(1) Large software company manufactors tricycle, sells it to public at exhorbitant price. Public buys it for years, convinced they're getting the Top Of The Line.
(2) Customers of Large Company begin noticing that this group of hippies and commies are cranking out free Stealth Bombers. Customers salivate with desire.
(3) Customer plops into Stealth Bomber cockpit and immediately squalls like a wet-diapered baby because the controls for the Stealth Bomber aren't the same handle-bars and pedals he had on his tricycle.
We're going to have to go through this over *every* *single* Linux program, individually, one at a time, aren't we? I might as well put this in my sig: Stealth Bombers are more difficult to use than tricycles BECAUSE THEY CAN FLY.
Not to keep you all in suspense a moment longer: Bash is more difficult to learn than DOS, Emacs is more difficult to use than Microsoft Word, installing Linux is more difficult than keeping Windows pre-installed, LinCity is more difficult to play than SimCity, Angband is more difficult than Rogue...pick any random Linux program. Pick the equivalent Microsoft program. THEY WORK DIFFERENTLY! Know why? BECAUSE THEY'RE DIFFERENT!!!
calling a program "The Gimp" is downright offensive.
Well, I found your post offensive to logic! Guess it's all who's doing the judging, isn't it? Gimp stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program".
Keep in mind that the whole reason anybody even *cares* about Linux is that it does what it does well. If it all sucked, it wouldn't get mentioned on/.. Part of the reason Linux is popular is because the effort goes into coding good, hard programs and not into floating ten sexy names in front of a consumer-review panel so the cheesecake fluffs in marketing have a cute idea for a logo.
PS "Gimp: the program" was around before "Gimp: the kinky character in Pulp Fiction" became popular (though the movie release predates it) - and were it not for that movie, most people wouldn't have even known what the meaning of the word "gimp" was. It's not Linux's fault if you attatch offensive connotations to an innocent word. Check the meaning of "santorum" sometime.
It's amazing that you guys wonder why most users won't touch Linux. Even in the world of computer nerds, it seems you can't escape the machismo mentality.
*Ahem*. Just thought I'd put in a perspective from one who Doesn't Care if nobody but him used Linux as long as he lives, as long as his favorite distros keep releasing:
Interface, shminterface. What is an interface? Buttons to click and keys to press. I don't care what button, what key. I've used (and swear by) those Linux-hosted programs with the most notoriously non-intuitive interfaces: Emacs, Gimp, and Blender. These programs are what I consider superior, but their key-bindings and menu placement and interface are all brain-dead. And I notice that that's a common thing: the more a program can do, the more complicated it becomes. The more complicated it becomes, the harder it is to make the bindings and interface simple. Sit down and write a program yourself sometime. Everytime you add a feature, you have to re-organize the whole interface. What are you going to do? Scrap it's functionality so you don't confuse people?
The three programs I've named all have one thing in common: They're all versatile as all get out, they each have a native scripting language so that they can be infinitely extended, they all run light in memory relative to how much they do, and they are all the first programs people complain about when it comes to difficult Linux interfaces. And I always say the same thing: You no like, use something else. I like, I use.
I notice that the image editors in Linux like Xfig, Image Magic, Xpaint and company never draw these kinds of complaints. That isn't because "their interface is easier". It is because "they are toys compared to the Gimp, so there's less to do, so their interface is easier."
I never felt that my contributions in these special projects was appreciated in any way, shape, or form.
I was in a similar position working with a Very Large multinational banking institution. My first four years there, I jumped through hoops showing off what an excellent worker I was. I, too, was trusted with high-profile tasks and a modicum of leadership/training, etc. My last year there, when it became certain that I was quitting, I started intentionally behaving like the World's Biggest Screw-off (late 50% of the time, disappear on undocumented breaks for hours, and even no-call-no-show at least ten days), just to experiment. Bottom line: I saw absolutely zero difference in the way I was treated. Only my peers noticed the change.
(1) Just what was all that personal data *doing* in a laptop walking around in the first place? Shouldn't it be residing on a nice, solid server somewhere in a basement behind a couple of locked doors? Why, exactly, would you need to carry 98,000 people's worth of data around with you? Were they going out to print up birthday cards?
