Why hasn't anybody thought of this before? Seriously, this is feckin' brilliant! I've seen all kinds of face-recognition login stuff, but how about not turning on the friggin' screensaver when I'm in the middle of reading a long document!
It reminds me a bit of an idea a friend and I came up with. He was in college, living in the dorms, and was playing around with using Bluetooth to pair his Palm PDA with his PC. He's the type that almost always has music playing, and I suggested having his PC pause the playlist whenever the Palm wasn't in Bluetooth range. Don't know if he ever implemented it.
I have no idea why you think that big repos don't matter much to the average user. Aren't the ones who can't build apps from source also the ones who will most value the Ubuntu Software Center? Or am I mis-reading your point?
The point is that if you have access to the repositories, you don't need to build apps from source. Those apps listed in the Ubuntu Software Center come from the repositories. (Actually the Software Center just shows a subset, but if you start up Synaptic, you see the entire contents of the repositories.)
If someone took my netbook and gave me an iPad to replace it, I would use the iPad to beat them until they agreed to give my netbook back.
I bought my netbook before the iPad's release, but I bought it because I needed a *Computer*, not an appliance. I use it for work, and I'm essentially on-call tech support 24-7. I needed a laptop that was small enough I can take it anywhere, and cheap enough that I don't mind taking it everywhere. I need to be able to run the software I need to run. I need to be able to connect to a Windows Terminal Server. I also need something with an actual USB port, so I'm not limited in the hardware I can connect it to.
Many of the things I use my netbook for, I could use an iPad instead. But not everything. I could probably replace my Acer netbook with a hypothetical Apple netbook - call it a MacBook Mini - but Apple has made it pretty clear that they don't want to get into that market.
Actually, Apple has made it clear that they aren't interested in me as a customer. I want an inexpensive desktop machine that I can play a few games on, and can upgrade the video card every few years so I can keep playing games on. I also want the laptop I described above - small enough I can take it everywhere, and cheap enough that I'm willing to do so. I know people who use Apple's stuff generally love it, but they just aren't selling to me.
I remember this quote from a/. HDD discussion a couple of years ago.
Hard drives are like hard liquor. Everybody has one particular brand that they've had a bad experience with and will forever avoid because of it.
My personal experience has been with more IBM drives failing, but that's probably because I was working at an all IBM shop during their Deathstar plague. Other than that, the only brand that sticks out is Quantum, but mostly because every Quantum drive I've encountered was so God-awful loud, I almost welcomed the "click-click" of impending failure.
I think what he's suggesting is that Gabe Newell figured out how to manipulate space-time, and that gave him the idea for a few really cool games. He started publishing games to raise funds to expand his space-time experiments, but quickly realized that being a God of Gaming is more fun, and pays better.
He still dusts off his old prototype once in a while when he needs a marketing gimmick, or if he needs to go back a few days to avoid the late fees at Blockbuster.
Please, please, please do steam and your games on linux. You've already made them POSIX and OpenGL, you're 85% of the way there.
I will buy every damn game you release on linux. I never want to run windows again, and if I can get portal and TF2 on linux, I won't.
I've heard a lot of people promise that if Valve ports their games to Linux, they'll never run Windows again. The same is true for me, but I'm going to make a promise they're more likely to care about:
Valve, if you port your games to Linux, I'll never buy a Windows game from any other company.
We simply don't create leaders like Patton and Churchill anymore, instead we get politicians who will save their own ass first and foremost. Can you really picture Obama (or Palin or your choice of politician) standing there to rally folks with the risk of contagion like Churchill was willing to walk through bombed areas with the threat of further bombing looming?
Obama? No. Most other politicians? Also No. But Palin? You're telling me that you can't imagine Palin doing a national address from the White House rooftop, periodically stopping to fire an automatic weapon into the zombie masses below? Keep in mind, this is a woman who hunts wolves from a helicopter.
The econopocalypse, Republican stonewalling, and an overall underestimation of how powerful the presidency actually is has derailed much of that during his term, though.
Uh, what? Obama has how many former lobbyists in his administration? Open elections? From the administration that dropped a voter intimidation case it had already won? Obama campaigned as a moderate centrist, but anyone who took an objective look at his record and his history knew that he was one of the most liberal senators we've ever had. The mainstream media went along with the "moderate centrist" narrative, but there were plenty of people warning of how out-of-touch with mainstream America he was.
Actually, I'd like it if my MP3 player had an AM receiver in addition to the FM receiver it already has. 95% of the time I'm listening to OTA broadcast, I'm listening to Talk Radio, which is mostly on AM. I can't remember the last time I listened to music on FM.
