Riiiiight!!! Except that it is Windows only. Any media center PC that works well and reliably will not be Windows. I'm thinking either Linux, or Mac if they ever make one.
I have found that game to work great for two players. It has a side view, so you feel more like you are watching the action in a movie, but you are playing it at the same time. But it is easy for a person who is not as good to play along with someone who is better. The less skilled person can sit back and shoot arrows more often while the other person gets into more action. But even if the less skilled gets into action it isn't too hard, pretty much button mashing and it works well. Combos come out accidentally so there is no trying to do crazy things like that. And there is one extra life that the two of you share, so most likely the lesser skilled person will respawn during the battle and you then have to try to stay alive until you finish the level. And if you notice that the lesser skilled person is getting low on health, you can stop grabbing the heath potions that drop from people you kill and let them get some. So both of you should be letting whoever is most dead get the potions. It is a great game and I played it with my wife, who isn't much of a gamer either. It is best with gamepads, two of those and you are set!
Hey Taco,
I also started out with a TRS-80! I started programming on that thing in BASIC when I was young. I am still into programming and technology, so I would say it did me well as a kid.
I just got one of these for Christmas. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to the layout of the new gaming keys. I only have the basic fps keyset that comes with the keyboard along with the standard keyset. Now that I am getting more used to it I like it a lot. I am not a noob gamer. I have been playing fps games on and offline for a while and am quite used to using the regular keys for playing. But I think the spacing and size of the gaming keys on the zboard help during really hectic moments when you don't have time to hit the key you need. You just mash the general area where they key is and you will most likeyly not hit the wrong key or two keys together. This is particularly true for the weapon keys, they can be hard to find on a regular keyboard during intense action. You run out of ammo and need to switch to pistol or knife, but you hit the wrong key and you die. With zboard you don't hit the wrong key. There are still a couple of keys that I am getting used to, but once I get the feel for where all of the keys are I believe it will be faster and better.
I also like the pad lock key. Normally I stray away from the extra key function things, but they implemented the pad lock features really well. The number pad has windows commands assigned to them that you can use when the pad lock key is on, such as minimize, maximize, view desktop, etc. There is also a function key lock that only works in certain programs like ie or windows explorer that switch to give you forward / back buttons and stuff like that. The cool thing about how they implemented it is that there is a text file configuration that you can edit to make the f-lock keys work in firefox also. And the media buttons at the top of the base work in winamp even though their site says they only work in windows media player. Basically it has very well written drivers and well designed hardware. It can handle up to 10 simultaneous keys pressed while a typical keyboard can handle 4 or 5. And the drivers detect the keyset switch even while in a resource hogging game and cause no problems with game crashes or such. So far I have had no problems what-so-ever.
Why does this thing have a stand to prop it up when it's outside of the pc card slot?
It seems to me that it would be difficult to hold on to the sides of the mouse if it were flat on the table. I think the stand pushes the mouse up into your palm so your thumb and ring finger can grasp the sides of the mouse more comfortably. If the stand were spring loaded it would just compress when you push down on the mouse rather than break, but I do not know how they made it and it might be an easily broken piece.
There is a great movie that delves into the higher power of the universe. It is called "What the Bleep do We Know?!?" It is a very interesting program in that it basically looks at what science has figured out about how things work, from the atomic universe and quantum physics, to the neurochemicals and the operation of the brain. It poses questions about multiple universes stemming from a Schrödinger's cat like situation, but extended to the world around you and desisions you make.
It really makes you think about what else is out there and what gives us our self-awareness. Atomic material at it's smallest quantum level is gone from existence as well as there, they pop into and out of existence. The Schrödinger's cat "experiment" says that the cat is both alive and dead until you look in the box. What is so special about you looking that changes what the quantum world is doing. So far nobody has figured out what the "observer" is, or the soul or whatever you want to call it. Without someone observing the universe around us, it doesn't really exist. It is all quite deep, and I am probably explaining it totally wrong, but it is all based on the science that we have figured out so far. And it is very cool and makes you think. Plus, it isn't written in a "we know everything" tone. It is more like "here is a possible way the universe works based on what we know so far."
Did you know that thoughts can affect water? When pure water is placed in a bottle with a lable on it and then photographed using a dark field microscope, it takes on different crysaline structures depending on the thoughts that are projected onto the water. If thoughts can do that to water, what can they do you you since you are what, 80% water. Give a possible reason for why placebos work as well as they do, as well as why a hypochondriac can have real symptoms.
