Either that or find a way to build large scale air scrubbers that simulate plant respiration (stripping the carbon atom off a CO2 molecule and releasing O2), then compress the pure carbon into bricks for use in industry. If it could be done cheaply enough it might not just be eco-friendly, but profitable as well, with the $25 million payment as a bonus.
That is something I have always thought since I was a little kid. Humans do this kind of thing *every* day. Every "invention" we have is a revised,accelerated, optimized and controlled process that the nature already did. I have always wondered why isnt it possible to isolate the parts of the plants that do the C and O2 separation and do it artificially. That way we could *unpollute* the planet.
I'd have to disagree. GMail is by far the best client, IMHO. It has very advanced AJAX, context-sensitive ads, good mouseover stuff, keyboard shortcuts, excellent mail and chat log search,
Yeah, I use gmail too, it is quite nice. I only have one rant. Why the FUCK do they make the END key a shortcut to "thrash mail". I keep sending some mails to the thrash after I open them because I press the END key in order to go to the end of the message. Thats stupid.
Other than that, I am happy with my gmail... well the only other bad thing is the spam, gmail spam filters are not working =o( I get lots of v14gr4 emails (via a sourceforge project mailing list). And for some reason I am also getting some chinesse spam. (and no, I never suscribed to any chinese pr0n site/newsletter, thats what dodgeit.com is for)
Mmmm I dont know. I am sure that if you go to a Whitebox vendor to buy that any good number of computers, she will be very glad to make all your machines identical (so you can keep a consistent hardware platform across your company). It is no hard at all. Moreover, you will be helping your *local* economy and the small/medium company against the huge corporations.
And it is almost sure you will get on-site support insetad of an outsourced india call center. And of course, you wont have Linux installed.
Going back to the article, I found this bit interesting: The second problem -- that the Mac and its apps would not recognize these files (I couldn't open them in any application, and they appeared grayed out in File Open dialog boxes) -- took a bit longer to figure out.
So, this means that OSX wont let you open some files with any program?. Darn, I think that is so bad. I do not care if it does not makes sense, on Linux (and windows) I can open executable files with a text editor. I have never used a Mac, but this really turns it down for me, a machine that stays in *your way* to do things?
Oh, and about the "screen capture" program the guy wants, its stupid, he wants a picture manipulator inside a screen catpure... a screen capture should capture screens, and then this guy should open the image in any paint program to modify it as he wishes.
Wow, The wii has been out since the middle of november and all you're doing is bitching about "ZOMG WHERE IS THE NINTENDO INNOVATION GAMES!!?!!!" Yet you were all the same people last year saying 'give microsoft time and some good xbox360 games will come out'. How about you wait a little longer than 3 months from the release date before you start crying about how there are no good games to play on Wii/ps3.
Hahaha, there you have it slashdot, a Nintendo fanboy in all its splendor. This is so funny, I would really love to see where in my previous post (GP) did in some way defended Microsoft, sony or any company. Hell, if you read my post (do it again, 2, 3 or more times until you can *really* understand it) I was at least trying to "defend" the Wii.
And this is insightful how? Sure, I'll give it 3 months, by then I hope Dragon Quest and Mario Sunshine are available... meanwhile I'll be playing Red Steel.
In summary: Does Nintendo pay you for your services? theres no need to get all excited. They are just console games.
I am tired of the modding system on this forum... I kinda agree with you, and the unfortunate reallity is that I count myself as a "non-gamer". I'll go with each of your points: Fast forward to today and what did the reality turn out to be?
Granted, I was one of the first persons to "sell" the Wii to my relatives and other friend who is also "non-gamer" (currently his PhD in Biology ) or my brother a musician (hardcore Sony PS? player). In "theory" Wii is very cool.
GameCube games that Nintendo sat on for the past year so they could tack on some Wiimote stuff and sell them as Wii games. Half-assed third party crap dumped on the console.
I am sure you are referring to Legend of Zelda... I agree with you on that. I bought it but more because my girlfriend wanted it, I have played one or two times but I find it boring (maybe not my type of game). A couple of third party games actually designed for the Wii where the controls are kinda interesting but actually pretty clunky in reality. Some Nintendo first party stuff that might come out in late 2007 but more likely sometime in 2008.
As an example, lets put Red Steel, which was one of the most hyped games (just look at all the Wii trailers from the prelaunch at youtube). I bought it because it seemed to be cool. I found it OK, and it is what I have been playing so far...but from the reviews I have read, they all agree in that it is a POS (I give it a 6 of 10).
Like many other Wii owners, the Wii was a hit for a couple nights during the holidays when people were around the house. But now my Wii is sitting gathering dust these days. With nothing worth buying and who the hell knows when an actual Wii game is going to be released worth buying.
I cant agree more with this. The Wii was so fun on christmass eve, as my girlfriends relatives came to our flat to play. We had a lot of fun with Wii Sports (pretty much the only good game for non-gamers). After that, I have played and beaten the pro status (more than 1800 in fact) in tennis, golf and bowling (baseball is boring and boxing is not accurate).
Where the hell is the online stuff Nintendo? This is one of the things that has pissed me off. The VC games are just *too expensive*. I am in the UK and the price of the Wii points is just outrageous. They expect me to pay more than £5 for a NES game? I *really* want to get Street Fighter 2, but I can have a better SF2 experience with any Kalliera enabled emulator.