Daikatana was originally planned to release Christmas of '97, so even if it had released on time, it would be a year newer than the others mentioned. Of course, it was finally excreted onto the market in 2000, so it's by no means as old as those mentioned.
Looking back at "classic" games is always done through the microscope of nostalgia. You remember the good ones and forget most of the rest, (with the exceptions of memorable cockups like Daikatana.) Anyone remember the glut of FPS's shortly after Doom? Or the RTS glut shortly after C&C and Warcraft?
On the other hand, there's a lot of barely-usable land in this world. I see no reason whatsoever why you couldn't build PV solar arrays in deserts. They would need to be well-elevated and tilted at a good angle, and it might be wisest to forego tracking, but aren't there like 2308273 inventions waiting in the wings that are supposed to eliminate tracking anyway?:)
The problems with building PV solar arrays in deserts are many, but chief among them: PV solar arrays need lots of exposed glass panels, and deserts are filled with abrasive sand - sand that also has a tendency to build up a static charge and stick to things. Thermal solar in the desert has the same problem - those highly polished mirrors have a matte finish inside of a month, assuming they're not covered in sand.
I'm sure the French plants, being government built, weren't subject to idiotic "environmental" groups filing lawsuit after lawsuit to try to prevent the plant from being built. The summary says that the default risk for nuclear plant loans is as high as 50%. I would bet that the 50% default is because of plants that never produced a watt of power because they were tied up in court until the whole project was abandoned.
If we can eliminate the costs of legal challenges, (and the costs of the construction delays that result,) nuclear power wins, hands down.
Slashdot Mirror
And you tell it so well.
What a twist!!
I have the original box for Discworld II - Missing, Presumed...? but the discs are, sadly, long gone.
I can't be the only one who noticed the irony.
Why hasn't anybody thought of this before? Seriously, this is feckin' brilliant! I've seen all kinds of face-recognition login stuff, but how about not turning on the friggin' screensaver when I'm in the middle of reading a long document!
It reminds me a bit of an idea a friend and I came up with. He was in college, living in the dorms, and was playing around with using Bluetooth to pair his Palm PDA with his PC. He's the type that almost always has music playing, and I suggested having his PC pause the playlist whenever the Palm wasn't in Bluetooth range. Don't know if he ever implemented it.
Try browsing at -1. For awhile, somebody was posting what I can only describe as /. fanfic featuring CmdrTaco and Hemos.
I stand corrected.
They are also the second-largest code contributor to Open Office, after Sun, who wrote StarOffice and then open-sourced it.
I have no idea why you think that big repos don't matter much to the average user. Aren't the ones who can't build apps from source also the ones who will most value the Ubuntu Software Center? Or am I mis-reading your point?
The point is that if you have access to the repositories, you don't need to build apps from source. Those apps listed in the Ubuntu Software Center come from the repositories. (Actually the Software Center just shows a subset, but if you start up Synaptic, you see the entire contents of the repositories.)
If someone took my netbook and gave me an iPad to replace it, I would use the iPad to beat them until they agreed to give my netbook back.
I bought my netbook before the iPad's release, but I bought it because I needed a *Computer*, not an appliance. I use it for work, and I'm essentially on-call tech support 24-7. I needed a laptop that was small enough I can take it anywhere, and cheap enough that I don't mind taking it everywhere. I need to be able to run the software I need to run. I need to be able to connect to a Windows Terminal Server. I also need something with an actual USB port, so I'm not limited in the hardware I can connect it to.
Many of the things I use my netbook for, I could use an iPad instead. But not everything. I could probably replace my Acer netbook with a hypothetical Apple netbook - call it a MacBook Mini - but Apple has made it pretty clear that they don't want to get into that market.
Actually, Apple has made it clear that they aren't interested in me as a customer. I want an inexpensive desktop machine that I can play a few games on, and can upgrade the video card every few years so I can keep playing games on. I also want the laptop I described above - small enough I can take it everywhere, and cheap enough that I'm willing to do so. I know people who use Apple's stuff generally love it, but they just aren't selling to me.
I remember this quote from a /. HDD discussion a couple of years ago.
Hard drives are like hard liquor. Everybody has one particular brand that they've had a bad experience with and will forever avoid because of it.
My personal experience has been with more IBM drives failing, but that's probably because I was working at an all IBM shop during their Deathstar plague. Other than that, the only brand that sticks out is Quantum, but mostly because every Quantum drive I've encountered was so God-awful loud, I almost welcomed the "click-click" of impending failure.