(2) Buy laptop for $300, sell for $1159 on Ebay. Hmmmm.. Sorry, those of you pointing the finger at the guy, I'm less inclined to believe he was intentionally committing a criminal act. Would one be so brazen as to openly sell it in so public a manner, particularly when this high-profile case was broadcast all over the internet? I think he was just stupid, not thieving. Besides, he could have made himself less suspicious by lying and saying he got it for...say...$850, low enough to still be a bargain, but not so low as to scream, "Hot goods!"
(3) What kind of idiot sells a stolen laptop for a measly 300 scoots? Even ghetto druggies of the most alley-bound (some of whom I've known...having lived in California) know to charge higher than that, no matter how desperate for a rock they are. And that makes me go...
(4) How do you let somebody who looks (and smells) like *that* much of a lowlife get on the property without calling security, let alone near your thousand-dollar, precious-data-encrusted laptop?
By the way, anybody ever done the math on those Free Hours CDs? They always have the limitation that you use them within a month. There's only 744 hours in a 31-day month.
Let's get the desk and chair out of the way: cardboard boxes, milk crates, or stacks of old boards. Cardboard boxes make ideal monitor stands, because they have some "give", hence you can adjust the monitor's height just by smooshing it down. Milk crates, with their hard, gridded surface, when used as a chair, will prevent you from spending too many hours seated, and hence give you much-needed stretching time. Whatever you use, do NOT use actual furniture! A software engineer should be humble and complacent at all times. Very few great programs are written by people whose noses are scraping the ceiling!
Lighting...you know, your monitor lights up. Learn to touch-type. Optionally, you may use a candle to provide atmosphere, but this is only effective if it's just a bare, naked candle stuck to wherever you put it with it's own wax.
Keyboard and mouse: We here at Slashdot are united in but one opinion: the Dvorak keyboard is superior. This is so unanimous that it's been noted that discussions of keyboards tend to be the only thing that never triggers a flamewar on Slashdot. As for the mouse, I recommend a trackball, as they are easily manipulated with the feet (always code barefoot), allowing you to keep both hands on the keyboard.
Now for the nitty-gritty hardware and software: Hardware should be anything but your own. You're good enough to engineer software, you're good enough to crack other people's computers and use them, preferably through a blue box soldered to a T-3.
And software: WHAT!?!?! GENTOO!?!?! "!"? You NOOB! Everybody knows that software developed on anything but Windows is subject to viral Open-Sores Licensing and prone to security exploits, besides. What are you, some long-haired communist terrorist-sympathizer? Stick to Windows, preferably Windows 3.1, as you wouldn't want to ostricize anybody who still uses that platform, and it comes with QBasic, which is the only programming language you'll ever need!
There are 3 free models available in the store and a free weekly give away too. Someone else mentioned before that there is loads of freebies around the net, models, clothing etc.
Geeeeeeee, thanks, but somebody else cleared it up for me: this is NOT what I was expecting (a tool for creating your own models), but rather a device for manipulating *other* people's models. Completely different thing, different concept, even, from what I think when I hear "3D renderer".
Anyway, very nice, but I played "The Sims" back in my Windows days, and that was all the "doll play" I needed! I'm all grown up and ready to draw my *own* models, and I'll let other people have some for free, when I get good enough that people would want to use them.
some app where you manipulate unoriginal content of others.
Well, this *has* been an awakening! So, all this time I've been kicking myself for not being able (Yet!) to create human mesh models that look as good as "the competition"'s, and now I find out that payware studios sell you the models and you pose them and post it as your own, original art? Gee, I could get a reputation for an artistic genius too, if I went out and bought the Mona Lisa, busted it out of it's frame, sprayed some water on it to make the paint look fresh, propped it up on an easel in my studio, and passed it as my own, original work!
What kind of 3d software:
1) has no modeling tools
2) lists 'rotate, translate, and scale with visual feedback' as a fucking 'feature'?! Or 'multiple views' I mean this is 3D SOFTWARE, right?