I got very angry also when I read that one of the Worms games was going to be released for Xbox Live. My girlfriend and I LOVE that game, and is one of the few games I have made non-gamer play and have fun (the N64 version with 1964emu).
Where the hell are all these 'innovative' games Nintendo? I bought Super MonkeyBall banana because all the games I had where boring me; the game is fine, but too short for one person. Again, only my girlfriend played with me but, because she sucked (dont tell her =oP) and you have to play *against* the other player, she got tired of losing. And my flatmate (the PhD Biol. student) did not like it (too difficult for him, non-gamer).
Now I am just waiting to see a game which *really* makes me want it. So far I have not seen any. I am pondering to buy one of the racing games, just because it is what is available (if you go to any game store here in UK youwill see the same 5 games for the Wii vs tons of games for other systems... that pisses me off) and just to see if I can get more from the Wii. I am just affraid to buy a game that is as X as the others I have. Oh, and WarioWare is out of my list... I played the GBA game and it was awful (of course this is just my POV).
I could of just waited a little while and saved 200 bucks and just bought Zelda for my old GameCube. I could have waited too, but I am *really* looking forward to the Wii. I hope Nintendo just wakes up and give us some really *new* gameplay. For now, I am sick and tired of the "party games" and am looking for some good one player or two-player cooperative games.
Meanwhile, I'll continue playing my recently acquired Neverwinter Nights (first version, 100% legal £4.00) =o)
Perhaps someone can try to explain why I should care, or an actual good reason to use ogg...
One of the advantages OGG has advantages over MP3 is that it sounds *better* at less bitrate. This is great for me, as I can put more music on my Samsung YP-Z5 (which of course plays OGG) in less space.
You can try it, from a CD create an mp3 at 128kbps and a OGG q3 (112kbps) or even q2(96kbps) and the sound will be equivalent. Of course the size of the file will be smaller in the OGG.
(not that I can hear the difference at normal bitrates), b You have an inherently advantage there, as you can not hear small differences, you will benefit the most with OGG lesser bitrates (but similar quality as mp3 higher bitrates).
The only problem I had was finding an OGG player, but the one I mentioned is *really* good (and for the "cool" guys, it was designed by the same guy who designed the iPod, go figure).
Another rant I listen often is that people argue there is no point in having acceptable bitrates for portable music, as you are going to listen in the bus, metro or any other high ambient noise place. In that case, I would suggest you one of the in-ear earbuds that are now quite popular (you can buy expensive ones like the Shure brands, some Sony or better yet, the not-so-expensive Phillips).
, but the writer doesn't explain that 'Linux' won't be under this license - only parts of it. Well, from what I know, it would be really difficult to migrate the Linux Kernel from GPL2 to GPL3, even/if/ Linus liked to do so as each contribution is copyright of the contributor.
But from this: The foundation controls intellectual property rights to key parts of the open-source Linux operating system.
I assume they are talking about the GNU toolchain (remember kids, its GNU/Linux, not just Linux). I guess the FSF *will* use the GPL 3 for the new GNU tools version, if they prevent Novell from *distributing* the GNU tools, then I guess things will get difficult for Novell.
As a small business owner, someone would have to be damn convincing for me to sponsor them because that means I would have to do extra work to hire them on. Why bother with that if there are plenty other equivalents where I've got the system figured out.
Well fucking yes... that is what I was talking about. It is just a matter of giving them (us) the opportunity. To get an interview/test or whatever. Not just to stick the darn "you aliens get out of my booth suckas"
I would appreciate a BIG FREAKING SIGN stating that you ARE willing to sponsor Work Permits or at least to *try* foreigners in order to accept them for a work permit.
I recently went to a Job fair here in the UK and I got really pissed of that almost every company had a sign stating "sorry we do not allow sponsorships". I went because my girlfriend, who studied a Master in manufacturing (she has a bahcellors in Inustrial Engineering) was trying to find a job. But it seems there is still a lot of racism^H^H^H^H^H^Hpreference for "locals" when it comes to hiring.
Maybe (well, not maybe... I know for sure) I am bitter because after trying to find so hard she could not get someone who sponsored her a work visa and she will have to return to Mexico this February. I am studing the PhD here and unfortunately as she is only my girlfriend we do not have a chance to get a permit as a "couple".
I know this will go against what most of slashdot people think as, being Americans you surely are pissed off of aliens getting your work. But I think that if there is someone who is *qualified* for the work it does not matter where he or she is from.
I would *love* to work in the UK after finishing my PhD. I am considering working on Scotland or Wales (the average people over these two places are 100 times more friendly than the average Englishman IMO) but again, I would need a work permit and, although I can work for one year (via SEGS visa program) I would like to stay here for more time.
So, returning on-topic. I think what you could *get* from all my rant is, do not be *elitist* (or lazy to make some paperwork). If you need people, you *can* find very good candidates from immigrators. Moreover, a lot of these people is *really* willing to work in order to stay and they will do their best; some of them would not mind being "exploited" in order to get some working experience in your country.
Note that I said "candidates". This does not imply that, just because someone is a foreigner you would have to employ him, just give him the *chance* and tell him that, if he succeeds you would try to do whatever you need to get his work permit/green card(USA?) etc. But please, put it in a BIG FREAKING SIGN. when you are there.
Oh, and btw... at least in *my*experience, boot babes might scare some people (at least me... maybe because I am the typical nerd =o)) in the C.S. and Soft. Eng. fields.
