I remember they ran on like 2 AA batters, and only had about 10 levels per game. Those were the good old days. Forget all of that back lighting crap and swappable game cartridges. If you wanted to play a different game, fine..but you had to go buy a completely different handheld that only stored 1 game on it. There were no saves, you either beat the game or you start over.
I had sooooo many of those things, ninja gaiden 1 and 2, teenage mutant ninja turtles 1, 2 and 3, baseball, football, some sort of racing, excite bike.
Ahh, the memories. I don't really envy todays kids anyways..at least WE had Saturday morning cartoons (the only thing better than saturday morning cartoons are Christmas and dodgeball..assuming you weren't one of the fat kids).
Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton was finally nabbed after his illustrious 30+ year career of theft and prison breaks. When asked by reporters why he chose to continue robbing banks after being incarcerated several times, he replied 'because that's where the money is'.
Go figure, criminals committing crime for financial gain. Who woulda thunk it.
Actually, Gmail, mail.com, yahoo mail, hotmail etc. are all free. I don't pay for them. In fact, I dont use the email address given to my BY my ISP. Why people would ever pay for an email address is beyond me.
I was out with my girlfriend yesterday morning, we went to breakfast and left the restaurant. When we arrived back at her place, she noticed that I had a flier attached to my car window. Something I had never even noticed when driving. It was for some silly event that I can't remember but it made me start thinking. You know, this is just spam..and yet I'm not all that upset about it. In fact, you see spam everywhere in life, but people rarely get as upset or harbor such a strong emotional feeling toward it. For example:
Billboards - Spam. I didn't ask to see all that while driving
Homeless people begging for money - Spam. Like the Nigerian guys trying who promise you 1 gazillion dollars once you donate 5k
Fliers - Spam. (eventhough I'm always interested in what what is going on my city, but please don't put it on my car window without asking)
People who wear clothes that have the clothing logo in 20 inch font plastered on the chest - Spam. I'm not going to buy clothes just because they say Von Dutch so stop trying to get me to buy them
Cell phone company trademarked ring tones - Spam. It's like they're trying to get me to buy a nokia phone by playing it's themesong over and over.
Bumperstickers - Spam.
Racing Decals - Spam.
Racing Decals on Jackets - Spam.
Can you think of any more? Feel free to jump in
Sorry if this is off topic..I just wanted to share. Why? Because sharing is caring.
Scenes from the original include.. AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it.... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are.... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.
Special edition scenes..
AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
Lucas: I'm George Lucas, bitch!
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Yes, in fact I have a joke for the fans. What did the five fingers say to the face?
You know it's funny that you say that. I was in a software project management class my senior year in college. We were required to create a piece of software that did specific functions and turn it in at the end of the semester. Becuase this was a group project, all groups ended up missing some deadlines here or there, which inevitably cost them man hours in the long run (we were required to keep track fo cost). After about the 3rd missed deadline by groups (due to bug workouts, people not doing their part, etc.), my professory, a former IBM employee, told us a story.
He said one year, he was heading up a project that involved writing software for IBM machines. They were nearing the release date and still had dozens (if not more) of bugs to work out. He went to his boss, a B-school guy, and said "look, I know we're close to the deadline, but there are still many bugs that we really need to work out before this thing ships. We don't want to release a product that costs this much and still has some things wrong with him".
Now keep in mind that there were hundreds, if not thousands of companies ready to buy the machines as soon as it was released. They had orders from companies around the world. Because they were competing with other companies selling similar products, the need to meet the deadline was even more important.
Back to the story, his boss looked at him and said "so you mean to tell me that you think we should delay the release of a product that has the potential, and is almost guaranteed, to earn us hundreds of millions of dollars for a few bugs? I don't think so. We'll release the product and support it later on. Tech support will cost us less in the long run than delays at this point".
So they released the product, sent developer level techs around the world after companies began to complain about the bugs, and that was that.
Moral of the story? Sometimes, from a busines stand point, you should release the product and support its bugs later on. But that usually depends on the amount of competition in the market and money that is riding on the product. Yeah it sucks from a developers stand point, but developers dont make business decisions in the real world.