Here's the shimmy on this product from someone in the business. This guy is giving away free software to pose characters he makes in a real 3d package. He is giving the software out free, and charging for the content. This is not an '3d package'; this is more like poser or some app where you manipulate unoriginal content of others. Akin to a barbie dressup game; you pose the dolls he makes, and to market it, he has people post that is is some kind of 'free 3d animation package'. It is an application that lets you pose dolls you purchase from him.
I am really trying to pull my punches here, as Daz is the creator of some of my fav old school plugins for real 3d apps.
And don't get me wrong; this is a great tool for pervs who want to post a naked 'virtual girl'.
Thank you for clearing all that up for me! (Note my later post on "giving it a try")
Whoever modded this "Flamebait" needs to stop with the knee-jerk reactions to provocative words and pay attention to the message: Everything he says about the program jibes with my brief experience using it. Letting me figure out: No, it's not because I'm an idiot, it's because of what kind of program it is, is why I couldn't create any original content. He even goes on to defend Daz based on his favorable impression of their past products.
I am ashamed to report that I did not follow through with this experiment.
Disclaimer: I am a lamer when it comes to Windows these days. I couldn't read the quick-start tutorial because my version of Adobe complained the file I was trying to open didn't exist. The installer bombed on me, or my ancient, crufty Windows copy bombed while it was running. There were instructions on how to get everything so it can be found, but I only *think* I followed them. Take anybody else's word before mine on this one.
It seems that the parts you download are just the bare-bones "demo" that - as far as I could explore - do not allow you to generate *any* images. You can load.jpg's for background, and for models, you have to import stuff from poser files, which I don't have. For all I know, you have to buy the whole suite to make anything interresting happen.
I found the controls for adding a "farae forest" scene or a mushroom object, but was apparently missing the files. Or maybe I was on the verge of finding the right spell to make scenes happen, but I'll never know because I gave up, in part because using Windows feels like a hair shirt to me.
On the upside: The interface is very snazzy and smooth. The controls are intuitive. The notoriusly-hard-to-learn Blender could take a lesson here. On the downside: I was meshing my first face a mere two hours after installing Blender. The DAZ program lacked only the buttons to add a base polygon or two to the scene so I could begin meshing it, and it would have held my attention for *much* longer.
I'm sure users of payware programs like Lightwave and Poser will have a completely different perspective.
Sigh: Learn a bit about economics...
Sheesh! And they talk about *my* gall!
It's really not a difficult concept to understand, but if you want the Cliff's Notes version of my point: "Nothing in life is free."If you want to see what happens with a society tries to avoid the basic laws of economics go vacation in North Korea (or to a lesser extent, Cuba).
OK, now let's learn something about computers: When I grow corn, if I give it away, I have no corn and no money to buy something else. When I knit a sweater and give it away, I have no sweater and no money to compensate me for my effort.
When I make software and give it away, however, I'm dealing with something that can be copied. That can be reproduced. Endlessly. One copy of a program is exactly the same thing as ten billion copies of a program. Once I've written my program to solve my problem, it costs nothing for me to make a copy of it and let somebody else have it.
Your jibe at pirated software would be justified, if you were indeed talking about pirated software. It is brainless to steal that which can be legally gotten for free. But you mean to attack Linux, as your misplaced communist reference shows.
If you knew anything about computers *or* economics, you would be able to see that the economic model (be it capitalist, socialist, or communist) falls apart when applied to something like computer data which is not bound by physical constraints. Show me one of your sweaters or ears of corn, which somebody need produce only once and then can be freely copied forever, and I'll start paying attention to economics as applied to computer data.
In case somebody equally dense (I see 'em coming!) goes, "Hah! What about movies and books and songs, then? They're all media which can be re-produced forever for free!" No, dummy - when I produce a movie, I am not likely to get the same enjoyment out of watching the movie when I made it myself and know how it ends! Authors of books seldom spend evenings curled up reading them - they had to re-read them so many times during the proof-reading and editing process, they're likely sick of them by then! But the window manager or editing utility that I make can benefit me as much as it can benefit anyone else. This is a *unique* *category* we're talking about, here.
PS Interesting stunt. Log in with alias IDs to mod yourself through the ceiling and mod anybody who says different troll. You must have a pack of bogus tentacles. But I just re-posted, did you think of that? Hu-u-uhh?
