The part about Opera identifying itself as IE is not a quote from Opera's CEO, it is an additional comment by the author. Opera isn't griping about that, they're really only quoted as saying that the way Firefox pre-fetches pages skews the results. AFAIK all major site statistics packages are able to tell the difference between Opera and IE. The one used where I work can, at least. There's even a quick and easy way of detecting Opera using JavaScript:
if (window.opera) { ...
}
There's way too many people commenting about the part that the Opera CEO didn't say. Maybe I should use the trick other people have been using to get the message across. (Mod me interesting!).
Clone Wars is cool, I'm a big fan of the show, but saying that it was better than all the prequels is such an reverse-fanboy thing to say. Regardless of what you thought of the prequels, Clone Wars piggy-backed off the prequel films and had very little story or character development of its own. If the prequel films were made in the style of Clone Wars what you would end up with is a bunch of random battles. Besides, everyone here would still find some way to bitch about them so that they can appear "edgy". What all these whining Slashdotters don't realise is that all it makes them look like is a bunch of grumpy old men who always talk about the good old days and can't accept that any new Star Wars material could be as good as the originals.
But I suppose complaining about the prequels for six years is normal around here. Gotta fit in somehow, I guess.
Geforce4 owners are SOL, the game will not work at all. Strange considering the Geforce4 is still a decent card and can run Doom 3, Half-Life 2 and Far Cry better than the low end Radeons supported by BF2. Ah well, time for an upgrade I suppose...
...all these arguments over which order to watch the films in only applies to the first viewing. Once you've seen all the films and know all the story, watching the films 4-6 then 1-3 seems pointless.
However, first viewing order is something that could be debated over and over, and it's always going to be settled differently according to the opinions of the individual or parents involved. My personal opinion is that while Darth Vader being Luke's father was certainly a surprise, I would much rather be surprised with everything that happens in Revenge of the Sith. We take for granted the fact that we knew what had to happen in the film, but if you had no idea what was about to happen I think you'd find your surprise at Episode III would be greater than the one line in Empire.
Another issue that you bring up is the way in which 1-3 "rely on previous knowledge". What happened to the people saying that part of the fun of Star Wars was that you were thrown head first into a universe that didn't explain itself? If you take the same attitude while watching A New Hope for the first time, you're going to spend the first chunk of the movie trying to figure out why you should care about the two robots and of what importance they are to the story. It is only through their actions over the course of the films that you realise their importance, and I think you find the exact same thing in the prequel trilogy. I also believe that while the force is not explained in the prequels like it was in the originals, it is still made clear that the jedi use the force to do all their cool tricks, and that's all you need to know. I find this works well, while still retaining the importance of Obi-wan's explanation of the force in Episode IV.
By the way, I'm a 19 year old who grew up with Star Wars. I've loved Star Wars since I was about 7, but when Episode I came out I was 13. I didn't go into that cinema as an adult, I went in as a 13 year old looking for a kickass movie. I found one. My movie tastes have matured and evolved a lot over the past 6 years, but there is still a place in my heart for the prequel films. They're certainly not the best movies ever made, but that doesn't stop them from entertaining the shit out of me.
I wasn't really being serious, especially about Lucas being a racist. Anyway, there's a big difference between "Wookiees are big and strong" and "Neimoidians are greedy, money-grubbing whores".
It's not just characters in the film being racist, which can be excused as a representation of the bigotry in the Star Wars universe. It's another matter entirely when the official Star Wars Databank has racism (http://www.starwars.com/databank/species/neimoidi an/)
If there's money to be had, a Neimoidian will be nearby. So says a common spacer stereotype, justified by the species' reputation for excelling at business. While Neimoidians are generally a cowardly lot, in financial issues, they can be bold and aggressive.
Replace the word "Neimoidian" with "Jew" and let's see how happy people would be to find that in an encyclopedia. Lucas is a racist.