Try to get people's attention (you, the person in the booth). I remember passing through some booths just to see people *staring* at me while I was looking at their informaiton. A darn "Hello kid, might I help you" could have been useful.
MMMnnn I think this is more akin to the episode about Poochie. When the Itchy&Scratchy people are showing cartoons to the kids and they say they like "everything".
I'm always confused by the way people claim Microsoft is an evil company. The leadership of Microsoft has never been evil. To the contrary, they do tremendous good for all sorts of charitable causes.
Well, I always thought the same about MS... I do not dislike its products although I dislike its MONOPOLY PRACTICES. Aside of that, as everyone else said we could argue that Microsoft and Bill Gate's foundation are completely separate thing...... at least I thought so, unfortunately it happens that Mr. Gates wisely used his "unevil" foundation to/push/ my country into using Microsoft's solutions instead of Open Source ones... now *THAT* is bad...
You can read about it on this article . You might recognize the name of Miguel de Icaza who was one of the principals on the e-Mexico initative.
an interesting snippet: "I thought I was going to be the only person for Linux," de Icaza said. "But HP surprised me, IBM surprised me and Sun surprised me."
Despite general agreement that open-source technologies would be more flexible and cost efficient, Mexico's Linux revolution was quashed after Fox met with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, according to de Icaza.
"Bill Gates flew down to Mexico, and they announced a donation of $30 million dollars... and Linux was dropped," de Icaza said.
And here is where he used his nice foundation: The software maker has also allotted $10 million to train workers in small and mid-size businesses, along with an additional grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the country's Vamos México program to be used to move the country's libraries online..
Note that this "Vamos Mexico" foundation is being investigaed for fraud and corruption in Mexico.
So yeah, I used to defend Bill Gate's foundation with the premise that, even though the Corporation "Microsoft" was bad, that did not mean the foundation was bad... but the e-Mexico issue made me change my views.
As for your question: Where exactly does the evil come from? How do a group of people who are not evil get together and do something evil?
My thought has always been that a Corporation is evil by definition, because the objective of any corporation is to profit, no matter what they do. You should see The Corporation film. They explain it very well. Basically, a corporation has all the properties and rights a human been has... except that it does NOT have a "soul" or "conscience" or whatever you want to call it. That is why it has no "minimal ethics" and you see corporations going to the end of the third world where slaving is allowed in order to maximize their profits which is what they do (Nike, Starbucks, Apple, etc, etc etc...).
And my reaction is that Vista is going to have to offer a whole lot more than DirectX10 to get me to switch.
Nah not that much. The only thing Vista is going to have to offer you to switch is 1 (one) "Killer game" which is available only in Windows Vista(tm) which k1ckz 4zz and you just *must* play. And I am sure they *will* go for that maybe with Halo 320 or any similar thing.
Not only were some of them in Iomega Zip disks, they were in old proprietary formats. (
Yeah, just try opening any document written in PW (Professional Write) for DOS. I had some documents on this format on some ancient floppies. I remember that back in 2000 I started the task of checking all my 31/2 and 51/4 collection to get what I needed and throw away the disks. I had a *hard* time looking for a way to open the sucker documents.
I agree with GP sentiment... I hate that there are no Wii games to play online. I bought a Wii and I like it so far but the web browser, news channel and weather channel does not count as an "online gaming experience" for me... My brother is a Playstation fan and when I tried to "convince" him to buy a wii (instead of the PS3 as he can not afford it) one of the first things he asked was "can you play online?" I just answered "sort of..." because I *suppose* that is going to be the case (I hope...).
The other thing he told me (a bit OT) after I told him I bought the "monkey ball banana blitz" game was "are you buying games for your kids now" (note: i've got no kids I am 25 years ol')... of course I liked the game but after playing that, wii sports, wii play, red steel and Zelda I NEED something that feels more mature and its just not there (I am planning to buy one of those racing games like NFS or GT ).
Sincerely, I got jealous when I read that Worms is going to be on the Xbox... I *love* playing the N64 version with my girlfriend (on the 1964 emulator). They MUST make one version for the Wii.
Note:The wii is the first console i've got since the SNES... so you could say I am a Nintendo fanboy... who is being disappointed.
(many of which are mentioned in the article), but I don't think that companies are ready to throw away their investment in Java,.NET, and PHP server systems. .
The Cell will live on, but it will create new markets where its inexpensive supercomputing power will open new doors for data analysis and real-time processing..
I just wanted to quote these two sentences you said relevant to my comment. The problem with multicore computing power is not in the software developers but in the available tools. The problem with having say, 60 cores able to run in parallel is that our computation methods (turing based machine computation) are based on the basic "serial algorithm". The main problem resides in the programming languages. As far as I know (although I am *sure* I must be wrong) all the "major" available programming languages are based on this paradigm and they only provide "some functionality" for parallel processing. What we need are compilers and (more importantly and difficult to come up with I think) languages with which we can create programs that are inherently parallel.
I think the developers could do something similar to what nVidia and ATI are doing. That is, write all the non-NDA functionality as open source and for each NDA incumbered property create a binary-blob file which could be accessed via an open-source wrapper. That wont violate the Linux kernel license (unless nVidia and ATI drivers are violating it =o).
No benchmarking of the media, though, so I guess that would be the unique part.