Definately a movie I would recommend to the/. crowd. Even if you don't beleve in a higher power or a God, as it has the possibility to open your mind some and make you think about the possibilities out there. I don't think that science has to be at war with religion. I think religion has tried to explain the universe and God, but was a poor explaination due to their limited understanding at the time. As we know more about how the universe works, we can also know more about what God is.
Actually, if you were to facilitate raping, pillaging, murder, and plunder on the high seas, probably a lot worse would happen to you.
Actually, the punishment would probably be less for being real piracy than for copyright infringement. Just from looking at the huge lawsuits that we have seen in the past.
So where is this supposed orange radio waves icon in firefox? Mine has the blue box with white letters saying "RSS". Did they change it in 1.5 or something?
A lot of times women are the worst offenders at using sex to sell. Anyone else remember watching "The Apprentice" where the women's team practically made a softcore porn commercial for a hand lotion. I think it was the second season. Well, if I remember correctly, both seasons were pretty bad with how the women's team used sex to sell things. Dressing up in tinny skirts to sell something on the street. Or asking for $1000 for a kiss from one from one of the girls.
Sex sells! Get used to it. Women's magazines are full of sexy women throughout the pages.
I like to keep my Windows system as pristine and uncluttered as possible. It seems that once too many programs have been installed/uninstalled and the system gets too much use it starts to run slow. I usually reinstall Windows at least once a year to keep the performance up. This machine is primarily used for games, so the performance is needed for fast frame rates and high resolutions.
So antivirus and antispyware programs running in the background are just extra cpu cycles going to waste in my mind. I don't install junk that I find off of the internet. Well actually, sometimes I do run a keygen program or something from some crack site, and I have very rarely gotten infected with spyware, and never with a virus.
I like to use TrendMicro's Housecall to do spot checks on my system to find and clean out anything that might have gotten into it. It is nice because it doesn't get installed, it is run from the TrendMicro website right through your browser. Unfortunately you need to use IE to do the scan, but since I trust their site that isn't much of a problem.
I do use a NAT/firewall router, and I have firewall software running on this system to let me know if any rouge program of spyware is trying to phone home. This seems to work for me as I don't get crud on my computer. But as I know what I am installing and what dangers I am risking I can watch for anything suspicious. For a typical PC user I would not recommend my security setup.
Personnally I like TrendMicro's Housecall antivirus and antispyware scans. It doesn't get installed like a typical antivirus program. It runs through your web browser and scans your system that way. It is totally free, and everytime you scan the virus list will be up to date. I don't like having antivirus programs installed taking up processing power, or just mucking up a fresh Windows install. The only downside to the TrendMicro Housecall is that it requires IE. But I trust their site and only use IE to go to that one site.
I have added a single cable channel to my basic package before. I didn't ask if you could only order "a la carte", but I was able to purchase one additional channel that wasn't included in the basic package and I didn't want the premium package. The channel wan't HBO or anything either, it was the Science channel. The price was rather high for just a single channel, something like $6 - $8 per month if I remember correctly.
I do hope that the less popular channels won't dissapear with "a la carte" ordering. The cable companies will probably still push the package deals and that is what most "consumers" will order, so they are probably rather safe.
If it weren't Sony I would probably be willing to pay $5 or so to download a movie that was already available on DVD. Possibly a little bit more ($6 or $7) if it was out just after the theater release.
But since it is Sony that is looking at this with their rootkit DRM and their general disdain for their customer, I will not be buying anything of theirs. I personnaly am boycotting anything Sony. And in this day of P2P it is all that much easier. If there is something that you want badly enough, you don't even have to quit your boycott to get it. Ha, take that Sony.
note: The part about the P2P is in jest. I don't use P2P very much. I prefer to just copy the DVD directly.
they also intend to sell ads based on the context of the search for the copyrighted work. So in essence, they are making a profit off of a showing of material they do not own the copyright too.
What about a web site that does book review and has a few quotes from the book on the site. Are they not allowed to display ads on their site either? Isn't that pretty much the same thing. You can follow a link to buy the book from the Google page, can you do the same from all the book review pages?
they also intend to sell ads based on the context of the search for the copyrighted work. So in essence, they are making a profit off of a showing of material they do not own the copyright too.
What about a web site that does book review and has a few quotes from the book on the site? Are they not allowed to display ads on their site either? Isn't that pretty much the same thing? You can follow a link to buy the book from the Google page, can you do the same from all the book review pages?