First off, I have to dig out my Win-duhs bolt-bucket and connect it. Then the site wants a login. Now I'm downloading it, and the first of the three files is 50 MBs. Blender fits on a floppy disk, so I'm going to hope this means DAZstudio is 50 times as good...
If I can produce any kind of image with it, I can post it to my graphics blog and comment that it was done with such 'n' such; that should meet the "two-friends" requirement. (Yes, funny people, more than two people have visited it...something like three and a half already!)
It's really not a difficult concept to understand, but if you want the Cliff's Notes version of my point: "Nothing in life is free."If you want to see what happens with a society tries to avoid the basic laws of economics go vacation in North Korea (or to a lesser extent, Cuba).
OK, now let's learn something about computers: When I grow corn, if I give it away, I have no corn and no money to buy something else. When I knit a sweater and give it away, I have no sweater and no money to compensate me for my effort.
When I make software and give it away, however, I'm dealing with something that can be copied. That can be reproduced. Endlessly. One copy of a program is exactly the same thing as ten billion copies of a program. Once I've written my program to solve my problem, it costs nothing for me to make a copy of it and let somebody else have it.
Your jibe at pirated software would be justified, if you were indeed talking about pirated software. It is brainless to steal that which can be legally gotten for free. But you mean to attack Linux, as your misplaced communist reference shows.
If you knew anything about computers *or* economics, you would be able to see that the economic model (be it capitalist, socialist, or communist) falls apart when applied to something like computer data which is not bound by physical constraints. Show me one of your sweaters or ears of corn, which somebody need produce only once and then can be freely copied forever, and I'll start paying attention to economics as applied to computer data.
In case somebody equally dense (I see 'em coming!) goes, "Hah! What about movies and books and songs, then? They're all media which can be re-produced forever for free!" No, dummy - when I produce a movie, I am not likely to get the same enjoyment out of watching the movie when I made it myself and know how it ends! Authors of books seldom spend evenings curled up reading them - they had to re-read them so many times during the proof-reading and editing process, they're likely sick of them by then! But the window manager or editing utility that I make can benefit me as much as it can benefit anyone else. This is a *unique* *category* we're talking about, here.
What grammer-checking was done in M$ Word, as I recall, bore no resemblance to English as given in my English books. I quit using it, like I did eventually with all M$ products.
Grammer checking is a thousand-fold more complicated than most people realize. English's hoary syntax, which pretty much boils down to "8 million exceptions in search of a rule", doesn't parse easily into computer code.
But I, too, would be interested in seeing this field develop - because it has the side effect of making bot AI better! Now, a voice-activated console that understood commands in plain, sloppy English would be worth striving for. Grammer-checking in a word-processor usually just provokes me: "How *dare* you red-line this sentence; I'm quoting *Shakespeare*, you illiterate rock!"
But we'll have perfect machine-generated grammer before we've reached the level of innovation required to put a spell-checker on the comment box on Slashdot!
Ha, that must be why even the Bush-bashers don't have the balls to voice that theory - 'cuz it's unpopular!
Seriously, beg, borrow or steal a copy of film footage of Bush being told about the WTC attacks. Ignore Michael Moore's commentary and whole movie if you must (I'm a big MM fan, having read his books, seen his movies, followed his TV series, and even gone to hear him speak live, and even I'm growing tired of him...). Michael Moore misses what's right under his nose, anyway. Disregard Bill Maher's unfunny "Country under attack" jokes - Bill Maher misses what's right under his nose, too.
Study GWB's expression after the Secret-service goon lays the news on him. Marshal everything you know about body language. Look at Bush's face for those famous "7 minutes".
He doesn't look the least bit like somebody surprised or shocked or taken off-guard. He looks like somebody who's just told the first in a string of lies that he knows he'll have to maintain if he wants to keep his ass out of the fryer. He looks like "The Plan" is underway and he's tabulating what can go wrong from here out. He isn't reacting because he wants to think very carefully how to act natural before he acts.
Because. He. Knew.
I know a guilty face when I see one. And in this case, we don't even need to ask "What did he know and when did he know it?"