Irony galore. A woman posts on slashdot about the shortage of women on slashdot, actually gives advice on getting women (to those who don't already know how), and is consequently modded down to flamebait.
Hey, as long as these robotic animals are capable of combining to form a gargantuan bipedal kung-fu-master warbot (beowulf cluster anyone?) that can be piloted by a group of 5 uber-moral teenagers I'm all for it.
2004 and we're closer to getting robotic animals than we are to getting flying cars..I feel so jipped.
The work was needed, according to a confidential Pentagon document, to determine whether the United States' earth-penetrating nuclear weapons could be used to destroy deeply buried bunkers in other nations that might house chemical or biological weapons.
In addition, Bush argues that the work will invigorate the minds of nuclear-weapons scientists and help them to respond more quickly to new threats. Such researchers have been consigned to maintaining the nation's stockpile of nearly 9,000 weapons since the end of the cold war.
So you mean to tell me that the 9000 nuclear bombs we already have that can destroy the human species 100,000 times over isn't enough? I guess we need bigger and better bombs so we can take out EVERYTHING, even cockroaches.
Microsoft insisted the information provided in the notice was "very basic in nature" and intended only to provide general guidelines concerning the maximum number of bulletins that may be released, the anticipated severity ratings, and an overview of products that may be affected. "The information is purposely not specific and does not disclose any vulnerability details or other information that could put customers at risk."
It sounds like they're using Homeland Defense's Terror Threat level method of marketing.
Becareful, the threat level has been raised to orange due to possible security vulnerabilities in one or more Microsoft products.
for the action, special effects, or storyline. We all know that geeks since the early 90's have attended movies for 2 reasons and 2 reasons only:
1) Angelina Jolie (and her lips..god those lips) 2) Natalie Portman
Hence the reason the movie "Hackers" is a favorite among geeks, as well as the continued success of the new Star Wars Trilogy (and in some cases "The Professional")
Did you know that there are no "below average" college graduates? Proof: In order to graduate from college you must have a GPA equating to a C or better. A C is average, therefore there are no below average college graduates.
Statistically speaking, there will always be a portion of the population that is above average, and a portion that is below average. Regardless of what a school system may consider "Average" (C isn't really average anymore by the way, it's more like an "eh..at least I don't have to take it again next semester!").
In fact, at my old high school, a D was considered failing, however, in college, a D is passing (depending on the class taken..underwater basket weaving anyone?).
If the average graduate of a school has a 3.5 gpa, everyone blow that is below average, everyone above is above average.
My girlfriend used to shop at Whole Foods, until we went to Kroger and she saved like $30 ($3.00 for a loaf of bread instead of $0.99? No thanks) on MORE groceries than the would have bought at Whole Foods.
Sure she attempted to eat "natural" food and support "good service" for a while..then she gave in and decided to stop going broke on the same shit she could get somewhere else.
Thats great and all, but what about those people who can't afford NOT to let price be a major influence on where they shop? Not to mention that service and support shouldn't exactly be top priorities when in an environment such as a walmart, target, kroger, ingles, etc.
I mean seriously, how often do you actually NEED to ask someone at one of those stores a question about the product that you're buying or where to find something? That's why there are signs, aisle markers, box-printed product specs, items grouped according to their general use (aka departments), etc. All are tools that one should use to get all of the information they need. Unless you have some sort of reading or mobility problem, you should be able to gather all of the information needed to make a purchasing decision in a store by yourself.
As far as quality is concerned, unless your buying brad X instead of name brand, quality shouldn't be a concern.
I can already smell MTV's next show already in the works. Geek my ride. Old beat up cars that get turned into l33t g33k m0bi1e35!!!1!!11
Xzibit: "So Bob, we took your old 1972 Honda Civic and fixed it up for you, now take a look and tell me what you think"
Bob: "I can't believe it!! It's got the crunk WIFI in the ceiling!! QWERTY keyboards in the headrests!!! Flat screens in the dashboards!!! And oooh shit, is that an Opteron in the trunk?!? It runs linux?!? OMGWTFBBQ!!!
I still won't be able to get a date, but at least now I can play CS while I drive! Thanks Xzibit!!