You forgot another thing, Windows Vista has it Out of The Box [or the torrent if u prefer.]. Yeah, With Linux you could do/anything/. You could compile your kernel with Genetic algorithms to make it automagically tune according to your computers and resources, you could also get all the stunning visual 3D effects (compiz and all those beta-state applications). But you would have to spend at least 2 hours *after* installing your OS. While I do not know how long does Vista takes to install, I know that, what they are advertising is something you get/out of the box/ and although for you it might not matter, for the _average user_ it is the *big* difference.
Seriously. I do not plan to run Vista aaaaanytime soon (not even piratebayed) as I am completely fine with my Xubuntu 6.10 but at least I can acknowledge when they innovate (hint, the innovation is not in the *creation* of the technology, but in the implementation experience... yep out of the box).
I pirate most of the commercial software I have [comment will make sense in a minute]. I used to try all the available tricks for Acrobat Reader in order to make it fast. I once tried this Foxit reader (2 years ago IIRC) and although it was nice it was not compatible with some documents. However I downloaded it some months ago and have never looked back at the bloated Adobe Reader. It takes at most 5 seconds to open the Deitel^2 C# (Emuled) book which weights 300MB.
And, one of the really cool things it has is the ability to mark and add comments to the documents. That has been INCREDIBLE useful for scientific papers reviews. [Un]fortunately you must buy a "pro" pack to use that or else the program will save the result file with a watermark (specifying that the program was unlicensed). This is one of the only programs I have *paid* to use (others include GetRight, Netscape and mmm Windoze as it came with my laptop...).
I really recommend the program, and after I read your comment I downloaded the linux version. it seems OK but it is not as good as the Windows version. I am really looking forward to this version as neither Envince or KPDF or Xpdf has convinced me, they all just do not work the way I expect them to work (and Kpdf being a KDE program is a bit flaky)
Bah, that is nothing. I was victim of a fraud for 2 "The Killers" tickets for a concert in Blackpool UK. The worst thing is that I do not like that darn group but my girlfriend does. And I gave her the "grrreat" idea of buying them on Ebay... the tickets where about £163.50 (for a pair). The seller then sent an empty envelope with a "funny" that read: "I hope you enjoy it, Vicky".
I opened a paypal and ebay dispute while informing my local police/mail and bank about the issues. Paypal returned my money without problems.
But to be completely honest, it was MY fault, who the heck would buy tickets when the description of the items has "no pics as my camera broke". You must be intelligent and READ the auction information. If you are not 100% sure just do not bid.
As for the shill bidding. For me is a non-issue since I only bid what I want to pay, if someone else outbids me then I go for another bid (with my same bid). If I can not get the item it means it has not enough value for me, hence I wont buy it... I guess people just dont understand how ebay bidding works...
If $25,000 puts a software consultant into debt, it's time he looks for another job. But more likely than not, the story is just exaggerated. The issue is more of whether not the trip is worth $25,000 to Emmett.
Personally, I think it is more about how fucked up taxes are. I agree on taxing cash prices but taxing these kind of prices is stupid. It is similar to what happens in countries like the Netherlands (or other nordic countries) where people *avoid* pay rises because sometimes having a rise of 10% they have to pay more taxes and end earning less than what they earned before the "raise".
It is the best solution I know for the problem I recognized. That problem being the need for MS users to have other options..... Do you have a better suggestion for a *nix distro for a brand new user who has previously only known MS?.
Of course, better than Ubuntu for that sector of users. I will prefer them to use Xandros or Linspire. Those are (in my opinion of course) the proper systems to replace windows (read carefully:) for that kind of people that is *just* going out of windows to try an alternative, hence they do not care about freedom of OS and available-sourcecode, etc available. They want something that, as windows "just works" (although I presume they expect things to work better than on Windows).
Ubuntu in my opinion is for people that wants to take the *next* step from those paid-for distributions or for people that used Mandriva, RedHat, etc and wants to try this newcomer which everyone is talking about.
Darn, I came *reaaaally* late for this discussion but I will comment nevertheless. My metabolism can not tolerate milk, in fact, any kind of milk related product, hence, I cant it milk, cheese, yogurt, sweet-breads, cakes, etc. I used to eat that when I was a kid and I liked sweet *a lot*.
On the first years I became aware of my "condition" I did not like it. You should realize that I cant eat pretty much anything. BUT after starting looking at the "alternative" options I became happier and happier. I drink Soy milk and every other product made with soy. Becoming *aware* of the alternatives for "healthy living" made me realize all the possibilities available.
I am not fat, in fact I am thin. I am 121.25 lbs (55 kgs)and around 5.4 feet in height. I KNOW it is possible to live and eat fine.
I hope whoever goes there to advocate Linux *does NOT* try to convince people that hardware support is fine on it. We all know and care about the "reality" of Linux (hardware manufacturers not giving drivers at least closed) but normal people will not understand, care and I doubt the advocate will have enough time to explain it.
The best approach will be to stay in the line of "Linux just works, and works great. Just tell your computer-shop to sell you a 'Linux ready ' machine with everything installed". Linux can get really bad advertising if they, for example put 3 computers and choose some random devices and then try to plug them and see what happens... draw you own conclusions.
The other side people *must* use to "sell" Linux for the desktop is the fact that it is free, as in beer. People like free things. Do not enter into details on the philosophy of free software and all that crap. The user does not need to know it. Just "sell" it as *free stuff* and people will get it and give it a try *just* because it is free. But if you continue trying to push the Opensource "free as in libre" people will get scare thinking it is some kind of hippy thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Either that or find a way to build large scale air scrubbers that simulate plant respiration (stripping the carbon atom off a CO2 molecule and releasing O2), then compress the pure carbon into bricks for use in industry. If it could be done cheaply enough it might not just be eco-friendly, but profitable as well, with the $25 million payment as a bonus.