I had the exact same problem with Vice City that he described in the article. The difference in my case was that, during a race, the opponent's car kept falling through the same bridge, and it made it impossible for me to win. I could get to the finish line but it wouldn't count since it thought that I had cheated and taken the other car out. I had to play it over and over until the opponent's car didn't fall through the bridge.
I would agree with you, but there is one major exception that proves that the average consumer is not to blame. If people didn't want innovative, interesting, daring, different games then EyeToy wouldn't have sold well at all. The big difference between EyeToy selling well and a game like Katamari Damacy that didn't sell well is marketing. In the case of Donkey Konga all you'd need to do is advertise the hell out of it during kids shows in the lead up to Christmas and every kid would be begging their parents for it. Clearly that isn't the case.
Ask the average, casual PS2 owner what an EyeToy is. Now ask them what Katamari Damacy is. The problem isn't that people don't like Katamari Damacy, it's that they don't even know what the fuck it is.
How is Nintendo banking primarily on their past catalog? Just like you said about Xbox Live Arcade, it is the icing on the cake. I wish people would get it into their heads that the back catalog of Nintendo games is NOT the revolution. The revolution is in the controllers and Nintendo has been saying that since day one.
Currently BitTorrent solves bandwidth issues for small time home-made shows. The problem still remains, though, that enough people need to be interested to keep the system going. If there's only ever one seeder then you're basically just doing the same thing as hosting a web server, and you're back to not having enough bandwidth.
My old 600mhz g3 ibook runs panther, safari, quicktime, iphoto, itunes and everything else I need on a daily basis pretty well. Try saying that about a five year old PC.
The sorts of programs that are most taxing on the graphics card run full screen, or use only a small part of the graphics card (such as video). If you're a professional that needs all the power available for 3D Studio Max or some other windowed 3D application, then you just turn off the effects. After all, as everyone keeps reminding us, this is simply for show and nothing is lost functionally by turning it off.
Your graphics card is barely being used while you're not playing games or watching videos. It won't slow anything down because it's simply making use of something that just sits there waiting to be used. Companies jazzing up their GUI is far from a new thing, and it's as much about keeping the OS modern as it is about actual innovation.
I personally never understand this reasoning. If you own the original CD then you're not locking yourself into anything. If I wanted to rip my music to a different format I'd use the source material, not my MP3's. To use FLAC to store all your CD's on your hard drive just seems like a waste of space to me... after all, you've already paid for your own "master" of sorts, why make your own?
However, I like the idea of FLAC being used for downloaded music. That is where I think your reasoning makes sense, since paying for an MP3 is locking yourself into a lossy codec. Paying for a FLAC music file lets you decide how much you want to compress it, if at all. However, as the article points out, the lack of DRM is something that will ensure legal music download sites never adopt the format.
I can picture this being used for a horizontal menu where movement of the phone exactly matches the movement of the menu. You could even have vertical submenus. But the main problem with this is that it really doesn't innovate in the way they seem to think it does. It's a neat trick, but I don't see it having any major effect on how we interact with our phones and other devices. It could be useful for gaming, but even then the feature is ultimately just a fairly limited gimmick.
Slashdot Mirror
UMD: It's like rain on your wedding day
But I suppose complaining about the prequels for six years is normal around here. Gotta fit in somehow, I guess.
Geforce4 owners are SOL, the game will not work at all. Strange considering the Geforce4 is still a decent card and can run Doom 3, Half-Life 2 and Far Cry better than the low end Radeons supported by BF2. Ah well, time for an upgrade I suppose...
However, first viewing order is something that could be debated over and over, and it's always going to be settled differently according to the opinions of the individual or parents involved. My personal opinion is that while Darth Vader being Luke's father was certainly a surprise, I would much rather be surprised with everything that happens in Revenge of the Sith. We take for granted the fact that we knew what had to happen in the film, but if you had no idea what was about to happen I think you'd find your surprise at Episode III would be greater than the one line in Empire.