"Boo hoo, why can't I have a phone that just makes calls. I have 20 other devices that I carry on my batman like utility belt that do each_function_separately."
I personally am happy to see a phone like this hit the states. When the new ericsson phones release we'll really see something interesting.
A) Money. Risk losing political ties and make a ton of money by airing Moore's documentary (think of the advertising revenue + amount of buzz this movie has stirred, this could be bigger than the super bowl)
or
B) Power. Risk losing a ton of money by NOT airing Moore's documentary and gain political ties.
and we are sworn at birth to hate all that is Star Trek, I actually enjoyed Deep Space 9 (please don't take away my SW Fanboy membership card!!).
Should Star Trek die? Without a doubt, Voyager was the straw that broke the camel's back (which subsequently killed it). Now Enterprise has become the club that is being used to beat said camel's rotting corpse.
Besides, imagine what would happen to the value of Trek memorabilia on Ebay if it DID go on hiatus for a decade or so.
Step 1) Put Star Trek on hiatus Step 2) ????? Step 3) Profit!
I was at the bank's drive through "express" teller yesterday and looked over at the machine used to send money to the teller's box (you know, the one with the little canister and vacuum tube) and guess who's name was imprinted there? That's right, Diebold.
Kind of makes you think doesn't it? No? Ok nevermind then.
Maybe, have you ever played that VR boxing game where you stand in a pseudocage in front of a huge arcade screen? You have to punch with these simulated gloves gloves as well as bob and weave to dodge punches by your opponent? I believe it uses motion sensors to track your movement.
There is a little calorie counter in the upper right hand corner of the actual screen that shows how many calories you have burned while playing the game. Believe it or not, it is actually a pretty good work out. My friends and I have played this game and we get winded by the 4th opponent (and we work out a minimum 4 times per week!!!). If you're not in shape, or have slow reactions, you'll be exhausted by the 2nd opponent.
Slashdot Mirror
Johnny Chan: I'll see your $30,000 and raise you $5,000
...
Stu Ungar: Call
L33t Pl4y3r69: Call
Dealer: Ok gentlemen, lets see your hands
Johnny Chan: Flush
Stu Ungar: Full House
L33t Pl4y3r: 5 Aces!!! 0WN3D n00bs!!1!11
Dealer:
Johnny Chan: OMG HAX!!
Stu Ungar: WTF?? Lag!!
I remember they ran on like 2 AA batters, and only had about 10 levels per game. Those were the good old days. Forget all of that back lighting crap and swappable game cartridges. If you wanted to play a different game, fine..but you had to go buy a completely different handheld that only stored 1 game on it. There were no saves, you either beat the game or you start over.
I had sooooo many of those things, ninja gaiden 1 and 2, teenage mutant ninja turtles 1, 2 and 3, baseball, football, some sort of racing, excite bike.
Ahh, the memories.
I don't really envy todays kids anyways..at least WE had Saturday morning cartoons (the only thing better than saturday morning cartoons are Christmas and dodgeball..assuming you weren't one of the fat kids).
Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton was finally nabbed after his illustrious 30+ year career of theft and prison breaks. When asked by reporters why he chose to continue robbing banks after being incarcerated several times, he replied 'because that's where the money is'. Go figure, criminals committing crime for financial gain. Who woulda thunk it.
Actually, Gmail, mail.com, yahoo mail, hotmail etc. are all free. I don't pay for them. In fact, I dont use the email address given to my BY my ISP. Why people would ever pay for an email address is beyond me.
you mean like the complete works of William Shakespear?
I was out with my girlfriend yesterday morning, we went to breakfast and left the restaurant. When we arrived back at her place, she noticed that I had a flier attached to my car window. Something I had never even noticed when driving. It was for some silly event that I can't remember but it made me start thinking. You know, this is just spam..and yet I'm not all that upset about it. In fact, you see spam everywhere in life, but people rarely get as upset or harbor such a strong emotional feeling toward it. For example:
Billboards - Spam. I didn't ask to see all that while driving
Homeless people begging for money - Spam. Like the Nigerian guys trying who promise you 1 gazillion dollars once you donate 5k
Fliers - Spam. (eventhough I'm always interested in what what is going on my city, but please don't put it on my car window without asking)
People who wear clothes that have the clothing logo in 20 inch font plastered on the chest - Spam. I'm not going to buy clothes just because they say Von Dutch so stop trying to get me to buy them
Cell phone company trademarked ring tones - Spam. It's like they're trying to get me to buy a nokia phone by playing it's themesong over and over.