That is something I have always thought since I was a little kid. Humans do this kind of thing *every* day. Every "invention" we have is a revised,accelerated, optimized and controlled process that the nature already did. I have always wondered why isnt it possible to isolate the parts of the plants that do the C and O2 separation and do it artificially. That way we could *unpollute* the planet.
I'd have to disagree. GMail is by far the best client, IMHO. It has very advanced AJAX, context-sensitive ads, good mouseover stuff, keyboard shortcuts, excellent mail and chat log search,
Yeah, I use gmail too, it is quite nice. I only have one rant. Why the FUCK do they make the END key a shortcut to "thrash mail". I keep sending some mails to the thrash after I open them because I press the END key in order to go to the end of the message. Thats stupid.
Other than that, I am happy with my gmail... well the only other bad thing is the spam, gmail spam filters are not working =o( I get lots of v14gr4 emails (via a sourceforge project mailing list). And for some reason I am also getting some chinesse spam. (and no, I never suscribed to any chinese pr0n site/newsletter, thats what dodgeit.com is for)
Mmmm I dont know. I am sure that if you go to a Whitebox vendor to buy that any good number of computers, she will be very glad to make all your machines identical (so you can keep a consistent hardware platform across your company). It is no hard at all. Moreover, you will be helping your *local* economy and the small/medium company against the huge corporations.
And it is almost sure you will get on-site support insetad of an outsourced india call center. And of course, you wont have Linux installed.
Going back to the article, I found this bit interesting:
The second problem -- that the Mac and its apps would not recognize these files (I couldn't open them in any application, and they appeared grayed out in File Open dialog boxes) -- took a bit longer to figure out.
So, this means that OSX wont let you open some files with any program?. Darn, I think that is so bad. I do not care if it does not makes sense, on Linux (and windows) I can open executable files with a text editor. I have never used a Mac, but this really turns it down for me, a machine that stays in *your way* to do things?
Oh, and about the "screen capture" program the guy wants, its stupid, he wants a picture manipulator inside a screen catpure... a screen capture should capture screens, and then this guy should open the image in any paint program to modify it as he wishes.
Wow, The wii has been out since the middle of november and all you're doing is bitching about "ZOMG WHERE IS THE NINTENDO INNOVATION GAMES!!?!!!" Yet you were all the same people last year saying 'give microsoft time and some good xbox360 games will come out'. How about you wait a little longer than 3 months from the release date before you start crying about how there are no good games to play on Wii/ps3.
Hahaha, there you have it slashdot, a Nintendo fanboy in all its splendor. This is so funny, I would really love to see where in my previous post (GP) did in some way defended Microsoft, sony or any company. Hell, if you read my post (do it again, 2, 3 or more times until you can *really* understand it) I was at least trying to "defend" the Wii.
And this is insightful how?
Sure, I'll give it 3 months, by then I hope Dragon Quest and Mario Sunshine are available... meanwhile I'll be playing Red Steel.
In summary: Does Nintendo pay you for your services? theres no need to get all excited. They are just console games.
I am tired of the modding system on this forum...
I kinda agree with you, and the unfortunate reallity is that I count myself as a "non-gamer".
I'll go with each of your points:
Fast forward to today and what did the reality turn out to be?
Granted, I was one of the first persons to "sell" the Wii to my relatives and other friend who is also "non-gamer" (currently his PhD in Biology ) or my brother a musician (hardcore Sony PS? player). In "theory" Wii is very cool.
GameCube games that Nintendo sat on for the past year so they could tack on some Wiimote stuff and sell them as Wii games.
Half-assed third party crap dumped on the console.
I am sure you are referring to Legend of Zelda... I agree with you on that. I bought it but more because my girlfriend wanted it, I have played one or two times but I find it boring (maybe not my type of game).
A couple of third party games actually designed for the Wii where the controls are kinda interesting but actually pretty clunky in reality.
Some Nintendo first party stuff that might come out in late 2007 but more likely sometime in 2008.
As an example, lets put Red Steel, which was one of the most hyped games (just look at all the Wii trailers from the prelaunch at youtube). I bought it because it seemed to be cool. I found it OK, and it is what I have been playing so far...but from the reviews I have read, they all agree in that it is a POS (I give it a 6 of 10).
Like many other Wii owners, the Wii was a hit for a couple nights during the holidays when people were around the house. But now my Wii is sitting gathering dust these days. With nothing worth buying and who the hell knows when an actual Wii game is going to be released worth buying.
I cant agree more with this. The Wii was so fun on christmass eve, as my girlfriends relatives came to our flat to play. We had a lot of fun with Wii Sports (pretty much the only good game for non-gamers). After that, I have played and beaten the pro status (more than 1800 in fact) in tennis, golf and bowling (baseball is boring and boxing is not accurate).
Where the hell is the online stuff Nintendo?
This is one of the things that has pissed me off. The VC games are just *too expensive*. I am in the UK and the price of the Wii points is just outrageous. They expect me to pay more than £5 for a NES game? I *really* want to get Street Fighter 2, but I can have a better SF2 experience with any Kalliera enabled emulator.
I got very angry also when I read that one of the Worms games was going to be released for Xbox Live. My girlfriend and I LOVE that game, and is one of the few games I have made non-gamer play and have fun (the N64 version with 1964emu).
