We've got a ways to go, IMO. Physics engines have gotten a lot better, but as machines get more powerful, I hope to see more fully-destructable, persistent environments, more accurate facial and movement simulations, longer draw distances, and other improvements. When I had friends come over and see the latest NBA2k game on my 360, folks were blown away; some said that it looked "almost like TNT". But after a few minutes, you could see the flaws in the character animations, limits to the crowd drawing, etc.
We will hit photo-realistic in the not-too-distant future, but we're not quite there yet. I'm glad to see that folks like Epic keep pushing the envelope.
Wow, on my main Slashdot page these articles are only tiny one-line entries below the "primary" stories. Must suck to be forced to read these articles before you can get to the content that you prefer.
I've read about 60 e-books on my Dell Axim, mostly in Microsoft Reader format. The Baen library that another poster noted is an excellent source of DRM-free books. I've also downloaded and read a number of public-domain books from the e-library at the University of Virginia, which transfers many older classics into various e-book formats.
The Pocket PC is a nice reading tool, but it's still just not quite up to the paperback experience. The screen only holds about 30% of the text from a paperback page at a time, and I have noticed some slight eyestrain after reading for more than an hour, which I do not experience with traditional books. Plus I will not pay the same price as a paper book for a DRM-hobbled e-book.
At the moment, 95% of my books come from my local public library. I can order books online from a huge library catalog and have them ready for pickup in two days. Thus there is little incentive for me to pay for e-books. I do keep about 20 books on the Pocket PC, for times where I have to wait in a line or have some other "downtime".
I enjoy many of these games on MAME, but I'll probably also buy a few for the 360. A) It's only $5, B) Live integration means easy multiplayer via the Internet (like the Gauntlet example someone noted above), and C) It's nice to have something I can kick back on the couch in the living room and play either alone or with friends for 15 minutes.
I agree. I use Xbox360 tracker and 90% of the online retailers have been sold out since the console came out (with the exception of some of the more ridiculous bundle sites). I've seen a few of the smaller bundles pop up now and again (Sears, for example, had a pretty good one with PGR and an extra controller) and then that I've considered, but within an hour they were always sold out.
Maybe they are showing up on shelves in my area (Sacramento), but they aren't staying there long; there's never been one when I go by and I'm not about to camp out or spend an hour a day calling stores for one.
People who argue that there is no demand for the XBox360 and that the launch was a "failure" are just regurgitating the usual anti-Microsoft party line that's so common around here. I'm sure the same folks will be lining up to make excuses for Sony when its product is delayed and/or in short supply on launch.
I think the grandparent's point holds up, and is usually forgotten in both economic and political discussions... at least the kind you see on what passes for media news these days.
I solve this conundrum by enjoying my hobbies at work. It's amazing how much writing (fiction) you can get in between projects and during breaks, and I've sketched out the plot for many a Neverwinter Nights module during a two-hour staff meeting.
This may just be empty rationalization, but I think it helps my work performance as well; when I'm focused only on work, my mind wanders easily and I don't end up getting as much done in the course of a day.
NWN is a good example, and the fact that most of the fan-made content is available on a single site (Neverwinter Vault), with public ratings and sorting systems, helps ameliorate the common problem with player-made content: the high signal-to-noise ratio (or more accurately, the crap-to-gold ratio).
Nice post. I would add, however, that a lot of the skills in genre games do carry over into new releases. I got into BF2 about two months after release, and I was able to quickly get into the top 3 on many servers, because 90% of my skills at Call of Duty and BF1942 carried over to the new game. I do agree that complete n00bs have a somewhat tougher time... but at least you can practice against the bots to develop some basic skills before hopping into the meat grinder. And a few servers actively welcome new players, although there's more than a few veterans who troll those hunting for easy kills as well.
I'll also point out that BF2 has another important innovation, integrated VOIP, which greatly helps facilitate the interaction you cited in your post. I hope more games incorporate this feature.