Bumperstickers - Spam.
Racing Decals - Spam.
Racing Decals on Jackets - Spam.
Can you think of any more? Feel free to jump in
Sorry if this is off topic..I just wanted to share. Why? Because sharing is caring.
just call the ticket office ON your cell phone and order the tickets.
Hmmm..decisions decisions
Scenes from the original include..
... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.
... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.
...
AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it.
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are.
Special edition scenes..
AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
Lucas: I'm George Lucas, bitch!
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Yes, in fact I have a joke for the fans. What did the five fingers say to the face?
AP: Uhh..
Lucas smacks AP
Lucas: SLAP!
AP:
Lucas: I'm George Lucas, bitch!
You know it's funny that you say that. I was in a software project management class my senior year in college. We were required to create a piece of software that did specific functions and turn it in at the end of the semester. Becuase this was a group project, all groups ended up missing some deadlines here or there, which inevitably cost them man hours in the long run (we were required to keep track fo cost). After about the 3rd missed deadline by groups (due to bug workouts, people not doing their part, etc.), my professory, a former IBM employee, told us a story.
He said one year, he was heading up a project that involved writing software for IBM machines. They were nearing the release date and still had dozens (if not more) of bugs to work out. He went to his boss, a B-school guy, and said "look, I know we're close to the deadline, but there are still many bugs that we really need to work out before this thing ships. We don't want to release a product that costs this much and still has some things wrong with him".
Now keep in mind that there were hundreds, if not thousands of companies ready to buy the machines as soon as it was released. They had orders from companies around the world. Because they were competing with other companies selling similar products, the need to meet the deadline was even more important.
Back to the story, his boss looked at him and said "so you mean to tell me that you think we should delay the release of a product that has the potential, and is almost guaranteed, to earn us hundreds of millions of dollars for a few bugs? I don't think so. We'll release the product and support it later on. Tech support will cost us less in the long run than delays at this point".
So they released the product, sent developer level techs around the world after companies began to complain about the bugs, and that was that.
Moral of the story? Sometimes, from a busines stand point, you should release the product and support its bugs later on. But that usually depends on the amount of competition in the market and money that is riding on the product. Yeah it sucks from a developers stand point, but developers dont make business decisions in the real world.
See Examples. HL2, DNF, etc.
Irony galore. A woman posts on slashdot about the shortage of women on slashdot, actually gives advice on getting women (to those who don't already know how), and is consequently modded down to flamebait.
Hey, as long as these robotic animals are capable of combining to form a gargantuan bipedal kung-fu-master warbot (beowulf cluster anyone?) that can be piloted by a group of 5 uber-moral teenagers I'm all for it. 2004 and we're closer to getting robotic animals than we are to getting flying cars..I feel so jipped.
The work was needed, according to a confidential Pentagon document, to determine whether the United States' earth-penetrating nuclear weapons could be used to destroy deeply buried bunkers in other nations that might house chemical or biological weapons.
In addition, Bush argues that the work will invigorate the minds of nuclear-weapons scientists and help them to respond more quickly to new threats. Such researchers have been consigned to maintaining the nation's stockpile of nearly 9,000 weapons since the end of the cold war.
So you mean to tell me that the 9000 nuclear bombs we already have that can destroy the human species 100,000 times over isn't enough? I guess we need bigger and better bombs so we can take out EVERYTHING, even cockroaches.
Microsoft insisted the information provided in the notice was "very basic in nature" and intended only to provide general guidelines concerning the maximum number of bulletins that may be released, the anticipated severity ratings, and an overview of products that may be affected. "The information is purposely not specific and does not disclose any vulnerability details or other information that could put customers at risk."
It sounds like they're using Homeland Defense's Terror Threat level method of marketing.