Where the hell are all these 'innovative' games Nintendo?
I bought Super MonkeyBall banana because all the games I had where boring me; the game is fine, but too short for one person. Again, only my girlfriend played with me but, because she sucked (dont tell her =oP) and you have to play *against* the other player, she got tired of losing. And my flatmate (the PhD Biol. student) did not like it (too difficult for him, non-gamer).
Now I am just waiting to see a game which *really* makes me want it. So far I have not seen any. I am pondering to buy one of the racing games, just because it is what is available (if you go to any game store here in UK youwill see the same 5 games for the Wii vs tons of games for other systems... that pisses me off) and just to see if I can get more from the Wii. I am just affraid to buy a game that is as X as the others I have. Oh, and WarioWare is out of my list... I played the GBA game and it was awful (of course this is just my POV).
I could of just waited a little while and saved 200 bucks and just bought Zelda for my old GameCube.
I could have waited too, but I am *really* looking forward to the Wii. I hope Nintendo just wakes up and give us some really *new* gameplay. For now, I am sick and tired of the "party games" and am looking for some good one player or two-player cooperative games.
Meanwhile, I'll continue playing my recently acquired Neverwinter Nights (first version, 100% legal £4.00) =o)
Perhaps someone can try to explain why I should care, or an actual good reason to use ogg...
One of the advantages OGG has advantages over MP3 is that it sounds *better* at less bitrate. This is great for me, as I can put more music on my Samsung YP-Z5 (which of course plays OGG) in less space.
You can try it, from a CD create an mp3 at 128kbps and a OGG q3 (112kbps) or even q2(96kbps) and the sound will be equivalent. Of course the size of the file will be smaller in the OGG.
(not that I can hear the difference at normal bitrates), b
You have an inherently advantage there, as you can not hear small differences, you will benefit the most with OGG lesser bitrates (but similar quality as mp3 higher bitrates).
The only problem I had was finding an OGG player, but the one I mentioned is *really* good (and for the "cool" guys, it was designed by the same guy who designed the iPod, go figure).
Another rant I listen often is that people argue there is no point in having acceptable bitrates for portable music, as you are going to listen in the bus, metro or any other high ambient noise place. In that case, I would suggest you one of the in-ear earbuds that are now quite popular (you can buy expensive ones like the Shure brands, some Sony or better yet, the not-so-expensive Phillips).
What about, come to the moon for some years and increase your height :)
, but the writer doesn't explain that 'Linux' won't be under this license - only parts of it. /if/ Linus liked to do so as each contribution is copyright of the contributor.
Well, from what I know, it would be really difficult to migrate the Linux Kernel from GPL2 to GPL3, even
But from this:
The foundation controls intellectual property rights to key parts of the open-source Linux operating system.
I assume they are talking about the GNU toolchain (remember kids, its GNU/Linux, not just Linux). I guess the FSF *will* use the GPL 3 for the new GNU tools version, if they prevent Novell from *distributing* the GNU tools, then I guess things will get difficult for Novell.
As a small business owner, someone would have to be damn convincing for me to sponsor them because that means I would have to do extra work to hire them on. Why bother with that if there are plenty other equivalents where I've got the system figured out.
Well fucking yes... that is what I was talking about. It is just a matter of giving them (us) the opportunity. To get an interview/test or whatever. Not just to stick the darn "you aliens get out of my booth suckas"
No kiddo,
We counted the bags with more pebbles.
I would appreciate a BIG FREAKING SIGN stating that you ARE willing to sponsor Work Permits or at least to *try* foreigners in order to accept them for a work permit.
I recently went to a Job fair here in the UK and I got really pissed of that almost every company had a sign stating "sorry we do not allow sponsorships". I went because my girlfriend, who studied a Master in manufacturing (she has a bahcellors in Inustrial Engineering) was trying to find a job. But it seems there is still a lot of racism^H^H^H^H^H^Hpreference for "locals" when it comes to hiring.
Maybe (well, not maybe... I know for sure) I am bitter because after trying to find so hard she could not get someone who sponsored her a work visa and she will have to return to Mexico this February. I am studing the PhD here and unfortunately as she is only my girlfriend we do not have a chance to get a permit as a "couple".
I know this will go against what most of slashdot people think as, being Americans you surely are pissed off of aliens getting your work. But I think that if there is someone who is *qualified* for the work it does not matter where he or she is from.
I would *love* to work in the UK after finishing my PhD. I am considering working on Scotland or Wales (the average people over these two places are 100 times more friendly than the average Englishman IMO) but again, I would need a work permit and, although I can work for one year (via SEGS visa program) I would like to stay here for more time.
So, returning on-topic. I think what you could *get* from all my rant is, do not be *elitist* (or lazy to make some paperwork). If you need people, you *can* find very good candidates from immigrators. Moreover, a lot of these people is *really* willing to work in order to stay and they will do their best; some of them would not mind being "exploited" in order to get some working experience in your country.
Note that I said "candidates". This does not imply that, just because someone is a foreigner you would have to employ him, just give him the *chance* and tell him that, if he succeeds you would try to do whatever you need to get his work permit/green card(USA?) etc. But please, put it in a BIG FREAKING SIGN. when you are there.
Oh, and btw... at least in *my*experience, boot babes might scare some people (at least me... maybe because I am the typical nerd =o)) in the C.S. and Soft. Eng. fields.