I think that the OP's view is an extreme version of an idea that's taking traction, especially among the young.
I personally think copyright as an idea is a good thing. But the abuse of the law through the excess of the content industries has corrupted it, to the point where lots of people have nothing but contempt for copyright, as our OP above. I think if it remained true to the original idea in the Constitution, as a temporary grant from the public domain so that an author can profit from his idea, then more people would respect it, IMO.
Make copyrights non-transferable and set the term back down to 14 years, and I think that a big chunk of the problem would go away. Profits on works would go down (but I would suggest that nowadays most of the profits go not to the original creator, but the corporations that own the rights), but there would be a huge deluge of free content in the public domain to enrich/inspire not only the publc, but authors, musicians, and other creators of content.
I don't have hard links to bolster this, but I heard that Alan Tudyk (Wash) has been pretty busy (he's picked up a long commitment in Spamalot on Broadway, and he's been in a number of films recently), and that he agreed to his character being killed off in Serenity.
As for Ron Glass... I hate to say it, but he's not looking good. Maybe he was just not willing to commit to another several years of potential movie sequels.
But how many ants have to be in the battery for you to get a good charge? Will "antpower" become the new "horsepower" as a new term for the potential energy of small devices?
At the moment, there's a lot of discussion in Sacramento about our old levee system, in the aftermath of Katrina/Rita. Our local paper (the Bee) did a story on flood plains about a year ago, and it turns out that if one of the American River levees (yes, we have TWO major rivers going through the city) breaks during a spring flood surge, then about half the city will be under eight feet of water within 24 hours.
This is actually a really good idea. I think in one of the animated shows they just had the symbiote come back on a deep-space rocket (maybe something sent to investigate a comet or asteroid, I can't remember). Since JJJ's son is an astronaut, they could easily link in that character as well in a minor way.
Rather than the F4 angle, they could use Doc Connor to help Spidey remove the symbiant in SM3. During that scene they could drop a hint about Connor's research on lizard regeneration, keeping the thread alive to bring in the Lizard as a main villain in SM4 or SM5.
Here at the Regal Cinemas they're showing a pre-movie show called "The Twenty". It's basically a 20-minute infomercial with clips about NBC and TNT television programs, a "making of" snip about a current movie, and a few ads.
The first time I saw it I basically sat there dumbfounded--this was basically TV, except I'd had to pay $9 to watch it. Afterwards I told my wife that I would no longer go to a Regal Cinema; I wrote a letter to the management explaining my decision, stating that I would return when this junk was dropped, and have stuck to it to this day.
The local Century chain is little better with its stupid ad slideshow (god, the Coke slide "games" are so freakin' inane... luckily I can just take off my glasses and talk to my wife). I am already planning on getting an HDTV monitor in 2006, and am going to cut out my moviegoing entirely, save for the occasional art-house movie at the old theatre down the street (and that concession is mostly for my wife).
I also live in Sacramento, and can corroborate the above poster's comments. Here, at least, more and more people seem to be out there who are immune to social pressure (asking someone to be quiet only makes them more obnoxious, in my opinion), and management (at least at the UA and Century theatres, the two big chains in town) seems to be unwilling to do anything about the problem.
Wish I had mod points; this is an awesome site. Even have patched versions that work with XP (played X-COM again recently, and enjoyed it even though I got owned by the alien marauders).
It's not profitable in terms of what you bring back (i.e. physical resources), at least not right away. In the long, long run, there might be asteroid mining and the like.
I think the OP was getting more at the profits that resulted from developments in technology stimulated by the investment in the space program in the 50s-80s, especially in the Apollo program. Those dollars led to a significant return in terms of advances that could be applied to other areas.
You can also get tech advances by funding medical research, military R&D, etc., but there are certain features about space exploration (vacuum, very limited space, completely closed systems) that seem to stimulate certain kinds of advances.