I could care less what the Evil Right or the Stupid Left has to say about anything else. I know what the eyes in my head tell me.
The build-up in North Korea isn't the result of the US's "hostile drunk" posture.
Why must *every* conversation on Slashdot boil down to people pointing out the obvious things that I left out because I'd assumed they were "given"?
Yes, I *know* that Myst took longer to *design*, I'm talking about the damn *graphics* rendering and the speed of today's processors...no, wait, wrong thread...Yes, I *know* we've had some dust-ups with North Korea before, and that North Korea is in economic trouble. Now, look to that problem and say that the US did *nothing* to cause those problems and provoke that conflict in the first place, way back decades ago? Same mistake, different year...only now we have decades of barking and barking at NK, and we don't dare turn our backs for fear of getting bitten. So we bark some more...
Umm, you've technically been at war with North Korea since 1950.
Yeah. 1950. The Communist Menace. A Red under every Bed. We have to one-up the Commies, or they'll "hate us for our freedom", Mandrake! Our precious bodily fluids...so, yeah, to your point, we have a mistake that we've been making for 55 years. Gee, our plans worked so well, let's keep making the *same* mistake for another 55! After all, if we keep screaming "They're out to get us!", maybe they'll justify our action by playing along...perfectly sound logic!
PS No, American schools have been down the toilet so long, the Rotor-Rooter guy couldn't dig 'em out. That's why Stanley Kubric movies are providing so much fodder for quotes in this discussion. They're all the history most of us get to see.
You make it seem like North Korea is just going stop. Developing a missle that could hit just the outer most parts of the US isn't going to be the end of the day.
No, they'd slip flouride into our tap water to pollute the purity of essense of our precious bodily fluids.
*Why* must every country with weapons neccesarrily be pointing them down *our* throats? "They hate us for our freedom!" ? How much longer can we be so provocative without provoking someone to the ultimate action? How long does a hostile drunk who's staggering and shouting in people's faces to spoil for a fight go without eventually getting into a fight and getting his ass kicked?
Slashdot Mirror
(2) Customers of Large Company begin noticing that this group of hippies and commies are cranking out free Stealth Bombers. Customers salivate with desire.
(3) Customer plops into Stealth Bomber cockpit and immediately squalls like a wet-diapered baby because the controls for the Stealth Bomber aren't the same handle-bars and pedals he had on his tricycle.
We're going to have to go through this over *every* *single* Linux program, individually, one at a time, aren't we? I might as well put this in my sig: Stealth Bombers are more difficult to use than tricycles BECAUSE THEY CAN FLY.
Not to keep you all in suspense a moment longer: Bash is more difficult to learn than DOS, Emacs is more difficult to use than Microsoft Word, installing Linux is more difficult than keeping Windows pre-installed, LinCity is more difficult to play than SimCity, Angband is more difficult than Rogue...pick any random Linux program. Pick the equivalent Microsoft program. THEY WORK DIFFERENTLY! Know why? BECAUSE THEY'RE DIFFERENT!!!
Well, I found your post offensive to logic! Guess it's all who's doing the judging, isn't it? Gimp stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program".
Keep in mind that the whole reason anybody even *cares* about Linux is that it does what it does well. If it all sucked, it wouldn't get mentioned on /.. Part of the reason Linux is popular is because the effort goes into coding good, hard programs and not into floating ten sexy names in front of a consumer-review panel so the cheesecake fluffs in marketing have a cute idea for a logo.
PS "Gimp: the program" was around before "Gimp: the kinky character in Pulp Fiction" became popular (though the movie release predates it) - and were it not for that movie, most people wouldn't have even known what the meaning of the word "gimp" was. It's not Linux's fault if you attatch offensive connotations to an innocent word. Check the meaning of "santorum" sometime.