Try to get people's attention (you, the person in the booth). I remember passing through some booths just to see people *staring* at me while I was looking at their informaiton. A darn "Hello kid, might I help you" could have been useful.
MMMnnn I think this is more akin to the episode about Poochie. When the Itchy&Scratchy people are showing cartoons to the kids and they say they like "everything".
I'm always confused by the way people claim Microsoft is an evil company. The leadership of Microsoft has never been evil. To the contrary, they do tremendous good for all sorts of charitable causes.
... at least I thought so, unfortunately it happens that Mr. Gates wisely used his "unevil" foundation to /push/ my country into using Microsoft's solutions instead of Open Source ones... now *THAT* is bad...
... and Linux was dropped," de Icaza said.
Well, I always thought the same about MS... I do not dislike its products although I dislike its MONOPOLY PRACTICES. Aside of that, as everyone else said we could argue that Microsoft and Bill Gate's foundation are completely separate thing...
You can read about it on this article . You might recognize the name of Miguel de Icaza who was one of the principals on the e-Mexico initative.
an interesting snippet:
"I thought I was going to be the only person for Linux," de Icaza said. "But HP surprised me, IBM surprised me and Sun surprised me."
Despite general agreement that open-source technologies would be more flexible and cost efficient, Mexico's Linux revolution was quashed after Fox met with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, according to de Icaza.
"Bill Gates flew down to Mexico, and they announced a donation of $30 million dollars
And here is where he used his nice foundation:
The software maker has also allotted $10 million to train workers in small and mid-size businesses, along with an additional grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the country's Vamos México program to be used to move the country's libraries online. .
Note that this "Vamos Mexico" foundation is being investigaed for fraud and corruption in Mexico.
So yeah, I used to defend Bill Gate's foundation with the premise that, even though the Corporation "Microsoft" was bad, that did not mean the foundation was bad... but the e-Mexico issue made me change my views.
As for your question:
Where exactly does the evil come from? How do a group of people who are not evil get together and do something evil?
My thought has always been that a Corporation is evil by definition, because the objective of any corporation is to profit, no matter what they do. You should see The Corporation film. They explain it very well. Basically, a corporation has all the properties and rights a human been has... except that it does NOT have a "soul" or "conscience" or whatever you want to call it. That is why it has no "minimal ethics" and you see corporations going to the end of the third world where slaving is allowed in order to maximize their profits which is what they do (Nike, Starbucks, Apple, etc, etc etc...).
And my reaction is that Vista is going to have to offer a whole lot more than DirectX10 to get me to switch.
Nah not that much. The only thing Vista is going to have to offer you to switch is 1 (one) "Killer game" which is available only in Windows Vista(tm) which k1ckz 4zz and you just *must* play. And I am sure they *will* go for that maybe with Halo 320 or any similar thing.
Not only were some of them in Iomega Zip disks, they were in old proprietary formats. (
Yeah, just try opening any document written in PW (Professional Write) for DOS. I had some documents on this format on some ancient floppies. I remember that back in 2000 I started the task of checking all my 31/2 and 51/4 collection to get what I needed and throw away the disks. I had a *hard* time looking for a way to open the sucker documents.
I agree with GP sentiment... I hate that there are no Wii games to play online. I bought a Wii and I like it so far but the web browser, news channel and weather channel does not count as an "online gaming experience" for me... My brother is a Playstation fan and when I tried to "convince" him to buy a wii (instead of the PS3 as he can not afford it) one of the first things he asked was "can you play online?" I just answered "sort of..." because I *suppose* that is going to be the case (I hope...).
The other thing he told me (a bit OT) after I told him I bought the "monkey ball banana blitz" game was "are you buying games for your kids now" (note: i've got no kids I am 25 years ol')... of course I liked the game but after playing that, wii sports, wii play, red steel and Zelda I NEED something that feels more mature and its just not there (I am planning to buy one of those racing games like NFS or GT ).
Sincerely, I got jealous when I read that Worms is going to be on the Xbox... I *love* playing the N64 version with my girlfriend (on the 1964 emulator). They MUST make one version for the Wii.
Note:The wii is the first console i've got since the SNES... so you could say I am a Nintendo fanboy... who is being disappointed.
(many of which are mentioned in the article), but I don't think that companies are ready to throw away their investment in Java, .NET, and PHP server systems. .
The Cell will live on, but it will create new markets where its inexpensive supercomputing power will open new doors for data analysis and real-time processing..
I just wanted to quote these two sentences you said relevant to my comment. The problem with multicore computing power is not in the software developers but in the available tools. The problem with having say, 60 cores able to run in parallel is that our computation methods (turing based machine computation) are based on the basic "serial algorithm". The main problem resides in the programming languages. As far as I know (although I am *sure* I must be wrong) all the "major" available programming languages are based on this paradigm and they only provide "some functionality" for parallel processing. What we need are compilers and (more importantly and difficult to come up with I think) languages with which
we can create programs that are inherently parallel.
I think the developers could do something similar to what nVidia and ATI are doing. That is, write all the non-NDA functionality as open source and for each NDA incumbered property create a binary-blob file which could be accessed via an open-source wrapper. That wont violate the Linux kernel license (unless nVidia and ATI drivers are violating it =o).
I would be very happy if this happened.
No benchmarking of the media, though, so I guess that would be the unique part.
