know the map, move fast, time the power-ups, and if you play in a team, work well together... then you should be able to swop between different games easier. With perhaps the exception of Quake3, which is unique in it's movement skills. (but has rather limited uncomplicated weapons)
Given, the game mechanics are similar, but i was refering to the, um, mastering of the game, if you will. CS and UT2k4 are both FPS but are played in a complete different way; i've seen excellent players of UT get quickly frustrated in CS, and even in Quake 3. When these people train as a team, they don't learn the mechanics of FPS, they practicaly study the maps and tactics of their game of choice. It's the only way they get the requiered edge. Which won't do them much good if they swicth title.
"Professional gamer" is awfuly broad, and covers a multitude of different games and game styles. Following my own example, if you play soccer you can be pretty sure rules won't change so dramatically your training would loose so much value overnight.
Seriously, more power to him. But who exactly pays him a salary? No pun intended, i've always wondered - it seems quite a sum for sponsorship of a relatively niche "sport", and i always thought the ones who decided to try making a living out of computer games aimed at competition prizes as their main income.
And, Starcraft? I know South Koreans are crazy about that game, but still... does people still gather arround to see someone playing it? I always thought that was one of the main problems with "cybersports"; if you play soccer, you're pretty much playing the same way people did 50 years ago. If you play Counterstrike and pour man-hours into it, who knows if you'll still be playing it the near future.
Indeed. This happens time after time after time with hot new releases; it's no coindicence whenever a magazine gets an exclusive review scores are always above 90%. Still, i think HL2 will be a damn fine game.
I see it on a cybercafe all the time as well. MMORPG players become, and i'm not exaggerating, literally addicted to those games. People playing 6 to 10 hours in a row with red tired eyes, clicking on things endlessly, is normal arround here. There's a group that starts playing at 10pm and leaves 12am the next day. One of them even brings a calculator - something with the point system those games use. It's sickening.
I don't know what is with those games. I've tried them a few times and found them way to repetitive, and this is from a guy who enjoys FPSs; perhaps it's the "social" edge of interacting with real people, but you get that in pretty much every online game available.
I don't know. Sony has a history of having excellent hardware and killing it with idiotic buisness practices (Minidisc and Memory Sticks pop to mind). They had it right more than once though, though it's not the norm, notably with the PlayStation and orignal Walkman.
Honestly, i think that unless they manage to atleast drop the price significantly, the PSP is doomed to come second to the DS. The DS has a number of very innovative features, good battery life, and the price is right. Hell, i don't want a portable console and i'm interested in it, just for the cool factor. Dual screen, touch sensitive and integrated wifi is just too much, and the posibilties for gaming are endless.
And last, but not least, it has Nintendo behind it, which means it automatically gets a number of good, fun games at release date. Say what you want about Nintendo, but their games are plain fun and well made.
Now it's possible that the PSP will be delayed, i don't really think it stands a chance against the DS. The PSP will sell, of course, but not like the DS will.
Ran just fine with kernel 2.6.8, Athlon XP1800+, 512mb and a GeForce 5200FX. It runs smoother, just like Quake 3 and 2 did - i don't know if it's FPS related, but the game just feels less jerkier and more responsive. It also loads MUCH faster (also experienced this with UT2k4), and this is with the *.pak files symlinked from a Windows partiton.
All in all, iD delivered. My hat is off to you guys, great work! And thank you so much.
I sync with a cron job, once a day. It's not the time, i try to be nice with the servers' bandwidth. But it's Doom 3, you know... :)
Or, install Opera (http://www.opera.com/), and spare yourself from half those steps. Sweet browser indeed.
A few days? Damn, and i was resyncing just now... :(
Agreed. Pretty much every game he was involved in making turned out to be excellent.
Reminds me what a friend of mine (salesman, no coincidence), would say: "People don't know what they want until they see what's being sold to them".
A long time ago, Gremlin released a game called "Normality, Inc." (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Normal ity), which was just what you described: an adventure game with an FPS engine. The game is an hillarious adventure in a totalitarian futurustic world a-la-1984, and sadly was grossly overlooked by many. If you're on the mood, try it on DOSBox. Recommended.
I think i'll always preffer 2d action adventures, but this has been done before, very well, and it actually worked. Imagine a terrror adventure a-la-Gabriel Knight using the Doom 3 engine...
My wallet is an open door to these guys if they finish the game.
Are they? I've been waiting years for "modular laptops", much like desktop PCs... i don't think they exist (yet). God knows how much i'd love one :)
Of course, if you buy your parts and build your system with it, there's no "OEM tax" to be paid. That, and being able to upgrade a laptop easily would be a dream.
Yes, but that's not the point. Of course it can happen (and probably does, a lot); thing is the logic behind it is basically you buy a PC only to run Windows; any attempt to sell it without it (be it with clean hard drives, FreeDOS, Linux or whatever) is encouraging piracy... of Windows. The logic behind it has sense only to Microsoft, which would get to sell more OEM licenses. In fact, i don't even think they're concerned that much about pirated copies, as long as they can keep the OEM cashflow running.
There are quite a few users who would be very, very, VERY happy of being able to buy, say, a laptop without a preinstalled OS, which is also charged to them.
I beleive the problem here is the lightbulbs you've grown accostumed to: they pour out yellow-orangeish light. Try a "natural light" bulb (they're sold down here as "reading" bulbs), they're sky-blue coated and give a very warm white light. After using a couple in my room i swicthed to fluorescent bulbs and they light almost identically.
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2406
;)
I love that site
Absolutely true. The old HP Laserjet line of printers is still very valued; i've seen some places selling models years old with prices comparables with new ones. And if you ever used one, it makes perfect sense: those printers simple refuse to fail. They are a better value than a new model.
And currently, HP printers (which are indeed their main cash cow) are horrible. Their inkjet printers, much like Epson and Lexmark, suck and are basically throwaway consumables - the insanely high price of the ink doesn't help either. I haven't played with their new Laserjet line but have hear nothing but bad rap about them.
Right now, Cannon is the only printer manufacturer that has a decent low price inkjet model. I have one where i work and never gave me an issue. Ink could be cheper though.
An external view of the event (by me, not that i'm that important or anything).
d =10401858
http://www.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=123847&ci
My family and me were watching it on TV an were awestruck of how poorly Bush managed the debate. Like i said, i know little about Kerry (and i'm weary to pour trust on politicians... you know, past experience), but he struck me as someone very intelligent in his answers and ideas.
I'm Argentinian. Last night i caught the Kerry-Bush debate on CNN. I honestly have no idea about the backgrounds of Kerry, but he managed to give a coherent response every time, to the point, and made Bush sound like a 3-year old for most of the duration of the event. Most of the time it was personal accusations to Kerry about exactly that, changing his mind over time. Some people seem to beleive it's a sin.
Much agreed. The parent post with the George Carlin quote touched this in a more humorous way, but the point is the same. No one wants their kids bombarded with such ideas, but they should atleast have a clue about the world they live in. Otherwise, it's all rude awakenings, just like you said.