*Ahem*. Just thought I'd put in a perspective from one who Doesn't Care if nobody but him used Linux as long as he lives, as long as his favorite distros keep releasing:
Interface, shminterface. What is an interface? Buttons to click and keys to press. I don't care what button, what key. I've used (and swear by) those Linux-hosted programs with the most notoriously non-intuitive interfaces: Emacs, Gimp, and Blender. These programs are what I consider superior, but their key-bindings and menu placement and interface are all brain-dead. And I notice that that's a common thing: the more a program can do, the more complicated it becomes. The more complicated it becomes, the harder it is to make the bindings and interface simple. Sit down and write a program yourself sometime. Everytime you add a feature, you have to re-organize the whole interface. What are you going to do? Scrap it's functionality so you don't confuse people?
The three programs I've named all have one thing in common: They're all versatile as all get out, they each have a native scripting language so that they can be infinitely extended, they all run light in memory relative to how much they do, and they are all the first programs people complain about when it comes to difficult Linux interfaces. And I always say the same thing: You no like, use something else. I like, I use.
I notice that the image editors in Linux like Xfig, Image Magic, Xpaint and company never draw these kinds of complaints. That isn't because "their interface is easier". It is because "they are toys compared to the Gimp, so there's less to do, so their interface is easier."
I was in a similar position working with a Very Large multinational banking institution. My first four years there, I jumped through hoops showing off what an excellent worker I was. I, too, was trusted with high-profile tasks and a modicum of leadership/training, etc. My last year there, when it became certain that I was quitting, I started intentionally behaving like the World's Biggest Screw-off (late 50% of the time, disappear on undocumented breaks for hours, and even no-call-no-show at least ten days), just to experiment. Bottom line: I saw absolutely zero difference in the way I was treated. Only my peers noticed the change.
(2) Buy laptop for $300, sell for $1159 on Ebay. Hmmmm.. Sorry, those of you pointing the finger at the guy, I'm less inclined to believe he was intentionally committing a criminal act. Would one be so brazen as to openly sell it in so public a manner, particularly when this high-profile case was broadcast all over the internet? I think he was just stupid, not thieving. Besides, he could have made himself less suspicious by lying and saying he got it for...say...$850, low enough to still be a bargain, but not so low as to scream, "Hot goods!"
(3) What kind of idiot sells a stolen laptop for a measly 300 scoots? Even ghetto druggies of the most alley-bound (some of whom I've known...having lived in California) know to charge higher than that, no matter how desperate for a rock they are. And that makes me go...
(4) How do you let somebody who looks (and smells) like *that* much of a lowlife get on the property without calling security, let alone near your thousand-dollar, precious-data-encrusted laptop?
Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! to the mighty Slackware, noblest of operating systems!
By the way, anybody ever done the math on those Free Hours CDs? They always have the limitation that you use them within a month. There's only 744 hours in a 31-day month.
Microsoft and AOL have been seperate companies all this time? News to me!
Lighting...you know, your monitor lights up. Learn to touch-type. Optionally, you may use a candle to provide atmosphere, but this is only effective if it's just a bare, naked candle stuck to wherever you put it with it's own wax.
Keyboard and mouse: We here at Slashdot are united in but one opinion: the Dvorak keyboard is superior. This is so unanimous that it's been noted that discussions of keyboards tend to be the only thing that never triggers a flamewar on Slashdot. As for the mouse, I recommend a trackball, as they are easily manipulated with the feet (always code barefoot), allowing you to keep both hands on the keyboard.
Now for the nitty-gritty hardware and software: Hardware should be anything but your own. You're good enough to engineer software, you're good enough to crack other people's computers and use them, preferably through a blue box soldered to a T-3.
And software: WHAT!?!?! GENTOO!?!?! "!"? You NOOB! Everybody knows that software developed on anything but Windows is subject to viral Open-Sores Licensing and prone to security exploits, besides. What are you, some long-haired communist terrorist-sympathizer? Stick to Windows, preferably Windows 3.1, as you wouldn't want to ostricize anybody who still uses that platform, and it comes with QBasic, which is the only programming language you'll ever need!
Geeeeeeee, thanks, but somebody else cleared it up for me: this is NOT what I was expecting (a tool for creating your own models), but rather a device for manipulating *other* people's models. Completely different thing, different concept, even, from what I think when I hear "3D renderer".
Anyway, very nice, but I played "The Sims" back in my Windows days, and that was all the "doll play" I needed! I'm all grown up and ready to draw my *own* models, and I'll let other people have some for free, when I get good enough that people would want to use them.