It's amazing how many posts are just WRONG!
on
Reining in Google
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· Score: 1
It amazes me how many people here have posted about how you will be able to read the whole book online, or how it is like a library that lets you read the book for free.
Google does not intend to let you view the entire book. Only a small section, a few lines of text or at most a page. If you want to read the whole book you will need to buy the book.
In the end it will probably create more sales for books that people found where they would not have ever discovered the book before.
It is the same issue that the RIAA/MPAA has! It has nothing to do with piracy or copyrite violations. It has to do with control. If you can search for the books you want to buy then you won't buy the books they want you to buy. They want to keep control of the method that people learn of book through, thus controlling the books that get purchased.
It is about control, it is always about control!
I have heard some say that the reason intelligent life on other planets is a problem for the Christian faith is Jesus and his act of taking away our sins. If there are other planets with intelligent life, then they would also need a savior to be relieved of their sin. And if there are many Jesus's that have died throughout the 'verse, then the act that Jesus gave his life for us is no longer a big deal, it has happened many times. And the one Jesus wouldn't really be able to die for more than this planet, since they would not have even known about him.
Don't flame me, I didn't say I thought this way. Just thought is was an interesing counterpoint and was on topic to the discussion.
So... the gamer became a criminal and the outdoorsman became a model citizen.
Actually, you have that backwards. The gamer is the model citizen and the outdoorsman is the criminal. Lets not twist the facts to fit our imagined beliefs.
I haven't used allofmp3.com yet, but when I want a song or two that is where I plan on going. I find the unreliable quality that comes with p2p apps to be a big disappointment. With the Russian site I can choose the file type and quality that I want for my music.
The cartoon you posted is funny. But it is interesting that it shows possessive form having an appostrophe. The sentence that was being critisized was a possessive form of 'it'. So the cartoon does not actually say anything is wrong with that sentence.
I really don't want people walking around and aiming a scanner at me, and all the sudden the billboard I'm walking next to says "Hey Joe, I know you're 28, male, and live in the suburbs, and here's the most effective adversting for you!"
The digital information does not sound like it will be RFID. TFA says that it is encoded in a digital watermark. To me that sounds more of an image analysis deal. The scanner is likely to be some sort of laser scanner that reads image data from somewhere on the licence. "The Minnesota license also includes an invisible, digital watermark capable of carrying security data such as date of birth."
I think the licence does sound a lot better than a lot of the ideas that the government comes up with. But my issue with the article is the possible use of inaccurate facts to mislead the general public, or sheeple. In particular the line that reads "Fake ID cards made it possible for the Sept. 11 terrorists to board commercial flights." Didn't some of the terrorists of that attack have valid, official licences. After all, it isn't that hard to get a licence. Well, at least Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't say it was impossible to counterfeit. Nothing is impossible to do, if you can make it in the first place, someone else can get the equipment and materials and make another one.
Wouldn't current technoloy be a lot more efficient?
Sometimes modern technology will be more efficient, but not always. Some of you may have heard of Gray's Paradox. Or the MIT RoboTuna project. Gray's Paradox in a nutshell is that it seems a fish does not have the muscle mass needed to provide enough thrust to acheive the speeds and distances that fish can swim. It's actually short by a factor of 10. MIT is creating a robotic tuna to study the effect of a flexible hull that provides the thrust needed to move through the water. The RoboTuna has seen some Gray's Paradox properties of it's own, and it isn't swimming with full efficiency yet. With flexible hulls, ships might get more fuel efficiency, higher speeds, or the ability to hold stationary in turbulent waters. The ornathopter experiment may lead to similar breakthroughs in flight. You don't know what you might find until you try.
that this ties them up in litigation enough that it distracts them from their core business of buying up creative game developers and destroying anything that was good about them.
I certainly agree that the way they treat their employee's does suck, but I do not agree with the statement that they destroy the games. Battlefield 1942 and Vietname are two of the best multiplayer first person action games out. I have tried the Starwars Battlefront and it was completely unplayable. Very close to a great game, but the ping times to any server that exists were too low to be able to play. The weapons were very unmatched also, if you aren't playing as the "good" character, then you just get killed. They do not have company sponsored servers either (even though a server that wants to run more than three players needs a T1 line or better). And there is basically no support as far as updates and patches to improve gameplay. EA games on the other hand is constantly providing improved gameplay, patches for bug fixes, new levels and maps, rebalancing weapon streangths and weaknesses.
I'm sure they are able to provide such good support because of the way the mistreat their employees, but still, they have not destoyed the games.