I occasionally read books on my Axim PPC; it's convenient and I always have it handy at places where I might not be carrying a book (waiting on line, stuck in a meeting, etc.). The screen is small but the viewing quality is pretty good; I don't get a headache from reading it for an hour or two if the backlight is turned up to a reasonable level.
I agree that the technology has a ways to go, but I'd happily buy a reader with a book-sized screen (5x7 or even 8x11) that could display paper-quality text. As for bookmarks and organization, my Axim does that already (Microsoft Reader both organizes your ebooks in a library and remembers what page you were reading last). I think the battery technology is the only killer, but my Axim goes about 6 hours of constant use on a charge, and that's with the backlight turned up. If there was a reasonably priced (i.e. couple of hundred bucks) tablet reader that could hold my entire library, and go for 20+ hours on a charge, I'd go for it in a hot moment.
What I'd really like to see is publishers that give you an e-copy of the book at the same time that you purchase the paper copy. But given that most publishers seem to be charging the same prices for e-books as regular books at the moment, I don't see that happening. But at the moment, Baen's free e-book page and Project Gutenberg give me plenty of material to keep my PPC filled.
Right; the authorities there like foreign investment, especially western investment, and I'm sure they're savvy enough to realize that a few well-publicized cases like this might be enough to make a company considering outsourcing to Bangalore or another popular destination have second thoughts.
That's why a lot of popular tourist destinations crack down on crime against visitors while essentially tolerating crime against their own citizens. It's all about the money, and who has it.
Slashdot Mirror
We will hit photo-realistic in the not-too-distant future, but we're not quite there yet. I'm glad to see that folks like Epic keep pushing the envelope.
If anything, more soft filters are needed.
Wow, on my main Slashdot page these articles are only tiny one-line entries below the "primary" stories. Must suck to be forced to read these articles before you can get to the content that you prefer.
The Pocket PC is a nice reading tool, but it's still just not quite up to the paperback experience. The screen only holds about 30% of the text from a paperback page at a time, and I have noticed some slight eyestrain after reading for more than an hour, which I do not experience with traditional books. Plus I will not pay the same price as a paper book for a DRM-hobbled e-book.
At the moment, 95% of my books come from my local public library. I can order books online from a huge library catalog and have them ready for pickup in two days. Thus there is little incentive for me to pay for e-books. I do keep about 20 books on the Pocket PC, for times where I have to wait in a line or have some other "downtime".
Man, did Microsoft kill your parents or something?
I enjoy many of these games on MAME, but I'll probably also buy a few for the 360. A) It's only $5, B) Live integration means easy multiplayer via the Internet (like the Gauntlet example someone noted above), and C) It's nice to have something I can kick back on the couch in the living room and play either alone or with friends for 15 minutes.
Maybe they are showing up on shelves in my area (Sacramento), but they aren't staying there long; there's never been one when I go by and I'm not about to camp out or spend an hour a day calling stores for one.
People who argue that there is no demand for the XBox360 and that the launch was a "failure" are just regurgitating the usual anti-Microsoft party line that's so common around here. I'm sure the same folks will be lining up to make excuses for Sony when its product is delayed and/or in short supply on launch.
I think the grandparent's point holds up, and is usually forgotten in both economic and political discussions... at least the kind you see on what passes for media news these days.
This may just be empty rationalization, but I think it helps my work performance as well; when I'm focused only on work, my mind wanders easily and I don't end up getting as much done in the course of a day.
NWN is a good example, and the fact that most of the fan-made content is available on a single site (Neverwinter Vault), with public ratings and sorting systems, helps ameliorate the common problem with player-made content: the high signal-to-noise ratio (or more accurately, the crap-to-gold ratio).
I'll also point out that BF2 has another important innovation, integrated VOIP, which greatly helps facilitate the interaction you cited in your post. I hope more games incorporate this feature.
I personally think copyright as an idea is a good thing. But the abuse of the law through the excess of the content industries has corrupted it, to the point where lots of people have nothing but contempt for copyright, as our OP above. I think if it remained true to the original idea in the Constitution, as a temporary grant from the public domain so that an author can profit from his idea, then more people would respect it, IMO.