Blender runs on Windows, too, as part of the legendary OpenCD project: http://www.theopencd.org/
Yeah, no kidding. It's called "ART"! Those of us who may, indeed, be "amatuer" are at least doing our own work, amatuerishly though it might be.
Well, this *has* been an awakening! So, all this time I've been kicking myself for not being able (Yet!) to create human mesh models that look as good as "the competition"'s, and now I find out that payware studios sell you the models and you pose them and post it as your own, original art? Gee, I could get a reputation for an artistic genius too, if I went out and bought the Mona Lisa, busted it out of it's frame, sprayed some water on it to make the paint look fresh, propped it up on an easel in my studio, and passed it as my own, original work!
So, which 3D packages use this practice?
Thank you for clearing all that up for me! (Note my later post on "giving it a try")
Whoever modded this "Flamebait" needs to stop with the knee-jerk reactions to provocative words and pay attention to the message: Everything he says about the program jibes with my brief experience using it. Letting me figure out: No, it's not because I'm an idiot, it's because of what kind of program it is, is why I couldn't create any original content. He even goes on to defend Daz based on his favorable impression of their past products.
Not a flame by any definition.
Disclaimer: I am a lamer when it comes to Windows these days. I couldn't read the quick-start tutorial because my version of Adobe complained the file I was trying to open didn't exist. The installer bombed on me, or my ancient, crufty Windows copy bombed while it was running. There were instructions on how to get everything so it can be found, but I only *think* I followed them. Take anybody else's word before mine on this one.
It seems that the parts you download are just the bare-bones "demo" that - as far as I could explore - do not allow you to generate *any* images. You can load .jpg's for background, and for models, you have to import stuff from poser files, which I don't have. For all I know, you have to buy the whole suite to make anything interresting happen.
I found the controls for adding a "farae forest" scene or a mushroom object, but was apparently missing the files. Or maybe I was on the verge of finding the right spell to make scenes happen, but I'll never know because I gave up, in part because using Windows feels like a hair shirt to me.
On the upside: The interface is very snazzy and smooth. The controls are intuitive. The notoriusly-hard-to-learn Blender could take a lesson here. On the downside: I was meshing my first face a mere two hours after installing Blender. The DAZ program lacked only the buttons to add a base polygon or two to the scene so I could begin meshing it, and it would have held my attention for *much* longer.
I'm sure users of payware programs like Lightwave and Poser will have a completely different perspective.
for x in range(1, 500):
... print "Red lines are for spelling, green lines are for grammer."
Done the /. way! (-:
PS Interesting stunt. Log in with alias IDs to mod yourself through the ceiling and mod anybody who says different troll. You must have a pack of bogus tentacles. But I just re-posted, did you think of that? Hu-u-uhh?
If I can produce any kind of image with it, I can post it to my graphics blog and comment that it was done with such 'n' such; that should meet the "two-friends" requirement. (Yes, funny people, more than two people have visited it...something like three and a half already!)
Sheesh! And they talk about *my* gall!
It's really not a difficult concept to understand, but if you want the Cliff's Notes version of my point: "Nothing in life is free."If you want to see what happens with a society tries to avoid the basic laws of economics go vacation in North Korea (or to a lesser extent, Cuba).
OK, now let's learn something about computers: When I grow corn, if I give it away, I have no corn and no money to buy something else. When I knit a sweater and give it away, I have no sweater and no money to compensate me for my effort.
When I make software and give it away, however, I'm dealing with something that can be copied. That can be reproduced. Endlessly. One copy of a program is exactly the same thing as ten billion copies of a program. Once I've written my program to solve my problem, it costs nothing for me to make a copy of it and let somebody else have it.
Your jibe at pirated software would be justified, if you were indeed talking about pirated software. It is brainless to steal that which can be legally gotten for free. But you mean to attack Linux, as your misplaced communist reference shows.
If you knew anything about computers *or* economics, you would be able to see that the economic model (be it capitalist, socialist, or communist) falls apart when applied to something like computer data which is not bound by physical constraints. Show me one of your sweaters or ears of corn, which somebody need produce only once and then can be freely copied forever, and I'll start paying attention to economics as applied to computer data.