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Riiiiight!!! Except that it is Windows only. Any media center PC that works well and reliably will not be Windows. I'm thinking either Linux, or Mac if they ever make one.
I have found that game to work great for two players. It has a side view, so you feel more like you are watching the action in a movie, but you are playing it at the same time. But it is easy for a person who is not as good to play along with someone who is better. The less skilled person can sit back and shoot arrows more often while the other person gets into more action. But even if the less skilled gets into action it isn't too hard, pretty much button mashing and it works well. Combos come out accidentally so there is no trying to do crazy things like that. And there is one extra life that the two of you share, so most likely the lesser skilled person will respawn during the battle and you then have to try to stay alive until you finish the level. And if you notice that the lesser skilled person is getting low on health, you can stop grabbing the heath potions that drop from people you kill and let them get some. So both of you should be letting whoever is most dead get the potions. It is a great game and I played it with my wife, who isn't much of a gamer either. It is best with gamepads, two of those and you are set!
Hey Taco, I also started out with a TRS-80! I started programming on that thing in BASIC when I was young. I am still into programming and technology, so I would say it did me well as a kid.
I just got one of these for Christmas. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to the layout of the new gaming keys. I only have the basic fps keyset that comes with the keyboard along with the standard keyset. Now that I am getting more used to it I like it a lot. I am not a noob gamer. I have been playing fps games on and offline for a while and am quite used to using the regular keys for playing. But I think the spacing and size of the gaming keys on the zboard help during really hectic moments when you don't have time to hit the key you need. You just mash the general area where they key is and you will most likeyly not hit the wrong key or two keys together. This is particularly true for the weapon keys, they can be hard to find on a regular keyboard during intense action. You run out of ammo and need to switch to pistol or knife, but you hit the wrong key and you die. With zboard you don't hit the wrong key. There are still a couple of keys that I am getting used to, but once I get the feel for where all of the keys are I believe it will be faster and better.
I also like the pad lock key. Normally I stray away from the extra key function things, but they implemented the pad lock features really well. The number pad has windows commands assigned to them that you can use when the pad lock key is on, such as minimize, maximize, view desktop, etc. There is also a function key lock that only works in certain programs like ie or windows explorer that switch to give you forward / back buttons and stuff like that. The cool thing about how they implemented it is that there is a text file configuration that you can edit to make the f-lock keys work in firefox also. And the media buttons at the top of the base work in winamp even though their site says they only work in windows media player. Basically it has very well written drivers and well designed hardware. It can handle up to 10 simultaneous keys pressed while a typical keyboard can handle 4 or 5. And the drivers detect the keyset switch even while in a resource hogging game and cause no problems with game crashes or such. So far I have had no problems what-so-ever.
Why does this thing have a stand to prop it up when it's outside of the pc card slot?
It seems to me that it would be difficult to hold on to the sides of the mouse if it were flat on the table. I think the stand pushes the mouse up into your palm so your thumb and ring finger can grasp the sides of the mouse more comfortably. If the stand were spring loaded it would just compress when you push down on the mouse rather than break, but I do not know how they made it and it might be an easily broken piece.
There is a great movie that delves into the higher power of the universe. It is called "What the Bleep do We Know?!?" It is a very interesting program in that it basically looks at what science has figured out about how things work, from the atomic universe and quantum physics, to the neurochemicals and the operation of the brain. It poses questions about multiple universes stemming from a Schrödinger's cat like situation, but extended to the world around you and desisions you make.
/. crowd. Even if you don't beleve in a higher power or a God, as it has the possibility to open your mind some and make you think about the possibilities out there. I don't think that science has to be at war with religion. I think religion has tried to explain the universe and God, but was a poor explaination due to their limited understanding at the time. As we know more about how the universe works, we can also know more about what God is.
It really makes you think about what else is out there and what gives us our self-awareness. Atomic material at it's smallest quantum level is gone from existence as well as there, they pop into and out of existence. The Schrödinger's cat "experiment" says that the cat is both alive and dead until you look in the box. What is so special about you looking that changes what the quantum world is doing. So far nobody has figured out what the "observer" is, or the soul or whatever you want to call it. Without someone observing the universe around us, it doesn't really exist. It is all quite deep, and I am probably explaining it totally wrong, but it is all based on the science that we have figured out so far. And it is very cool and makes you think. Plus, it isn't written in a "we know everything" tone. It is more like "here is a possible way the universe works based on what we know so far."