Facebook has 2 advantages: 1) people are already using it. 2) No iTunes
In my view, 2) is a HUGE advantage.
The GPS could be for location-specific ads. Not that I'm saying this is a good thing, mind you...
I did not know that. And you're right, that should have been subject to some Federal scrutiny. Not hard to guess why it wasn't.
You should see the data they've collected about members of Congress and the FTC!
I think what he's suggesting is that Gabe Newell figured out how to manipulate space-time, and that gave him the idea for a few really cool games. He started publishing games to raise funds to expand his space-time experiments, but quickly realized that being a God of Gaming is more fun, and pays better.
He still dusts off his old prototype once in a while when he needs a marketing gimmick, or if he needs to go back a few days to avoid the late fees at Blockbuster.
Valve, if you're listening...
Please, please, please do steam and your games on linux. You've already made them POSIX and OpenGL, you're 85% of the way there.
I will buy every damn game you release on linux. I never want to run windows again, and if I can get portal and TF2 on linux, I won't.
I've heard a lot of people promise that if Valve ports their games to Linux, they'll never run Windows again. The same is true for me, but I'm going to make a promise they're more likely to care about:
Valve, if you port your games to Linux, I'll never buy a Windows game from any other company.
Spoiler Alert: There is no next Michael Crichton novel.
There are shotguns with rifled barrels. They are designed for firing slugs, generally for hunting deer or other large game.
Wow, that's the best speech-recognition software I've ever seen. I'd ask what program your using, except, well...
We simply don't create leaders like Patton and Churchill anymore, instead we get politicians who will save their own ass first and foremost. Can you really picture Obama (or Palin or your choice of politician) standing there to rally folks with the risk of contagion like Churchill was willing to walk through bombed areas with the threat of further bombing looming?
Obama? No. Most other politicians? Also No. But Palin? You're telling me that you can't imagine Palin doing a national address from the White House rooftop, periodically stopping to fire an automatic weapon into the zombie masses below? Keep in mind, this is a woman who hunts wolves from a helicopter.
That's how Obama campaigned.
You're right about that much.
The econopocalypse, Republican stonewalling, and an overall underestimation of how powerful the presidency actually is has derailed much of that during his term, though.
Uh, what? Obama has how many former lobbyists in his administration? Open elections? From the administration that dropped a voter intimidation case it had already won? Obama campaigned as a moderate centrist, but anyone who took an objective look at his record and his history knew that he was one of the most liberal senators we've ever had. The mainstream media went along with the "moderate centrist" narrative, but there were plenty of people warning of how out-of-touch with mainstream America he was.
AM radio is also dying.
Actually, I'd like it if my MP3 player had an AM receiver in addition to the FM receiver it already has. 95% of the time I'm listening to OTA broadcast, I'm listening to Talk Radio, which is mostly on AM. I can't remember the last time I listened to music on FM.
Daikatana is as old as those you mentioned,
Daikatana was originally planned to release Christmas of '97, so even if it had released on time, it would be a year newer than the others mentioned. Of course, it was finally excreted onto the market in 2000, so it's by no means as old as those mentioned.
Looking back at "classic" games is always done through the microscope of nostalgia. You remember the good ones and forget most of the rest, (with the exceptions of memorable cockups like Daikatana.) Anyone remember the glut of FPS's shortly after Doom? Or the RTS glut shortly after C&C and Warcraft?
This is /. Don't ever apologize for a Discworld reference.
On the other hand, there's a lot of barely-usable land in this world. I see no reason whatsoever why you couldn't build PV solar arrays in deserts. They would need to be well-elevated and tilted at a good angle, and it might be wisest to forego tracking, but aren't there like 2308273 inventions waiting in the wings that are supposed to eliminate tracking anyway? :)
The problems with building PV solar arrays in deserts are many, but chief among them: PV solar arrays need lots of exposed glass panels, and deserts are filled with abrasive sand - sand that also has a tendency to build up a static charge and stick to things. Thermal solar in the desert has the same problem - those highly polished mirrors have a matte finish inside of a month, assuming they're not covered in sand.
I'm sure the French plants, being government built, weren't subject to idiotic "environmental" groups filing lawsuit after lawsuit to try to prevent the plant from being built. The summary says that the default risk for nuclear plant loans is as high as 50%. I would bet that the 50% default is because of plants that never produced a watt of power because they were tied up in court until the whole project was abandoned.
If we can eliminate the costs of legal challenges, (and the costs of the construction delays that result,) nuclear power wins, hands down.