In case somebody equally dense (I see 'em coming!) goes, "Hah! What about movies and books and songs, then? They're all media which can be re-produced forever for free!" No, dummy - when I produce a movie, I am not likely to get the same enjoyment out of watching the movie when I made it myself and know how it ends! Authors of books seldom spend evenings curled up reading them - they had to re-read them so many times during the proof-reading and editing process, they're likely sick of them by then! But the window manager or editing utility that I make can benefit me as much as it can benefit anyone else. This is a *unique* *category* we're talking about, here.
Grammer checking is a thousand-fold more complicated than most people realize. English's hoary syntax, which pretty much boils down to "8 million exceptions in search of a rule", doesn't parse easily into computer code.
But I, too, would be interested in seeing this field develop - because it has the side effect of making bot AI better! Now, a voice-activated console that understood commands in plain, sloppy English would be worth striving for. Grammer-checking in a word-processor usually just provokes me: "How *dare* you red-line this sentence; I'm quoting *Shakespeare*, you illiterate rock!"
But we'll have perfect machine-generated grammer before we've reached the level of innovation required to put a spell-checker on the comment box on Slashdot!
Seriously, beg, borrow or steal a copy of film footage of Bush being told about the WTC attacks. Ignore Michael Moore's commentary and whole movie if you must (I'm a big MM fan, having read his books, seen his movies, followed his TV series, and even gone to hear him speak live, and even I'm growing tired of him...). Michael Moore misses what's right under his nose, anyway. Disregard Bill Maher's unfunny "Country under attack" jokes - Bill Maher misses what's right under his nose, too.
Study GWB's expression after the Secret-service goon lays the news on him. Marshal everything you know about body language. Look at Bush's face for those famous "7 minutes".
He doesn't look the least bit like somebody surprised or shocked or taken off-guard. He looks like somebody who's just told the first in a string of lies that he knows he'll have to maintain if he wants to keep his ass out of the fryer. He looks like "The Plan" is underway and he's tabulating what can go wrong from here out. He isn't reacting because he wants to think very carefully how to act natural before he acts.
Because. He. Knew.
I know a guilty face when I see one. And in this case, we don't even need to ask "What did he know and when did he know it?"
I could care less what the Evil Right or the Stupid Left has to say about anything else. I know what the eyes in my head tell me.
Why must *every* conversation on Slashdot boil down to people pointing out the obvious things that I left out because I'd assumed they were "given"?
Yes, I *know* that Myst took longer to *design*, I'm talking about the damn *graphics* rendering and the speed of today's processors...no, wait, wrong thread...Yes, I *know* we've had some dust-ups with North Korea before, and that North Korea is in economic trouble. Now, look to that problem and say that the US did *nothing* to cause those problems and provoke that conflict in the first place, way back decades ago? Same mistake, different year...only now we have decades of barking and barking at NK, and we don't dare turn our backs for fear of getting bitten. So we bark some more...
Yeah. 1950. The Communist Menace. A Red under every Bed. We have to one-up the Commies, or they'll "hate us for our freedom", Mandrake! Our precious bodily fluids...so, yeah, to your point, we have a mistake that we've been making for 55 years. Gee, our plans worked so well, let's keep making the *same* mistake for another 55! After all, if we keep screaming "They're out to get us!", maybe they'll justify our action by playing along...perfectly sound logic!
PS No, American schools have been down the toilet so long, the Rotor-Rooter guy couldn't dig 'em out. That's why Stanley Kubric movies are providing so much fodder for quotes in this discussion. They're all the history most of us get to see.
No, they'd slip flouride into our tap water to pollute the purity of essense of our precious bodily fluids.
*Why* must every country with weapons neccesarrily be pointing them down *our* throats? "They hate us for our freedom!" ? How much longer can we be so provocative without provoking someone to the ultimate action? How long does a hostile drunk who's staggering and shouting in people's faces to spoil for a fight go without eventually getting into a fight and getting his ass kicked?
You know what I say to Neocons? Yes, BUSH *DID* Make The Hurricane Happen, ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!