Another issue that you bring up is the way in which 1-3 "rely on previous knowledge". What happened to the people saying that part of the fun of Star Wars was that you were thrown head first into a universe that didn't explain itself? If you take the same attitude while watching A New Hope for the first time, you're going to spend the first chunk of the movie trying to figure out why you should care about the two robots and of what importance they are to the story. It is only through their actions over the course of the films that you realise their importance, and I think you find the exact same thing in the prequel trilogy. I also believe that while the force is not explained in the prequels like it was in the originals, it is still made clear that the jedi use the force to do all their cool tricks, and that's all you need to know. I find this works well, while still retaining the importance of Obi-wan's explanation of the force in Episode IV.
By the way, I'm a 19 year old who grew up with Star Wars. I've loved Star Wars since I was about 7, but when Episode I came out I was 13. I didn't go into that cinema as an adult, I went in as a 13 year old looking for a kickass movie. I found one. My movie tastes have matured and evolved a lot over the past 6 years, but there is still a place in my heart for the prequel films. They're certainly not the best movies ever made, but that doesn't stop them from entertaining the shit out of me.
I for one welcome our new Jenga playing overlords.
I wasn't really being serious, especially about Lucas being a racist. Anyway, there's a big difference between "Wookiees are big and strong" and "Neimoidians are greedy, money-grubbing whores".
Replace the word "Neimoidian" with "Jew" and let's see how happy people would be to find that in an encyclopedia. Lucas is a racist.
I had the exact same problem with Vice City that he described in the article. The difference in my case was that, during a race, the opponent's car kept falling through the same bridge, and it made it impossible for me to win. I could get to the finish line but it wouldn't count since it thought that I had cheated and taken the other car out. I had to play it over and over until the opponent's car didn't fall through the bridge.
Ask the average, casual PS2 owner what an EyeToy is. Now ask them what Katamari Damacy is. The problem isn't that people don't like Katamari Damacy, it's that they don't even know what the fuck it is.
Ebert liked the movie
Dude, what are you saying? This is Slashdot, you can't actually like the prequel trilogy...
How is Nintendo banking primarily on their past catalog? Just like you said about Xbox Live Arcade, it is the icing on the cake. I wish people would get it into their heads that the back catalog of Nintendo games is NOT the revolution. The revolution is in the controllers and Nintendo has been saying that since day one.
Except that only people who like Jean-Claude Van Damme movies would bother going to IMDB to write about them.
...we have a way to play games at work without getting caught.
Currently BitTorrent solves bandwidth issues for small time home-made shows. The problem still remains, though, that enough people need to be interested to keep the system going. If there's only ever one seeder then you're basically just doing the same thing as hosting a web server, and you're back to not having enough bandwidth.
My old 600mhz g3 ibook runs panther, safari, quicktime, iphoto, itunes and everything else I need on a daily basis pretty well. Try saying that about a five year old PC.
I'd like to see a new PC that can run Panther
Except none of those games are as funny or as quirky as Sam & Max: Hit the Road.
The sorts of programs that are most taxing on the graphics card run full screen, or use only a small part of the graphics card (such as video). If you're a professional that needs all the power available for 3D Studio Max or some other windowed 3D application, then you just turn off the effects. After all, as everyone keeps reminding us, this is simply for show and nothing is lost functionally by turning it off.
Your graphics card is barely being used while you're not playing games or watching videos. It won't slow anything down because it's simply making use of something that just sits there waiting to be used. Companies jazzing up their GUI is far from a new thing, and it's as much about keeping the OS modern as it is about actual innovation.
However, I like the idea of FLAC being used for downloaded music. That is where I think your reasoning makes sense, since paying for an MP3 is locking yourself into a lossy codec. Paying for a FLAC music file lets you decide how much you want to compress it, if at all. However, as the article points out, the lack of DRM is something that will ensure legal music download sites never adopt the format.
I can picture this being used for a horizontal menu where movement of the phone exactly matches the movement of the menu. You could even have vertical submenus. But the main problem with this is that it really doesn't innovate in the way they seem to think it does. It's a neat trick, but I don't see it having any major effect on how we interact with our phones and other devices. It could be useful for gaming, but even then the feature is ultimately just a fairly limited gimmick.