/anything/. You could compile your kernel with Genetic algorithms to make it automagically tune according to your computers and resources, you could also get all the stunning visual 3D effects (compiz and all those beta-state applications). But you would have to spend at least 2 hours *after* installing your OS. While I do not know how long does Vista takes to install, I know that, what they are advertising is something you get /out of the box/ and although for you it might not matter, for the _average user_ it is the *big* difference.
... yep out of the box).
You forgot another thing, Windows Vista has it Out of The Box [or the torrent if u prefer.]. Yeah, With Linux you could do
Seriously. I do not plan to run Vista aaaaanytime soon (not even piratebayed) as I am completely fine with my Xubuntu 6.10 but at least I can acknowledge when they innovate (hint, the innovation is not in the *creation* of the technology, but in the implementation experience
I second the use of Foxit Reader.
I pirate most of the commercial software I have [comment will make sense in a minute]. I used to try all the available tricks for Acrobat Reader in order to make it fast. I once tried this Foxit reader (2 years ago IIRC) and although it was nice it was not compatible with some documents. However I downloaded it some months ago and have never looked back at the bloated Adobe Reader. It takes at most 5 seconds to open the Deitel^2 C# (Emuled) book which weights 300MB.
And, one of the really cool things it has is the ability to mark and add comments to the documents. That has been INCREDIBLE useful for scientific papers reviews. [Un]fortunately you must buy a "pro" pack to use that or else the program will save the result file with a watermark (specifying that the program was unlicensed). This is one of the only programs I have *paid* to use (others include GetRight, Netscape and mmm Windoze as it came with my laptop...).
I really recommend the program, and after I read your comment I downloaded the linux version. it seems OK but it is not as good as the Windows version. I am really looking forward to this version as neither Envince or KPDF or Xpdf has convinced me, they all just do not work the way I expect them to work (and Kpdf being a KDE program is a bit flaky)
Bah, that is nothing. I was victim of a fraud for 2 "The Killers" tickets for a concert in Blackpool UK. The worst thing is that I do not like that darn group but my girlfriend does. And I gave her the "grrreat" idea of buying them on Ebay... the tickets where about £163.50 (for a pair). The seller then sent an empty envelope with a "funny" that read: "I hope you enjoy it, Vicky".
I opened a paypal and ebay dispute while informing my local police/mail and bank about the issues. Paypal returned my money without problems.
But to be completely honest, it was MY fault, who the heck would buy tickets when the description of the items has "no pics as my camera broke". You must be intelligent and READ the auction information. If you are not 100% sure just do not bid.
As for the shill bidding. For me is a non-issue since I only bid what I want to pay, if someone else outbids me then I go for another bid (with my same bid). If I can not get the item it means it has not enough value for me, hence I wont buy it... I guess people just dont understand how ebay bidding works...
If $25,000 puts a software consultant into debt, it's time he looks for another job. But more likely than not, the story is just exaggerated. The issue is more of whether not the trip is worth $25,000 to Emmett.
Personally, I think it is more about how fucked up taxes are. I agree on taxing cash prices but taxing these kind of prices is stupid. It is similar to what happens in countries like the Netherlands (or other nordic countries) where people *avoid* pay rises because sometimes having a rise of 10% they have to pay more taxes and end earning less than what they earned before the "raise".
It is the best solution I know for the problem I recognized. That problem being the need for MS users to have other options. .... Do you have a better suggestion for a *nix distro for a brand new user who has previously only known MS?.
Of course, better than Ubuntu for that sector of users. I will prefer them to use Xandros or Linspire. Those are (in my opinion of course) the proper systems to replace windows (read carefully:) for that kind of people that is *just* going out of windows to try an alternative, hence they do not care about freedom of OS and available-sourcecode, etc available. They want something that, as windows "just works" (although I presume they expect things to work better than on Windows).
Ubuntu in my opinion is for people that wants to take the *next* step from those paid-for distributions or for people that used Mandriva, RedHat, etc and wants to try this newcomer which everyone is talking about.
Darn, I came *reaaaally* late for this discussion but I will comment nevertheless. My metabolism can not tolerate milk, in fact, any kind of milk related product, hence, I cant it milk, cheese, yogurt, sweet-breads, cakes, etc. I used to eat that when I was a kid and I liked sweet *a lot*.
On the first years I became aware of my "condition" I did not like it. You should realize that I cant eat pretty much anything. BUT after starting looking at the "alternative" options I became happier and happier. I drink Soy milk and every other product made with soy. Becoming *aware* of the alternatives for "healthy living" made me realize all the possibilities available.
I am not fat, in fact I am thin. I am 121.25 lbs (55 kgs)and around 5.4 feet in height. I KNOW it is possible to live and eat fine.
hardware support...
I hope whoever goes there to advocate Linux *does NOT* try to convince people that hardware support is fine on it. We all know and care about the "reality" of Linux (hardware manufacturers not giving drivers at least closed) but normal people will not understand, care and I doubt the advocate will have enough time to explain it.
The best approach will be to stay in the line of "Linux just works, and works great. Just tell your computer-shop to sell you a 'Linux ready ' machine with everything installed". Linux can get really bad advertising if they, for example put 3 computers and choose some random devices and then try to plug them and see what happens... draw you own conclusions.
The other side people *must* use to "sell" Linux for the desktop is the fact that it is free, as in beer. People like free things. Do not enter into details on the philosophy of free software and all that crap. The user does not need to know it. Just "sell" it as *free stuff* and people will get it and give it a try *just* because it is free. But if you continue trying to push the Opensource "free as in libre" people will get scare thinking it is some kind of hippy thing.