Make copyrights non-transferable and set the term back down to 14 years, and I think that a big chunk of the problem would go away. Profits on works would go down (but I would suggest that nowadays most of the profits go not to the original creator, but the corporations that own the rights), but there would be a huge deluge of free content in the public domain to enrich/inspire not only the publc, but authors, musicians, and other creators of content.
As for Ron Glass... I hate to say it, but he's not looking good. Maybe he was just not willing to commit to another several years of potential movie sequels.
"Yeah, like my new PDA? Got 300 Ants in there."
At the moment, there's a lot of discussion in Sacramento about our old levee system, in the aftermath of Katrina/Rita. Our local paper (the Bee) did a story on flood plains about a year ago, and it turns out that if one of the American River levees (yes, we have TWO major rivers going through the city) breaks during a spring flood surge, then about half the city will be under eight feet of water within 24 hours.
Rather than the F4 angle, they could use Doc Connor to help Spidey remove the symbiant in SM3. During that scene they could drop a hint about Connor's research on lizard regeneration, keeping the thread alive to bring in the Lizard as a main villain in SM4 or SM5.
The first time I saw it I basically sat there dumbfounded--this was basically TV, except I'd had to pay $9 to watch it. Afterwards I told my wife that I would no longer go to a Regal Cinema; I wrote a letter to the management explaining my decision, stating that I would return when this junk was dropped, and have stuck to it to this day.
The local Century chain is little better with its stupid ad slideshow (god, the Coke slide "games" are so freakin' inane... luckily I can just take off my glasses and talk to my wife). I am already planning on getting an HDTV monitor in 2006, and am going to cut out my moviegoing entirely, save for the occasional art-house movie at the old theatre down the street (and that concession is mostly for my wife).
I also live in Sacramento, and can corroborate the above poster's comments. Here, at least, more and more people seem to be out there who are immune to social pressure (asking someone to be quiet only makes them more obnoxious, in my opinion), and management (at least at the UA and Century theatres, the two big chains in town) seems to be unwilling to do anything about the problem.
You might also try Joseph Yenowsky: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/hist409/brainy.html
I've been waiting for the Region 1 DVD release of season 1 for quite some time now... no indications on Amazon as far as I can tell when it'll be out.
Wish I had mod points; this is an awesome site. Even have patched versions that work with XP (played X-COM again recently, and enjoyed it even though I got owned by the alien marauders).
I think the OP was getting more at the profits that resulted from developments in technology stimulated by the investment in the space program in the 50s-80s, especially in the Apollo program. Those dollars led to a significant return in terms of advances that could be applied to other areas.
You can also get tech advances by funding medical research, military R&D, etc., but there are certain features about space exploration (vacuum, very limited space, completely closed systems) that seem to stimulate certain kinds of advances.
I agree that the technology has a ways to go, but I'd happily buy a reader with a book-sized screen (5x7 or even 8x11) that could display paper-quality text. As for bookmarks and organization, my Axim does that already (Microsoft Reader both organizes your ebooks in a library and remembers what page you were reading last). I think the battery technology is the only killer, but my Axim goes about 6 hours of constant use on a charge, and that's with the backlight turned up. If there was a reasonably priced (i.e. couple of hundred bucks) tablet reader that could hold my entire library, and go for 20+ hours on a charge, I'd go for it in a hot moment.
What I'd really like to see is publishers that give you an e-copy of the book at the same time that you purchase the paper copy. But given that most publishers seem to be charging the same prices for e-books as regular books at the moment, I don't see that happening. But at the moment, Baen's free e-book page and Project Gutenberg give me plenty of material to keep my PPC filled.
That's why a lot of popular tourist destinations crack down on crime against visitors while essentially tolerating crime against their own citizens. It's all about the money, and who has it.
"Why does he have nine fingers" is another line from the song, IIRC.