Becareful, the threat level has been raised to orange due to possible security vulnerabilities in one or more Microsoft products.
for the action, special effects, or storyline. We all know that geeks since the early 90's have attended movies for 2 reasons and 2 reasons only:
1) Angelina Jolie (and her lips..god those lips)
2) Natalie Portman
Hence the reason the movie "Hackers" is a favorite among geeks, as well as the continued success of the new Star Wars Trilogy (and in some cases "The Professional")
Did you know that there are no "below average" college graduates? Proof: In order to graduate from college you must have a GPA equating to a C or better. A C is average, therefore there are no below average college graduates.
Statistically speaking, there will always be a portion of the population that is above average, and a portion that is below average. Regardless of what a school system may consider "Average" (C isn't really average anymore by the way, it's more like an "eh..at least I don't have to take it again next semester!").
In fact, at my old high school, a D was considered failing, however, in college, a D is passing (depending on the class taken..underwater basket weaving anyone?).
If the average graduate of a school has a 3.5 gpa, everyone blow that is below average, everyone above is above average.
Sure she attempted to eat "natural" food and support "good service" for a while..then she gave in and decided to stop going broke on the same shit she could get somewhere else.
I mean seriously, how often do you actually NEED to ask someone at one of those stores a question about the product that you're buying or where to find something? That's why there are signs, aisle markers, box-printed product specs, items grouped according to their general use (aka departments), etc. All are tools that one should use to get all of the information they need. Unless you have some sort of reading or mobility problem, you should be able to gather all of the information needed to make a purchasing decision in a store by yourself.
As far as quality is concerned, unless your buying brad X instead of name brand, quality shouldn't be a concern.
I can already smell MTV's next show already in the works. Geek my ride. Old beat up cars that get turned into l33t g33k m0bi1e35!!!1!!11
Xzibit: "So Bob, we took your old 1972 Honda Civic and fixed it up for you, now take a look and tell me what you think"
Bob: "I can't believe it!! It's got the crunk WIFI in the ceiling!! QWERTY keyboards in the headrests!!! Flat screens in the dashboards!!! And oooh shit, is that an Opteron in the trunk?!? It runs linux?!? OMGWTFBBQ!!!
I still won't be able to get a date, but at least now I can play CS while I drive! Thanks Xzibit!!
People COULD just use naming conventions and name their files according to the content. But I guess that's just too hard.
I personally am happy to see a phone like this hit the states. When the new ericsson phones release we'll really see something interesting.
A) Money. Risk losing political ties and make a ton of money by airing Moore's documentary (think of the advertising revenue + amount of buzz this movie has stirred, this could be bigger than the super bowl)
or
B) Power. Risk losing a ton of money by NOT airing Moore's documentary and gain political ties.
and we are sworn at birth to hate all that is Star Trek, I actually enjoyed Deep Space 9 (please don't take away my SW Fanboy membership card!!).
Should Star Trek die? Without a doubt, Voyager was the straw that broke the camel's back (which subsequently killed it). Now Enterprise has become the club that is being used to beat said camel's rotting corpse.
Besides, imagine what would happen to the value of Trek memorabilia on Ebay if it DID go on hiatus for a decade or so.
Step 1) Put Star Trek on hiatus
Step 2) ?????
Step 3) Profit!
I was at the bank's drive through "express" teller yesterday and looked over at the machine used to send money to the teller's box (you know, the one with the little canister and vacuum tube) and guess who's name was imprinted there? That's right, Diebold.
Kind of makes you think doesn't it? No? Ok nevermind then.
Maybe, have you ever played that VR boxing game where you stand in a pseudocage in front of a huge arcade screen? You have to punch with these simulated gloves gloves as well as bob and weave to dodge punches by your opponent? I believe it uses motion sensors to track your movement.
There is a little calorie counter in the upper right hand corner of the actual screen that shows how many calories you have burned while playing the game. Believe it or not, it is actually a pretty good work out. My friends and I have played this game and we get winded by the 4th opponent (and we work out a minimum 4 times per week!!!). If you're not in shape, or have slow reactions, you'll be exhausted by the 2nd opponent.
and inflatable women, why not make inflatable space ships? Now all we need are inflatable monkeys to put on the ship and we'll be set to go