Did you know that thoughts can affect water? When pure water is placed in a bottle with a lable on it and then photographed using a dark field microscope, it takes on different crysaline structures depending on the thoughts that are projected onto the water. If thoughts can do that to water, what can they do you you since you are what, 80% water. Give a possible reason for why placebos work as well as they do, as well as why a hypochondriac can have real symptoms.
Definately a movie I would recommend to the
Actually, if you were to facilitate raping, pillaging, murder, and plunder on the high seas, probably a lot worse would happen to you.
Actually, the punishment would probably be less for being real piracy than for copyright infringement. Just from looking at the huge lawsuits that we have seen in the past.
So where is this supposed orange radio waves icon in firefox? Mine has the blue box with white letters saying "RSS". Did they change it in 1.5 or something?
A lot of times women are the worst offenders at using sex to sell. Anyone else remember watching "The Apprentice" where the women's team practically made a softcore porn commercial for a hand lotion. I think it was the second season. Well, if I remember correctly, both seasons were pretty bad with how the women's team used sex to sell things. Dressing up in tinny skirts to sell something on the street. Or asking for $1000 for a kiss from one from one of the girls.
Sex sells! Get used to it. Women's magazines are full of sexy women throughout the pages.
I like to keep my Windows system as pristine and uncluttered as possible. It seems that once too many programs have been installed/uninstalled and the system gets too much use it starts to run slow. I usually reinstall Windows at least once a year to keep the performance up. This machine is primarily used for games, so the performance is needed for fast frame rates and high resolutions.
So antivirus and antispyware programs running in the background are just extra cpu cycles going to waste in my mind. I don't install junk that I find off of the internet. Well actually, sometimes I do run a keygen program or something from some crack site, and I have very rarely gotten infected with spyware, and never with a virus.
I like to use TrendMicro's Housecall to do spot checks on my system to find and clean out anything that might have gotten into it. It is nice because it doesn't get installed, it is run from the TrendMicro website right through your browser. Unfortunately you need to use IE to do the scan, but since I trust their site that isn't much of a problem.
I do use a NAT/firewall router, and I have firewall software running on this system to let me know if any rouge program of spyware is trying to phone home. This seems to work for me as I don't get crud on my computer. But as I know what I am installing and what dangers I am risking I can watch for anything suspicious. For a typical PC user I would not recommend my security setup.
Personnally I like TrendMicro's Housecall antivirus and antispyware scans. It doesn't get installed like a typical antivirus program. It runs through your web browser and scans your system that way. It is totally free, and everytime you scan the virus list will be up to date. I don't like having antivirus programs installed taking up processing power, or just mucking up a fresh Windows install. The only downside to the TrendMicro Housecall is that it requires IE. But I trust their site and only use IE to go to that one site.
I have added a single cable channel to my basic package before. I didn't ask if you could only order "a la carte", but I was able to purchase one additional channel that wasn't included in the basic package and I didn't want the premium package. The channel wan't HBO or anything either, it was the Science channel. The price was rather high for just a single channel, something like $6 - $8 per month if I remember correctly.
I do hope that the less popular channels won't dissapear with "a la carte" ordering. The cable companies will probably still push the package deals and that is what most "consumers" will order, so they are probably rather safe.
If it weren't Sony I would probably be willing to pay $5 or so to download a movie that was already available on DVD. Possibly a little bit more ($6 or $7) if it was out just after the theater release.
But since it is Sony that is looking at this with their rootkit DRM and their general disdain for their customer, I will not be buying anything of theirs. I personnaly am boycotting anything Sony. And in this day of P2P it is all that much easier. If there is something that you want badly enough, you don't even have to quit your boycott to get it. Ha, take that Sony.
note: The part about the P2P is in jest. I don't use P2P very much. I prefer to just copy the DVD directly.
I'm with you. I am not buying anything from Sony untill I see that they have completely changed their ways.
they also intend to sell ads based on the context of the search for the copyrighted work. So in essence, they are making a profit off of a showing of material they do not own the copyright too.
What about a web site that does book review and has a few quotes from the book on the site. Are they not allowed to display ads on their site either? Isn't that pretty much the same thing. You can follow a link to buy the book from the Google page, can you do the same from all the book review pages?
they also intend to sell ads based on the context of the search for the copyrighted work. So in essence, they are making a profit off of a showing of material they do not own the copyright too.
What about a web site that does book review and has a few quotes from the book on the site? Are they not allowed to display ads on their site either? Isn't that pretty much the same thing? You can follow a link to buy the book from the Google page, can you do the same from all the book review pages?
It amazes me how many people here have posted about how you will be able to read the whole book online, or how it is like a library that lets you read the book for free. Google does not intend to let you view the entire book. Only a small section, a few lines of text or at most a page. If you want to read the whole book you will need to buy the book. In the end it will probably create more sales for books that people found where they would not have ever discovered the book before. It is the same issue that the RIAA/MPAA has! It has nothing to do with piracy or copyrite violations. It has to do with control. If you can search for the books you want to buy then you won't buy the books they want you to buy. They want to keep control of the method that people learn of book through, thus controlling the books that get purchased. It is about control, it is always about control!
I have heard some say that the reason intelligent life on other planets is a problem for the Christian faith is Jesus and his act of taking away our sins. If there are other planets with intelligent life, then they would also need a savior to be relieved of their sin. And if there are many Jesus's that have died throughout the 'verse, then the act that Jesus gave his life for us is no longer a big deal, it has happened many times. And the one Jesus wouldn't really be able to die for more than this planet, since they would not have even known about him. Don't flame me, I didn't say I thought this way. Just thought is was an interesing counterpoint and was on topic to the discussion.
So... the gamer became a criminal and the outdoorsman became a model citizen.
Actually, you have that backwards. The gamer is the model citizen and the outdoorsman is the criminal. Lets not twist the facts to fit our imagined beliefs.
I haven't used allofmp3.com yet, but when I want a song or two that is where I plan on going. I find the unreliable quality that comes with p2p apps to be a big disappointment. With the Russian site I can choose the file type and quality that I want for my music.
The cartoon you posted is funny. But it is interesting that it shows possessive form having an appostrophe. The sentence that was being critisized was a possessive form of 'it'. So the cartoon does not actually say anything is wrong with that sentence.
You're all fucking shit. I got first post.
Then again, maybe you didn't.
I really don't want people walking around and aiming a scanner at me, and all the sudden the billboard I'm walking next to says "Hey Joe, I know you're 28, male, and live in the suburbs, and here's the most effective adversting for you!"
The digital information does not sound like it will be RFID. TFA says that it is encoded in a digital watermark. To me that sounds more of an image analysis deal. The scanner is likely to be some sort of laser scanner that reads image data from somewhere on the licence. "The Minnesota license also includes an invisible, digital watermark capable of carrying security data such as date of birth."
I think the licence does sound a lot better than a lot of the ideas that the government comes up with. But my issue with the article is the possible use of inaccurate facts to mislead the general public, or sheeple. In particular the line that reads "Fake ID cards made it possible for the Sept. 11 terrorists to board commercial flights." Didn't some of the terrorists of that attack have valid, official licences. After all, it isn't that hard to get a licence. Well, at least Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't say it was impossible to counterfeit. Nothing is impossible to do, if you can make it in the first place, someone else can get the equipment and materials and make another one.
Wouldn't current technoloy be a lot more efficient?
Sometimes modern technology will be more efficient, but not always. Some of you may have heard of Gray's Paradox. Or the MIT RoboTuna project. Gray's Paradox in a nutshell is that it seems a fish does not have the muscle mass needed to provide enough thrust to acheive the speeds and distances that fish can swim. It's actually short by a factor of 10. MIT is creating a robotic tuna to study the effect of a flexible hull that provides the thrust needed to move through the water. The RoboTuna has seen some Gray's Paradox properties of it's own, and it isn't swimming with full efficiency yet. With flexible hulls, ships might get more fuel efficiency, higher speeds, or the ability to hold stationary in turbulent waters. The ornathopter experiment may lead to similar breakthroughs in flight. You don't know what you might find until you try.
that this ties them up in litigation enough that it distracts them from their core business of buying up creative game developers and destroying anything that was good about them.
I certainly agree that the way they treat their employee's does suck, but I do not agree with the statement that they destroy the games. Battlefield 1942 and Vietname are two of the best multiplayer first person action games out. I have tried the Starwars Battlefront and it was completely unplayable. Very close to a great game, but the ping times to any server that exists were too low to be able to play. The weapons were very unmatched also, if you aren't playing as the "good" character, then you just get killed. They do not have company sponsored servers either (even though a server that wants to run more than three players needs a T1 line or better). And there is basically no support as far as updates and patches to improve gameplay. EA games on the other hand is constantly providing improved gameplay, patches for bug fixes, new levels and maps, rebalancing weapon streangths and weaknesses.
I'm sure they are able to provide such good support because of the way the mistreat their employees, but still, they have not destoyed the games.